Inside Out Twig Pot

[Rick Moreton]

I made the first one of these for one of our monthly challenges. I made 2 more last week as retirement gifts. They are fun once they are off the lathe, on the lathe they can be scary and frustrating. I would only attempt with a safety/cup center.


I would at the very least sketch out design on the wood first. This piece is 8/4 cherry 5.5" tall, 4" wide. The bottom 3/8 is for a tenon in the future. The top has an extra 1/8" for cleaning up the end. The first axis for turning is 3/8 from the right side. This will let my safety center (1/2") have contact all around. The second axis will be 1" from the left, that way the base will be as wide as possible.


I cut the middle out in the bandsaw. The less you have to turn away on the lathe the better.


I use my 1/2" bowl gouge for the inside, since it is more substantial than my 3/8" spindle gouge. The section where the wood is parallel to the ways isn't that difficult to turn, it's just like roughing out a spindle blank.

 

[Rick Moreton]

The sides are a pain in the rear end. The wood is moving faster but there is more air between cuts. Cutting on the right side(the bottom end of the twig pot) it doesn't feel too bad to do a more traditional push cut movement. Flute pointing at 11:00 and very very very slowly creeping up on the wood and the following along with the curve. Listening to the sound of the cut will give you a split second to correct if you are heading to a catch.

Cutting on the left side still gives me anxiety. I am able to get the best result doing a scraping cut(flute at 10:00) while pushing in. Pulling works too but I get a better finish with the push. Any catches here are a pain as the tear out on end grain means you have to go much further. This is where I had to call it for the night, when I was a pass or two from removing tear out from one catch, I got another, and then another.

This blank was also chipping out a lot, the two I made last week didn't have nearly as much. I will have to do a little more carving to hide it.