Time for a Little Turning
Apr 01, 2014
I’ve been on the road for most of 2014, so until recently I couldn’t spend much time at the lathe.
However, I did find time to do a little turning, as you can see from the photo.The miniature bowl is blackwood, which closely resembles ebony and turns like a dream. I have a half-dozen little pieces of the wood, each measuring about 1-1/2 in. square and 5 in. long. I used a chuck with long jaws to hold one piece as I shaped the bowl at the free end, hollowing out the endgrain.
Turning the outside of the bowl was pretty straightforward. I used a 1/4-in. spindle gouge, a 1/2-in. skew, and a small Easy Wood Tools finishing scraper.
To hollow the inside, I first drilled a small depth hole with my tiniest Forstner bit. Then I used a hollowing tool that had been ground from an Allen wrench. All my other tools were too big.
As you might imagine, this project didn’t take much time at all. I doubt I spent more than twenty minutes at the lathe. Once I had shaped and sanded the piece, I finished it with a couple drops of friction polish. I parted it off with a conventional parting tool, which left a nub on the bottom when the bowl broke free. I sanded that flat and applied some friction polish.
Comments
I love turning little things, usually (but not always) tiny "weed pots" that can hold a blade of grass or a tiny dried flower. This one is particularly nice. I've got to find some blackwood, and try it.
Nice. Readers also might like to try to make tiny tools from cut nails. They're extremely hard and tough. They really take and hold an edge and they're quite simple to mount into miniature handles.
The Correct Link for 'Turning Tools on the Cheap' is:
https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/107679/turning-tools-on-the-cheap
Sigh!
Thanks, everyone. Glad you found the blog enjoyable.
Best,
dh
Great work David!
Mike
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