On Wed, 18 May 2005 07:00:12 -0400, "George" george@least wrote:


"Prometheus" wrote in message
.. .

To fill in a couple of details from my original post, the bowl in
question is about 5" dia x 3" deep with a wall thickness of about
3/8", and slightly thicker (perhaps 1/2") on the bottom. I did the
final cuts at a spindle speed of 1750 rpm, and sanded for a heck of a
long time to clean up some tearout on the end grain, and got the piece
fairly hot. Sanded though the grits to 400 (60, 100, 120, 220, 320,
400), and then burnished the piece with the shavings. No way of
telling what the moisture content ended up being.



VERY low. You cut thin, spun well - bet you saw the water on the end
grain - and then heated it by sanding.

I was wondering about that. There was a little water at first, but it
dried up pretty quickly. And the bowl hasn't changed a fraction of an
inch in the past two or three days, so I figure it's probably going to
be okay.

NB on shaving burnishing. Don't do it if you are careless when cleaning
your lathe. One or two maple curls can do some distressing things to an
aspen bowl.

I get the whole area with a shop vac (vacuum and then blow it off)
between wood types, so it hasn't been a problem for me. Learned my
lesson about aspen with a chessboard I made last fall- the dark
squares are aromatic cedar, and the aspen turned a bit pink when I
sanded the two together. Still looks nice, but that's the last time I
mix aspen and anything else!