I was going to try to cheer Michael Armstrong;

[Lori Kleinberg]

I thought I would post in response to Michael Armstrongs thread about his beautiful pet urn.

I had been considering posting a picture of the 2 pet urns I have recently made, but after looking at Michaels, I thought better of it.
Actually, my turning experience consisted of making different pens. I had no plans to do anything else for quite awhile, so I had no prep work done (reading,watching videos and all the other things I do to teach myself the different techniques for my projects).

My son had to put his dog down (this is not the cheerful part, by the way) and asked me to make him an urn for his dog. Well of course I couldn't say no, so off to You Tube I go to get a couple of quickie lessons under my belt.

So first thing I do is dig out a nice piece of white oak and proceed to turn my first something other then pens. You know it actually came out pretty good for a first attempt. The lid fit, almost. The biggest problem was that no matter how my husband compacted, twisted, stuffed, etc etc the poor dogs ashes just wouldn't fit .

So now I have to go out and buy a bigger blank from Woodworkers Source. So I come home with a nice piece of claro walnut at least 2x the size of my last piece.
I turn it to a nice cylinder and then I put in tenons on both ends. I part the top off about 1/3 down. Overall I am really pleased , things are going well and I am working at a much more reasonable pace.
Oh I forgot to mention that part of the reason the first urn took so long was because I had to order and then wait for a set of Benjamins Best side ground scrapers. They actually worked pretty good, especially since this was the first time using any scraper but the rounded head that came with the lathe. So back to turning the second urn, I got the top hollowed okay and I figured to shape the outside after I get done hollowing the bottom. Well, remember how well I did with the side scrapers in the first urn, that didn't happen with the second urn. You know what happens when you get a bad catch.... thats right you get a cut in the wood, usually in a bad place and then if you are really struggling with a project it flies out of the chuck and crashes to the concrete floor of the garage .
Did I tell you I have a really bad back and so it was a struggle to go down and pick up the urn and a bigger struggle to get back up with it. So here I am holding my breath and checking the urn for damage. Not bad just a hairline fracture from the very top to about midway down. Nothing that a little thin Ca can't fix .
I really didn't know at the time that the catches were what was causing the urn to fly out of the chuck , but I did figure it out after the ah.....10th or so time, but I was almost done hollowing out the bottom of the urn and each of the cracks were really fairly small and the Ca glue was making a nice finish (after all that is how I finish my pens).

So now I have to fit the lid in the bottom opening like a jam chuck, Unfortuantely the lid was still a little big so I tried to sand down the inside of the base, I guess all that Ca was thickening up the rim. After some sanding, couldn't use the tools cause I was tired of chasing the urn around the garage and I did notice that some of the small cracks were turning into larger cracks as they crisscrossed each other . Well after a while of this I thought maybe I should switch to sanding the lid to fit since it needed some smoothing anyway. Since the lid was chucked up I thought I would add some nice rings to liven up the inside a little. Why... oh why would I do this. Its not like anyone would look inside an urn, anyway, needless to say the lid also flew out of the chuck, no joke, this created a bit of a worse crack because it must have landed right on the rim. Time to break out the thicker Ca for a little gap filling, but you know what, this looks like a near perfect fit, just a little push on this side and a little bang over here ...oh no what was that, I guess I should have sanded it just a bit more. The lid held okay, but the base cracked at the top again (different spot) time for a little more Ca.
Finally after everything the lid fits as it should, I made a jam chuck for the base, because I am tired of chasing the urn around. Does the jam chuck work, no of course not. After finding the urn, cleaning, gluing the small cracks, I got a brain storm. I decided to place a couple of brad nails to hold the urn in the jam chuck. Does this work? OF COURSE NOT
So here is my final brain storm, I will use my dremel or my belt sander or my oscillating spindle sander, or I will hand sand it, but there is absolutely no way that this urn is going back on the lathe. And of course the finish will be a nice smooth coat of Ca topped with some turners polish.
P1000613.jpg P1000569_edited-1.jpg
These are the only pictures of the 2nd urn that I have, because after everything else my computer crashed and so I need help getting it to work again. Luckily I just bought this laptop to keep up on my forum reading.

At last count I figure the 2 urns hit the ground at least 20 times .

So how is your day/week/month going?

[Russell Eaton]

Don't feel bad Lori, I blew up a captive ring goblet last week AFTER having my friend name laser on it. It was not repairable. Live and learn. Better luck next time.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Wow sorry to hear you had such a struggle with this Lori. What type of chuck are you useing? It looks like in the picture you posted you used a dovetailed tenon, not all chucks use a dovetail, the talon chuck I know uses a straight tenon, this may be part of the problem if your chuck dosnt require a dovetailed tenon. Also where the tenon meets the bottom of the work piece you should have a good 90 degree angle so the lip of the chuck rests against the bottom of the workpiece not against the bottom face of the chuck, you may want to check this and make sure it is sitting square against the bottom of the workpiece. Hope this helps a little, good luck on your next turning.

[Dick Wilson]

Lori, That was quite an ordeal. Going from turning pens to turning lidded urns is a different universe. You have skipped a lot of easier turning forms that are in between. I applaud you on your tenacity to complete the project. Don't let this experience keep you from turning using a scraper, etc. Please post a picture of the finished urn.

[Michelle Rich]

Hi Lori..welcome to the vortex and the black hole for your $$$$. I think you bit off a huge chunk to try this, this early in your "career" Kinda impressed with your tenacity! Hope to see your progress down the road...

[Robert McGowen]

I thought I was having a bad day, but I guess it is all relative! I hope you get things worked out.

[David Reed]

Sorry to hear of your trials and hoping you can climb back in the saddle again.
Starting you hollowing adventures with a deep form like this is not likely to best place to start, but I understand the necessity of the situation. Hop down the stair case a few steps and restart your climb - it is a wonderful journey.

[Lori Kleinberg]

Hi everyone, thanks for the positive comments. Yes, I know this was a huge jump, but this was for a very special dog and I was honored my son asked me to do it.
The chuck I used was a G3 (4 jaws). I didn't realize that one of the pictures showed the 2nd urn being cleaned up a bit between centers. That was taken before most of the fun began, in fact the pictures are reversed.

You know it was amazing how well the side scrapers worked in the 1st urn and the amazing mental block that occured doing the
2nd urn.

I know in the begining I didn't have a good connection with the jaws, but I did fix it and it did get better.

I will post the completed urns, when they are done (fingers crossed) and my computer is up and runing with the other pictures.

[Mark Hubl]

Well, lots of lessons learned. A deep straight walled piece is a challenge even for those with more experience. Give you an A for effort. Sorry to hear that you were having so many catches. Hanging those scrapers out and hitting below center can be very exciting to say the least. If you have a box rest I would try using it for this style of piece. Another trick that seems to make scrapers a little more friendly is to add a negative rake grind. I think there have been a couple threads on this grinding technique. Good luck, I am sure once you get the 2nd one done you will have learned much. I am sure that your son will be very grateful.

[Michael Armstrong]

Lori:
I feel your pain. Chasing the urn around your shop would not be fun and I think you showed way more patience and determination than I would. It is special when someone asks you to turn something like this for a special friend.

I felt honoured when another turner contacted me after seeing the urn and asked about purchasing it. It leaves me nervous thinking of someone buying it based only on the photo.

Keep up the good effort and I'll look forward to seeing the pictures when you are done.

Michael

[Baxter Smith]

Sounds like quite the adventure. Glad you and the urn survived!

[Lori Kleinberg]

Thanks Michael. Your urn is beautiful and it is certainly worth whatever you charge for it.
Baxter, I survived, still not sure about the urn.
Thank you too, Mark, I have learned a bit, but some of what you said is "greek" to me.