Darren wrote:

I have some thick pieces of walnut that I have glued up to make a large
salad type bowl. It will be about 14-15" when I am done. This thing is
heavy. To reduce the weight I cut the corners off with a bandsaw and also
cut the inside out of the top rings. This helped but it is still fairly
heavy (guessing 15+ lbs). I have turned a lot of things but have only
turned small bowls up to this point (6" or so), so this is quite a step up
for me.

Couple questions:
* How much weight is too much weight? I will be using a Jet 1442 lathe (1
hp).
* How do you mount it best? Is just a face plate ok? I can't put it
between spindles because it is too big, so I will be turning the head
stock
out away from the bed. My thought was to glue a 3/4+ plywood spacer onto
the bottom and then use 1 1/2" screws so that it goes through the face
plate, plywood and into the walnut a little (~1/2"). How big of face
plate
should I use? I only have a 4" one now - even if I put 8 screws into it,
I think that might be not be big enough.

Any other thoughts \ advice?

Thanks
Darren


Darren: You did the right thing in trimming off the corners, also the lazy
way of doing it. (Why remove all that material with a gouge when you can
cut it off with a tool that will do it so much quicker?)

Assuming you have left a large enough area to mount your face plate to, then
by all means do so. If not, let's just say that life is going to be very
interesting.

Your real problem is going to be vibration, until you get the blank trued
up. Oddly enough one serious problem area is not where you would first
look - the side of the blank opposite the face plate. Take some time to
trim that side to some semblance of symmetry, it will keep the lathe from
waltzing across the floor quite as bad.

I turn a lot of white oak pieces (my lathe only has a 12" swing) that weight
about the same as your walnut, or a bit more. Get ready for a lot of
vibration. Do not be afraid to stop the machine, trim a bit and retry.

Start at your lowest speed and use your biggest "bowl" gouge. Forget form
and get that thing roughed out ASAP - sides and bottom. Then work it like
the civilized piece it has become.

Good luck. (You won't need it, but it is nice to say)

Deb