Mitch Cholewinski

This hunk of pine I have chucked up here on my lathe is the beginning of a new vase I will turn. Mitch

Attached Thumbnails

 

john lucas

Mitch I've never turned wet pine. What are the pros and cons. I can get all of it I'd ever want around here but I assumed there would be pitch flying everywhere and I don't have curtains up around my lathe yet.

littlebuddha

Johm get the curtains up mate, i have a shower curtain that i pull around to stop the shavings going all over the place, extraction takes the most but it helps to keep the mess in one place.
Hi Mitch what is it about 8" x 16"......get going and if you have not yet started take a few pics through the process, show the guys that have just started a run through little tutorial...LB.

Mitch Cholewinski

John Lucas
First off John I started turning pine because it is available to me at times. When I started ,couldn't justify paying for wood they sell for turning and not know what was going to be the end result.I glued up 2x stock cut a circle and away we go. With logs like in the picture, your right, there is a lot of debris flying over my right shoulder. Untill you get the piece debarked it is a bit messy. Alternative to this is to draw a circle on the piece that is standing vertically, cut on bandsaw. For small turnings this is the way to do it. John, if you never turned pine I think your in for a pleasant surprise. You can turn some very nice pieces and put super looking finishes on it.I've seen your work,so I know you would put a great finish to it.U need sharp tools of course, and pay attention to your speed. Turn fast as is safe for the particular piece your turning.Wear old clothes and a hat.One thing you might not like is, if you start turning you need to finish in one turning. On small pieces this is no problem. I always apply sanding sealer or white shellac if I don't finish. Next day just start turning all over againOne thing I recently realized when turning wet and debarking pine, using your roughing gouge ,turn it to the right as much as you can and the chips fall towards the floor and not towards your shoulder. I fail to see where this turning is much sloppier than any hardwood. You need to like the look of pine if your going to turn wet pine. I like pine and made furniture for years with it so, I will put up with a few bad things about turning pine. You mentioned pitch flying everplace, it does some but mostly on you and if your dressed for turning it is not too bad. If it wasn't for pine I wouldn't be half as far as I am as a turner, because I wouldn't be able to afford expensive woods to practice on. I am not saying I am very far as a turner but You know what I'm saying.
Cut a small hunk and turn it John, I would love to see what you would do with it. Mitch

Mitch Cholewinski

little b
Good eye you have mate, actually the piece is 91/2"x16plus.
Think I will try to do something like you suggest when turning this log. One thing though, it will be a while before I get started turning, I am just now starting to make the dresser type drawers to fit under my table saw and sit next to the drawers I posted earlier. As I explained before when you start turning wet pine, you best finish and seal in one day then seal couple more times. If it weren't for this I would turn some off today and post it. I mentioned to you before that arthritis was keeping me from turning much but my doctor told me yesterday to give it a try again. Real anxious to go.Thanks mate, and come on over. Mitch

john lucas

Mitch not being able to afford exotic wood is why I have developed all the techniques that I use. You can take an inexpensive piece and turn it into an eye popper if your good enough.
I'll try some pine. Maybe I need to buy some painters coveralls to protect my clothes. Can't afford new clothes either. :)

Mitch Cholewinski

John
Go to it, give her a try. From then on you can express a first hand opinion on how it is to turn pine. I hate not knowing stuff firsthand myself. Whatever it is John, post it here for us all to enjoy. K Mitch

Mitch Cholewinski

I am going to try to post in sequential order 6 pictures, 2 at a time showing how I turned this vase from the pine hunk of wood. I never did this before so I am not sure it will work out. Hey, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Mitch Cholewinski

The log blank I originally posted was turned to make a cylinder. Everyone is concerned about the mess of turning pine so I sent this picture showing the mess I generated turning the log to a cylinder. I used my roughing gouge to easily turn this. The first picture here is that mess. I swept the floor up here.

The second picture here is where I turned the blank to a cylinder and drew a rough sketch of what I wanted to achieve with this turning.

Now I need to post this reply. Hope it works guys or I am going to feel foolish.

Mitch Cholewinski

These next two pictures are the next procedures in my turning of a vase from the original pine log pictured above.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Mitch Cholewinski

The first picture here is when I have a blank and turned to a cylinder, this is when I need to turn a spigot on the tailstock endI will need this spigot to flip my blank around and put the spigot in the chuck so I can hollow the center of the vase. This picture shows you the spigot at the tailstock end.

Next picture, I turned the vase to this shape and liked it at this point. I took the blank out of my lathe,cut off the spigot and the scrap at the headstock, flipped the blank end for end and put the spigot in my lathe. I had a little trouble here with the blank wobbling so when I hollowed the vase center forgot to take a picture at this point. Just imagine I I hollowed it and we shall move on to the next picture.

Mitch Cholewinski

First picture of the last two here is after the vase is all turned and sanded, using my home made sanding blocks and sanding belts for the lower grits and the lower grits on an orbital sander, this is what we end up with.

The second picture is the last of my newly turned vase. When the vase was roughly shaped and ready to be sanded I applied a coat of white shellac to prevent cracking. This dried and I started sanding with my 50 grit block. Right here I stopped and put a good bit of paste wax on the vase. Let it dry and started sanding with the 60 grit block. This really acts as an aid to easier and better sanding. Don't ask me what it does but it works great. Man that gave me the tip says same thing. So I continued my journey through the sanding grits and cleaned off the sawdust, applied 2 coats of white shellac, sanding between applications. Applied 2 coats of Poly urethane. Was going to put couple more coats on but decided it wouldn't help, the finish is darn good to me.

Well guys there is a brief synopsis of my journey through the turning of my latest vase. How did we do? Mitch

Attached Thumbnails

   

littlebuddha

Hi Mitch, might be that your wobble was because of a small catch with the chisel, being a soft wood and a large piece of wood that it would move in the jaws, east to crush the spigot easy for it to move. It might be worth while making a steady rest up to help hold your work, as you tend to use a lot of the pine. Nice first go at at a tutorial mitch, im glad you had ago at it, that mess you had all around you, put a shower curtain up just behind you it keeps the mess in one place saves a lot of time cleaning up, and maybe to go around the sides to.
if you get into the habbit of taking lots of pics you can then sort out the best and more detail. thanks LB

littlebuddha

Just a thought as you turn green, try and turn a vase down to about 2mm thickness and then sand in and out at the same time, friction drying, you then have something to work on for pierceing work and something to use different finish on other than poly, use a celulose sanding sealer on the wood amazing how it changes the structure of it. LB..

mackem

Thanks for showing the pictures Mitch, i've learned a lot from your post.

Mitch Cholewinski

mackem
I thank you sir,and if you learned anything from this posting of mine, makes me proud. I am just a newbie at this stuff myself. Please come back and if your a turner maybe post a turning or two of your own. That would be great. Here's looking at you my friend. Mitch

Mitch Cholewinski

b
The trouble with the spigot wasn't a catch of the chisel this time. As you mentioned, pine being soft it,tends to crush when squeezed in a chuck. This piece of wood was very wet and heavy. I turned several vases so far and this is the first bad trouble I had with wobble. If I usually get a spigot that is flat around it's diameter I have no problem. I believe the answer for me lies where you mentioned, I need to make a collar of some sort. This leads me to ask. any links or whatever as to where I can find out how to make this collar? Do you think this would really help b? Far as putting up the curtain. I bought the curtains already right after reading your reply this morning. Now I need to go out and see how best to hang. I have many tools on wheels I made so don't want any posts or anything to be bumping into. Thinking of something like a drop ceiling thing to hang the curtain.I will let you know what I come up with eventually.
Thanks mate for the well done on the tutorial . Was a lot of work, but fun and I learned a lot. I posted this on another forum I visit and it was easier to do cause you can post up to 10 pictures and below put a brief description of each picture.All in all my efforts were applauded without any bad disagreement but I did get one reply that I don't fully understand that kind of annoys me.I figure the best way to handle this type of thing is to walk away from it because getting annoyed won't help you. My hat's is off to you mate, Mitch

littlebuddha

Mitch all i done with the shower curtain was to have some cheap plastic clips for a pole that fitted the curtain and then got some of that spring type wire that you put net curtains up with if you have it over there, and just stretch it out that way i can just push it out of the way as far as i want. there are a load of steady rest around, you need some bearings and make some wood wheels to go around them or inline skate wheels they come in a couple of sizes from around 50mm to 75mm, 2" to 3".. will drop a few links for you.... LB

littlebuddha

Okay mitch try one of these and there are more out there,

http://www.turnwood.net/projects/SteadyRest.pdf

http://www.hdv.net/tips/Making%20a%20Steady%20Rest.htm

http://www.woodturnerruss.com/BowlSteady.html

This one i like and did with a little mod of my own. Ebay is a good place for the wheels, you can even get them with flashing LEDs now
http://www.atbq.qc.ca/jm2/steady.htm

Have fun..LB..

TexasTimbers

Mitch - wonderful vase and great tutorial. I can't wait to play with a big lathe.

__________________
.
.

..