In order to lure my nine year old away from Grandma's house and her X-Box, I
dangled the prospect of turning a bowl in front of him. I had glued one of
Dave in Fairfax's generous bowl blank offerings to a glue block the night
before. I finally felt worthy of taking a crack at a piece of my beloved
and treasured walnut, and this was the only blank I had prepared for
turning. I had some reservations about letting the boy turn my precious
walnut as his first bowl, but I weighed this against the idea of leaving
him to play that stupid video game for the rest of the day, and decided to
go ahead and let him do it.

So off we go to the lathe. He had demonstrated serious aptitude for spindle
work, but had never approached a bowl before. I explained the concepts
involved, held his hand for a bit, and then went to the other side of the
shop to work on cleaning up a few messes. I just let him have at it,
looking over at him from time to time.

Once he had done a pretty good job of shaping the outside, I went back and
refined it just a smidge. Then we started in on the hollowing phase. I
once more let him have at it while I built a handy dandy depth gauge
gadget.

After hogging out most of the waste, we took turns refining the walls and
bottom, using my depth gauge thingie to get the depth just so, and feeling
our way carefully to keep the walls smooth and even.

He was satisfied that it was done, but Daddy wanted to refine it just a
smidge more, until it was perfect.

Then we sanded, sanded, sanded some more. I carefully dressed a couple of
rough tearout patches with a scraper I made out of an old bench chisel,
then we sanded some more. We went from 100 all the way up to 2,000 grit,
and the wood was so smooth when we were done that it looked to have been
finished already.

Then we got out the beeswax, rubbed some on, then melted it in with a cloth.
The bowl came alive as soon as that happened, becoming more gorgeous with
each press of the cloth.

Then I set the speed for 500 RPM and began to part off the last bit of the
bottom.

WHACK!

It tore loose and went sailing into the wall, leaving a 1" diameter hunk of
walnut stuck to the glue block.

Daddy had gotten the bottom too thin, and when I parted it off, I only left
1/32" of wood in the bottom of the bowl. It wasn't enough to handle the
stress once I got down that far into it, and the bowl was lost.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!!

The up side is that it didn't crack when it hit the wall. It's a beautiful
little walnut bowl with a 1" hole in the bottom. I guess we'll make it a
container to hold a silk flower arrangement or something.

I'm still proud of the boy in any event. He's a natural turner. He'd do
better with a real teacher, instead of the blind leading the blind, but
this is what we have to work with. In my judgement, he's doing *just*
fine.

I'm going to have to buy a full-sized lathe and give him this mini sooner
rather than later, I suspect, or at least buy him his own mini. I can see
that it won't be long before we're fighting over the lathe.

It's a shame about his bowl though. A real shame.

But a good day still. I sure never did anything like this with my own Dad.
He and I did some things together to be sure, but never anything like this,
and not nearly so often.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Silvan writes:
The up side is that it didn't crack when it hit the wall. It's a beautiful
little walnut bowl with a 1" hole in the bottom. I guess we'll make it a
container to hold a silk flower arrangement or something.

Spindle turn a pedestal base for it. Turn a 1" tenon to fit the
conveniently sized hole fate left you ;-)

Silvan wrote:
Daddy had gotten the bottom too thin, and when I parted it off, I only left
1/32" of wood in the bottom of the bowl. It wasn't enough to handle the
stress once I got down that far into it, and the bowl was lost.

The caliper I sent has a depth rod built into it. Try using that, with
the lathe stopped, and leave yourself 1/2" of bottom. After you part
it off, there'll be a lot less than that. Don't worry about the bowl,
there's more where that came from. I'm glad nobody got hurt.

Dave In Fairfax
--
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/

In article ,
says...

It tore loose and went sailing into the wall, leaving a 1" diameter hunk of
walnut stuck to the glue block.


Great story. I've got a few bowls like that myself. Why not make the
hole a bit larger and round it out- turn a contrasting color plug to fit
and make it a "feature".

My son isn't into spending shop time with dad anymore. He's doing metal
sculpture in school and wants a welder and sand blaster to play with.
SIGH. If only I could convince his mother that it's in his best interest
to get him those- with the metal lather and mill g.

/vic

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 15:28:17 -0500, Silvan
wrote:

In order to lure my nine year old away from Grandma's house and her X-Box,

Your mother (-in law?) has an X-Box?

I finally felt worthy of taking a crack at a piece of my beloved
and treasured walnut, and this was the only blank I had prepared for
turning.

Where do you live that walnut is so scarce and precious?

Too bad about the bowl. I've had almost exactly the same thing
happen, and have a small collection of "coarse collanders" to attest
to it.



--
Chuck *#:^)
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snip In order to lure my nine year old away from Grandma's house and
her X-Box,snip sounds like one lucky nine year old
snip I had some reservations about letting the boy turn my precious
walnut as his first bowl, but I weighed this against the idea of leaving
him to play that stupid video game for the rest of the day, and decided to
go ahead and let him do it.
snip If only all nine year olds were this lucky in their choice of
parents:-)

I'm going to have to buy a full-sized lathe and give him this mini sooner
rather than later, I suspect, or at least buy him his own mini. I can see
that it won't be long before we're fighting over the lathe.
thats either very generous, or very self serving of you, getting two
lathes and having a good rxcuse to do it(joking)

Reyd

Chuck wrote:

Your mother (-in law?) has an X-Box?

Mother. Yeah. She's a real video game junkie. Like I used to be when I
was 14 years old. I grew out of it. She grew into it. Go figure.

Where do you live that walnut is so scarce and precious?

At this point, bowl blanks are precious because I haven't been able to
secure any suitable supplies of turning wood. All wood is precious except
for 1-2" maple branches, which I have in copious abundance.

I have a bunch of bowl blanks that Dave in Fairfax kindly sent to tide me
over until I get the wood flowing in. Not too many of them are walnut.
Walnut is also my absolute favorite wood, so I value it more than the rest
of the short supply I have.

Too bad about the bowl. I've had almost exactly the same thing
happen, and have a small collection of "coarse collanders" to attest
to it.

Coarse collanders... I like that.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

DJ Delorie wrote:

Spindle turn a pedestal base for it. Turn a 1" tenon to fit the
conveniently sized hole fate left you ;-)

That's a great idea! Good way to use a scrap of 4/4 walnut about 6" long
too, now that I think about it.

I'll have to file this trick away.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Silvan wrote: (clip) The up side is that it didn't crack when it hit the
wall. It's a beautiful little walnut bowl with a 1" hole in the bottom
(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^
I would glue a plaque in the bottom with his name, the words, "My first
bowl," and the date. You could use a jam chuck or a "doughnut" chuck to
clean up the hole. I would make the plaque out of an attractive contrasting
wood, so it doesn't look like an effort to hide a patch. Or, you could go
to a trophy shop and have one engraved in brass.

Or, you could turn an insert out of the same wood, and conceal the seam by
turning some circles at the edge. In any case, I would not leave this kid
with a failure as the result of all that you did together.

wrote:

The caliper I sent has a depth rod built into it. Try using that, with

So, so that's what that doohickey is. Cute.

the lathe stopped, and leave yourself 1/2" of bottom. After you part
it off, there'll be a lot less than that. Don't worry about the bowl,
there's more where that came from. I'm glad nobody got hurt.

It's still a pity though, if only for the look on the boy's face when it
flew off the lathe.

Not nearly as bad as the look on his face when I had to show him that the
dog ate his pinewood derby car though.

Today wasn't a very good day. It could have been worse though. Definitely
could have been worse.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message ...
Silvan wrote: (clip) The up side is that it didn't crack when it hit the
wall. It's a beautiful little walnut bowl with a 1" hole in the bottom
(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^
I would glue a plaque in the bottom with his name, the words, "My first
bowl," and the date. You could use a jam chuck or a "doughnut" chuck to
clean up the hole. I would make the plaque out of an attractive contrasting
wood, so it doesn't look like an effort to hide a patch. Or, you could go
to a trophy shop and have one engraved in brass.

Or, you could turn an insert out of the same wood, and conceal the seam by
turning some circles at the edge. In any case, I would not leave this kid
with a failure as the result of all that you did together.

Why is that the bottom has to be as thin as possible? I agree that
walls should be thin (and even depending on the prupose/not too thin
for a food bowl), but leaving the bottom with 1/2 " thickness would
not really matter would it?

(Eric) writes:
Why is that the bottom has to be as thin as possible? I agree that
walls should be thin (and even depending on the prupose/not too thin
for a food bowl), but leaving the bottom with 1/2 " thickness would
not really matter would it?

I usually do this with my large bowls. It gives the bowl two useful
characteristics: First, it looks delicate because the rim is so thin.
Second, it feels strong, because the total mass is higher than you'd
expect from seeing the rim.

But mostly I do it because I need more practice ;-)

First what is considered thin? Second,why should walls be thin? For
that matter why should bowls be thin? Is that to impress fellow
woodturners? I have turned decorative bowls down to 1/16 - 3/32" and
have had them sit on the shelf while simular turnings with wall
thicknesses 1/4" to 1/2" sold immediately. The thin walled items were
admired greatly, but, when it came to buying most costomers went for the
thicker walled items. I think people are scared to buy and use the
thinner items for fear of breaking them. Just my opinion.

DJ Delorie wrote:
(Eric) writes:

Why is that the bottom has to be as thin as possible? I agree that
walls should be thin (and even depending on the prupose/not too thin
for a food bowl), but leaving the bottom with 1/2 " thickness would
not really matter would it?


I usually do this with my large bowls. It gives the bowl two useful
characteristics: First, it looks delicate because the rim is so thin.
Second, it feels strong, because the total mass is higher than you'd
expect from seeing the rim.

But mostly I do it because I need more practice ;-)

Ralph Fedorak writes:
First what is considered thin?

It depends on the style of the object and its size. On a 12" bowl,
1/4" would be "thin" for me, with 1/2 to 3/4 being "thick". It also
depends on the treatment you give the rim (decorations, bands, etc).

Second,why should walls be thin?

Because thick walls make the bowl look chunky and unappealing.

For that matter why should bowls be thin?

Because if they're too heavy they're unwieldy. And ugly.

Victor Radin wrote:

My son isn't into spending shop time with dad anymore. He's doing metal
sculpture in school and wants a welder and sand blaster to play with.
SIGH. If only I could convince his mother that it's in his best interest
to get him those- with the metal lather and mill g.

Good luck!

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Leo Lichtman wrote:

^^^^^^^^^^
I would glue a plaque in the bottom with his name, the words, "My first
bowl," and the date. You could use a jam chuck or a "doughnut" chuck to

That's a neat idea. Have him write it with resist ink and etch it onto a
brass disc.

We're going to fix the bottom with a pedestal made out of either walnut or
maple, depending on what he decides.

turning some circles at the edge. In any case, I would not leave this kid
with a failure as the result of all that you did together.

Yeah, and to add insult to injury, the dog ate his Pinewood Derby car on the
very same day.

Poor little feller...

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Spindle turn a pedestal base for it. Turn a 1" tenon to fit the
conveniently sized hole fate left you ;-)

That's a great idea! Good way to use a scrap of 4/4 walnut about 6" long
too, now that I think about it.

I'll have to file this trick away.


Or, instead of using a matching wood, go with a contrasting wood, say
lightly figured maple.

Just a thought

Mike

The caliper I sent has a depth rod built into it. Try using that, with

So, so that's what that doohickey is. Cute.

the lathe stopped, and leave yourself 1/2" of bottom. After you part
it off, there'll be a lot less than that. Don't worry about the bowl,
there's more where that came from. I'm glad nobody got hurt.

It's still a pity though, if only for the look on the boy's face when it
flew off the lathe.

Not nearly as bad as the look on his face when I had to show him that the
dog ate his pinewood derby car though.

Today wasn't a very good day. It could have been worse though.
Definitely
could have been worse.

Actually, it sounds like a great day to me...you spent some good time with
the kid. THAT in and of itself, has to be worth it!

OK, so you ended up showing the boy that Dad is human after all, but that
really isn't all that bad.

Just as long as your wife never finds out you're human, the kid will keep
your secret.

Mike

The Davenports wrote:

Actually, it sounds like a great day to me...you spent some good time with
the kid. THAT in and of itself, has to be worth it!

Any excuse I can find to drag him away from that video game for awhile.

OK, so you ended up showing the boy that Dad is human after all, but that
really isn't all that bad.

Taught him some important lessons about failure too, maybe. When the dog
eats your car, you get out a block of wood and start over.

That thing might even win this year. It's almost certain to be the only
*turned* pinewood derby car on the field.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Silvan wrote:
That thing might even win this year. It's almost certain to be the only
*turned* pinewood derby car on the field.

Dunno - I spent a lot of time fiddling with the body (sleekly
areodymnamic) on mine 30 odd years ago, ran it up to maximum weight, and
as far as I recall, the winner was an ugly block which perhaps had a lot
of extra effort on getting the wheels to spin well.

--
Cats, Coffee, Chocolate...vices to live by

Ecnerwal wrote:

Dunno - I spent a lot of time fiddling with the body (sleekly
areodymnamic) on mine 30 odd years ago, ran it up to maximum weight, and
as far as I recall, the winner was an ugly block which perhaps had a lot
of extra effort on getting the wheels to spin well.

We were #2, right after the guy who always wins. We still wouldn't have
beaten him, but we would have won a few more races if it hadn't been for
the pointy rocket nose on the thing. It lost at least two very close heats
because the point didn't trigger the electric eye immediately.

I'm satisfied with #2. As far as I'm concerned, we can retire now. Next
year's car can be crappy, and let some other kid win a trophy next time.

I don't know if my son will see it that way though.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/