How I Got Started Turning

[Cole Roberts]

I have been around this forum for a while, being around off and on due to school especially this summer going into my senior year of college. However, I realized that I never really showed how I got into turning in general. Oklahoma only has a few schools left that have woodworking, luckily when my parents moved me to OK they brought me up in a school district that did have wood shop class in high school, Mustang, OK.

There I had a great teacher one who really was passionate about woodworking and teaching. During my freshman year we learned the basics, making a pen, jewelry box, simple stuff. Sophomore year we were allowed to start making whatever we wanted, as long as we drew the plans by hand, that year I made a night stand. It came out nice but my junior year and senior I went to turning and turning things that other people had not seen before. I don't have a photo of my junior project on me, but I will post it when I do get a hold of one, but it was a vase with ~360 pieces or so. However, senior I went bigger I built a floor lamp, with over 1100 pieces in it. (Paduk, Ash, Walnut) This lamp turned out great and it really gave me the bug of turning, that and all the knowledge my teacher had given me. It took the entire year to create and it really tested my patience to be honest, hundreds of pieces and about 60 rings. Now, I turn pens since I don't have the equipment for making segments but I love doing it. I thought I would just share this and the picture of the project, though the picture isn't great and really it needs to be seen in person instead of a poorly taken picture.

 

[nava1uni]

Wow, that is amazing. Thanks for the information. I am glad that you had the opportunity to learn this wonderful art in high school. Very lucky. Hope that your senior year in college is good and that you get some time turning.

 

[mrcook4570]

That was certainly worth all of the time and effort. Very nice job!

 

[Pioneerpens]

Very nice! that is beatifully done!

 

[witz1976]

That is crazy, I love it!!

 

[hilltopper46]

That's a beautiful piece. You are very talented.

 

[Jim15]

Awesome work.

 

[ldb2000]

That is an amazing piece of work . Time very well spent !!!

 

[Cole Roberts]

Well I scrounged up a photo of my vase from my junior year, yes it is curved before anyone asks. This came about because of a miscalculation when doing a sacrificial block at the bottom. The vase is different because of the way the rings were done, instead of the basic horizontal gluing and turning, I glued them together and then used a sacrificial block to make the rings seem as I glued them diagonally. That is why the vase is curved and why the rings are diagonal in setting. A point that is interesting is the fact that all the pieces were cut to the same size and dimension, but due to me using a block at the bottom some of the pieces look a lot bigger and some look really small. As all of you can tell and see that is because part of the ring might be on the fat part of the vase and then diagonally go down to a smaller part of it.

Also, thank you for all the kind comments above.

 

[ThomJ]

Thats amazing, only thing I made in woodshop in HS was a surfboard

 

[broitblat]

Both pieces looks great. I'll bet the vase was even nicer before it melted We should all miscalculate like that more often.

-Barry

 

[Cole Roberts]

I always wondered what the vase would have looked like straight up and down, but people started calling it a Dr. Seuss vase of sorts so I took to it. Mustang High wood shop really allows you to do whatever you want, as long as you work hard and not waste time. We have had people make pool tables, beds, canoes and even a boat hull(later fiberglassed).

 

[RAdams]

Welcome Cole! I am a short 35 minutes down the road in Chickasha!

Your work is super cool man! I had a similar class in Jr. High in Moore called "Tech. Ed." The only thing i ever made in that class was smoke with a welder to cover up the smoke from my cigarette!

I have to admit, If i could do segmenting work like that, I don't think i would make many pens. Those both have to be worth a fortune. I can't wait to see what you do to some pen blanks!!


BTW. If you ever want to get together for some penmaking, let me know!!

 

[Cole Roberts]

That would be good, maybe I will be able to one of these weekends scrounge up some time during the school year and see you. My pen turning skills are not bad but I could probably learn a lot from you in finishing/techniques.

 

[CSue]

What a wonderfully delightful lamp. Your work was truly worthwhile! Great work.

 

[bitshird]

I took wood shop in High school I never got close to making any thing like your beautiful work, in my freshman year I made a Cat House, same thing we had to draw the plans by hand and with a square, scale and compass, My teacher nearly choked when he saw the title bar, but it really was a Cat house for my Siamese cat. Turns out there were already a few cat houses in Las Vegas.

 

[Cole Roberts]

Well that is interesting, whatever happened to the ole cat house, is it still housing a cat to this day or did if fall by the wayside during the years since.