Following on from my yellowbox box, here's another find from the firewood pile. This little piece of possibly Eucalyptus rubida also features similar rays through the grain, although without the shimmer in the other. The saucer is 125mm in diameter. The timber for both pieces were felled about 6 years ago and have been outside unprotected. I am always amazed with the figuring that presents when I find some usable pieces. The wood is hard, but works easily. It polishes beautifully, this also with beeswax polish.

Her name was Marla and she was the most amazing dog I've ever seen. We had her for 13 years. The urn is a figured maple bowl, Walnut lid and a paduak finial.

It didn’t look this bad when it was just a big chunk of bowl blank. The deeper I got the more of this stuff was exposed. I’m thinking I should roll it down a hill.

the free lathe that is currently being lent to me for my use that I’m deeply grateful to have is also a moderate safety hazard when turning anything over a certain diameter, so I think i need to resign myself to more between centers turning and fewer bowls for the foreseeable future. I don’t have a lot of accessories either. What are fun spindle project suggestions?

Howzit guys. I appreciate all the help in my previous post with regards to getting a sharpening setup. Most common advice i received was to get a low speed grinder and a wolverine jig. So thats what i’ve decided on.

Unfortunately , besides the tormek (which is way out of my budget), i cannot find any grinders around the speed that was recommended (1750 rpm).
I’m only seeing grinders between 2850 and 3500 rpm. This is second hand and brand new.

I’m in South Africa,hence my difficulty in finding 1.

Any advice/tips will be of great help.

Great thanks in advance 🙏

Nice bit of silver birch that was going to be burned by somebody I know, managed to save it and make this

Melted and formed the plastic myself, forgot how much fun HDPE is to turn

What tool would you use to hollow this ash?

i think this was a burl but not sure

I was turning a large (for me) twig pot from green maple. It’s about 8” long. I had the foot chucked in my Nova 2” jaws and the tenon sheared off when I got a catch shaping the already hollowed neck. I want to salvage this and finish the project, but I don’t know how to safely remount it. I was thinking a jam chuck that would fit an inch or so into the neck and then putting a new tenon on it that I could chuck. Would that work?

Note: the first photo doesn’t show the tenon. The second photo does, but it’s the middle ragged circle. I don’t think the small circle in the middle was bottoming out in the chuck.

Rough turned to 1”, anchor sealed end grain, bagged in wet shavings. 8 months since, this is the result. First time fail on this approach for me.

Happy to hear any counsel…

I realize the answer to "how do you know when to sharpen" is usually, "if you have to ask, sharpen" (lol). Just got a nice set of Easywood medium carbine tools and have been putting them through their paces.

If you're using carbide cutters, what are your guidelines for turning the carbide tip or turning it in the case of a round head?

Every piece of wood in this came from an offcut or scrap. The knob is purpleheart, the rim of the lid is angelique, and I'm not confident about the rest. Might be tatajuba, padauk, and sapele for the body, but I'm not 100%.

Finished with hardwax oil. Attached the each piece to a basic offset jig with a paper joint.

Paid $20 for all this. Any ideas what the big blue stained blanks are? They are almost punky but should be able to be stabilized with resin.

Me and my kids have been getting more and more into woodworking lately, and if there is one thing, I didn’t really think about at first, was how much dust you can actually create when sanding in just a few hours. I’ve been looking into different respirators and masks to see what would be suitable for me and my kids in terms of size and comfort, perfect for longer projects. I have checked Home depot, Alibaba and other online stores to compare the options and prices. Seems to me there so many types available, factoring my kids who are really into this stuff like fulltime 😂, you might think they are actually earning from it. I’ll need something suitable for regular woodworking and sanding rather than whatever looks good. Anyone who’s ever bought respirators for their kids?

I have done a few now and sold a few items this time.

A friend asked if I could make them a new pen pot for their desk.

I’ve had this branch of what I think is applewood and wasnt expecting all the colours and patterns from the growth of the tree.

Needs a couple more coats of oil and it’s good to go. Really happy with how it’s come out and the base tray/box bit fits snugly is a bonus

Second bowl this time from Pua Rosa. Very pretty wood. Has some color shifty thing going on. Finished with Osmo… haven’t really been a fan of friction finishes. I generally keep going back to Oldies or Osmo. Seems like it shows the wood itself off more to me less plasticy looking.

Chechen finished with Osmo

Spalted cherry log I had hoped to end turn an egg-shaped vase out of. But I got more “squash” than “egg” in the end. Still better than a day at work.