Some turnings of mine

[Turnr77]

I thought it was about time I put a bit more info up along with some pics.

Bought my lathe second hand in late 90's it's badged as a Record No1 lathe although the castings still have Coronet cast in. It has bed bars over 4ft long and a fixed head stock. at the time I bought a book or 2 and tried a few turnings then in 2000 or 20001 went on a days course with Reg Sherwin in Bromsgrove, not sure if he's still teaching/writing, but it was a good course and I still have this goblet in Olive Ash I turned on the day, it's just 4" tall.

For various reasons unfortunately the lathe got little use for some time after the course, when I did get back to it I then found I was really having problems in that if I turned the outside of a bowl on reversing to turn the inside it would never run true, in frustration and what with setting up a new business as well the lathe was left alone. Over the last 6-7 years I would occasionally try again with the same results until this year when having sadly had to close my business I now have more time available to practice and try and sort it out.

Still having problems with things seeming to run out of true but there seems no play in the bearings, the only thing I have never done though is bolt the stand down so am about to try this. I have persevered though and here are a few (not terribly good) results:

Small bowl in Wenge 5 1/2" x 1 1/2"

Small chunky Oak bowl5 1/2" x 3"

Another small Oak bowl this unfortunately has some splits in the bottom of the blank that I hoped to turn out but were deeper than expected so still there I quite like the final shape though 7" x 3 1/4".

And beleive it or not this is actually one of my favourite pieces I have ever turned, its in Yew just 5 1/2 " x 1 1/2" pretty roughly turned in reality and in any other wood I would probably have junked it, but I love the grain, the colour and the inclusions/holes in this, whilst turning it I realised if I went any further I was in danger of losing some of the character of this piece so left it as it is, to me it is beautiful, lumps, bumps, tool marks, heat checks and all. Sad I know but often of an evening I will just pick this piece up off the shelf and sit watching TV running it through my fingers, I'm sure my wife thinks I'm going mad but I just love this bowl.

And my latest piece in Burr Oak 10" x 4" needs to be re mounted to smooth the interior a little better if I can but I love the grain in this piece and it's my biggest piece to date, and for all its faults I'm rather pleased with this one too.

There have been others over the years some succesful many binned, I need to try and resolve the issue with things running out of true and as my thread on the Gap bed kit I have for this lathe has nearly 100 views but no replies I guess no one else has heard of this piece of kit either so will have to try and sort this.

Would love a new lathe and maybe to go on another course but currently funds don't allow for this so will keep on trying and hopefully improve.

Please feel free to critique.

Regards
Nick

 

[miles_hot]

how are you holding the work? I use a dovetail chuck and I sometimes have the same sort of issue when moving from the outside to the inside of the bowl - I think it is down to
1) not getting the sides of the dovetail exactly at the same angle as the dovetail jaws
2) not getting a sharp, clean transition between the floor of the chucking recess and the sides (I tend to use an expansion dovetail recess).
Both these items will mean that the actual contact point between the jaw sides and the wood is a small patch rather than the whole depth of the jaw.

Last week I used a compression gip on a spigot and the thing ran perfectly true - I'd taken a lot of care to ensure that the side was 100% right and maybe being a spigot it was easier to do this. I also didn't try to seat the spigot into the bottom of the jaws - I had the top of the jaw seated on a nice clean surface but didn't try to have the base of the spigot touching the bottom of the jaw. Don't know if this helped but it made it all a lot easier

I start the process off with a screw chuck (drilled into what will the open end of the bowl) - my screw is held in the jaws which is nice because once the outside is turned and the jaw recess / spigot formed I can turn the bowl around to be gripped by the jaws with the screw in place - then if I can't get the wretched thing to site right it is quick and easy to turn it around and address when ever problem exists.

Hope this helps

Miles

 

[narrowboater]

Nick

I also find that using a spigot rather than a recess works, I make sure that the spigot is slightly shorter than the dovetail recess on the chuck, this ensures that the bowl base is firmly mounted with the base seated on the face of the chuck.

I think (I am no expert) that the important thing is the interface between the bowl and the chuck, so I guess that if you want to carry on using a recess mount, that you should make the recess slightly deeper than the dovetail, thus ensuring that, again, the bowl base sits firmly on the chuck face.

Like the bowls, by the way, and good on you for posting the pics, I must take the time to do similar.

Regards
Rod

 

[Turnr77]

Thanks for your replies chaps, I have the Axminster precision chuck and actually sent it back when it first arrived as I was sure it was not running true but they returned it as being fine.

Never seemed to notice the problem on my previous Craft supplies chuck. I mostly use the screw chuck that fits into the dovetail jaws or sometimes the face plate then use a dovetail recess, I've tried shallow recesses so the bowl sits only part way onto the dovetail jaws and deep enough so that the base of the bowl sits flat against the face of the chuck with the same problem.

I have not as yet tried using a spigot so will give this a try. As said I never bolted the stand down (records adjustable length metal stand) and with the latest large bowl it certainly moved about a bit so will be doing this next.