In the first half of this blog post, I cut up a Ficus log and made a nearly 11” round for later turning into a bowl. I sealed every part of it in Anchorseal. Flash forward about 12 days, this past Saturday, and I finally chucked it up and made a bowl. Unfortunately, as with everything Ficus I’ve ever sealed, it was covered with mold by this point, and a little bit stinky.
I figured I’d turn the mold away. I went with a faceplate on the soon-to-be-concave side:
Here’s where I stopped taking pictures, because I made a sweet time-lapse video of the whole turning. This is 1 frame every second. The full, real time to turn the bowl was 72 minutes:
And here’s the finished bowl. Note that the mold penetrated through the whole thing, right up the grain lines:
The tenon remains until I can finish sand and then coat it with whatever I decide to put on the finished piece. Meanwhile, it will dry out more. It was quite damp here. You can still see that darn mold poking through on the bottom here. Note the blotchy, greenish areas.
It’s about 9-5/8” total. It’ll be hard to make an exactly 12” bowl, as the blank would need to be exactly 12”, and it would be just about scraping the ways of my lathe. This started out nearly 11”, and now is under 10”. I had to turn more away from the outside than I wanted as there was a big bark inclusion cutting across it.
Anyone know any remedies for mold IN wood? Should I soak it in alcohol? Light it on fire? Give it to someone I don’t like very much? It has an acrid, musty smell. But hey, it looks just like a bowl!
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator
11 comments so far
Kindlingmaker
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1475 posts in 422 days
posted 110 days ago
Thats cool! If you keep this up I’ll have to sell the truck, give away the dog and buy a lathe! Your post are great Thank you
-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings
lew
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4490 posts in 651 days
posted 110 days ago
Gary, Your are becoming a turning genius!!
Here is something I made from a thing I saw on a turning sight. It helps me turn/finish the bottom of a piece.
The hold downs have cork on the inside edge to provide friction. Made the entire thing out of scraps and a couple of dollars worth of hardware. The concentric rings on the face are just to help center the work piece. The independent movement of the hold downs allow chucking of a piece that is not symmetrical.
It is really handy to get a tap- and associated drill bit- that is the same size as the threads on your head stock. You can then make all sorts of specialized chucks.
Hope this give you an idea!
Lew
Scott Bryan
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20707 posts in 718 days
posted 110 days ago
Gary, you are quickly becoming a turning expert!! I just wish I had a lathe in my shop (deep sigh)!!! :)
This is a really nice looking bowl, by the way. It is going to be an interesting project when it is finished.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
kenn
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218 posts in 616 days
posted 110 days ago
Love the time laspe, and I am enjoying following your journey.
-- Every cloud has a silver lining
a1Jim
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16910 posts in 473 days
posted 110 days ago
Cool Gary
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
scrappy
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1628 posts in 326 days
posted 110 days ago
Gary great job on the video. Nice to see a piece go from rough to finish that fast. You are getting GOOD at turning, but I gues you have to get rid of all that wood you brought home, so you have lots of prctice. haha
Allways enjoy your posts. Keep them up.
Scrappy
PS Nice bowl!
-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!
Gary Fixler
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648 posts in 277 days
posted 108 days ago
Kindlingmaker – Get to it! I want to see some nice turnings soon :)
Lew – That is incredible! Well made! I’ve seen the Stronghold Jumbo Jaws accessories I could get for my Oneway chuck, but it never occurred to me I could just make my own whole rig as you did. Nicely done! I have one giant tap in my collection, and it still isn’t that big. I bought it to mount some Loc-Line hose in an aluminum manifold in my little machine lathe. I’ve never used it again since. I’d probably find more reasons to use one that fit my wood lathe’s spindle. Thanks for sharing the pics.
Scott – Thanks! It’s been 8 days since I turned it now, and though I’ve done nothing but rest it on my workbench in the garage, it shows no checking at all. This is my most stable turning yet. Fingers crossed. I did detect some pretty good warping. It doesn’t lay flat upside down, for example. The rim is wiggly. I will probably remount it in a month or two and turn it back to true, which will make it thinner, which is also fine. It will be pretty dry and done warping by then, I hope.
kenn and Jim – thanks guys!
Scrappy – thanks very much, and yes, I’m looking at the lathe as a fantastic way to thin the herd out in my backyard. It’s too tiny a yard to be such a jungle of log piles and racks of logs and boards :)
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator
Mark Shymanski
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1555 posts in 608 days
posted 92 days ago
Thanks for this blog, great time-lapse!
-- ...it's rennovation time!!!
MsDebbieP
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14159 posts in 1056 days
posted 88 days ago
excellent.. love your videos!!
a request: (from a beginner-beginner turner) Could you hold up the tools you are using so I can see what you use, when.
as for the mold .. seal it…. (that’s not words of expertise.. just an idea)
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Bill Akins
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236 posts in 594 days
posted 83 days ago
Beautiful bowl, love the video.
-- Bill from Lithia Springs, GA I love the smell of sawdust in the morning.
Gary Fixler
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648 posts in 277 days
posted 83 days ago
Mark – You’re welcome, and thanks!
Ms. Debbie – Thank you very much! I think one of these days I’ll have to do a little instructional video to show all of the little things I’ve learned on my own, which I haven’t really seen in any of the stuff I’ve found online. These are just the things you learn as you go – when things catch, what causes problems and such. I’m still learning a lot each time I go in, and don’t always exactly know how a movement will work, and I pay for the learning in catches, gouges, and cracks. Less and less as I go, though, which is good.
Bill – Thanks!
-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator