No worries, Dale. Have a great trip!
The most important efficiency task for me was having several of the same size bowl gouges. At least 3 of each and up to 5. I sharpened them all in the morning, and when one gouge was not cutting as well as it should, I dropped that and grabbed a fresh one. After lunch I re-sharpened all those gouges. Not everyone has the cash for 20 plus gouges, I know, but having 2 of each is possible, and saves time.
That’s okay as long as your shop isn’t The Pit of Despair!I am on the Brute Squad.......
Glad you said that Odie. This was all starting to sound a bit tedious to me, and in fact when I go and get too many logs at once that I feel I need to work through quickly, I wind up asking myself, is this how I want to be spending my time?Don't make those batches too big.....or else they become chores.
Keep everything in the realm of maintaining interest, and pleasure.
Going back to your original post, steps 1-5 follow what I do, except for #2. Typically I cut up a section end sealed log and keep the blanks in a plastic bag till turned - I try to turn them within a couple of weeks, and dont want the time and mess of sealing. Significant time improvement for you here.
- Chainsaw half-log (or whatever other orientation)
- Seal the half log with Anchorseal (or equivalent--has anyone used Bailey's before? 5 gallons for $80 sounds nice)
- Once ready to turn, cut corners off with chainsaw (I don't have a bandsaw at this point)
- Mount blank (sometimes between centers, sometimes with a screw)
- True the blank, form shoulder and tenon, and shape the outside (i've used a glue block as part of this process as well, though only with dried wood)
- Mount in chuck, and rough the inside (and if necessary, refined the outside)
- Seal endgrain of bowl, record weight, store blank, and check weight occasionally
- Finish turn (and everything involved) once blank has equalized with environment
I find that screwing a faceplate on takes very little time, and makes for a solid and safe mounting of large blanks.
So a faceplate on the chainsawed face and the blank is turned on the outside, and a recess is turned on it before flipping it over and then turn the inside, DONE.
For me there is no leaning over the bed, or exactly band sawing the blank, no tailstock in the way, and a comfortable standing and holding of the tools the way I like.
The recess size and depth depends on the size of the blank and wood's soundness/strengths...
Me too! Although it is a rare occasion since I have a lot of chucks with different jaws.Neil, I haven't done that with my chucks, but have done it with the screws for my chuck jaws. I think it is important to make sure you adjust the clutch down to a lower setting. Some of the modern drills have too much torque and can strip threads if you have it set to full torque.
robo hippy