Bad Day Bowl

[wizer]

Well after yesterday's cracking experience, a whole day in the shop today has been no more fruitful. It started with a success but the trailed off into disatstersville. Here's the the success:

It was a piece of olive ash from Scottish timbers, around 8". Everything went fine tbh, I had to use the sandpaper gouge on a couple of bits but nothing major. I'm not entirely happy with it but it's not bad considering. Finished with Shellac SS and AC Lacquer. Open to CC.

After that I put a piece of elm on. roughly the same size as before. All fine on the outside but when it came to the finish the sanding wasn't up to much and I was too lazy to go back to 80 and start again. When I applied the finish (Cel SS and Beeswax) the bad sanding was like a neon light. I flipped it round anyway and started hollowing. It was all practice. Near the end of hollowing I got a catch and the bowl danced off the chuck and into oblivion.

Seriously down in the mouth, I decided I wasn't giving up, so on went a piece of 3" square oak with the intention of a very basic box. I got it round ok and even had 100% success planing with the skew. But not having planned what I was doing I ended up struggling to put a shape into it and not getting anywhere. The final death knell was when the spindle gouge scooted down the piece and put a lovely spiral decorative feature down the entire piece. I was obviously in the wrong frame of mind today so that came off and hit the large pile of failures in the corner.

I finished up roughing out a box from piece of green beech and that went ok, thankfully.

I'm probably being negative because I've produced something I'm fairly proud of and it marks a milestone for me as the biggest and most successful bowl.

Even more practise needed.

 

[Scrums]

That's my sort of bowl - it's got nice flowing lines, a bit Japanese - yup, that ones a success!

As for the pile in the corner...we all have days like that - Saturday for me was 'Scoop' day....produce a dozen or so scoops to replenish stock. Scoops weren't having any of it, I managed one - painfully slowly and just knew it wasn't going to get any better - tomorrow I'll show the Scoops who's boss !

Chris.

 

[Bodrighy]

Noaccounting for the ways of wood. One day I manage to do a realy rotten piece of wood and then when asked to make some egg cups, 3 out of 4 split whilst turning. You have a pretty, nice looking bowl there. Learn to be happy with the successes and put the 'failures' down as experienc. Believe me, there isn't a turner on here that doesn't have a reject box in their workshop.

Pete

 

[stevebuk]

really nice bowl tom, be proud of it. I , like you, have some good days and loads of bad days, on some occasions i even want to pack it in before i start, but coming on this forum is a great release of tension and its great to see what others do in their own time.
I made a major cock up on a goblet the other day and left the cabin in a huff, but i will be back in there on wednesday to have another go at one.
keep at it mate..

 

[wizer]

Cheers chaps. I am happy with the pictured bowl and Japanese was the direction I was going in. A few deep breaths and I was ok.

I'm not sure if it's the finish or the wood itself, but this Ash was kinda 'dirty', really inconsistent. I'm not talking about tearout. It hard to describe. I have another bit that I'm going to try next time to see if it's the wood or my handy work.

 

[user 5053]

I agree with previous contributors. A nice attractive, tactile, modern and yet classic styled bowl in very nice wood. Regarding your bad days, success is dug in the garden of failure and we all need to fail to succeed sometimes.

 

[mikec]

Thats a nice bowl Tom, good lines and interesting grain.

Anyone who says they dont have days like that is either telling fibs or hasn't actually turned anything :shock: :shock:

Keep on turning

Mike C

 

[Neil Dyball]

You're not on your own on this one Tom.

Saw a demo by Mick Hanbury recently where he made a three pointed pedestal bowl, with piercing, from a sycamore cube. Finally got round to having a go today, very tricky but after about 2-3 hours I'd got to the point of parting off. Was a bit nervous about the fragile pierced parts which were only 2mm thick so rigged up a 'net' in case it came out of my hand once parted. Just as it was about to part off I fractionally caught my free hand (fortunately gloved) on the pierced section and lost about a third of the edge. No damage to my hand which was scant consolation

Not happy and almost threw my parting tool out of my pram! That was 5 hours ago and I'm still cheesed off as this was possibly my competition entry piece.

I love woodturning.

Neil.

 

[richburrow]

The pattern on the bowl looks great and a nice shape as well.
You have to take the lows on the chin and enjoy the highs

 

[Richard Findley]

Hi Tom,

First: Successes...

Nice bowl mate. Nice consistant curve to the shape. Inside appears to follow outside profile well. Excellent finish shows off a lovely piece of wood. Nice little foot to lift it off the table. =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

Failures:

There's always tomorrow. Don't worry, tools have been thrown from prams on many previous occaisions

Just keep going mate!!

Richard

 

[PowerTool]

Nice bowl - nice shape,good flowing curve,the small foot makes it look "light",and it looks like a bit of ripple figuring in the olive ash as well

Andrew

 

[wizer]

Many thanks guys.

I've actually decided to try and replicate that bowl. Whilst the figure in the Ash is nice, I can't get over it's dirty appearance. It makes it a reject in my book.

Back to work today, what an inconvenience

 

[Paul.J]

Nice looking bowl Tom
Can you remount it and try another finish on it.
Looks like the finish applied as gone patchy.Might be worth trying an oil :?

 

[Lightweeder]

Hi Tom - if you can produce a bowl like that, there's nothing much wrong with your turning =D> =D>

I spent an hour the other day, trying to sink a tee-light a further 2m. I kept trying and trying and couldn't understand why the flaming thing wouldn't go in any further, then I gave it a push and couldn't get it out. I had created an air lock Even then, it wasn't worth looking at :roll:

 

[tekno.mage]

That's a lovely little bowl, Wizer - and beautiful figure in the wood.

Regarding bad days and things going wrong - it can even happen to professional turnings doing demonstrations (as seen at the last meeting of the turning club I attend). No names here to protect the embarassed, but as the demonstrator was finishing off a hollowed vase form which he had already said was destined for the club raffle table, he caught the top with a gouge and broke off the rim.

I really felt for the guy - bad enough when things like that happen in the privacy of your own workshop - but in front of an audience of 50 peopple watching your every move....

tekno.mage

 

[Jenx]

Thats good Tom... good progress in what's been a relatively short while.... so I reckon you've not much to worry about !

Odd about the Ash.. and the 'dirty' ... I have experienced the same thing with Ash ... just seemed 'grubby' all the way through .. kind of similar to sycamore going 'grey'... not quite the same, but sort of similar.


Crackin wee japanese bowl though.... good job !

 

[hog&bodge]

Well done wizer..nice shape..The only way is to get back on the machine
and keep trying..Me I have got mushrooms down to a tee...lol
Well the ones that survive :wink:
Perhaps you could try some colour dyes and wax finish
But besides that is looks like a success..

 

[wizer]

Actually that's not a bad idea. I'm really not please with the dirty appearance of this piece of ash and I think it'll always bug me. hmm... :-k

 

[wizer]

Well after a lot of thought, I just could not get on with those grubby marks. So I sanded off the finish and grabbed the black spirit dye...

More experimentation is needed with black dye. I'm also going to try aerosol sprays.

 

[Jenx]

Like the 'improvement' Tom ... thats helped it ! :lol: 8)