Nathan Roper

[Nathan Roper]

Good morning. I'm Nathan Roper from the Salt Lake City area of Northern Utah. I've got a decently outfitted hobbyist wood shop and had been looking at lathes recently. I picked up a well-loved Nova 1624-44 last week that came with a few extras and have since increased my youtube turning viewing while trying to figure out whats going on. I do have a couple friend/acquaintances that turn but I haven't been able to pick their brains too much. I've so far turned 3 little bowls with some walnut I got from the seller of my lathe. Last night I got a really smooth (to me) finish on the outside of the bowl right off the gouge which made me really excited. I flipped it and hollowed out the inside and probably went too far and blew the bowl into three pieces while trying to clean up the rim. I was out of the way, was wearing my face shield, and didn't get hit or anything and know these things happen. It was fun regardless. I kind of expect that I'll primarily be doing bowls but would also like to turn some spindles for simple staked stools and whatnot.

Anyway, I'm happy to be here and appreciate the advice you've been sharing. I'm a sponge.

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Sponges are welcome here Nathan, and plenty of good learning turning opportunities in UT as well.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome to the AAW forum, Nathan. It appears from the roughness at the rim that you lost bevel contact which led to the cutting edge digging into the wood. I would advise truing up the rim as your first step in turning the interior of the bowl. Wood is a flexible medium and as the wall of the bowl is turned thin it becomes much more flexible. A very important rule is to never go back to refine a previous cut. This takes a lot of practice in order to get it right the first time.

I believe that there is a turning club in the Salt Lake City area. Your turning skills will advance dramatically by attending club meetings and getting paired with a mentor. While some YouTube videos are helpful there are probably more bad videos than good ones.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Welcome to the forum. I think a club could help you most on this problem as we cannot see how you used your tools to get to this point.

 

[Doug Freeman]

Welcome. We dont learn as much from successes as we do failures. Take the 1st inch of ID down to finish t, finish the rim, then finish hollowing. Keep working, making mistakes, and learning. Things start to come together and the mistakes get fewer and fewer.

 

[Nathan Roper]

Thanks. Yeah I'm very familiar with failure.

I got some plum on Saturday and spent a lot of time getting it prepped and ready for the lathe. I was able to rough turn 5 bowls and get them sealed but I've got a bunch more I need to get back to.

 

[Doug Agee]

Nice haul, Nathan. I'm in SLC, too and plan to make it to the Utah Association of Woodturners in August. I'm just getting started and have lots to learn in turning.

 

[Dwight R Rutherford]

If you haven’t already, check out “Craft Supplies” in
Provo, they offer classes.

 

[Mike Johnson]

That was a good-sized plum tree, process a few wood blanks, seal them with wax and add it to your wood stash.