What to use for practice?

[Michael Cole]

My lathe is supposed to be delivered today and some tools from D-Way have already arrived. I want to get some wood for learning practice for both spindle and bowl turning. What should I get? I live in prairie grass so no access to trees.

[Steve Peterson]

You can go cheap and use scraps of 2x4s cut down to 1.5" square. Douglas fir is very grainy and likes to tear off large slivers, so it makes it a bit frustrating.

The big box stores around me sell kiln dried 2x4s for around $2.50 that is a lighter color and much less grainy. You should have better luck with them.

Don't expect to make any fancy vases at first. Just make tiny round objects for a few days.

Steve

[John K Jordan]

I want to get some wood for learning practice for both spindle and bowl turning. What should I get? I live in prairie grass so no access to trees.

Michael,

I learned turning from two books, one by Mike Darlow and one by Richard Raffan. It was much later before I watched a real turner and discovered a club. I believe the books mention starting with pine. Now there is pine and pine. Virginia/scrub/syp may have a lot of hard and soft grain making it a bit more of a challenge for beginning. White pine will be more uniform. But either will work.

I taught a small class of beginners a couple of weeks ago and I cut 2x2 pieces of eastern red cedar about 14-16" long for their first practice pieces, then went to pine, then to cherry. Cedar is real easy to cut. You might get some tearout on any of the softer woods but at this point ignore that and concentrate on holding the tools correctly, putting the bevel on the wood, and moving smoothly. If at all possible, get an experienced turner to come and get you started - you can jump ahead with just a tiny bit of instruction and feedback. You can, of course, learn by trial and error - many have. However, the risk is learning some poor ways to do some things and end up struggling for months or years trying to get perfect surfaces.

BTW, I always start beginners with the skew chisel and have them make planing cuts on a piece I already turned to a cylinder. (They make the first cuts while I turn the lathe very slowly by hand.) I think this is the best way to learn the ABCs of turning and exactly how the angles and tool edge work together. Then we switch to the roughing gouge and let them round off a square piece of spindle stock. Then back to the skew for a bit more practice, learn v-grooves with the skew. Finally, coves then beads with a spindle gouge. Once you learn the skew, everything else is easy! And I have never had a student unable to learn the basics of the skew in the first couple of hours.

One author recommended turning a 2x2 blank round, make beads and coves down the length, cut those off and make more until the wood is too thin, then put on another blank and do it again. By the time you go through 10 blanks you will have better tool control than a bunch of the turners out there!

I have had several long-time professional turners and instructors tell me (and I've read this in books) that you are better off starting with spindle turning which will teach the fine tool control needed for all other types of turning, including bowls. They say if you start with bowls it doesn't work in reverse. At a workshop with Jimmy Clewes he went from lathe to lathe to help people with problems (turning a lidded bowl). When he got to me he said, oh, you're a spindle turner - you won't have any problem and went to the next guy!

Back to your question, I have no idea what kind of wood dealers are in your area. Dry 2x or larger boards and posts from nearly any wood (except pressure treated lumber) should work fine for starting. If you can find inexpensive red maple, black cherry, sycamore, sassafras, walnut, etc. any of that will work. In the prairie grass you will probably have to import most wood so it might be expensive. One friend from a treeless area stopped by my farm a few years ago and loaded her station wagon so much with blanks and slabs that the frame was nearly dragging! (I have a sawmill and hardwood is abundant here.) If you want to pay for the postage, send me a private message and I'll try to stuff a care package (USPS Flat Rate box) with pieces you could get started with.

Oh, I just though of one other source of free turning wood, much of it exotic. I used to collect wooden pallets from a local motorcycle shop and tractor store. Some of these used unknown but interesting (and free!) wood from other countries. More recently I discovered the local granite countertop company tears down their big pallets and throws all the wood into a big bin for the taking. I've picked up a variety of useful lengths, some with beautiful figure.

JKJ

[Steve Schlumpf]

Another source of cheap wood is the cutoff box located in lumber are of any big box store.

[Don Jarvie]

I suggest poplar. It has some nice grain patten and available at the box stores at a reasonable price. If you have a lumberyard near by you can get some 12/4 and make some small bowls. You can even glue up some 3/4 pieces for a bowl or two.

[Jak Kelly]

You can watch thousands of YouTube videos.
I know that is not the hands on experience you want, but you can get a lot of good useful instruction there.

[Quinn McCarthy]

My first bowl was laminated 4"x4"'s . It wworked . I still use it for pieces scrap sandpaper.

Quinn

[Jon McElwain]

I too practiced on 2x4's. The're terrible, but they do force you to learn to sharpen. There must be an arborist who takes care of the trees in Tulsa - they would likely have a lot of branches or logs you can get a hold of.

[William Bachtel]

Try your locate turning club, members are great and know all the right places to go . E Bay is also good, it will cost ya, but it will be good turning wood.

[john taliaferro]

You could use solid concrete blocks , no kidding we got a member in our club that turns stone . His carbide tools don't have ends . It was just a suggestion

[Brian Kent]

Another source of cheap wood is the cutoff box located in lumber are of any big box store.

Yes, and… make sure it is cut off because of size. You do not want the frustration of learning on warped wood.

[Thomas Canfield]

I am doing a demo at SWAT 2016 coming up in August, "Learn or Improve Bowl Turning Using 2x6 Lumber". I think that you can learn a lot of basic bowl turning techniques using 2x6 scraps or at worse buying a 8' board. Scraps are ideal since you get to see a lot of different grain patterns and growth patterns, even knots. Finding the scraps of rafter tails in my neighborhood new house construction provided plenty for practice and demo. I will turn a simple little bowl and show how to use a jam chuck and rubber piece to remove the tenon on bottom of one, and then turn a square section with square wing mid way up side of bowl, and show different suggested profiles to try to improve techniques. The soft/hard growth rings require sharp tools and help to learn sharpening and when a sharper tool is required for the finish cuts. Grain orientation (pith up/down) can also be observed easily and make you aware of opportunities to get the best out of a piece of wood.

[robert baccus]

Surely you have a agriculture store that handles fence-posts. Many of them, up to 6" are cut from various cedars and turn very well. Beautiful grain and some species are very hard and turn very well.

[Wes Ramsey]

One more vote for the cutoff bin at the local big box. Brian Kent posted some pictures last week of some pieces he made from laminated Baltic birch plywood, so that's an option. With few trees in your area it may be hard to find an arborist that doesn't get hit up for wood all the time, but I know there are some woods around Broken Arrow and Lake Tenkiller, and probably some tree services willing to help out. If none of that pans out you're welcome to drive 5 hours to the east and root through my stash.

[Tom Megow]

Check landfills for wood.I have found alot of usable wood at ours. Watch for roadside piles waiting on pickup. (Not every community has roadside trash pick-up). Listen for chainsaws when riding around esp. weekends