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Tim Cheek

T

Tim Cheek

Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
3
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10
Location
Woodstock, Georgia
As the title states, I'm a total beginner attempting some first pieces from a random tree that fell across the road and was cut up (in North Georgia). Any guesses as to what wood this is? As you can see, I didn't get it cut into blanks fast enough and it is developing some cracks.

I have a Rikon mini lathe with a Nova midi chuck, a couple of Hurricane bowl gouges and a pair of PSI bowl scrapers. I did this one almost entirely with the scrapers after watching a couple of Robo Hippie's fine videos.

I'm sure this comes a surprise to no one, but it is very difficult to get a good finish. No matter what, I can always feel the end grain. Hopefully, it'll get better with time!


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What else did you do to the bowl? Sanding schedule? I see some tearout and that takes a lot of sanding or good cuts. One thing to help when using scrapers is to wet the surface. Also using negative rake scraper will reduce the aggressiveness of the tool and give good to excellent finish. All this will take practice and does not come overnight.
 
Gerald Lawrence said:
What else did you do to the bowl? Sanding schedule? I see some tearout and that takes a lot of sanding or good cuts. One thing to help when using scrapers is to wet the surface. Also using negative rake scraper will reduce the aggressiveness of the tool and give good to excellent finish. All this will take practice and does not come overnight.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gerald, I was toying with the idea of putting a secondary bevel on top of one of these scrapers and experimenting with that. It seems to be very popular, and I don't think I have too much to lose by trying it. As for sanding, I just sanded a little with some 150 and 320. This wood is hard as a rock, though, and sanding doesn't really remove much wood (or erase my mistakes). I didn't do anything else to it.
 
Gary Beasley said:
Theres a meeting of the Etowah River Woodturners at the Art Center in Canton tomorrow night 6:30. Why dont you drop in and visit with us. Its a good way to learn from some very good woodturners.
http://etowahriverwoodturners.com/
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Wow, thanks for the invite! I didn't know there was anything that close. If I don't make it this time, definitely next month.

I don't think that's bradford pear - it's from the middle of a national forest out in the middle of nowhere, so it's definitely native. It's not wet anymore, and it is very hard, though.
 
Tim Cheek said:
As the title states, I'm a total beginner attempting some first pieces from a random tree that fell across the road and was cut up (in North Georgia). Any guesses as to what wood this is? As you can see, I didn't get it cut into blanks fast enough and it is developing some cracks.

I have a Rikon mini lathe with a Nova midi chuck, a couple of Hurricane bowl gouges and a pair of PSI bowl scrapers. I did this one almost entirely with the scrapers after watching a couple of Robo Hippie's fine videos.

I'm sure this comes a surprise to no one, but it is very difficult to get a good finish. No matter what, I can always feel the end grain. Hopefully, it'll get better with time!
Click to expand...

Welcome to the AAW forum, Tim. I second the suggestion by Gary to attend the meeting of the Etowah River Woodturners. It will do wonders in jump starting your woodturning skills.

I don't have a clue about the identity of the wood, but when woodturners encounter this kind of situation they usually call it FOG (found on ground) wood. You should start sanding at a coarser grit ... P100 or P80 and don't skip grits. Your first grit will be the only one to remove tool marks, tear out, and other surface irregularities. After that, you're only removing sanding scratches left by the previous grit. I think that the cracks you see might be from heat checking ... getting the wood hot and causing case hardening as a result of sanding too fast, using too much pressure, too fine a grit, with worn out sandpaper, or a combination of all of these factors.
 
Welcome, Nice result for a first bowl.

Tim Cheek said:
but it is very difficult to get a good finish. No matter what, I can always feel the end grain. Hopefully, it'll get better with time!
Click to expand...

I find Softer hardwoods don’t scrape well especially on endgrain.
I did my first bowls with scrapers. Scrapers will do the job but for me hollowing a bowl with scrapers is a lot of work and not much fun.

I get a cleaner surface with gouges using a lot less effort and strain on the body.
When I use a gouge I hold the tool lightly letting the lathe do all the work.
Having ribbons fill the air from a bowl gouge is fun.

I started this thread on working with green wood you can see how I use the gouge.
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/working-with-green-wood.11626/

Scrapers or gouges - both do the job. Which works best for you?
Get a few lessons on using the gouge from a good bowl turner and I suspect you will become a gouge user.
You should give gouges a chance and see which you like better. Most production bowl turners use gouges.

Hard to tell the species from a photo Bowl looks a little like Bradford pear
Cherry usually shows rays.
 
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