Finishing up
My son Mark and I completed our workshop antics today. We had originally planned to do more than just woodturning, but I wasn't able to be in the shop as much as we had planned and so we just concentrated on turning. Somewhat disappointing, but we covered some important aspects of woodturning that gives Mark a good start. He became comfortable using skew chisels, bowl and roughing gouges, spindel gouge, scrapers and parting chisel. He also learned a variety of mounting options with chucks, between centers, screw chuck and glue chucks.
We didn't produce a lot of stuff and tried to concentrate more on technique than speed. Unfortunately we used only dry wood (maple) and so he didn't get a change to experience the joy of green woodturning. Here is our few more finished pieces which don't include all the practice stuff we did.
The box was our first real project. Everything went well, but Mark is 6ft 4'" tall and my lathe was really too low for him so hollowing the box wasn't easy as he had to bend over almost double to see what he was doing! Luckily his lathe at home has an adjustable height so he can work comfortably.
The small bowl with a lid is meant to be a little jewelry box for Mark's wife Sofie. He originally wanted a heart design on the top, but since the top needs a handle he decided to put the heart on the bottom and named it the hidden sweetheart bowl. He will finish turning the handle when he gets home. So, he also learned how to make a design negative into a positive.
Mark and I had a great time together and I hope we can do it again some time,. He is flying back to Sweden tomorrow with his projects and a few new tools. Now he can have some fun in that workshop in his basement!
Sorry I didn't get more photos of us actually working in the shop, but it was crowded and a bit chaotic so we just kept our noses in the work. This was a great way to spend some time together and I highly recommend it to others. Thanks for reading!