Vic Baron wrote:
Been a good weekend for making shavings - learned quite a bit but brought up
some questions.

Made a lidded box out of pine scraps. Came out pretty good but still can't
get the hang of hollowing end grain using a gouge. Wound up using a 3/8
think x 1" square scraper and a comparable radius scraper. Got it done but
when I was getting to the bottom of the 6" box I'm glad I don't have any
fillings in my teeth or they would have shaken loose from the vibration. I
thought about sticking the tool rest inside the cylinder but I would have
had to lay the scraper along the length of the rest. Didn't feel
comfortable.

Second project was more interesting - someone gave me a 4x4x3 piece of
Brazilian rosewood so I decided to make a simple cup. First surprise - after
the wax came off the block, the wood was quite wet. Didn't seem to present
any problems cutting. The roughing down was a big surprise. I had the wood
in a chuck so the face grain was towards the tailstock. Even though I cut
some of the corners off with a band saw I really had a tough time roughing
across the end grain. If I hadn't kept a really good grip on the gouge it
would have come out of my hand.

Is this typical with end grain or rosewood or a combination of both?

Once got it close to round, the other cuts went as expected.

After hollowing out I sanded the work. The outside sanded just fine but the
inside of the cup had rough spots on the areas that were end grain. I'm
assuming this is because I used a scraper on the inside and a skew on the
outside. How do you deal with the inside end grain on a cup or a small bowl?

Still having fun!

Vic



I have tried scrapers for box bottoms, including buying a box scraper
rest, but did not like the results. I tended to make square corners
which are hard to sand for me. I like a little transition between the
side and the bottom.

I made several custom tool rests, including two for box bottoms. I
ordered some 1" round steel stock and some 3/4 x 1/4" bar stock.
Sawed the post length with a hacksaw then sawed a 1/4 x 1" shoulder at
one end. A local welder put them together and bent the end. I tapered
the rest with a grinder. Note: He put this one together backward
with the arm coming off the back side of the post, but I still use it
a lot.

I use a small bowl gouge and do the side sweeping across to the center.

Pictures in Alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking

--
Gerald Ross

One man's error is another man's data.