General update and (skew) chisel question

[John RStegall]

All the mesquite I have turned came from the area around San Antonio and it is one of the most stable woods I have ever turned. It normally doesn't move much after turning even when turned green. That is a nice bowl by the way and I can see why you are well pleased with it.
Don't give up on turning in the expansion mode. It can work well. Maybe turn your first bowl a 2nd time and apply finish and see how much it moves.

[John K Jordan]

If you have wool spinner friends there are a lot of projects you can do Here are some key words: nostepinne...

YOWSA, you jist learned me sompthin!! I have never heard of these - I must run immediately to my fiber mentor and learn more! (Or maybe make a surprise Christmas gift)

I see it is somtime called nostespinde, nostespinder plural. Forget the farm chores, I have to go make one.

Two clubs I frequent make ornaments and sell them for chairities - last year those from one club brought over $4000 for the Children's Hospital. Great spindle projects and they don't have to be fancy to sell.

Besides the tops wound with string and spun on a frame there are throw tops and finger tops.

A few other spindle things besides ornaments, dibbles, stoppers, and tops:

handled and French style rolling pins
honey dippers
candlestick holders/stands
presentation oversize golf tees for golfer fanatics
presentation mini baseball bats
paper towel dispensers
pens, letter openers, seam rippers, etc.
tool handles, of course
gavels
miniatures for your favorite little girl's dollhouse
ice cream scoops
mallets
tire thumpers for your favorite bus driver/trucker
shawl and hair pins/sticks
drop spindles, supported spindles
repair parts for spinning wheels
hand mirrors (both spindle and face turning)
Pepper grinders
end grain boxes (including needle cases)
whiteboard pointers for your favorite professor
conductor batons for your favorite band director
magic wands

Often small things can be made quickly. As Ryan mentioned, they can make great gifts and can be sold to pay for more tools! I don't usually make things to sell but I have accidentally made a few thousand $$ making magic wands and another thing.

BTW, some other advantages to turning things smaller than big bowls is wood goes a lot further, you can afford to use expensive exotics like cocobolo and ebony, much less storage space is needed in the shop, a project can be completed the same day instead of waiting month, smaller wood can be completely dry and stable, a top coming off the lathe won't break your face, and sanding little things avoids clouds of lung-choking dust! (Ok, off my soap box now!)

Some of these are very easy for beginners and some are more challenging. Some are easier if done one way than another. If anyone reading would like some tips, just start a new thread and ask! Lots of readers here have zillions of photos too. (Ooo, maybe an idea for a new thread - photos of ideas for small turnings - just in time for the Christmas rush!)

For example, somewhere I have instructions written up about how to turn thin spindles such as the magic wands. Just ask.

JKJ

[Michael Mills]

This is a pretty good assortment of videos on youtube. Projects are classified with videos under each one, such as 40 videos on turning mushrooms.
http://www.woodturningonline.com/Tur...ing_videos.php
The 'new video" section is updated monthly so the 48 new videos only cover 9/23 -9/30.
Other main topics cover tools, techniques, etc.
Under techniques is Negative Rake Scrapers which links 8 videos.

[Reed Gray]

The stretch film is not necessary on all woods, but it does protect the rim. Most of my once turned bowls are dry and done warping in about a week to 10 days. I have turned very little mesquite, but it is supposed to be one of the easiest to dry. I usually wait till they are dry before sanding, and don't go past 400, but that depends more on the piece. For daily use bowls, I only go to 400, for 'art' pieces, I will go 600 plus. Good efforts, have fun and keep your tools sharp.

robo hippy

[Ryan Mooney]

Try two now with fewer attachments...

Chance,

That's a good round for your second bowl! Just keep on making them and it'll keep getting easier, don't stress any "I don't like this bit" to much just take note and make another one.

The plastic wrap works pretty well - poke a hole in the top of the wrap if you haven't. Basically if the bowl dries from the inside first it puts the wood into "compression" and usually minimizes cracking so you generally want to minimize moisture loss from the outside and possibly restrict but not eliminate moisture movement from the inside (don't stop it all or you'll get mold).

Your bottom hole is a lot deeper/larger than it needs to be for that size of bowl. You can also flip the bowl and turn off most of it if you want, this is a great overview:
http://www.ptwoodturners.org/Tips%20...ng%20Bowls.pdf

If you can sand it green, go for it.. a lot of wood doesn't handle that very well but mesquite is hard enough to probably work pretty well. I'd probably have stopped at 220 or so and then finish sanded once it was finished drying.

I like small projects because it allows me to use little pieces of wood to nice to throw out but to small for a bowl (like that pretty piece of curly maple or a sliver of lilac or...). I also do quite a few turned buttons but they're a bit more fussy (and not really spindle turning).

John,

Awesome list

If you want to do a surprise set of Noste's here's what I've learned.

Here is a rather horrid cell phone picture of a couple I have left (these were focusing on the practical aspects the ones with fancy/nice handles all got claimed ) but they illustrate a few useful points - I put them on an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper for scale.

Attachment 346159

They are made in basically two parts, the handle that you hold it by on the left, and the shaft that the yarn is wound around on the right. The shaft MUST be a perfectly even taper. These are pretty close to right, but could use a slightly shallower taper even and be fine. To steep of a taper causes the wound ball to be uneven.

The grooves on the tip and by the handle serve an important purpose of providing a "binding" point to wrap the free end of the yarn around to get it started. They should be deep and steep so a wrap and a half of yarn locks itself in place. The groove at the tip is cut after the taper in the shaft is made so its an even curve, I'll often make the tip a little bead or something reducing it just a wee smidge more than the shaft so the ball of yarn slides off nicely.

The handle shape doesn't matter to much as long as its comfortable and allows you to do the wrist rotating action to wind the yarn without getting in the way. I've found a ball end nice and sits well in the palm of your hand allowing a fairly natural movement (more like the larger bottom one, but even more so - again these are survivors of the yarn hound predation...).

For those not into fiber arts wondering what the heck we're talking about here, here's a short video showing the use (imho the shaft on that is WAY to big like 2x to big unless you were doing some clunky art yarn which isn't what the noste's are really best at..):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPMmopJHzq4

[John K Jordan]

Ryan, the picture didn't show but I found some pictures on the Webbed Wide World. Could you measure the length and both diameters of the taper of one as a starting point?

I have a plastic ball winder from Amazon that makes winding easy but there is a magical elegance to one hand-made from wood.

JKJ

[Ryan Mooney]

The longer one is .78" down to .57" measured just on the inside of the grooves over 5.5" (that's measuring from groove-groove). The button on the end is 0.51" in diameter.

The shorter one is .78' down to .54" measured just on the inside of the grooves over 5.4" (again groove-groove). The button on the end is 0.52" in diameter.

So pretty much all of the difference is in the handle (and the extra couple of grooves). The primary user has a strong stated preference for the longer one

The grooves are between 0.1" and 0.14" deep (better closer to 0.14") and right about 0.14" wide (top of valley to top of valley) with minimal meat between them. Basically just a VV shape.

Try two (three) at the picture. Again apologies for the quality I don't have a picture booth and the light here is horrible this time of year.

IMG_20161022_085823357.jpg

These aren't really good for doing a LOT of yarn as they're a wee bit slower, but are really useful for winding off singles for sampling or classes or other small projects. Its kind of cool that with one of these and a drop spindle you can basically make all the yarn you'd need

They are also really useful for knitting from a center pull ball as you can slide the yarn down the noste a smidge to loosen it enough then start pulling from the center and it keeps the ball from collapsing. As yarn is removed you just slide the ball back up the noste a smidge to tighten it up.

Here's a decent shot of plying using one.. (I don't think you need to actually tie on if you get the grooves nice and deep/sharp the wool will bind in them):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lAIBev0wRo

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I ahve been making snowmen figures. from little 4 inch tall ones to some 18 inch 7 in diameter chunks of log. Also, small Christmas trees, candle holders, spin tops etc. I am just back into turning after many many years away. Back in the day, I made a lot of bowls for sale. And never used a skew for anything but making decorative lines. Now that I am doing much more spindle turning, I am getting accustomed to the skew for the first time. At first I had some really nasty catches, gouges and scratches from not properly holding the skew. Then I got a little better at figuring it out. I confidently did some peeling cuts over the past week and found it can really smooth some round shapes using the skew as a light scraper. So far everything I have turned has been from scrounged wood. Maple branches and walnut logs I cut last winter, saw mill cut offs from a saw mill where they make components for skids. I get red oak, pin oak, elm, mulberry and sometimes cherry pieces 4x5 inches and sometimes up to 24 inches long The stuff is still in various stages of green. I made a top from red oak this afternoon, and used a skew to do most of the work on that tough wood. The skew is fast becoming a favorite tool. Although for some reason, I like the old carbon steel skew the best. Maybe because it is easier to sharpen with just a stone.

[John K Jordan]

Mr Mooney,

Thanks for the dimensions, perfect. The picture is fine - tells the story. The lack of contrast and sharpness almost look like the lens is smudged, scattering light onto the sensor.

Long time ago I built a very cheap photo cube that I use now for all my turnings and other small things. I used PVC pipe, some fittings (not even glued) and some thin cloth held on by safety pins. A piece of grey matte board, flat against the bottom and curved up in the back makes a good seamless background. Two CFL photo bulbs from Amazon provide most of the light. I use a camera on a tripod. The whole thing comes apart for storage. The most bulky thing is the matte board.

photo_cube.jpg

JKJ

[Ryan Mooney]

Perry,

Once you get into planing cuts you won't go back They leave such a nice surface and really aren't that tricky to do either.

The main thing I found was figuring out that its all levers and the fulcrum is the tool rest so you need to figure out where you're cutting edge is in relation to that and that tells you how much leverage is being applied and whether or not you can control that.. all else follows. Its a surprisingly simple concept but the devil is as they say in the details

John,

I don't think its the lense as outside pictures were coming through fine (its just a cheap camera phone.. which is still pretty amazing). The light was really really bad with lots of back glare... It could be though because the focal length is a lot shorter.. so yeah.. bad pictures with mediocre equipment I can do. heh. Glad it was good enough to get the job done. The pure white background wasn't helping but I couldn't fine a ruler and wanted something for scale.

A light booth is on the list If I ever intended to sell anything it would very quickly move up the list... but currently its kind of on the "yeah sure someday" side