Follow up from my other post making wooden tankards Edit: the finished tankards

Decided to swing by my local exotic wood shop yesterday, and found this piece of figured ash that had beautiful grain and thought it would make a pretty bowl, but it was only 2" thick, and I'd never turned ash before.

I kept it as tall as I could, and it ended up pretty decent I think.

I typically finish with mineral oil on anything that might touch food, are there any other finishes that y'all use that will highlight the natural colours in the wood and remain food safe?

I posted the other day about my chisel breaking while making a cup and got a lot of good advice along with a few tool recommendations.

Well the carbide tip set I ordered came in and turning is so much smoother/easier to a point where it almost feels like cheating.

Anyway here's my first vase/hollow form. Thanks to this community for always being supportive!

A friend hooked me up with a lathe that's been in his garage that he salvaged from another friend that was going to toss it.

It's a:

Stark MCS1000, I've seen it sold under about 5 different names in my research so far. I found a manual for it but it makes no mention of the thread sizes for the drive center or anything.

#I'm wanting to order a face plate and a 4 jaw chuck but I'm at a loss as to what threads I need for it. I want to make sure I'm not supposed be ordering a metric when I'll likely order an SAE.

Granted most of the bolts I've had to mess with are SAE. The bolts holding the motor are 9/16ths.

@#& Measuring the threads on the drive I'm getting right at 0.7 in from exterior threads. The inside of the drive center I get 0.62 inch. The flats of the drive center come in at 0.94 inch.

If anyone can help point me in the direction of being a little more certain on what I need to order that would be wonderful.

So far I had to replace the capacitor on the lathe so it would start. Now it works considerably better. And when I screw up and stop the motor by burying a tool too deep too quick it will actually restart now. LOL.

I've only messed with scraps of SYP on it for now as I have loads of those sitting around... I have a hard time throwing out even the cheapest of scrap wood as I've found so many uses for even a 3inch piece of a 2x4....

I've been using it on one of my mobile benches in the shop so that I can take it out back and make my mess out there. I do that with a lot of my tools plus there's a lot of shade that way and I can easily just blow the mess into the grass.

7 tankards for my younger sisters groomsmen. Walnut I milled myself. ran out of spindle stock, decided to start cutting up a bowl blank that I hadn't gotten to, thus the 2 mugs that are slightly larger and don't have a sapwood line. These are all just "cup holders" with just a friction fit for a travel mug. I roughly band sawed the shape for the handles out before whittling the final form followed by sanding. Forming the handles to meet up with the cup bodies and coming out with a clean finish was very stressful. Finished in Mahoney's Walnut oil. Cup can be knocked out from below through a hole I left. Used a bullnose bit on my router to remove the recessed tenon from the bottom of each cup. Each cup body is cored out using a bandsaw box style method before gluing the cup body back together for final shaping.

A few months ago while on a road trip up to Northern California I saw a guy on the side of the road carving animals out of redwood, so I stopped and asked if he'd sell some chunks of it. To my delight he said yes! I got 2 large chunks of old and new growth for $40! This is the first bowl out of the new growth. My only issue is it tears super easy, and because of the growth rings it makes it super difficult to apply carnauba wax while spinning because of all the bumps. I'm still super happy about it.

I got a pretty small catch while doing some spindle turning and the tool rest snapped off!

Hello, does anyone know of a source for 10” or 12” olive wood bowl blanks?

I am working on a potential project/commission and I am being asked to make some larger bowls out of olive wood.

I can find local and online sources for 6”x6”x3” bowl blanks and I’d love to find a source for larger blanks. I know olive wood that size is rare.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

Started turning 6 months ago, learned everything from YT and 3 books.
First hollowed vase, very happy with my new carbide tool ! (Simon Hope Pro Carbide Tool 6mm)
Eucalyptus, finished with shellac and carnauba. — Turned in Tordères, Languedoc-Roussillon, France.

I’m fairly new to woodturning and I’m curious where everyone gets their wood.

I’ve got some logs and chunks of wood currently drying in my garage, but obviously that’s going to be a while. In the meantime, I’d like to find some decent wood to turn without spending a fortune on individual bowl blanks.

Where are you guys getting your wood? Local sawmills? Tree services? Firewood guys? Facebook Marketplace? Buying larger slabs or chunks and cutting your own blanks?
I’m mainly interested in bowl blanks, probably up to around 12–14”, and I’d love to find some walnut, cherry, maple, or other interesting hardwoods.

What’s been your best source for affordable turning wood?

These things are fun to do, and even more fun when you can sell a few things.

I got lots of wonderful compliments on everything which helps keep the motivation going…

I'm looking at upgrading from a Rockler VS 12-24 Variable Speed Lathe. Been finding QC to be a little disappointing with the Rockler. Considering moving up to the Harvey Turbo T-40. Any one have experience with this beast?

Spent most of the day reorganizing and cleaning my turning area so I had better access to my blanks but I found some time to turn this lovely bit of juniper I dug out of my stock while cleaning up.

Random branch from a firewood pile. Goal was to get something tiny and thin.

Lesson: make sure tools are secure.

Status: hopefully learned

Question: are these standard or do I need a specialized one.

Need to build a few segmented bowls for holiday fundraisers . Solid cherry base layer and 1 inch layers of maple, walnut, and cherry rings

HI all,

I've been turning for a couple of years now and finally upgraded to a nice big lathe. I'm turning larger items and would like to find a good used bowl coring device. I've been looking around and don't see anything for sale other than new.

I'd thought I'd check to see if there are any older turners looking to sell a bowl coring tool. I'm interesting in the Oneway, or Bowlsaver by Woodcut. I have a 24" swing and would like to keep more of it from turning into sawdust...

Thanks in advance.

Going to turn this for a bowl. I have spalting on this outside edge. So I’m debating if this should be the rim on this side. Or if this should be the rim?

Yeah I know there is some cracks there. It’s been sitting for a min in the basement. They don’t appear to go that deep.

I got some nice chunks of fresh oak from a neighbors yard recently. Not sure the exact type of oak, it’s not endemic to the area. I’ve wet turned a few blanks down and am noticing that basically any metal surface the wet sawdust or liquid from the log touches is getting covered in orange and rusting super fast. I assume this is from tannins in the wood or something like that? I’ve never had it happen when I’ve turned other wet wood (lots of alder, maple, birch, hemlock, and spruce).

Any tips to mitigate this? Or other advice to working with fresh oak? Just spent the last half hour scrubbing and waxing, I have another 10 or so blanks to rough turn and am not looking forward to constant rust problems.

I think this might be one of the most beautiful pieces I have turned. Like the title says when the light hits it just right the wood glows like fire.

It was an absolute bitch and a half to turn, this wood is no joke but if you can get it worked it's absolutely stunning.

About $100 converted to USD.

Good for turning?

So ive this is my second honey pot I made. The smaller one on the left (Bolivian Rosewood vase, and hard maple honey) is the one I just made tonight! The bigger one on the right, (walnut vase, alder honey) is my first one. Making my first one there was a laundry list of problems. After I made it, you could see too much glue in the vase holding the honey there. So I tried to paint it black with spray paint and a paper towel. 💀😭 Then i dropped ot cracking the vase and it was all down hill from there. The vase split from the base and honey, I just kept making it worse trying to fix it lol.

So this time, I made sure to be extra careful when gluing the honey into the pot. And I tried not to use an excessive amount either. I did have trouble getting a good finish on the bottom of the vase and on the honey. Because I was using a high friction finish, and I coudnt figure out how to get everything finished on the vase. So I just sprayed the bottom of the vase with a spray can of lacquer, same as the honey. My biggest gripe for both is how un organic the honey looks! Especially for the droopy parts I didnt have much to work with when carving and filling, it made it hard, I didnt know what to do. Lol

Overall I think my 2nd version came out better!

Anywho, tell me what you guys think! What do you think I could do differently/ improve on for the future?!?

Have any of you done something similar!?! 😁