I made a pin vise, useful for both hand drilling holes with small drill bits, as well as holding small parts while working on them.
The chuck is a small chuck bought off eBay that will hold a bit up to ¼ inch in diameter, and down to the smallest drill bit I have (a 1/32 inch bit).
The handle is ziricote, a Central American hardwood that has interesting “spiderweb” grain patterns and a piece of 1 inch brass tubing as a ferrule, epoxied onto the handle. Finish is a coat of tung oil and a few coats of shellac.
It will likely be a gift for a friend, and I’ll make another for myself using some domestic hardwood.
This is the third bowl I turned, and the second made of birch. I managed to get the sides a little thinner, and the bottom thinner as well. I almost avoided tear-out on the end-grain sides of the bowl, only using the bowl gouge, but there was a little, so I sanded to clean things up.
Turned this one in a single session in the shop. Maybe three hours total, including cutting it octagonal on the bandsaw, mounting it on the plate, cutting it free, and using the belt-sander to take off the last nubbin on the bottom.
It’s a little over 5 inches in diameter, and about 1-¼ inches tall.
Six coats of shellac, with some light sanding with 400 grit between the fourth and fifth coats. I’m trying to decide if I should pull out my French polishing kit and try to really put a nice finish on it, or whether this is good enough.
I made a second bowl today, mostly concentrating on making the bottom of the bowl thinner, as well as the sides.
The bowl is about 5 inches in diameter, and about 1¼ inches tall. The bottom is between ¼ and ⅜ inch thick, and the sides are slightly less than ¼ inch thick at their thinnest.
It’s not perfect, but I feel like I’m getting better every day, which is a nice feeling.
I got a lathe last month, and have been playing around, teaching myself to turn. This is the first bowl I finished, and while it’s far from perfect, I’m pretty darned happy with it.
There are a few rough spots where I have what I would call tear-out if I was working with a plane. I may go after them with a spokeshave or sandpaper, or I may just leave them be. I haven’t decided yet.
But the piece of ash I picked had some great grain, so I’ll be saving this bowl no matter how I decide to finish it. It was a great learning experience, and I hope the next one off the lathe will be even better.
I’ve been told I shouldn’t use a skew when turning a bowl. I did. Almost all of this was done with a ¾” bowl gouge and a ¾” skew. Mostly I was taking light enough cuts and using slow enough RPMs that I don’t think there was too much danger, but I’ve ordered a smaller bowl gouge (a ¼”) and a ½” round-nose scraper so I can finish off the surface more safely.
But I think I’m going to be back to spindle turning for a while anyhow. I need to make four legs for my forge table next, and I’d like to turn those round myself, so I’ll be practicing on short pieces for a while before tackling an almost three-foot long table leg. And I’ll probably need to take a break to sharpen my tools, too. Learning by trial and error is hard on the edges.
Update: I took a file and scalloped the rim to hide the worst of the tear-out. I think it looks a lot better now.
