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The big one
J

The big one

Here's my biggest effort to date. This is one piece of cherry, 27 3/4" diameter. Submitted to Guiness, and they couldn't find a bigger one, but wouldn't list it because they said there was no category for it, and they wouldn't start one. Humpf. Turned non stop, except for two 2 hour breaks, 40 hours of constant turning. Quite grueling, but ended up with no checks or cracks, and very little warping. It was on display at Cornell for a while. Haven't found the right customer yet!
It's beautiful. That must have been a huge piece of cherry!! I use a 3520B also. 'Haven't tried the bed extension yet, though, but I'm eager to do so if I can find a big enough blank.
 
You are right, Bob, I don't expect to see the equal of the tree this piece came from. I have photos of the process from tree to finished piece, and if I can figure out how to do it, I will post them all to an album here.
Thanks for that Dylan! I turned 4 of these giants from that tree, 3 were commissions, and this is the biggest, and it is for sale, just haven't found the right home for it yet.
 
What a bowl! Nicely done John! 40 hours of turning on one project is a tough task indeed, but you appear to have put a nice work out there, so Kudos to you for all the effort! I have a large cherry, but it's not that large! Question: did that blank come from a half piece of the log? It appears as it did, and If so, that was one big tree!
 
Thanks Roger. I will never see the likes of that tree again. I am trying to figure out how to post a bunch of photos I have showing the process....soon I hope.... the tree was 41" diameter at the base, and this came from the side of the trunk, but less than half of it. The process to achieve a stable, check free finished piece this size might be interesting to someone looking to make a giant like this. I hope I can provide the details soon.
 

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