What's your most discouraging moment

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Sam Dean

>Hi Rob,

Man, don't sweat it ;-) It's just called testing the waters! I've had bowls put dents in garage doors, scatter into a million pieces, and come so close to taking me out that I could feel the wind when they flew by. But hey, if you didn't try, then you would never know. Most recently, I've been making some thin walled, thin stemmed goblets out of green wood. I've had 3 that were successful (IE: still in one piece), and 4 that are tiny little chunks on the floor of my shop. Good thing is, wood Does grow on trees. Just mount another piece and try it again! But don't ever, ever get discouraged; we've all been there, and some of us (like me) still have them fly apart on a regular basis.

Sam

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Bill Howatt

>When I look at some fantastic bowl pic posted on this forum and the accompanying text starts out with, "I've only been turning for 6 months and this is my first...."

Bill

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

john Lucas

>Robert

I've been turning a long time. You get overconfident sometimes. I was hollowing out a holly ball shape. Man what a beautiful piece of wood. Even when using a scraper to hollow I was getting shavings. So much so it was hard to clean them out of the opening. It was progressing nicely, thinned to about 3/8". I decided it needed to be a little thinner. Not That DAmn Thin. OH Crap or at least I said something like that. I thought I broke my wrist. it stayed numb for several minutes. All it takes is a moments lack of concentration.

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Georg Waldhof

>turning a piece of purpleheart that I had saved for close to 15 years for something truly special. I finally had the project (which will remain nameless) and was working the wood into one of the most marvelous and subtle shallow dishes I had yet turned. I had done some initial sanding and was positively giddy with delight at how the color, sheen and gem-like quality of the piece was emerging.

That's when I noticed the bottom of the dish turning white.

Yep - sanded right thru the bottom of the thing. Now I have a remarkably beautiful, flat purpleheart donut.

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Keith Tompkins

>Hi Rob, hey we all blow things up, sometimes in a spectacular way. Blowing up a segmented form REALLY hurts.

When something like this happens, try to analyze what caused the piece to explode....I think in your case, trying to go back and touch-up the edge after the piece was already hollowed to 1/8 was a risk. There was very little to support the tool, and too much flex and vibration.

Just like falling off a horse....mount up a new piece, and start over again. I suggest NOT trying to repair a piece like this; throw it away and start over. Soon, you'll hardly even think of blowing pieces up!

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Bill Luinetti

>We turners should be so lucky that there was only one discouraging moment!

Frustration comes in many ways: for me, it is miscalculating the depth of an object, and finding a little bit of the center of my four-jaw chuck on the inside-bottom of a turning.

Welcome to the turner's association, my friend.

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

TomW in SouthJersey

>It can be discouraging when you've gotten to teh pointthat it is just about right and either have it blow apart or spot the glue block showing through the bottom.

I still part it off and see what I did like about it such as the shape and depth so I can use what works on the next piece. I started presenting "surprise boxes" to my wife. The surprise is the hole in the bottem when you remove the lid.

I've turned a couple nice lidded funnels.

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

JL

>They call those design opportunities. I have 2 of those.

We don't make mistakes...

Peter Teubel

>...we have happy accidents. Most of the time I will simply chuck (no pun intended) the piece and start over (wood grows on trees, you know). However, when working with dry wood, sometimes an accident can lead to a new design.

Here's one where I turned a "funnel" and discovered a new way to dress up an otherwise plain bowl.

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

mainebowlman

>I keep a pile of my many blown, cracked, and otherwise failed pieces. Now when we have company and start a fire, I can use the prettiest darn firewood in town.

My wife suggested gluing them into a sculpture entitled "Failure".

You've got to be able to learn from each mistake...and 'turn' on.

Jack

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Barry Irby

>I was going through a divorce and lightning hit a tree I had planted years earlier in my front yard. Seemed like EVERYBODY had it in for me. Decided to turn something nice out of the tree. Chain sawed a block that was about 14 inches long and 7 inches across and sort of octagonal and mounted it between centers. Now we get to the discouraging part.

Instead of reaching for my face shield with my right hand I hit the switch with my left. The block flew off and hit me on the forehead right between the eyes. I was bleeding like water running from a faucet. My glasses had flow away to parts unknown. I was home alone. Tried to dial a neighbor, hitting the wrong speed dial button ended up talking to another friend's ten year old son who was sixty miles away. Pretended nothing was wrong, hung up and tried the neighbor again. He took me to the emergency room, it was 8:00 Sunday night. Two hours, 29 stitches, and $1250 later I had what appeared to be the start of a third eye.

I learned to mount the blanks more carefully and always wear the face shield. I still have the hollow form I made from the piece of wood.

sold, then lost

TD

>How about having a large hollow form that warped an unuseable amount; good color, good piece, so a customer bought it before it was off the lathe. We are talking $2500 here. Then in final turning I find there isn't enough wood at one point to get it round again. Salvage operation is now underway. Usually something good comes from something like this. I know there is a way to save it and at the same time come up with a new design. I may have to wait for Mac to get down here on this one. He is good at this kind of thing. Come on Mac............

TD

Re: sold, then lost

ArtLiestman

>TD, a few years ago one of our local club members had a problem with a roughed out hollow form (of london plane) that warped too badly to re-turn. We were boiling some bowl blanks and decided to toss it into the pot for the heck of it. It came out completely round again. It might be worth a try.

Re: sold, then lost

Russ Fairfield

>Who says it has to be turned again? Or that the walls have to be thin??

Sand it as it is and finish it. Those 2" walls will look fine on a large piece, and the customer will be getting more wood for their money.

MARVELOUS! I must remember it 

Georg Waldhof

>

Wow Art

Barbara Gill, Remlik VA

>That is a little nugget to be tucked away. Thanks!

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Jim Bennett

>Too many to list, but the last one was a 14" x 3" piece of chestnut. I almost had it roughed into a plate or platter. Went back and tried touching up the outer edge to remove a sharp corner, I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention because all of the sudden I saw stars for a second. Not sure what had happened, I was going to finish it up when I looked down and between my feet was a 5 or 6 inch piece of chestnut. Luckily I was wearing my face mask. Safe turning everybody.

jim

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Ruth Niles

>Over the past 14 years of turning, I've had many discouraging moments. I can't recount the number of times I'd walk out of my shop, raise my hands to the heavens and ask "What in the world makes me think I'm a woodturner??" THEN there's the good day and I know I'm a woodturner!

Re: What's your most discouraging moment

Tom Mullane

>Do you mean other than the fact that I am lucky to get 1 bowl out of every 4 I try.. LOL... and even then it is not the size I intended...

For me it is getting almost there and then doing something really dumb and screwing up the work...