My First Bowl

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KDM

KDM

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
618
Location
Redditch, England
Never really done anything much other than pens. Decided to try a small bowl.

This was a lovely bowl. It was 95% finished, too. I was just flatting the bottom with the neck held in external jaws and the lathe let go of it threw it at me. My lathe has no sense of humour.

Amazing how bouncy a piece of ash is when it's zonking along at 2000RPM. Happily, it didn't hit be because I had my eyes shut. (Or something like that.)




Sigh. Back to pens. I'm waiting for some smart-alec to tell me it's repairable.
 
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It happens to the best, don't give up.

Make sure you are wearing a face shield.

I keep my best blow ups as a reminder to ALWAYS wear the safety gear!
 
If you would like I could tell you what went wrong.

A) when holding bowls like that with cole jaws for example you want SLOW SLOW SLOW SLOW speeds. 500rpm MAX.

B) You want to take itty bitty bites with the chisel and only in the direction of the headstock and only with the sharpest chisels you can get, if they are dull then sharpen them, if they are dull they can do some very nasty things.

C) If you are afraid of it coming off still then TAPE is your friend. Break out the packing tape or what not and tape that sucker to the cole jaws so it will be impossible for it to come loose.

2,000 RPM for a bowl can be very dangerous. Don't go there.

Ed
 
KDM said:
Never really done anything much other than pens. Decided to try a small bowl.

This was a lovely bowl. It was 95% finished, too. I was just flatting the bottom with the neck held in external jaws and the lathe let go of it threw it at me. My lathe has no sense of humour.

Amazing how bouncy a piece of ash is when it's zonking along at 2000RPM. Happily, it didn't hit be because I had my eyes shut. (Or something like that.)

Sigh. Back to pens. I'm waiting for some smart-alec to tell me it's repairable.
Click to expand...

Absolutely mate, anything is repairable however, would it be worth it...??? that's the million dollars question that in your case is easy to decide...!:wink:

On the other hand, I'm not going to talk about what you did wrong or, what you suppose to have done instead but, I'm only going to say to you that, if is anything that that one could consider as an "initiation" practice that is applicable to wood turners in general, having a crazy spinning chunk of wood leaving the lathe's chuck and hitting a "few" things in the process and before it stops, there is it, your initiation is done...!

However, don't make that a "custom" and be aware that most of us had scares in our faces from those initiation events, becoming a little more than that and go from initiation to stupidity = hurting + blood = pain...!

Face shields are a must when wood turning, and the ones that can cover and withstand a firm impact are in the end of the day, a damn good...!
investment. Ask around, they will agree...!:wink::biggrin:

Practice, practice, practice, that will solve a lot of problems...!

Good luck,
Cheers
George
 
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but do you wear a face shield while doing pens? I don't have one and was thinking of doing some bowls...should I be using one for pens too?
 
SMJ1957 said:
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but do you wear a face shield while doing pens? I don't have one and was thinking of doing some bowls...should I be using one for pens too?
Click to expand...

YES.

It's not just mass that can do damage but velocity as well.

$15 of face protection is so much cheaper than a trip to the ER.
 
edstreet said:
If you would like I could tell you what went wrong.

A) when holding bowls like that with cole jaws for example you want SLOW SLOW SLOW SLOW speeds. 500rpm MAX.

B) You want to take itty bitty bites with the chisel and only in the direction of the headstock and only with the sharpest chisels you can get, if they are dull then sharpen them, if they are dull they can do some very nasty things.

C) If you are afraid of it coming off still then TAPE is your friend. Break out the packing tape or what not and tape that sucker to the cole jaws so it will be impossible for it to come loose.

2,000 RPM for a bowl can be very dangerous. Don't go there.

Ed
Click to expand...


What he said. Absolutely. I use my Cole jaws at less than 600 RPM ALWAYS.

Thanks for the lesson and for being honest with us.

Chuck
 
BT ,DT. :-)

I've put several bowls in the box to be converted to British Thermal Units (BTU's) and my Dad keeps digging them out for me to "fix".
Hang in there, it gets better.
 
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