My first bowl/candy dish turn! Please be nice! Lol

[Bobby Smith]

I started the backside of this a couple months back. Put it aside until I attended my first woodturning chapter meeting where I could show it to someone and get ideas of what I'm doing. Lol So one of the guys showed me how to hold my gouge and hollow. Well I started back on this about a week ago and found out real fast that a roughing gouge was not a bowl gouge. Off to the internet and got me a set of bowl gouges in Thursday. Started hollowing yesterday after some mediocre sharpening of the tools and finally finished. I wanted to hollow the insides a little deeper but I just couldn't get my bowl gouge to do what I wanted it to do. I've learned a few things on this though and I like the candy dish that will just sit next to my computer. Lol I finished this with about 18 coats of Wood Turners Finish. Food safe, just has to cure about a week before use.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

That is impressive really nice job. You will find it easier if you do open bowls, will be much easier to access the middle.

If you are ever in San Antonio let me know. We can go to my garage shop and turn couple of bowls and I can share what I know.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Bobby,

When I have trouble making a bowl gouge work I usually resort to a round scrapper or Big Ugly Tool that will always get the job done. Nice work on your first bowl, finding wood with figure in the wood grain is always a bonus it always adds character to the piece. It takes time to master the bowl gouge compared to some of the other lathe tools that are out there. There is a lot of geometry going on with the different gouge tools and the grinds on each tool and the shape of the bowl being turned. A shallow larger diameter bowl is usually easier to learn bowl gouge techniques on, the deeper and smaller diameter bowls can present obstacles for using a typical bowl gouge.

 

[Bobby Smith]

That is impressive really nice job. You will find it easier if you do open bowls, will be much easier to access the middle.

If you are ever in San Antonio let me know. We can go to my garage shop and turn couple of bowls and I can share what I know.

Thanks Fadi! I had bought 4 - 6"x4" blanks off ebay a while back without really even knowing what I could do with them. Lol Novice thinking! I think the next one, I may cut it shorter to make a more shallower bowl so I can get use to hollowing.
Btw, we used to live in canyon lake.

 

[Bobby Smith]

Bobby,

When I have trouble making a bowl gouge work I usually resort to a round scrapper or Big Ugly Tool that will always get the job done. Nice work on your first bowl, finding wood with figure in the wood grain is always a bonus it always adds character to the piece. It takes time to master the bowl gouge compared to some of the other lathe tools that are out there. There is a lot of geometry going on with the different gouge tools and the grinds on each tool and the shape of the bowl being turned. A shallow larger diameter bowl is usually easier to learn bowl gouge techniques on, the deeper and smaller diameter bowls can present obstacles for using a typical bowl gouge.

I have a round scraper Mike, but when I tried using it, it kept catching on me. Could be my edge and I need to learn to sharpen that one a little better also. I would like to try a larger one but I almost lost this one off the chuck twice when I had a catch. That happened before I started using my bowl gouge though. Got me a little leery of that thing flying off. I'm learned to stand off to the side a little just in case. Lol And yes, I wear a safety shield. Don't need my face any uglier than what it already is. Lol

 

[hockenbery]

I wanted to hollow the insides a little deeper but I just couldn't get my bowl gouge to do what I wanted it to do.

Nice looking bowl for a first try.

Learning to use a gouge well takes practice. Instruction and coaching will take years off the trial and error learning curve. This is a set of slides I use in a demo my club asks me to do every 3 years or so.
http://aaw.hockenbery.net/tgouge intro.pdf

Below one slide that shows the gouge angles.
An important thing with the bowl gouges is to have it on the tool rest then present it to the wood.
If practical put the bevel on the wood then engage the cutting edge.
If entering off the wood approach slowly letting the gouge cut a spot for the bevel to rest.
All the basic cuts are made on the edge below the nose.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I would show you my first bowl if I could find all the pieces.

That's a very nice candy dish. And, if anybody asks, tell them that's the way that the inside bottom is supposed to look. Just keep it full of candy.

You tackled a pretty difficult shape. As others have said, a much easier form to turn would be one that has a shallow crescent shape (imagine taking a slice off of a basketball, sometimes called a spherical cap, as shown in the blue part of the figure below).



Strive for creating a pleasing shape and avoid the trap of letting the size of the blank dictate the height and diameter of the piece. For example, if you have a blank that is 8" diameter by 4" tall, it is better to make a bowl that is 2" deep than one that is 4" deep.

I know that there's not many trees around Midland, but if somebody cuts down a yard tree, jump on it like a duck on a June Bug. Learning to turn using green wood is a much more pleasurable experience than turning hard dry wood. Green wood is soft and catches are minor. Shavings are long wet streamers instead of dust and chips. Tools don't go dull nearly as fast. Maybe somebody in your club can help you with finding green wood.

 

[Bobby Smith]

Thanks Hockenbery, I was shown the method for proper hollowing as in your slide but I was using the same method for entry cuts also. I will change that. I also approach very slowly so as not to hit the wood too fast. Lol Thanks again!

 

[Bobby Smith]

Hey Bill, thanks for the advice. I think I will try something a little more shallow next time. And you are correct as I actually let the wood dictate my size. I guess I need to take control over that. Lol I have 3 other blanks that I bought off ebay. I tested them all and they were about 24% moisture. They are still wax sealed so I'll just let them be until I'm ready to turn again. The candy dish above was from the same seller, but I wound up letting the bowl sit for over a month after I turned the outside. I think when I checked the moisture on it, it had dried to about 14%.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

Thanks Fadi! I had bought 4 - 6"x4" blanks off ebay a while back without really even knowing what I could do with them. Lol Novice thinking! I think the next one, I may cut it shorter to make a more shallower bowl so I can get use to hollowing.
Btw, we used to live in canyon lake.

I used to do the same. I used to either buy from eBay or Turning Blanks site based on price then figure what can I do with it. Now I only look for burl online, and the rest on Craigslist or Amazon Marketplace for free wood.

Try to find Mesquite, you don’t need to wait for it to dry, mesquite is beautiful and doesn’t move while it dries so you can turn it to final shape.

You can do a lot with 6x4 blanks. You can do small bowls or small hollow forms. Many of the turning pictures you see online are small, close up shots make them look bigger than they are.

Lookup Al Hockenbery’s and Lyle Jaimeson’s youtube channels, they do fantastic job of explaining the cuts.

 

[Dylan Skeean]

I think it's a very nice looking candy dish, I have only been turning for 5 months myself so I can't offer any technical advice but I can tell you that my first bowl didn't look like a bowl at all, so you're doing okay my friend! I think one of the hardest things for myself was to actually use the techniques that I found online. I just wanted to grab a hunk of wood and make something beautiful, and without knowing what I was doing that was not going to happen. Great advice here from the experts, I'm in awe going through some of the pictures on this forum! A lot of talented and skilled turners on this site. Keep up the good work Bobby, one day it will be you giving the advice.

 

[John Torchick]

I have Jameison's DVD and it is outstanding. It is four hours long but it can be seen in one hour segments. Well worth the $$$.
Bobby, that is nice bowl. Keep going. Good move to go to a meeting as ask for help.
hockenbery, saved the graphics you posted. Thanks.

 

[Bobby Smith]

Thanks John and Dylan. It is fun creating something with your own imagination for sure. I'm realizing the slower I go the better I get used to what my tools are able to do for me. And what they're not gonna do. Lol

 

[john lucas]

Younwill.always fight a bowl.gouge on a bowl.shaped like that. You can't rub the bevel on the bottom of steep.sided bowls. I would recommend turning wide shallow bowls at first. Try to stay away from the bowls with sides that are almost perpendicular. If you really like those forms get a Hunter Viceroy cupped carbide tool. It will hollow a bowl like the very rapidly and easily. Almost no learning curve at all to use that tool.