Heed your inner voices, sometimes!

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petercharlesfagg

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Friends,
I feel sure that we all, from time to time, ignore that little voice in our head that says "Leave well alone"?

Recently I had this experience but instead of heeding the advice I proceeded with the commission thinking that "It cannot be that difficult"!

A lady wood collector asked me to take a nice Cedar wood bowl that she had purchased in the USA and mount inside it a motor vehicle mascot that I think she said her father used to drive. In the general run of commissions I thought that it wouldn't be too difficult but I did have second thoughts that I chose to ignore!!!

I set up the bowl on a bean bag to keep it steady in an angled position and proceeded to drill a recess in the inside of the bowl to take the base of the mascot. My pillar drill was rotating at 60 rpm, its minimum, and the first cut was superb.

Then the bowl slipped and before I could hit the stop button or release the pressure on the drill it carved 4 lovely half circles across the inside!!!

I sat down and wept tears of frustration!

Remounting the bowl on my Cole jaws with the live centre in place I thought that since it wasn't too out of true I could make a dovetail in the base to fit my chuck.

OK so far, then it was discovered that the coating on the bowl was similar to old glue and just balled up in my gouges, on my scrapers but I did eventually clean it off and tried to sand the outside. The wood was SO resinous, merely touching the surface made the sanding disc as smooth as a baby's bottom!

Obviously I did manage to clean up the outside and set to on the inside.

Remounting the bowl in my chuck I opened the jaws into the dovetail to ominous cracking sounds and daylight appeared through the bottom of the bowl, and the chuck was nowhere near tight!!!

Super-glue was washed into crack and the bowl set up with a weight to keep it all together for a whole day. This done I remounted VERY GENTLY!

Inside the coating was even thicker and I think I spent nearly 24 hours just getting back to bare wood! The sanding and eventual polishing took several hours more but I did achieve a nice finish but the bowl had changed colour to its original.

Next came the mascot, looking at the thing it appeared to be OK but closer inspection revealed the base to not be ninety degrees to the vertical! It being Brass I gently sanded the mount and suddenly discovered that the mounting was not only oval but also the mounting bolt was off-centre!

I reverted to a rotary tool to cut the recess because when you think about it there are so many angles involved, anyway all went well until the burr came loose in the chuck and span at about 800 rpm outside the recess!


Needless to say I left the thing for a couple of days, I just couldn't face it!

To cut a long story shorter, the pictures below show that it is now ready for delivery. In future I will listen and heed my inner voice!

Regards Peter.
SAM_0542a.JPG

SAM_0543a.JPG
 
Well done! I think you've done a lovely job although I don't think the idea shows off the mascot to best effect but you're only doing what the client wants! I would have been tempted to turn a new bowl and see if the client noticed :roll:
Regards Keith
 
The Eriba Turner":2deitty3 said:
Well done! I think you've done a lovely job although I don't think the idea shows off the mascot to best effect but you're only doing what the client wants! I would have been tempted to turn a new bowl and see if the client noticed :roll:
Regards Keith

Thanks for the thoughts.

Nice idea turning a new bowl BUT she would have noticed, the lady spends a lot of time and money seeking out the specialist pieces!

Regards Peter.
 
love the even finish you managed after all that :)

overall, you clearly haven't spent enough time re-working your own older pieces recently Peter - one of the problems of being a competent turner!
 
Good save Peter!!

Sometimes you've got to just put it down to experience, sounds like you certainly learned a few things from this job!

Good outcome in the end.

Richard
 
Richard Findley":3dgzlndd said:
Good save Peter!!

Sometimes you've got to just put it down to experience, sounds like you certainly learned a few things from this job!

Good outcome in the end.

Richard

Thankyou Richard, there are several things I have learnt from this job, the first would be to recommend that it be sent to you, the second that I provide myself with a large bottle of Single Malt in a quiet corner where the world can fade into insignificance whilst I ponder the possibilities!

Thirdly I MUST listen to my inner voices, they knew that it was going to be a pain!

Warmest regards Peter.

PS. Have you seen my report on that Skew in "Woodturning" magazine, I did give you a mention?
 
Hi Peter

Yes, I saw that, thanks. I am still determined that I will have you using a "proper" skew with confidence before long! At the Daventry show (http://www.tudor-rose-turners.co.uk/woodworks.html) me and Gary Rance are running a hands on/surgery stand where we give half hour practical sessions. If I can't get you using a skew then I'm sure Gary will!! :lol: :wink:

Cheers

Richard
 
Peter, I admire your dedication to your work ,you certainly got over the problems and did as you were asked to do.
As regards the bottle making things easier, I know what you mean. Things get even easier when you get into the second one, but as tomorrow always comes it's not the way to go . :oops: :oops: Believe me .
I reckon a wine gum would do the job now ,and if I got two who knows :D :D

Take care Peter and keep up the good work ,
 
Looks to me like a triumph of skill over adversity Peter. No one would ever know the trouble you had with it - which makes it a double success.
 
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