Hello from the Houston area! I'm recently retired and also new to Gulf Coast Woodturners and AAW - I'm a novice turner. My first turning was to make a 6" x 30" wooden drum for a DIY drum sander. I used my Shopsmith that I got back in the 80's, it came with the lathe tools but I had never used them. I had trouble using the standard chisels, so I got the idea from YouTube to make some DIY carbide tools which were much easier. Since then I started watching more YouTube videos and decided to try my hand at making some candle stick holders. The more I watched, the more I wanted to learn how to use standard turning tools and to try making things like bowls and hollow forms so, I picked up a used lathe (the Shopsmith wouldn't cut it), and some chisels and here I am. Over the past week I turned my first bowl from a small purchased blank, made a half dozen bowl blanks from a 18" Hickory tree that was freshly cut down, struggled through a 1st turning on a twice turned bowl using one of the hickory blanks, and just finished a bowl from a purchased spalted blank. I think I'm learning and getting better at using the tools, but boy howdy did that green Hickory blank beat me up!
