So I rebuilt the 2 chairs for the man who sold me a lathe he was pleased with what I had done and asked me to make a new base for a Singer sewing machine.
This is something I had always wanted to have a go at doing, this also turned out as good as I had hoped being made from all new timber, well some of it was an old oak bed end.
For my good deeds he gave me a bowl saver to use on the lathe, this is an attachment that fixes to the lathe bed and is used to cut a smaller bowl from inside a large bowl and dependent on how large the bowl is maybe cut more than one bowl, to my mind this is better than putting all the shavings from inside a bowl on the floor, the cut the bowl saver makes is about 7mm wide and is set at about 100mm radius using the small cutter, I have had to spend some time making a firmer fixing to the lathe and am now happy with it being solid enough to run the lathe on a faster speed.
This is the 4th time I have used it and was brave enough to cut the wall thickness down to about 10mm at the entry point unfortunately the wall thickness increases the further in I go due to the radius of the cutter.
This is today, yesterday I prepared the rough piece of tree someone gave me years ago it still had bark on it and looked as though it was from an area that once had a branch coming from it I was eager to see what the grain was doing under the bark, there is some spalting happening in the sap wood, the tree had been split down the middle with a chain saw so the surface was rough, I used a router with dovetail cutter to cut the first round mounting recess in the flat side and mounted it on the lathe so I could shape the outer side and the bottom creating another mounting recess it was at this point the defects became obvious the splits from the drying process the defects from where the branch of the tree grew so with the end of the day in sight it was time to mix some epoxy with some brown oxide and fill what cavities I could see.
Today I set up the bowl saver after more modifications to make the operation better, when I think I have gone in far enough I take the bowl off the lathe and give the inner bowl a few taps with a hammer to split the 2 apart, in this instance it reveals more of the defects so again out with the epoxy and colouring, I have turned both bowls more to the finished shape before I filled those holes and splits, now its a matter of waiting for the epoxy to cure over night before I re mount them to the lathe, I suspect the smaller bowl will need some filling doing once I hollow it out, for a nawley piece of tree I am surprised this piece of wood has held together, but what fun.
I realise there are some bowls I have not shown and now booties too, I don't make the booties, on the lathe.
So I rebuilt the 2 chairs for the man who sold me a lathe he was pleased with what I had done and asked me to make a new base for a Singer sewing machine.
For my good deeds he gave me a bowl saver to use on the lathe, this is an attachment that fixes to the lathe bed and is used to cut a smaller bowl from inside a large bowl and dependent on how large the bowl is maybe cut more than one bowl, to my mind this is better than putting all the shavings from inside a bowl on the floor, the cut the bowl saver makes is about 7mm wide and is set at about 100mm radius using the small cutter, I have had to spend some time making a firmer fixing to the lathe and am now happy with it being solid enough to run the lathe on a faster speed.
This is the 4th time I have used it and was brave enough to cut the wall thickness down to about 10mm at the entry point unfortunately the wall thickness increases the further in I go due to the radius of the cutter.
This is today, yesterday I prepared the rough piece of tree someone gave me years ago it still had bark on it and looked as though it was from an area that once had a branch coming from it I was eager to see what the grain was doing under the bark, there is some spalting happening in the sap wood, the tree had been split down the middle with a chain saw so the surface was rough, I used a router with dovetail cutter to cut the first round mounting recess in the flat side and mounted it on the lathe so I could shape the outer side and the bottom creating another mounting recess it was at this point the defects became obvious the splits from the drying process the defects from where the branch of the tree grew so with the end of the day in sight it was time to mix some epoxy with some brown oxide and fill what cavities I could see.
Today I set up the bowl saver after more modifications to make the operation better, when I think I have gone in far enough I take the bowl off the lathe and give the inner bowl a few taps with a hammer to split the 2 apart, in this instance it reveals more of the defects so again out with the epoxy and colouring, I have turned both bowls more to the finished shape before I filled those holes and splits, now its a matter of waiting for the epoxy to cure over night before I re mount them to the lathe, I suspect the smaller bowl will need some filling doing once I hollow it out, for a nawley piece of tree I am surprised this piece of wood has held together, but what fun. 
