On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 03:34:20 GMT, "Bernie" wrote:

Well I decedided try my luck turning a bowl. I chose walnut. Picked up a
slab of 1x6, cut it into 6"lengths and laminated them to a height of 5". I
hear Walnut makes a beautiful turning if I don't mess it up.
A couple of concerns, the tearout seems to be an issue, some of the tears
seem to be 1/16" deep, a lot of them on the end grain, tools seem pretty
sharp however.

When you get to the point where you are doing the final finishing
cuts, resharpen your gouge to make sure you have a good edge and make
light cuts. It also helps to have the edge of the gouge which is
cutting at an angle (at least 45 degrees as a rule of thumb) to the
work so a "slicing" or "shearing" cut is made.

I suppose the tearout will be remedied with some patience and
a few sheets of 80 grit. The tearout occurs mainly on the outside of the
bowl.

Which way are you turning the outside of the bowl ? Assuming the
direction of grain is across the bowl (side grain) and not up through
it (end grain), you should turn the outside of the bowl from the
smallest to the largest diameter. i.e. from the centre out. The inside
of the bowl should be turned from the largest to the smallest
diameter. i.e. from the edge of the bowl to the centre.
This way you will minimise cuts made "against" the grain and should
get less tearout as a result.

Also my old lathe has what seems like 3/16 to 1/4" of play parallel to the
bed so's when I press on my gauge to hollow out the bowl the workpeice moves
a fair bit (3/16") back toward the headstock.

I would get it fixed so there was no play, this will cause lots of
problems if you don't and could even be dangerous under some
circumstances!



Cheers

Paul
www.hannaby.com
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