• Congratulations to Rick Moreton, People's Choice in the July 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Michael Foster for "Costa II" being selected as Turning of the Week for July 28th, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

"It's just a bit of wood." How do you deal with turning fails?

Steve Tiedman said:
These would be too big for my little "failure" bowl, but an interesting concept.
Click to expand...

Well, duh, just fail another bowl. :)

Earlier today I ordered this one to try:

Amazon.com: IFOLAINA LED Light Base Multicolor Round Display Stand for Crystal Art Lighted Base for 3D Glass Led Display Base Pedestal Plate Décor : Home & Kitchen

Amazon.com: IFOLAINA LED Light Base Multicolor Round Display Stand for Crystal Art Lighted Base for 3D Glass Led Display Base Pedestal Plate Décor : Home & Kitchen
www.amazon.com

It might also look great with my crystal ball. Every time someone asks me an unanswerable question in a Zoom meeting I hold up the crystal ball.

JKJ
 
John K Jordan said:
Well, duh, just fail another bowl. :)

Earlier today I ordered this one to try:

Amazon.com: IFOLAINA LED Light Base Multicolor Round Display Stand for Crystal Art Lighted Base for 3D Glass Led Display Base Pedestal Plate Décor : Home & Kitchen

Amazon.com: IFOLAINA LED Light Base Multicolor Round Display Stand for Crystal Art Lighted Base for 3D Glass Led Display Base Pedestal Plate Décor : Home & Kitchen
www.amazon.com

It might also look great with my crystal ball. Every time someone asks me an unanswerable question in a Zoom meeting I hold up the crystal ball.

JKJ
Click to expand...
I have that one to use with a faceted crystal ball. Problem is the viewer has to be directly overhead for full effect. There is little to no effect from the side unless the room is totally dark. I think the light would have to come in at an angle.
 
Here is a handful of quarts river rock about 1" to 1.5" around, harvested yesterday from the rock ballast bed on a flat warehouse roof. It is lit up from below with a 500 lumen Streamlight LED flashlight. This flashlight on high will fry your retinas. 500 lumens through the rocks looked nice, much better than my photo below. Anyway, I choked down the exposure on my phone camera to simulate what it looks like without blowing out the shot.

The lens of the flashlight is .5" dia., with the bezel surrounding it around 3/4"+. I think to be effective, a hole through the bottom of a bowl will need to match +/- the lens diameter of the light sourse. This sends all of the light output up into the bowl. A 2" or 3" lens sitting under a 3/4" diameter hole limits most of the light's shine potential. And then... if the hole is too much bigger, then stones will poke out the bottom of the hole and hit the light. Balancing act.

The 500 lumen setting on the flashlight lit up the rocks brightly, much brighter than my photo shows (which would have been totally blown out if I didn't choke down the camera). The dim 50 lumen setting of the flashlight makes the rocks look like a night light in a dark room. All light manufacturers have lumen ratings, and candella, too (2 different things), all over the place in their marketing, but if you find a small, cord-powered pod light with a smaller lens (like John's offering above), you stand a good chance of making a neat little project.

You'd need a pretty small hole, but I can imagine marbles being a nice illuminating media, too. (Unless you can find a package of larger shooters. Young folk can research playing/shooting marbles after class. They're not just used for slingshot ammo, after all.) Any larger translucent or transparent man-made stones or beads should suffice.
1754018544691.jpeg

1000014239.jpg

1000014237.jpg
 
Gerald Lawrence said:
I have that one to use with a faceted crystal ball. Problem is the viewer has to be directly overhead for full effect. There is little to no effect from the side unless the room is totally dark. I think the light would have to come in at an angle.
Click to expand...

Maybe it just needs a diffuser or a small piece of fresnet lens to spread out the light. Or shining up through a small hollow turned vase holding some white peacock feathers. I'll experiment - I have lots of optical elements salvaged from various equipment and cameras over the years.

JKJ
 
Joe Sanchez said:
Ever been right at the finish line on a turning project only for it to crack, blow out the bottom of a bowl with your gouge, or it splits beyond repair?
You’ve done the prep work, mounted the blank, shaped the form, and then… it’s gone. All that time and care, undone in a split second. We’ve all been there; I was just there today! It’s a gut punch!

I remember watching one of Richard Raffan’s videos a while back. He was turning a bowl, and right in the middle of the process, it flew apart on the lathe. What struck me wasn’t just the mishap, it was how calm he was about it. He paused, looked at the mess, and said something offhand that completely changed how I see those moments.

It was just a little comment, but it stuck with me. So much so that I made a sign to keep near my lathe as a reminder that: “It’s just a bit of wood.”
That simple phrase has helped me keep perspective and stay grounded when things don’t go according to plan. Because in the end, every mistake is just another part of the process!
=========================================================

Nope... never had that happen....NOT:oops:
Click to expand...
 
Steve Tiedman said:
I can imagine marbles being a nice illuminating media,
Click to expand...

Years ago I found antique "marbles" at a small antiques and oddities shop in Virginia, each a beautiful transparent glass sphere with a unique color, no internal patterns, various sizes. Some were far too big to use in a marbles game, must have made been for something else. I just bought three but since wished I'd picked up all the guy had. Next time...
 
Webb Willmott said:
The large marbles were targets to shoot at with the other marbles. Similar to playing HORSE in basketball.
Click to expand...
What I found in the antique store were MUCH larger than shooters, too big to be useful for that. Colored glass spheres. Wish I knew what they were intended for.

Played LOTS of games of marbles at recess time with a chalk ring on the sidewalk of the elementary school in the '50s! I wasn't too bad, if I say so myself...

JKJ
 
Not shooters but targets to be shot at. The big ones about 3/4” were called cobs. The really big ones were known as king cobs and about an inch in diameter. If bigger than that, I don’t have a clue to the purpose.

And yes, I too got down in the dirt and played marbles. Did you play for keeps?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top