ANOTHER CHAPTER IN MY TURNING ADVENTURE

[Drcal]

In my last post last weekend, I was attempting to master the bowl gouge. I looked at numerous videos and I thought I had the roughing technique down.
I held the gouge with the flute in a "closed" position in the direction in which I was turning. I kept my left hand over the gouge near the tool rest and kept the handle down. BUT-- all I got was a burnishing. My gouge was sharp but somehow would not cut. When it did cut a little was only after I had roughed it down with a scraper---believe it or not....and a little with a roughing gouge I was certain I heard somewhere that you should not use a roughing gouge on bowls. Therefore...
Question #1 Anybody have any ideas as to what I did wrong???

Question #2
I have now painstakingly shaped the piece but I have these ugly swirls where the end grain meets the rest of the wood. How can I smooth that out?
Help!
Carmen

 

[holmqer]

I'm not sure if this helps, but lets say I am working on the inside of the bowl.

I start with the handle of the gouge lower than the cutting edge, and flute facing away from me with the bevel rubbing. I then rotate the flute upward until it starts to cut.

If I was home and could go put a bowl on my lathe, I could probably describe it better. The problem is that after a while it gets so second nature that I don't really think about it as distinct steps.

 

[robutacion]

In my last post last weekend, I was attempting to master the bowl gouge. I looked at numerous videos and I thought I had the roughing technique down.
I held the gouge with the flute in a "closed" position in the direction in which I was turning. I kept my left hand over the gouge near the tool rest and kept the handle down. BUT-- all I got was a burnishing. My gouge was sharp but somehow would not cut. When it did cut a little was only after I had roughed it down with a scraper---believe it or not....and a little with a roughing gouge I was certain I heard somewhere that you should not use a roughing gouge on bowls. Therefore...
Question #1 Anybody have any ideas as to what I did wrong???

Question #2
I have now painstakingly shaped the piece but I have these ugly swirls where the end grain meets the rest of the wood. How can I smooth that out?
Help!
Carmen

Hi Carmen,

Firstly, get used to our saying, "no pics, didn't happen...!":wink: , secondly if the bowl gouge wasn't cutting is because you were "rubbing" the gouge against the wood with the "keel" (the lower part of the cutting edge) instead of the "edge". This does happen when one is not confident with the tool and concern about getting a "catch", don't worry, we all (well, some of us) have been there done that...!

Cutting the end grain in a bowl can de a daunting job, I have in fact made some tools to assist with this but I can say that the simplest, easiest, most effective and less dangerous tools is the round carbide type gauges. They are just a pleaser to work with as most carbide tipped tools are...!

You find these tools in most wood-turning shops, some longer some shorter some with a bigger round cutter than others, all depend of the size pieces you are turning. I've got some of the round carbide cutters from a member here which also sells the hole tool, the preferred option if you don't have the tools /experience or are not confident with your tool making...!

Possible contacts;
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=61058&highlight=round+carbide+tools

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49364&highlight=round+carbide+tools

http://www.thingswestern.com/3.html

http://easywoodtools.com/products.php

OK, these are just some of the ones that come to mind...!

In regards to the use of the gouge you have, and not being there next to you to see what you are doing, I could suggest 2 steps that will help you to improve your skills and confidence, one is to see as many videos as you can and there are hundreds to pic from in YouTube, look carefully at the hand and tools position of the turner in relation to the wood/size and shape of the piece being turned.

Secondly get some practice SOFT wood blanks and practice, practice...! Use slow speeds while doing this, safer that way...!:wink::biggrin:
I'm "assuming" that you are following all the safety requirement for wood turning, if not, please comply with them, they may just save you a lot of pain and grief...!:wink:

PS: If you have any more questions, don't be shy...!:biggrin:

Good luck

Cheers
George

 

[ctubbs]

Carmen, sorry but I have no advice on bowl turning but I do have the url for an excellent carbide turning tool. http://www.woodchuck-tools.com
He is a member here and I have one of his tools. It is wonderful. I am a cheap skate so I just bought the tool. I used that tool to turn its handle out of red oak without any kind of handle on the tool. Yes it cut that good. When you go to his site there is more than one tool to chose from. I called him and he helped me make my choice. I recomend Ken. He makes a quality tool.
Charles

 

[jimbob91577]

Several things to consider here.
First - are you turning a face grain bowl or an end grain bowl (or Natural Edge)?
Second - are you shaping the inside or the outside of the bowl?
Third - how is your turning mounted? Faceplate, Glue Block? Something else?
Forth - what type of bowl gouge are you using? Standard grind bowl gouge or modified bowl gouge with drastically swept wings?

I'll make some assumptions here:
Face Grain bowl, mounted on a face plate and later in a 4 jaw chuck, turning the outside of the bowl: I start by creating a flat face where the foot will be. The opening of the bowl will be against the face plate attached with screws. I'm standing so I'm facing the ways of the lathe slightly behind the spinning piece. To create the flat that will be the foot of my bowl, the flute is pointed towards me but at a slight angle so that it is not perfectly horizontal (perhaps 5-15 degrees off horizontal?). The handle of my tool is in my right hand and is far away from me on the opposite side of the lathe. My left arm is bent at the elbow and the left hand is holding the shaft of the tool down on the tool rest. My left hand also creates a fulcrum - this is important, because I use the lever action to start my cut. I begin by rubbing the bevel of the tool against the spinning work. I use the lever action by pulling my right arm slowly back towards me to start the cut. As soon as I get the cut started, I lower my right hand and twist the tool so the flute is closer to 25-30 degrees from horizontal. I then pull my whole body towards me slowly as the cut is made using my hips and legs. I do not use my arms to make the cut and I try not to twist my body. Lather rinse repeat as necessary - this is called a pull cut.

Once the foot is flat, I begin to shape the bowl by using the same motions only, I pull my right hand closer to me as I work out from the center (sometimes back out again as I get to the tips of the squared bowl blank - these will eventually be gone). This begins to shape the bowl. As a beginner, I strongly recommend you simply get the shape round at this point. You can move your tool rest according to the area you need to cut. I don't have a curved tool rest, so this is the method I use.

Once the bowl is round (or dome shaped) - you can begin refining your details. I plan for about a 2 1/2" foot bottom (that fits nicely in my chuck) so I guestimate 2 1/2". I'm now standing so that if i put my hands straight out in front of me one(left) would be on the bowl. I'm holding the tool the same way as described above. the flute should be pointed in still and the tip of the tool is going to enter the wood. As it does, slightly twist again but push the handle with your right hand away from you using your left hand as a fulcrum again. This will create the foot. You can use a spindle gouge to further refine this feature, which I do. I also use a skew, but only to create lines nothing more.

Using this same cut, I shape the entire outside of the bowl.

For the inside: after I have shaped the outside and finished the foot, I dismount the bowl from the faceplate, attach my chuck, and put the foot of the bowl in the chuck (the bowl is now completely inverted from the way it was).

To begin, I true up the face of the bowl like I described in the first step. Now I twist the
tool so the flute is facing away from me, but still 5-15 degrees from true horizontal. In the center of the bowl or say 1/2" from true center, I enter the wood, twist the tool back towards me slightly (25-30 degrees from horizontal now), and pull the handle towards me and down a bit (say 6-9" in each direction) - this creates a small shallow in the bowl. Lather rinse repeat moving out about 1" each time and going deeper each time until I reach my outside diameter. As I start shaping the walls of my bowl, I'll twist the tool further so that it is closer to 60 degrees from horizontal, however as I reach the bottom of my bowl, as my hips move back and my right arm moves back towards me, I need to twist it back down to 5-15" to do the bottom. Its like rev'ing a motor cycle. Lather rinse repeat until you get your bowl. You will need to sand quite a bit because you're not producing a good shear cut, but this is how I started and provides a good basis for beginning. Just remember that as you turn the walls of your bowl, you want the tip of the tool to be entering squarely into the bowl. Think of it as scooping out the wood you don't want - almost like using an ice-cream scoop. Also don't be afraid to turn your lathe off and practice the motions without the machine running. This will begin to teach your body the movements involved - muscle memory, which is funny, because as I write this, I can feel the motions in my body (my legs, hips, arms, shoulders, hands, etc.).

If you have more questions or my assumptions are incorrect, PM me...(everyone else, sorry for the novel - but when I first started turning bowls it took forever for me to learn)

Oh and DO NOT USE A ROUGHING GOUGE to do this - if it catches badly, you could have a serious problem on your hands, or your spouse could.