Hi Jesse

I will give you a short and simple "how I do it" and then I will sent
you to Darrell's website for you to go and spend the rest of the
weekend, (yes it should take that long to absorb it all) going back
and forward all over his site that he has build up over a number of
years, and has kept it kind of simple and down to earth.
You also have to appreciate that he is not trying to sell anything, so
no snake oil BS as we see al to often on other sites.
Here it goes, and none of this is chiseled in stone, I improvise as is
needed.
The wood log blocked up off of the ground, I measure the Diameter, and
saw off a length that is equal or slightly more to the D.
Place that piece on a stump and decide where I will make the cut or
cuts and draw a line to guide me.
Place the piece on its side, and hammer two steel bars next to the
piece so as to keep it from moving, something like this, \O/, and saw
it in two.
Now I will remove at least one of the steel bars, and place one of the
halves with its newly cut face up, take a compass and scribe a circle.
Now I will cut the corners of the blank off, so it now looks like a
stop sign 8 sided.
Screw a face plate to the blank and turn the outside to the shape you
like, and incorporate a way to hold it so you can flip it over and
hollow out the other side.
Done with that, I will take a thick paper bag and put my new rough out
in it, close the bag and place if out of the way in a cool and
airstill place to sit for a few weeks, taking a peek once in a while
and when it feels drier I will take it out of the bag (like in 3 or 4
or 5 weeks) and set it again in that same spot to keep drying for a
while ( maybe a month or two or three) then I will give it a place
with all the other bowls that are waiting, but you could probably
finish turn it by then.
Here's a few pictures of what I just have tried to tell you.
http://homepage.mac.com/l.vanderloo/PhotoAlbum26.html
End of story
And here's the link to Darrell's site
http://www.aroundthewoods.com/bowls.shtml

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo




On Mar 29, 7:13 pm, Jesse wrote:
Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will
hold off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question
is: I have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak
.How to you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or
splitting?Use a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .