Hello from Fat Rich

[Fat Rich]

Greeting all.

I have been turning since my father started to teach me when I was 12 years old. I am now 37 (i think).

I've tried alot of things over the years from pens to vases to, well, most things round!

My prefernce is bowls.

Now I have a few queries that hopefully you'll be able to answer for me:

Do we have a members map? I live in Detling, Maidstone, Kent and it would be nice to know who's nearby?
How often are you turning - all day, 7 days a week, evenings and weekends like me, every now and again?
Do you sell the things you make?
If not, why not?
If yes, how much do you charge for what?

I was gonna post pics of something I made but apparently I don't have permision yet :-(

 

[Fat Rich]

So I've written three posts now, so lets see if I can post pics of somehting I made recently:

Here's one I turned out of a bit split bit of plumb burr that I particularly like:

 

[Grahamshed]

Welcome Rich, Nice bowl.

 

[Vic Perrin]

Hi Rich and Welcome, nice bowl mate!

Vic

 

[morfa]

The wood turning version of Fat Mike I hope.

Welcome.

 

[Dalboy]

Welcome to the mad house

 

[Zingmo]

Hello Fat Rich

Welcome Rich, Nice bowl.

Until I saw your other posts, i thought Graham was being rude about your avatar pic!

From a comfortably portly Zingmo


Z

 

[Grahamshed]

?
Pics of bowl are in the original post on this thread

 

[SimonT]

Welcome, lovely bowl. I have some bowls turned from plum burr. Absolutely gorgeous wood (no puns!!!) Lovely colours too. Did you struggle with the wood splitting once turned/finished? Thats all mine seem to want to do, perhaps im too impatient and need to leave it longer.

 

[Fat Rich]

Welcome, lovely bowl. I have some bowls turned from plum burr. Absolutely gorgeous wood (no puns!!!) Lovely colours too. Did you struggle with the wood splitting once turned/finished? Thats all mine seem to want to do, perhaps im too impatient and need to leave it longer.

Sounds like your not letting it dry out enough, cut into rough blanks, parafin wax around end grains and store away a forget for a few years. Only wood I've found that can be turned wet is walnut. It just warps

 

[Woodmonkey]

The wood turning version of Fat Mike I hope.

Yay a fellow punker NOFX rule!

 

[morfa]

The wood turning version of Fat Mike I hope.

Yay a fellow punker NOFX rule!

Good to see I'm not the only one. I like NOFX, but I prefer Offspring (early stuff, not the recent crap). And weird hardcore stuff like Minor Threat and that sort of thing.

 

[Woodmonkey]

Nothing weird about minor threat classic straight edge (sorry fat rich for highjacking your thread)

 

[SimonT]

Welcome, lovely bowl. I have some bowls turned from plum burr. Absolutely gorgeous wood (no puns!!!) Lovely colours too. Did you struggle with the wood splitting once turned/finished? Thats all mine seem to want to do, perhaps im too impatient and need to leave it longer.

Sounds like your not letting it dry out enough, cut into rough blanks, parafin wax around end grains and store away a forget for a few years. Only wood I've found that can be turned wet is walnut. It just warps

the logs I used are seasoned about 3 years then turned into blanks and stored for about 3 months, with the wall an inch thick. I tend to seal everything with pva (as I dont have parafin wax), maybe I should just leave the blanks longer in future? How long do you store yours and do you use a moisture meter?

As for the walnut, I have a few egg shaped bowls which were turned wet, I had a good supply from a HUGE tree a freined felled so I used it to practice on.

 

[SimonT]

The wood turning version of Fat Mike I hope.

Yay a fellow punker NOFX rule!

I second thay YAY!!

 

[Fat Rich]

Welcome, lovely bowl. I have some bowls turned from plum burr. Absolutely gorgeous wood (no puns!!!) Lovely colours too. Did you struggle with the wood splitting once turned/finished? Thats all mine seem to want to do, perhaps im too impatient and need to leave it longer.

Sounds like your not letting it dry out enough, cut into rough blanks, parafin wax around end grains and store away a forget for a few years. Only wood I've found that can be turned wet is walnut. It just warps

the logs I used are seasoned about 3 years then turned into blanks and stored for about 3 months, with the wall an inch thick. I tend to seal everything with pva (as I dont have parafin wax), maybe I should just leave the blanks longer in future? How long do you store yours and do you use a moisture meter?

As for the walnut, I have a few egg shaped bowls which were turned wet, I had a good supply from a HUGE tree a freined felled so I used it to practice on.

I tend to chainsaw up any wood as soon as I get it from a tree surgeon mate of mine. Recently he felled a very large pear tree. I'll cut the logs into very rough blanks then seal all round the edges and pile with plenty of air round them in the shed and forget them for minimum of two years. Then do a test bowl. If still wet then leave for another 2 but usually work just fine after 2. I heard once that it takes 5-6 years for a log to properly dry out so by cutting it and storing it it dries a lot quicker

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

rule of thumb is one year for every inch of thickness plus a year.

 

[Grahamshed]

rule of thumb is one year for every inch of thickness plus a year.

Indeed, that is the 'rule'
I for one don't think I have enough time left to muck about like that.

 

[SimonT]

rule of thumb is one year for every inch of thickness plus a year.

Indeed, that is the 'rule'
I for one don't think I have enough time left to muck about like that.

I dont know about having the time left but I certainly dont have the patience, I think ill stick to rough turning my bowl and pray to god they dont split when iget so impatient I cant wait any longer to turn them.

I think some of my trouble is a shortage in good timber locally, so I have to turn what I have(thats my excuse anyway and im sticking to it!!! )

 

[swb58]

I think rough turning is the best and most reliable approach. I got two bowls out of a Cherry log early this year, it was so wet the centrifugal force was spinning water off the circumference. No problems with splitting.