# Turning more air than wood



## TimR (Jun 19, 2017)

a friend gave me this "knot" that his father gave him some time ago. He asked me if I could use it and do something with it, and I had to say yes. It turned out like I hoped, but i would have been smarter turning it down to a bit more solid material. I ended up making a donut to "just fit" the top ring to allow use of my steady rest. Not enough solid material in body to use steady as it is. Had to repair pretty big blowout at one point but salvaged all the pieces and the repair is invisible. I never went over about 550 rpm and the piece is 8-1/2" tall and 6" diam. Finished with Minwax Antique Oil. I'm pretty sure it's cherry...what do you think?

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 20


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## gman2431 (Jun 19, 2017)

Very nice!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## barry richardson (Jun 19, 2017)

I love it, well done!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Tony (Jun 19, 2017)

Man, that is Cool! That takes some stones to turn I'm guessing! Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## The100road (Jun 19, 2017)

That is very cool! Good job.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Sprung (Jun 19, 2017)

Very, very impressive!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Spinartist (Jun 19, 2017)

Tim,

What do I think...Very nice turning!!! Love it!!

What else do I think... your lathe is way to clean, you need to use it more especially when you're doing this quality of work.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Funny 1


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## jasonb (Jun 19, 2017)

Wow! Way cool.... 
How did you hollow it out? Hollowing system???

Reactions: Like 1


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## greenleecustomcalls (Jun 19, 2017)

I like it a lot, but my luck in turning something like this is a big piece of wood to the face lol. Great job

Reactions: Like 1


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## DKMD (Jun 19, 2017)

Cool! I love these 'not sure if this will make it or not' pieces, and this one looks pretty extreme!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## TimR (Jun 19, 2017)

Thanks for the comments folks. Here's a couple progress pics...
Note that I started with the steady towards the upper third of the piece but once hollowed in that area, I used a donut held in place with dabs of hot glue to run in the steady. Some masking tape used to hold little parts from flying off!
The hollowing rig I made based on Jamieson style. I also made the steady from a piece of duct ring...very sturdy!


 

 

 

 


I enjoy when a big void opens up, makes possible to see the cutter from the outside.

Reactions: Way Cool 7


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## Jim Beam (Jun 19, 2017)

Nicely done! Skill, talent, balls, and nice wood all came together.

Reactions: Agree 2 | Funny 1


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## Mike Hill (Jun 19, 2017)

Now, that's a void! Amazing!

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## spaz (Jun 19, 2017)

WOW! That's a technical turn, and nice to hear you having fun with it. Must have been making some wacky noises and talking to you!
Great setup, and neat that you continued even with a blowout! Congrats, and thanks for the pics.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## woodtickgreg (Jun 20, 2017)

Awesome! I don't thi k I have the stones to attempt something like that. I'm not real fond of chunks hitting my face shield.
But man that's pretty!

Reactions: Agree 2


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## TimR (Jun 20, 2017)

Greg, and others...many thanks for the nice comments. Please keep one thing in mind, if you want to do something like this, you have to go SLOWWWWW and stay out of the line of fire.  Like I said above, I turned this no faster than 550 rpm. For a more solid piece, I'd perhaps double that at most. Fortunately, most of the hollowing is well out of the line of fire. Biggest thing a piece like this takes is patience to take very light cuts. Also, when I do something like this, I bore out with my forstner in multiple progressions, to maintain as much solid material to the very end. This one was 3 steps, the first about 3-1/2" deep, and the next ones 2" deep each.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## West River WoodWorks (Jun 20, 2017)

Wow very cool and brave!
Tom


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## NYWoodturner (Jun 23, 2017)

Very nice Tim! Thats the kind of piece that needs to be displayed as you walk into your shop as a measure of Badass on the turner scale. Everyone will know to be respectful and well behaved

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## TimR (Jun 23, 2017)

Thanks Scott (@NYWoodturner ) that's probably all the more reason to not display in my shop...I kinda don't like having the bar set too high some days. 
This is a gift to the guy I got the wood from. I mean geez, he got the wood from his dad years ago.


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