I’ve needed a set of large chuck jaws to remount bowls in order to turn their bases. I’ve used jamb chucks successfully but want to expand my options but not pay the high price of commercial cole jaws. So, I’ve made my own 17″ wood jaws to fit my vicmark chuck. Steps: Cut plywood to the size desired. […]
Read More...Sometimes you have to break rules to discover new territory – Other times breaking rules to know the consequences and to appreciate rules. It’s the same with woodturning. There’s a lot of opinions(rules) to size the base of a bowl. But why not a double bowl – one where the base is also a bowl? […]
Read More...Summers Woodworking issued a challenge: Make something nice from an ordinary 2x4x8 stud. I couldn’t resist. For me, that means it would have to be round. But how to turn a 2×4 into something both round and nice? Hmmm. So I decided to make a large segmented bowl, using almost all of the 2×4. I’m […]
Read More...A little while ago, a viewer asked how he could turn a bowl without a chuck. He has a nice piece of wood and a new lathe but does not own a chuck. For many years now, I’ve consistently used a chuck when turning bowls. As it turns out, I recently purchased a mini lathe […]
Read More...For St. Patrick’s Day, I need a pot for the leprechauns to leave me a little of their gold. Fortunately, at a recent club meeting, Nick Stagg demo his bowl turning techniques. And even more, he gave me a big block of ash that he had used as a jam chuck. However, in my haste […]
Read More...A year ago, a limb of a maple tree fell on a friend’s home in a storm. He gave me some of the wood for woodturning. From the wood, I turned two natural edge bowls. The first bowl I turned all at once, finished it, then let it dry. I posted its video then. […]
Read More...Several years ago I rough turned a beautiful 13 by 6 inch bowl from a green or wet piece of ash. I promptly waxed the rough bowl, put it in a paper bag, and placed it on a shelf to dry. I intended to leave it for about a year. More than the allotted time […]
Read More...This salad bowl is woodturned walnut 10″ in diameter and 3″ tall and finished with walnut oil. The walnut was already well seasoned. The wood was salvaged from a gun stock supplier. It was a fairly quick, very enjoyable project. The most time (over night) came from gluing on a waste block to avoid loosing […]
Read More...This woodturning project, a small bowl turned from apricot, was a nice short fun project. The wood came from urban forestry, meaning, I helped a neighbor cut down the apricot tree he didn’t want in his yard anymore. I was glad to help in return for the wood. At the beginning of the bowl turning, […]
Read More...Sometimes, we need a reminder of the risks involved in woodturning projects, particularly when turning a bowl harvested from random sources, sometimes called urban forestry. I harvest wood where ever I can hoping for a big turning blank and fantastic grain and figure. This apricot wood blank was from the main trunk, one of the biggest pieces […]
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