Are all outboard turnings, ‘one pass’? Turned and finished green?

[Marc Banka]

I sometimes turn large bowls on my Nova 2024, with a target final diameter of let’s say 18”. The rough blank exceeds my 20 swing, so I use the outboard capability to get the blank round, true, and under 20”, then proceed with the rest of the work done over the bed.

Suppose I want a bowl bigger, that has to stay outboard.
How do you deal with a foot, or even removing the tenon?
What if it’s to be a twice turned piece? Is it reasonable to think one could use the tenon made during first turning, without an ability to true it?

I’m thinking for a second turning; Grab the tenon as best possible. Turn a recess inside for a chuck. Turn the outside. Reverse after making the tenon proper and do your inside turning.

How do you much more experienced folks deal with these problems?

 

[hockenbery]

I have a tailstock on my outboard.
A good freind did all his turning on an ancient union graduate with no tailstock sort of like what you may have.

His method was similar to what you describe grip the warped tenon, make a recess in the inside bottom,
Turn the outside on the recess and true the tenon.
He reversed a lot of bowls on plywood discs. Cut channels for the rim. Hot glued wood blocks around the rim.
Used some nylon fiber strapping tape to hold the bowl on for turning the foot.

Some bowls he just carved bottoms.



If you have a vacuum chuck you could do the bottoms using vacuum. A lot less bother.

 

[Marc Banka]

I have a tailstock on my outboard.

Can you explain?

 

[hockenbery]

Can you explain?

I have a ONEWAY 2436 with they outboard table. I have a short bed that mounts on the table.
The tailstock mounts on this bed. So I can turn something 48” in diameter with tailstock support.
The ONEWAY is a great lathe for turning large pieces - it was designed to do that.


The outboard table. .
The tailstock riser on the outboard table.

 

[Jason Goodrich]

I did the tenon on the inside back when I had a Laguna 1216. You could also do the hot glue block to remount it like Sprague Woodturning from YouTube does then vacuum chuck for the bottom.

 

[Karl Loeblein]

Consider reverse turning the foot with an large donut chuck, longsworth chuck, or large cole jaws with extensions. Obviously with greatly reduced speed due to larger size and weight. I suspect a donut chuck would be the safest of these options.

 

[Monty Ivy]

Inexpensive shop made solution. 4 welds of hot glue will hold well enough to true up the foot. Separate with a bench chisel.

 

[Lyle Jamieson]

I sometimes turn large bowls on my Nova 2024, with a target final diameter of let’s say 18”. The rough blank exceeds my 20 swing, so I use the outboard capability to get the blank round, true, and under 20”, then proceed with the rest of the work done over the bed.

Suppose I want a bowl bigger, that has to stay outboard.
How do you deal with a foot, or even removing the tenon?
What if it’s to be a twice turned piece? Is it reasonable to think one could use the tenon made during first turning, without an ability to true it?

I’m thinking for a second turning; Grab the tenon as best possible. Turn a recess inside for a chuck. Turn the outside. Reverse after making the tenon proper and do your inside turning.

How do you much more experienced folks deal with these problems?

Hi Marc, Great topic / question.
I chose to start and finish all of my pieces between centers, because it's safer.
If I wanted to turn something bigger than the swing of my lathe.....I would buy a bigger lathe.
I also need the bed for my hollowing system.

Regards,
Lyle

 

[John Tisdale]

I "green-turn" and then "dry-turn" when dry - the "when dry" can be 8-mos to a year+ - I'm always between centers.
As the base is last step, I use a Kelton mandrel on the small (24") side and a Rube Goldberg variant of that same principle on the big end.
While I don't do bowls, I would think this approach would work.
SIDE NOTE: The log pictured is Planet Mesquite - weight as shown below was a bit north of 1200-lbs. Needless to say, it was very, very off balance, to the extent I had a hard time turning it over by hand. I was also concerned about the 1.5" spur drive from Best Tools being able to turn even if the 3hp was able. Kevin at Oneway told me: "Never, never assist the lathe - it will spin-up". He was correct - it actually started and maintained well under 100-rpm for the initial shaping and then under 150-rpm for hollowing. Considering the horrific compression between head and tail-stock, the fact that both didn't crater is, to my thinking, a big statement on Oneway design/quality.
Lyle's advice in the above post makes perfect sense - you'll be hugging yourself.
John

 

[Lyle Jamieson]

I "green-turn" and then "dry-turn" when dry - the "when dry" can be 8-mos to a year+ - I'm always between centers.
As the base is last step, I use a Kelton mandrel on the small (24") side and a Rube Goldberg variant of that same principle on the big end.
While I don't do bowls, I would think this approach would work.
SIDE NOTE: The log pictured is Planet Mesquite - weight as shown below was a bit north of 1200-lbs. Needless to say, it was very, very off balance, to the extent I had a hard time turning it over by hand. I was also concerned about the 1.5" spur drive from Best Tools being able to turn even if the 3hp was able. Kevin at Oneway told me: "Never, never assist the lathe - it will spin-up". He was correct - it actually started and maintained well under 100-rpm for the initial shaping and then under 150-rpm for hollowing. Considering the horrific compression between head and tail-stock, the fact that both didn't crater is, to my thinking, a big statement on Oneway design/quality.
Lyle's advice in the above post makes perfect sense - you'll be hugging yourself.
John



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Hi John,
Thanks for the mention....I have turned BIG stuff as well...
When you are turning something that big....SAFETY has to be the primary focus.
Just turning outboard on an ordinary lathe is NOT safe!
Lyle