Throwing bowls across the shop

I had daydreamed about turning bowls from chunks of tree for years before I finally bought a lathe. I made myself learn the basics, of course. But the first time I caught a city maintenance crew felling a big tree in my neighbourhood, I scored a six-foot log. It was a dead or dying Manitoba maple with characteristic streaks of pink and red through the heartwood.

I chainsawed and split it into half rounds and set them aside to dry, but couldn't wait to turn some. I chose an odd crotch piece, wedge-shaped and massive. Any sane turner would have called it firewood, but I didn't know better and thought it would make a fine first green blank.

Look how nice and new that lathe is!

The chalk marks are where the wood was binding on the lathe bed. I just kept whacking chunks off until it would turn. When the blank was finally free, I switched on the lathe and immediately switched it off, as it was doing its best to walk across the shop from the eccentric weight distribution. (Ever wonder what's in a vibrator? A motor and an eccentric mass, not quite as shown.)

Apparently I got it roughed down somehow, and the blank sat on my shelf for seven years. I had already sawed out a wedge of splintered splits, and you can see the wax on the branch end grain.

I had tried finish turning it once already, and had more or less trued it up and begun flattening the rim when I had a catch that sent the bowl flying off the screw chuck and across the workshop. Enough time had passed that I was ready to try again.

I grabbed it by the foot, used the tailstock to adjust it to run as true as I could, and then turned a tenon for the chuck into the central column I had left while rough hollowing.

Reversed and grabbed by the tenon, I could true the figure on the new centre. After some sanding it started to look pretty good.

Time to cut a new foot. My chuck manual says that the minimum recess diameter for an inside grip is 2 3/8 inches, so I dutifully used that dimension. I was justifiably worried about the skimpiness of the foot, but foolishly ignored my misgivings.

In truth, it looks like the chuck will grab a much smaller inside diameter, maybe as little as 2 inches, and I will ignore the manual and use the smallest recess that works in future. But in this case, I went for it, had a catch in the hollowing, and sent the bowl flying across the shop again, with a chunk of the foot missing. My fault, of course. I set it aside until I am not angry with it again.