Category Archives: Making Stuff

I made a bowl(s)

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I’ve really been enjoying the wood turning, it’s so nice to take something raw and rough and turn it into a useable object, or even just something nice to look at. I have a long, long way to go, but I’ve made some things I’m really proud of.

I’ve not photographed everything (almost, but not quite), and there’s a few spindles missing (nostepinne) among other things. I’ve included some photos of explosive failures too!

Chunky Oak Bowl
Tried a little pot
Was super proud of this bowl
Oak bowl in progress, no final shot
Testing a piece of our apple tree
Another little pot
More apple tree, trying for and failing to make a winged bowl
Nostepinne
Another nostepinne
Loved this and amazing finish, but chipped the rim and foot 🙁
Mahogany – nice and thin – but it’s warped 🙁
Blew up my first box
That’s better, second go
Lacewood, I love this bowl
A tall box, much more refined
Laminated bowl
I remounted and reworked the laminated bowl to have much thinner walls
Reworked my first sycamore bowl to tidy it up
Another laminated piece
A lidded box – Wenge base and Oak lid, still my best piece ever
More mahogany
Some spalted sycamore
Boom
Very thing, refined, mahogany bowl
More spalted sycamore
Oak, unusual rim
Live edge oak
Spalted beech
More spalted beech
A pot!
With can for size reference
Not sure what wood, but loved the shape and finish
Well, that failed
A super chunky oak vase
Oops
Tiny zebrano wood vase
Tiny case, in the big vase
Oak cauldron
Spalted sycamore vase with test tube insert
Two little quick apple wood pots to test out some new forstner bits

It’s great to get out into the shed after a tough day at work, and just make something pretty. Stuff I need to work on.

  • Tool sharpening
  • Tool handling (bowl gouge especially)
  • Getting better surface finishes off the tool, and understanding which tools work best on different grains
  • Getting the inside of bowls as nice as the outside
  • Getting the bottom of bowls as nice as the outside
  • Not settling for ‘good enough’ when doing a bowl
  • Also, thinner. I love me a chunky bowl, but I think I’m taking it too easy and need to make some thinner pieces.

Making a lathe bench – part 2

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I did not build the lathe bench in the first post, but I did build a bench. The more I looked at the drawing, the more I thought the angled legs were going to be annoying to make, and I’m not patient or good enough to do that yet. So I simplified the design, thus.

Square 90 degree legs, with lap joints. I got some of those joints done, but then I decided not to worry about the others. This is the result.

It’s on castors which you can lift and drop so that you can rest the base on the floor when you’re not moving it, and I reinforced the base with a couple of cross-members including one which extends past the width of the top to give it more stability. It works fine! It’s pretty stable (although I’ve not turned anything very lopsided yet), and it can be moved around (just about!). Very happy with it overall, it’s functional.

And so far, I’ve made one oak bowl and one mahogany bowl on it.

Super relaxing and a lot of fun.

So I bought a lathe!

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Well, this is actually my second lathe. My first one was the Parkside lathe from Lidl, which I bought probably two or three weeks ago. I’ve used it (the Parkside one) to turn two pieces of wood (other than some very quick tests).  I made a bowl out of sycamore and a cup / goblet / thing out of apple wood (from a tree we cut down in our garden).

Plain wooden bowl on a black backgroundI had read bad things about the Parkside lathe, but I really wanted to give turning a go, and as they re-appeared in the middle of Lidl I purchased one in a moment of weakness.

Super easy to set up, made mostly of plastic and aluminium, the lathe sits nicely on a bench. But it’s flimsy. The spindle wiggles, the tool rest doesn’t lock fully, the tailstock actually lifts up from the lathe ‘bed’ (I use that term loosely) if you apply it hard enough to keep your piece in place.

But, it does allow you to turn wood, even someone like me who’s never turned anything his life. I made the bowl and the other thing (chalice?) and it was only mildly frustrating and painful. But, by the time I’d finished the second piece, the lathe was even flimsier. The wobble on the spindle was worse, the tool rest is chipped and dented and no longer locks, and the tail stock is as useful as a piece of wet fish. It was clear I was doing stuff it was never intended to be useful for (which begs the question, what was it intended to be used for).

Anyway, I’d been watching Facebook market place for months for various second hand DIY items (more blog posts coming about all that stuff I suspect) and yesterday I spotted a bargain. A Record Power CL2 lathe, for a really good price, not too far away and in good working order. I collected it today.

Turned wooden gobletFuck me it’s heavy. I mean, it didn’t look that big in the Facebook marketplace photo. But it’s heavy. The two metal bars which form the bed are heavy. The motor and spindle are very heavy. I really should not have been lifting that onto the bench on my own. It came with loads of accessories including an unused four jaw chuck, which I’m super excited about.

Now I just need to build a stand for it (it can’t stay on the bench, it’s too high for one thing), and then enlist the help of someone to move it (not making that mistake again).

I am excited to give it a whirl – the two things I’ve made were hard, but I don’t know if that was technique, the lathe or the tools (or all three). It can’t be the lathe next time I make something, so we’ll hopefully see if it’s tools, technique or both!