My first column for the newsletter...

I was asked to write a column for the newsletter of my local turning club. (Our club has a great newsletter, because our editor really puts in a lot of time and effort.) It's a monthly recurring column, describing the process of learning to turn from the "beginner's perspective." The May issue, just released, has my first column, which turned out to be an introduction and an answer to the inevitable question: "What could you possible have to say that might interest me?"

Having played music for a number of years, picking a column name felt a lot like picking a band name: The hardest part is trying to end up with something that doesn't sound stupid. The title of the column is "First Cut", which I both like and hate at the same time. My wife gave it the instant veto, which didn't do much to reassure me.

Hopefully the response will be good; the comments by the insiders have been positive so far. Besides, I can't really imagine anyone that hates it actually saying so... I guess that could be good or bad.

You can see some photos I took for the newsletter here.

Chainsaw fiasco

In March, my chainsaw broke. It was the threads on the oil tank. No big deal right? I had a 2 year service agreement... I looked online to see if this was a common problem, and guess what? There's a recall on the handle of this model. A recall of the handle on a chainsaw. THAT's not good...

So, I go the store (sears) for a repair or replacement, and they send me to the sears service center. Fair enough. I go to the service center and drop it off for repair. 10 day ETA... sounds good.

3 weeks go by, and no call. I call sears, who says they're "waiting for a part" which the CSR thinks is the cap for the oil tank. Sounds wierd, but OK, whatever.

2 more weeks and we get a call that it's ready for pickup. So, I go to the service center, and sure enough they fixed NOTHING. That's right. It took them almost 6 weeks to decide it was cheaper to replace it, and sent it back.

After getting over my irritation, I decide that at least I can get a new saw. I'm told I have to go back to the store to get a replacement. Ok.... so off I go to the retail store. Now, I like sears in some ways, but their tool sales people sure do suck. After 30 MINUTES to figure out what the repair center was saying on the form, and ANOTHER 30 MINUTES to figure out how to ring up what was determined to be a "return" (and 3 sales people to decide what the reason code should be... is it "poor performance" or "product does not function"? good lord...) they realized they didn't have that model in stock anymore. (remember the recall?)

In the end, I got the original cost of the saw PLUS the 2 year agreement back, and got new Husqvarna 18" (instead of the 20" craftsman) and a three year service agreement for the same price. If you know chainsaws, you'll agree that the loss of 2 inches of bar length is worth the dramatic increase in product quality. So a happy ending, but what a pain in the ass.

Buffing system

Today I received my 3-wheel buffing system from Don Pencil. It's awesome! It's so easy to use, and it gets the same great finish that I can get with the Liberon lathe polish and wax, and I can do it after the piece is off the lathe. Here is the cedar bowl and the beech bowl sanded and refinished with the buffing system. Wow!

Cedar bowl update

Here's the cedar bowl I mentioned after it got 3 coats of oil and 3 coats of wipe-on polyurethane. I'm not really impressed with the polyurethane, because it seems VERY difficult to get a nice finish with no bits, even in a clean environment. You cant really see it in these pictures but the finish doesn't feel glassy like I want.

It's much easier to get a great glassy finish with buffed wax (like this), I think. Following that logic, I ordered a lathe-mounted 3-wheel buffing system from Don Pencil the other day, and I'm eagerly waiting to try it out. That way I can oil, wax, and buff my turnings off of the lathe, which lets me do any hand finishing first, before I start waxing. I'll gloat some more when it shows up!

Ever heard of a nostepinne?

I hadn't either, until I was schooled by my wife. It's basically a stick used to wind yarn into balls. You can see examples if you search for pictures. What a prime candidate for a hand-turned item! It's a nice old-school tool for a knitter to have, and having an ornate one just makes it that much cooler.

So off I went, and came up with this one in ironwood as a first try. Pretty straight-forward and the wife likes it. I'm planning on doing a few "two-tone" with different wood for the handle than for the shaft. Perhaps black & white striped ebony for the handle and rosewood for the shaft.

From the chainsaw to the finishing table

Tonight I cut up a cedar log I had in the garage (mostly dried), and took it all the way to a sanded bowl. I feel like I've got a method down that I like for turning bowls, and the key is doing the outside finishing cut as a push cut (bevel in contact) from the base upwards with the tailstock removed, before ever remounting on the chuck to do the inside. The grain really cooperates when I do it this way.

I applied some Watco danish oil to the new cedar bowl and WOW did those colors pop! I won't post a photo yet, but I'll follow up after I get some polyurethane on it.

I also did two coats of wipe-on poly on my beech test piece and it looks good so far. I'll post pictures of the finished product later this week. Maybe then I'll be brave enough to put a finish on that big ambrosia maple bowl.

Did I mention...

...that I have the best wife in the world? She watches woodturning shows on TV with me. Yeah, you read that right... we watch woodturning shows together! (I sometimes watch Knitty Gritty with her, but she's a much better sport than I am...)

Last night we watched Two Ways to Make a Bowl with Stuart Batty and Mike Mahoney. That was a really good video, and it showed a great comparison of two very different techniques for making a simple bowl. It's amazing how different two approaches can be to such a simple finished product... yet both work equally well. Personally, I like Stuart's method better (so does my wife, but we won't get into that...) and tonight I roughed a maple bowl with his method. I used very wet red maple, which will tear out really badly if you're not careful, and the push cut to turn the final surface of the outside (granted it's only a rough turning) produced great results. Now if I practice it a few hundred times maybe I can nail the shape in one cut...

Hand finishing with Watco

I made my first start at hand finishing, with Watco Danish Oil and a small beech bowl. After drying, I'll wipe on a few coats of satin-finish Watco wipe-on polyurethane to protect the wood and add a bit of shine. I want to use this method on the large ambrosia maple bowl, but I want to try it on a test piece first. This piece isn't perfect, but it actually looks pretty decent when the oil makes the grain features pop. The photo here show a few coats of oil only. I'll follow-up with photos after the poly is applied.

Can't catch a break

After a busy few weeks attending to the rest of my life, I got back in the shop last night for a bit.

I started finish turning a Bradford Pear blank that was dry, until I realized it was so thin to start that the chattering wouldn't stop. I put it aside for another day. I mounted a dried Locust blank, and one small catch dismounted the piece and left the tenon in the chuck! Then I thought about trying a bottle stopper, until I realized that I still haven't bought a drill chuck so I did my best with a hand drill. Then I realized the chuck jaws I have can't hold the 3/8" dowel while I turn the handle! Ugh.

Even cleanup sucked, when I found that my vacuum was full. To tired to deal with it, I went inside. At least the air compressor didn't blow a circuit like it does most nights.

In other news, a member of the local club suggested that I write a beginner's perspective column for the newsletter. While I don't consider myself much of a writer, it sounds like it might be fun. I think I'll give it a go, and we'll see how the reception is. With any luck, it won't be a waste of print!

Cherry Bowl

Since I had such great help from Doug with turning the ambrosia maple bowl, I've tried to incorporate the lessons I learned into my current work. This is a cherry bowl from a mostly dried blank that Doug offered to me. I was very careful with the outside shape (and the inside as well) to make sure I had no flat spots, etc. I was also carful to sand any and all tool marks out. (I have a better eye for spotting those now than I used to)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this came out. It's 8 inches in diameter and about 3.5" tall. This is sanded to a high grit, and I've yet to put a finish on it. I'll probably finish it at the same time as the ambrosia maple one that's waiting for attention. The bottom (though not shown here) is actually one of my best ever, I think. Hopefully I can make more like this one.

Other aspects of life have been very busy lately, so my turning time has gone way down. But, I think I should start getting more done after this week, so stay tuned.