Turning - My first couple of projects...

Greetings!

It has been a very long time! Well, I have decided to write another post but this time about my first couple of adventures in wood turning on a lathe. Sorry, not including anything about the Ry Guy..

My Grandmother got me a wood lathe for my birthday and I have been obsessed ever since I rigged up my first piece of wood. It is a lot of fun!

So, after going through a couple pieces of wood just playing with the tools I felt ready to start my first actual project.



Now, one thing I want to make clear before I go too much further is that while I really enjoy woodworking as a hobby I'm still too cheap minded when it comes to my wood stock. This results in me using cheap pine or whatever I can get my hands on for free which I usually end up fighting and then being unhappy with the results. I realize that if I just invested a little more into the quality of wood I was using I would have a much easier time and would be much happier with the results.. But am not ready to make that change...

Following my normal routine after getting a new tool, I like to make something for my wife. Now, this serves a couple of purposes.

1. It is a nice way for me to show my appreciation for her dealing with my woodworking hobby. I have taken over the garage way more then I probably should, and the amount of saw dust that is everywhere can get crazy.
2. It is a small consolation prize for the several hours/evenings that I spent secluded in the garage playing. 
3. And, she is the guinea pig for my new tool!

So, without any further blabbering; my first couple of projects on the lathe.

Project 1: Turned Flower

My first attempt at a turned flower was using the leg off of a pallet skid that I got awhile back. While I took great care in visually inspecting the piece I was using to ensure that there were no nails that I might hit I still ran into a problem..

Everything was going great until I ran into what resulted in that big missing chunk on the lower left. Some how a nail was embedded in this piece of wood and showed no signs of it on the outside. As you can tell I had already done quite a bit of turning on what was a square piece of wood prior to hitting this nail.. 

 So, thus ended my first attempt and jump started attempt number 2. Now, at this point I was done with pallet wood. The frustration got to me and I wanted no more of that!

So, I decided to try again using one of the logs from the trees we chopped down a couple of weeks ago in the back yard. I'm not sure exactly what type of wood this is but I can tell you that it is soft..

Now, this flower I was able to completely finish turning without any issues!! But, I'm not super happy with the shape that I ended up with. I feel like I got a little excited and went overboard on the shape.

Now, for those of you who are unsure or maybe cant tell from this picture, that stain looks horrible and I scuffed up the bottom pretty good right at the end.. So, that is strike number two and three for my second attempt!

Leading me onto my third and final attempt!

Attempt number 3 was completed at roughly midnight and was the one attempt that I am most pleased with. Not much to say about this one other then I decided to just go very simple with this one and skip out on the stain or any crazy design.

Here is the flower that I left for Courtney (she was the smart one and had taken the opportunity to go to bed already) taped to the handle of her water cup for her to get when she got up in the middle of the night with the kiddo attached to a little note expressing my gratitude for all that she does.. (I know, nice touch right?).. She seemed to like it..

Moving forward I would like to make a couple more of these and a vase for them to go in.. We will see when I actually get to that..

Project 2: Turned Bowl

So, after watching countless turning videos on YouTube and reading several articles I decided that I wanted to try to turn a bowl..

Now, going into this I had my doubts due to the previously mentioned refusal to invest in nice wood. And I think I was right but I feel that was only half of my problem.

Here is as far as I got on my first attempt at a small turned bowl. The bowl is the part on the right, the left half is waste that is primarily used to secure the wood piece to the lathe so that I can properly work all sides.

Now, I know what you are thinking; "Wow, that actually looks like it is starting off really nice!".. And that would be because I hid the chunks that flew off while I was shaping it!

In the next couple of pictures you can see the chunk of wood that came flying out as well as some of the carving into the inside of the bowl that I did..

Needless to say, after the chunks flew off I was a little discouraged and didn't spend too much more time playing with this piece. I will probably go back later and mess with it some more just to practice shaping the bowl some more..

So, after all the playing and mess ups that I did what are my take away tidbits of knowledge that I learned?

• Crappy wood is just that, crappy.. Expect chunks to fly off or hidden nails
• I need to sharpen my tools, I expect that this will help a little with the chunks that I'm losing
• I had no idea how much I would enjoy working on a wood lathe. It has been a blast!

Once again, Courtney is smart and is already in bed while I am up messing around.. I can sleep when I'm dead, right?

Thanks for at least skimming my post and glancing at the pictures.. 

Have a nice day!