John Clarke

[John Clarke]

HI All,
I retired from the USAF about 8 years ago and started my turning hobby about 2 years ago. My turning to date has been on a Shopsmith (with the upgraded headstock) but I find it's a bit too lightweight for my purposes. I mostly turn bowls (about 35 so far) from donated wood. I haven't paid for any wood yet and I have turned maple, spalted maple, spalted red oak, red oak walnut, honey locust and cedar. My wood stockpile is growing and I hope to work that down a bit when I pick up my new Powermatic 3520C in about 10 days!

One of my main goals is to improve my skills to get the walls thinner on my turnings - I have exploded a couple of bowls when I got them quite thin and had a catch...

I have been experimenting a bit with acrylic resin to fill voids in the wood as well as CA to repair smaller cracks/checks. I want to do more unique turnings like basket illusions, hollow forms (I've done a couple of those with reasonable success).

Hoping to come away from the Marketplace at the Annual Symposium with some treasures!

 

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome aboard, John. I predict that you'll have a great time at the symposium.

 

[hockenbery]

Welcome, I worked 30 years for DoD.

You should have a great time at the symposium.

A couple of great bowl turning demos to see are
Ashley Hardwoods - Push cut bowl turning
Collin Ways - Bowls
Troy Grimwoods - rolly bowl

Once you learn to use the tools you won’t get catches except for when you get careless.
A good class or a mentor will speed the learning immensely.

Big thing with turning thin walls is to get thin in 1-3” sections from the rim to base leaving the lower part of the wall 3/4” thick for support.

I posted threads in the tips and techniques that might interest you
1. Working with green wood has videos from a demo I do where I turn a green bowl for drying and then mount and return a dried bowl
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/working-with-green-wood.11626/

2. Natural edge bow from a crotch has a demo video turning the ne bowl.
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/naural-edge-bowl-from-a-crotch.11058/

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Welcome to the crew . Sounds like you have invested in one of the best of lathes. Have fun at the symposium.

 

[John Torchick]

Welcome to the forum. A symposium is well worth the time and $$$. You will meet a lot of great folks and watch some outstanding demonstrators. Vendors will have wide assortment of items from tools to wood. Make sure your credit card is clear and has a high limit! AMHIK.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

Hoping to come away from the Marketplace at the Annual Symposium with some treasures!

Well John you can come away with some treasures. Or you can come away with your treasure. But not both.
You'll have a great time at AAW!

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Welcome to the Forum! And thank you for your service. I'm sure you will have a blast at the simposium. I'll be teaching how to apply pewa, Hawaiian patches and boxes with threads, look me up!

 

[David Hill]

Welcome from SE Texas!
Thanks for service!
Sounds like you've got a good start. Have yet to make a symposium--maybe next year.