First "Big" bowl from New Lathe
Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL
>This is the first big bowl that I have finished on my new Vega 2400. TD gave me this blank when he and his son were down for a demo at my club in March. I roughed it out a few weeks later on our club Jet 1642. It was pretty rotten, like turning styrofoam and very wet.
I left it in my hot shop all summer, hoping that someday I would have a lathe big enough to turn it on someday.
I pulled it out two weeks ago, and turned it round again - it had distorted quite a bit, but the the drying process had not helped the turnability. However, the color and figure was starting to look really interesting.
To counteract the poor quality of the wood, I saturated it with thinned down lacquer. Waited a week. It was some better, but not really good, especially with the end grain. So, now I saturated it with thin CA glue - about 8oz worth!
Still lots of endgrain tearout, but it sanded out alright.
The bowl is 14.5" in diameter, 3.5" deep, 4" high, with a 3.5" foot. The walls are 1/4 at the rim, tapering to 5/8" at the foot. The grove around the rim was an attempt to put three small beads there, but the endgrain chipped too badly. So I had to convert it into a groove and it looks OK. If I had more time, I might have filled the grove with an epoxy inlace, but it is a birthday present for my mother, and I have to get it sent in the next day or so.
I felt that one of my high gloss would not be appropriate for a bowl that would probably actually see use as a fruit bowl or the like. So, I wiped on some thin Lacquer a couple of times, and then buffed it with 4x steelwool and applied wax.
The neat thing about this wood, is that it has some slight spalting is spots, it has the typical Box Elder Reds, it has some quilting near the pith, and some birdseye opposite the pith.
As always, Critiques Welcome.
Mark
