Hi all,

I'm making my first bowl. Years ago, my dad had signed up for a
turner's course and got to the point where he had his blank that was
about 9" by 4" and it was glued onto a faceplate mounter. That's as
far as he got, and it was moved more times than my mother cares to
remember.

Dad died last spring and my mom produced this blank and said, "Please
do something with it." I figured it was a good starter project. A
simple straight-walled bowl with nothing fancy to it.

It is. I'm having a great time. I have sharp tools, Darrel's jigs and
a mountain of shavings. All I'm working with is a skew, thumbnail
gouge and parting tool. I haven't seen much use for the parter yet,
and expect I won't.

I've got the outside mostly round, and the inside roughed out.

But the inside walls are where I"m having some problems. Two, to be
exact. They're likely related.

I can't get the wall smooth. One of the reasons is that to get to the
inside wall, I nearly have to stand on my head to get the tool on the
wall. (Wall closest to me. I can easily reach the far wall, but the
wall's going the wrong direction. DAMHIKT if you put a gouge on the
wrong direction wall, the butt of the gouge will kick back. Into your
chest. Leaving you breathless. And looking 'round to see if anyone
witnessed it.)

As stated, I don't have gouges that are bent to get into those
places, and I'm wondering if I can get my walls smoother without
having to turn the lathe around. Or buying new tools.

Anyone got any suggestions?

TIA

Tanus

I finished that bowl. Unbeknownst to me
when i started, the blank was two pieces
of walnut laminated to form a 4" thick
piece.

I never did get round to using some of
the suggestions you folks kindly made to
my first request. I had a bit of a time
limit and wanted it finished so I
improvised and ended with something that
has whet my appetite.

I don't have pictures, btw. It's nothing
much to look at anyway. 9" bowl that's
been finished with tung oil. It looks ok.

Learned a few things about sharpening,
about spindle speed, and how to hold
something to turn it. Learned a bit
about mess and dust in places I didn't
know dust could go. Learned a bit of
respect for spinning things and how
quickly they might spin things into you.

Learned that this hobby has at least one
thing in common with other woodworking.
It's gonna break the bank if I keep up
with it.

Learned that even in a very small shop,
you can always squeeze just one more
piece of iron and that right now the
shop's biggest plus is its ability to
allow things to go vertical.

As mentioned, it whet my appetite. I've
got a ton of things to do in the shop,
not the least of which is to continually
learn and re-learn more and more basic
techniques, which will cut into turning
time. But with this simple bowl that
wouldn't get me $5 at a craft fair ( I
figure that translates to about
$.07/hour) I've got something that has
me wanting to do more and more.

Thank you guys for helping - the ones
who responded and the other ones who are
the core of any group.

Tanus

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