Hiawatha Woodturning Club: Steve Promo Notes aand Projects

Base on the notes and pictures sent in by Steve Promo.

Notes: Tomorrow will be session #12 with three woodshop classes at LaSalle High School woodshop. (Four days with three back to back sessions at 8am, 9am, 10 am) The first session covered lathe basics and I demo turned a French style rolling pin. Sessions 4,5,6 were a demo of turning pegs for wall mounted key and coat racks (10 min at most) and a work session. The rest of the sessions have been spent assisting the students. So far five nice rolling pins have been made, most of them glued up from flat lumber. Cherry walnut and maple mostly. Will send a picture soon. If any Hiawatha Club Turners member is interested in working with the students give me a call or email. These kids are eager to learn and the new jet 14/40 VS lathe is a very nice machine to learn on. They are also using the club lathe and the JET mini our club donated to the school. They have been very respectful and a pleasure to work with.

Project 1: This fall I had some large spruce and cedar logs milled. Some of the butt log slabs were very thick. I cut out 6” x 6” cylinders on the bandsaw and immediately roughed out ten small bowls to about 1/2” thick. They were all rain wet slab wood. Within a couple days of exposure to dry wood stove heat in my shop they were dry enough to re-turn and sand. They are 1/4” thick with a small flat base. The bowls are VERY light weight and fit the hand perfectly for chips and popcorn snacks. One coat of grape-seed oil and they are ready to give away for Christmas! They were fun and everyone loves the feel of them in their hand.

Unfinished Bowls

Finished Bowls - Top View

Finished Bowls - Side View

Project 2: Two other recent turning projects are a walnut hollow form and a sycamore box. Both pieces of wood have been laying under my shop bench for a very long time. The exterior of the walnut piece was turned from an 8” log between centers, adding a chuck tenon to the bottom. Once in the chuck, I bored out the center with a large forester bit. A student of mine was scheduled for a hollow form session at that time and he was able to bore out the first few inches using my boring bar and laser attachment. He learned how to sharpen and aim the pivoting round nose 3/16” scraper bit, and got firsthand experience resetting the laser for wall thickness after each sharpening. He also used a teardrop scraper to even out the interior surface. I completed the bottom half of the hollowing and turned the foot after he departed. A steady rest was used on this piece as the boring bar was about 12” past the too rest. I decided the 2.5” round hole at the top was BORING to look at, so I cut a V downward with a jigsaw, with the growth rings running parallel to my V cut. The edge of the V was rounded with a Dremel drum sander bit, small files, and sandpaper by hand. After that I decided to paint the interior for better contrast and then inspired to add crushed turquoise inlay to suggest a overflow of droplets.

I am still considering airbrushing a deep orange to yellow fade inside with the piece rotating and the exterior masked off. Walnut piece is 7” by 13” and the sycamore box is 3.5” by 7”. The sycamore was very soft and difficult to cut cleanly but the lid is airtight.