walnut/oak laminate bowl

Great looking bowl!

Do you use a press to hold the blank until the glue dries?

I just use (and I hate this method because it is messy and tough to get right) regular bar clamps to hold onto larger squares that sandwich the boards I plan on turning.

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

Sometimes we have to do what works with the equipment we have. I often look back on things I made with some pretty “primitive” tools and equipment. The results were usually good but the process was not always easy. Beware of “regular wood glue” on laminated bowls. One of my early ones met it’s demise because my sister left them in the sink with water in them.
If you are looking for wood pieces to turn check friend’s, neighbor’s and family’s firewood piles. Keep an eye out for people cutting down trees in their yards. Especially look for the crotch and burn sections. If you let people know what you are doing you might be surprised at how much raw material you can collect.

-- Les B, Oregon

when collecting wood for turning are there any specific woods I should lookout for/avoid?

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

You can try almost anything but I usually stay away from soft woods like pine, fir, and
spruce. However burls of these trees might work if they are not too full of pitch. Crotch wood (where two limbs join) can make beautiful pieces. Most fruit woods are good. I got my start with pear wood but it is rather plain. Apricot & plum are beautiful, and apple can be interesting. Oak often makes good turnings depending on the variety but they can warp quite a bit while drying out. I’m not familiar with all the trees in Nebraska (even though my wife grew up in Lincoln). Ash, Sycamore, pecan, walnut, maple, and even locus should be work. The worst you can do is waste some time trying different types. Write it off the bad pieces to learning (-;

If you work with “wet” wood you can usually speed the drying by quickly rough turning the piece to the general shape you want ( as an example make a bowl at least twice as thick as you want it to be when it is finished) and then put it in a closed paper shopping bag to dry (it will take a while…a few weeks even… but is faster than waiting for the whole blank to dry) and if you are in a hurry try heating it in a microwave (in the paper bag) for short periods. Just long enough to make the wood feel very warm to the touch; let it cool and do it again, and again, and again until it is dry. The bag contains some of the moisture that cooks out of the wood and acts like a steam kiln balancing the moisture inside the wood with the surface moisture. Sometimes if I notice cracks forming during this process I fill them with CA glue which usually helps stop them from getting worse. On some wood the periods between microwaving cycles may need extra time to stabilize before re-heating. This only works if you Mom allows you near the microwave with non food items or you have one available to the wood working shop. Those approaches failing, look in the nearest Goodwill or Salvation Army store for a used microwave. They should be cheap.
Good luck and have fun.
Les

-- Les B, Oregon

thanks for that, too bad I don’t really have access to a lot of scrap wood.

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

Nice unusual little bowl well done Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Great job, hopefully you get more quarters than pennies!

-- segmented turning kits ---> http://theSegmentedTurner.com