# Cherry what?



## Ben Holt (Mar 17, 2016)

i had a friend drop this by the house today. He said it was cherry but i dont know anything more than that. This is my first piece ive ever had. Wat should i do with it? He would like to see something turned out of part of it. But before i start ripping it, i thought id ask the experts.

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 1


----------



## Blueglass (Mar 17, 2016)

Burly, possibly spalted and already de-barked, sweet!


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 17, 2016)

Come on experts! I thought id have a ton of people telling we wat to do with this. Hopefully not to throw it in the fire. Lol


----------



## gman2431 (Mar 17, 2016)

I Definetly wouldn't burn it!!! 

Slice some off and show us!

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## manbuckwal (Mar 17, 2016)

Figure out what you want out of it first, then start slicing accordingly .


----------



## Nature Man (Mar 17, 2016)

What are the dimensions? Kind of hard to tell just looking at it. Chuck


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 18, 2016)

Ben Holt said:


> Come on experts! I thought id have a ton of people telling we wat to do with this. Hopefully not to throw it in the fire. Lol



Remind me what tools you have, before I start suggesting things to make (I'd like to come up with something that doesn't force you to spend "too much" on new tools):

[ ] 4 jaw scroll chuck
[ ] bowl gouge(s)
[ ] round end scraper
[ ] side scraper
[ ] Jacobs (drill) chuck to mount in tailstock
[ ] Forstner bits
[ ] locking calipers
[ ] figure 8 calipers
[ ] carbide tool (e.g. Woodtick Greg's or Easy-Wood-Tools)

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 20, 2016)

duncsuss said:


> Remind me what tools you have, before I start suggesting things to make (I'd like to come up with something that doesn't force you to spend "too much" on new tools):
> 
> [ ] 4 jaw scroll chuck
> [ ] bowl gouge(s)
> ...


@duncsuss Sorry I missed this post
G3 with 35mm spigot
Carbide...flat, round, semi flat
Jacobs chuck
A few forstner bits
...not very much as you can see.


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 20, 2016)

With the tools you've listed, you can make small bowls, candle holders, lidded boxes, screwdriver handles, other tool handles, mallets/mauls ... and dozens more things.

I would recommend you get a set of digital calipers next time you see them on sale at Rockler or HarborFreight -- I usually pay about $11 or $12 for the type that measure in metric units and decimal and fractional inches (regular price around $20 to $25, but they go on sale fairly often.)

In addition to telling you the actual size of something, you can open the jaws around a tenon and lock that measurement (with a set screw), then without even knowing or caring how big it is you can test fit a hole or a matching tenon on something else. Very handy.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 20, 2016)

Should i square it up length wise or just cross cut it into appropriate sections for projects?

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 20, 2016)

What are the dimensions of it right now? It looks to be about 18" long and 6" diameter (if that's a regular cement block behind it.) 

With that diameter, I'd be tempted to cut away one end inch at a time until I don't see any more cracks in the end grain (up to 4 slices off the end). Then cut a chunk about the same length as the diameter of the log, which I'd then stand on end and divide into 2 bowl blanks (removing about an inch from the middle to get the pith out of the bowl blanks -- you can slice that up later for pen blanks, no waste!)

The rest -- well, depending on how the first bowl turned out, I might make a couple more like that, or try doing something end-grain (a vase or some such.)


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 20, 2016)

duncsuss said:


> What are the dimensions of it right now? It looks to be about 18" long and 6" diameter (if that's a regular cement block behind it.)
> 
> With that diameter, I'd be tempted to cut away one end inch at a time until I don't see any more cracks in the end grain (up to 4 slices off the end). Then cut a chunk about the same length as the diameter of the log, which I'd then stand on end and divide into 2 bowl blanks (removing about an inch from the middle to get the pith out of the bowl blanks -- you can slice that up later for pen blanks, no waste!)
> 
> The rest -- well, depending on how the first bowl turned out, I might make a couple more like that, or try doing something end-grain (a vase or some such.)


I guess i got to drag the saws out. Lol. The guy that dropped it off is chomping at the bit to see wats inside. The problem is, the only thing i can make right now are pens. Lol. Oh yes the dimensions u said were right. I was hoping the cement would help, as i took the pic in a hurry. Maybe @ripjack13 will draw me a pick like i saw him do on another post. Lol

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 20, 2016)

Duncan has it right on...



 
The far right side looks like casting material...the left...maybe pens?
But chop it like that, (like Duncan said) and see what you get. If the bowl blanks won't work out, maybe they could be stabilized and fill the cracks with colored material?

Reactions: Like 2


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 20, 2016)

Hows that for thumbs....lol

Reactions: Funny 1


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 20, 2016)

Here's a pic that illustrates what I meant about standing it up and turning a section of the log into 2 bowl blanks ... you end up with a couple of bowls close to the diameter of the log itself, and a bit less than half as deep.



 

I do recommend making two parallel cuts, leaving a slice which contains the center "bull's eye" of the grain pattern -- this reduces the likelihood of cracks forming at those innermost rings.

Reactions: Great Post 1


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 20, 2016)

Ahah! Found the pic I was looking for showing the two-cut method to remove the center pith from between the bowl blanks ... do this, then open it up to look like the pic in the earlier post. As I said, the slice from the middle can be cut up into pen blanks if you want.

Reactions: Like 3


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

Before i completely butcher this poor tree i wanted to put a pic up to give me recommendations on how to proceed.


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

Forgot pic


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 21, 2016)

What are the dimensions (length and diameter) of these pieces?

I'd be likely to cut them something like this ...


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

The second one in from the left on top is 6" max. I split the the largest one like u said but not sure now wat to do with it. How do i mount to turn a bowl?


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 21, 2016)

Take one of those side pieces and draw an X on the cut face, corner to corner.

Where the lines cross is the center of the face -- draw a circle around that point, like I did in the picture a few posts back. That circle is going to be the rim of your bowl.

You need either (a) a drive center (sometimes called a spur drive) that you hammer into the center point _*before *_you put it onto the lathe (or you'll wreck the bearings), or (b) a faceplate that you can screw onto the flat face, centered on that same center point, or (c) a "wood worm screw" that came with your Nova G3 chuck (to use this, you'll have to drill a hole into the X point the correct diameter to fit the core of the wood worm screw, but no larger -- the screw thread itself has to cut into the wood to hold tight.)

In the tailstock, you should put a live center (the 60 degree live center that you've been using to support the tail end of your pen mandrel should work well.)

When the blank is mounted on the lathe, make sure the flat face that's towards the headstock is pretty much level so that when you spin it by hand the top surface doesn't wave up and down like crazy. Doesn't have to be dead-on, but aim for no more than a quarter inch of movement.

Your first task will be to turn away the corners and make it round, starting at the tailstock (where it's already really close to being round) and working towards the headstock (where it starts out almost square profile.)

Then at the tailstock, turn a tenon -- a.k.a. a spigot -- that your chuck jaws will clamp onto when you flip the bowl around.


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 21, 2016)

Before you start the lathe, make sure the speed is on the lowest setting.


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 21, 2016)

And do NOT start the lathe before you put your face mask on and pull the visor down.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 21, 2016)

You can increase the speed slowly until you begin to feel it getting a bit jumpy, then back off some.


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

Wat is wrong with this picture? I cant take off any substantial material.


----------



## DKMD (Mar 21, 2016)

I don't know that I'd turn a bowl from either of those halves... Between the radial cracks, the heart rot, and ring shake I'm not sure there's a decent bowl blank in either half. 

You'll be able to get some pen/knife/call material by cutting around the defects, but I personally would avoid challenging wood like that for bowls. I have a hard time walking away from free wood, but I don't think I'd attempt a bowl from that stock.

I'm not trying to be a downer, but that's definitely not 'first bowl' material.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

DKMD said:


> I don't know that I'd turn a bowl from either of those halves... Between the radial cracks, the heart rot, and ring shake I'm not sure there's a decent bowl blank in either half.
> 
> You'll be able to get some pen/knife/call material by cutting around the defects, but I personally would avoid challenging wood like that for bowls. I have a hard time walking away from free wood, but I don't think I'd attempt a bowl from that stock.
> 
> I'm not trying to be a downer, but that's definitely not 'first bowl' material.



I was looking for an out. Lol until i can learn how to do a bowl. However the outer rings r beautiful and would be awesome as a bowl. There is a hole all the way through the branch.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

What


Ben Holt said:


> Wat is wrong with this picture? I cant take off any substantial material.
> 
> View attachment 99917


What Do you mean, you can't take off any substantial material?
Is it not staying true between centers?
It's going to take some time to remove the material....it looks bumpy and uneven. So you need to go slow and bite of little bits at a time.
Hand turn it with no power on..get your feel for where to place your tool in relation to the wood. 
Then when you see where you need to be on the rest holding the tool. Then turn it on. Put your tool back to the starting spot, then push gently into it. It's going to want to bump your tool backwards, so stay firm and let the tool do the work with gentle pressure. Do about an inch wide spot on one side (left or right) then move on to the next spot. And repeat till its round...
After it's round, true up the right side to make your tenon. (Bottom) then shape your blank to something very basic to start. Nothing fancy. Then post up what you got....


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

It took me 11 minutes to type that up...darn thumbs...


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

ripjack13 said:


> What
> 
> What Do you mean, you can't take off any substantial material?
> Is it not staying true between centers?
> ...


It kept bogging down and not keeping rpms up. I was taking super gentle cuts with a brand new blade. How long should it take to round a blank?


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

Oh...can't really say a set time....but it takes a good amount. Nothing like a pen....


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

The pic u see above came after 25 min of turning


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

You might have to turn up the rpm a smidgen ...


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

25....you got lots more to go....keep going slow. Take too much off at once and bad things happen....


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

ripjack13 said:


> You might have to turn up the rpm a smidgen ...


Ok. I had it set in the lowest pulley setup but running at the highest rpm on that setup. Ill move it one level.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

That one took me 4 hours to get to a rough shape from log to that.....

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 21, 2016)

And a whole bottle of ca...

Reactions: Funny 1


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 21, 2016)

ripjack13 said:


> View attachment 99928
> That one took me 4 hours to get to a rough shape.....


Well thats just plain ugly. Lol. J/k. Im fine going slow but i barely take anything off and it bogs down. Ugh.


----------



## gman2431 (Mar 22, 2016)

Ben I don't know what tools you are using but your tool rest looks crazy low from the pic. Are you cutting at center?


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 22, 2016)

Ben Holt said:


> It kept bogging down and not keeping rpms up. I was taking super gentle cuts with a brand new blade. How long should it take to round a blank?



Did the motor bog down? It's possible your lathe has a small motor and that means you have to take very light cuts.

It's also possible that the motor didn't bog down, but the drive spur was slipping (and at the same time, drilling into the wood). If that's the case, you can take the drive spur out of the headstock and hammer it into the wood again, then when you put it back on the lathe crank the tailstock a little harder against the opposite end of the blank.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 24, 2016)

Sorry for the delay in an update. I had a small electrical problem in the garage. I think it was caused by a short in a heater. Luckily we were home and the breaker finally switched. The mrs wants an electrican to look at it before i put a new socket in. As for bowl take a look. Btw i was using the wrong kind of drive gear. Wat should i do here? I thought about sending the rest of the branch out to be stabilized. I cut through a lot of pretty grain but it also had a lot of soft rot.


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 25, 2016)

@duncsuss @ripjack13 @DKMD I need you!!! Help por favor!

Reactions: Funny 1


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 25, 2016)

Well ... first off, _(edit ... the more I look at your pic, the less certain I am about this ... I'm slowly convincing myself that you do have it oriented as "face work" rather than "center work" ... if so, please excuse me ...) _you're doing something I would not have started with. You took a piece of log and put it between centers with it oriented along the axis of the lathe. That means to hollow it out, you are cutting into end-grain.

My original suggestion was to take a half-log and mount it on the lathe such that the shape of the log would be across the axis of the lathe, meaning that to hollow it you would be cutting into side-grain.

However, you are where you are ... and with that piece, my instinct would be to put a tenon on the right hand end of it and turn it around so all those voids are at the rim end of the hollow object you're making. I can't see any way to make a bowl out of it with the bottom of the bowl where those big holes are (but having the holes near the rim can look "artistic".)

It depends if you've already hollowed it out at that end -- can't tell from the photo you posted.

If you've already hollowed it more than a half inch, try this: measure the diameter across the opening, take 2/3 of that and draw a line around the blank that far down from the rim. It will be the height of your bowl. Make another line about 3/8" to 1/2" to the left of that, it will be the bottom of the foot that you'll leave underneath the rounded bowl shape. Yes, it "wastes" a lot of wood -- but is the objective to make something nice or to make something as big as possible? Sometimes you can't have both.

With a parting tool, cut down the blank between those two lines to about half the diameter of the rim -- that's the foot. Now start shaping the walls of the bowl into a nice gentle curve from the rim to where the foot meets the bowl. It doesn't have to be a perfect circular arc, but try to avoid sudden changes in direction, you're aiming for a smooth curve.

Once you have the outside shaped, sand it -- depending on how smooth the cuts are, you might begin anywhere between 60 grit and 220 grit. If your lathe has a reverse gear, sand one way then the other before moving on to the next grit. You get the smoothest "tool finish" by cutting downhill -- that is, cutting into fibers that are supported, as opposed to trying to pry up the ends of fibers. (In the case of end-grain turnings, this means the outside should be cut by starting at the rim and working towards the foot -- inside is the reverse, you start at the bottom and work up the sides towards the rim.)

With me so far?

Reactions: Like 1 | Great Post 1


----------



## rocky1 (Mar 25, 2016)

I wouldn't be too concerned about the outlet. Typically wiring/electrical stuff in general, melts down where the problem is. The increased amp flow resulting from poor connection/contact generates heat. My guess would be you had a bad/broken outlet. That assumption might be further supported by the fact that the GFI circuit didn't trip on it and shut it down before it melted.

Where do all those holes go? Do they run out the other end?

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## Ben Holt (Mar 25, 2016)

Thanks Duncan and Rocky. The holes don't go all the way through but fairly deep. @duncsuss I tried to do the set up you recommended but it didn't seem the wood worm would be in the middle. I'll give it another shot on the next one. So now I'll turn a new spigot and turn it around and give it a shot. I guess that big pin oak and ash I just took down will come in handy to give me some practice. Do you think the rest of the cherry branch could be stabilized?


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 25, 2016)

Ben Holt said:


> Thanks Duncan and Rocky. The holes don't go all the way through but fairly deep. @duncsuss I tried to do the set up you recommended but it didn't seem the wood worm would be in the middle. I'll give it another shot on the next one. So now I'll turn a new spigot and turn it around and give it a shot. I guess that big pin oak and ash I just took down will come in handy to give me some practice. Do you think the rest of the cherry branch could be stabilized?


I've never done any stabilization so I can't speak to that.

Ash and oak are both *hard* when they dry out, but you can practice turning them while they're still green. The faster you get to them, the less chance they'll have time to develop checks (radial cracks) at the cut surfaces.

Reactions: Like 2


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 25, 2016)

Great post Duncan. Hopefully you were at a computer when you typed that up. lol

Well Ben, Duncan said it best...and first.


----------



## Kevin (Mar 25, 2016)

Rocky wrote almost verbatim what I was going to. 

Can't help on the bowl. Oh wait Duncan wrote almost verbatim what I was going to....

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 25, 2016)

Kevin said:


> Oh wait Duncan wrote almost verbatim what I was going to....



I wrote it with a British accent, of course, so yours would be different even if you typed the same words


----------



## DKMD (Mar 25, 2016)

See if this helps...

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 25, 2016)

DKMD said:


> See if this helps...



I have those bookmarked! Great vids.


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 25, 2016)

This is pretty informative video as well, what not to do....


----------



## duncsuss (Mar 25, 2016)

ripjack13 said:


> This is pretty informative video as well....


I got halfway through this video (5m 13s to be precise) and had to stop.

I disagree with almost everything he has done so far -- and that he still has both arms attached to his body is a frikken miracle. Seriously, the chances of a log getting away from him cutting on the round like that are scary.

Plus I disagree with the way he chose to align the cut through the pith -- I always aim to get all the compression wood in one half, all the tension wood the other half. He cut a blank that has the pith off-center along the "diameter" of the log -- which I believe is guaranteed to leave you with distortion (and un-balanced figure) when it's turned into a bowl.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


----------



## ripjack13 (Mar 25, 2016)

Hmm...I do agree is precarious when he was cutting, but at least he shuts off the machine after cuts....
Maybe I should edit my post to add "what not to do".

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## Kevin (Mar 25, 2016)

duncsuss said:


> I wrote it with a British accent, of course, so yours would be different even if you typed the same words



I couldn't have written it in any accent it is over my head.


----------

