Happiness is power sanding bowls :)

[MikeMcCoy]

I've only been turning for a few months and just recently started turning bowls. Sanding wasn't taking an extreme amount of time but it was taking more than I wanted. (I know that my cuts should be better ). I have the cheap little right angle HF drill and picked up some flexible drum mandrels and Woodcraft the other day. Sanding only took a short while and the result was excellent and no hot fingers. By the way, the Rhyno hook and loop sanding disks from Industrial Abrasives are as good as their other products. I've used the same series of disks on 3 bowls and they don't even appear to have any wear.

[SteveR]

Sanding only took a short while and the result was excellent and no hot fingers.

I hear ya on the hot fingers !! Grabbed some soft backing material, placed that behind sandpaper to help with the hotness, but after while even that gets pretty warm.
Is this the angle drill you grabbed at HF?? http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92956

This could be my new 80 grit bowl gouge lol

[guycox]

10 things I know about bowls and sanding...

Be careful with the heat.
1) The wood will actually "glaze" and it will be nearly impossible to sand to a higher grit -- you'll need to drop back to a coarser grit to break the glaze and then sand it properly...
2) The wood will actually develop heat cracks -- especially Lignum and Cocobolo.

Remedies -
1) Slow the lathe down. Way down. If it's too hot for your fingers, it's too hot for the wood. Use the abrasive not lathe speed.
2) Use fresh (quality) sandpaper -- used 100 grit is not the same as 220. When It stops cutting and is just making dust and heat you're wasting your time and your wood.
3) Don't skip the grits and don't start with a too fine a grit paper.
4) Keep the tools sharp and learn to use them properly.
5) Learn the bowl gouge slicing pull cut -- ( fluted skew !)
a) Handle down, almost vertical - rotate the headstock to get the bed out of the way.
b) flute towards the rim, long edge bevel sitting on the center line tangent.
c) lock your arms use your legs and body to move the tool.
d) Watch the hozizon -- top instead of the surface passing by the tool rest to avoid flat spots.
6) Life is too short to turn crappy wood.
7) CA and PVA ( watered down ) make pretty good wood stiffeners when forced to deal with crappy wood.
8) Grind the hump off the Ellison gouge. (it'll grab) -
9) Get the bed out of the way when turning the inside - So you can make a great circle approach to the bottom of the bowl. I'll keep you from getting those funny transitions between the side and the bottom -- Get off the center line and open the flute and take the longest possible route between the mid-line rim and the mid-line bottom (a curve).
10) Set the thickness of the rim and don't go back, working your way to the bottom.

[SteveR]

Remedies -
4) Keep the tools sharp and learn to use them properly.
5) Learn the bowl gouge slicing pull cut -- ( fluted skew !)
a) Handle down, almost vertical - rotate the headstock to get the bed out of the way.
b) flute towards the rim, long edge bevel sitting on the center line tangent.
c) lock your arms use your legs and body to move the tool.
d) Watch the hozizon -- top instead of the surface passing by the tool rest to avoid flat spots.

Great tips Guy Thanks!
Yes, I recently got the wolverine jig...night and day difference....thought I doing okay by hand but no. Seems to have cut sanding needs down greatly, when I get it right (I think) the cut provides an almost shiney surface.
I have tried the bowl gouge slicing cut I think Bill Grumbines dvd has it on there. Been able to get some NICE thin/delicate curls from that technique. The horizon watching takes some getting used to. Some more tool confidence will help that one out.....works very well when I do it tho. Did not realize I could water down CA.
Thanks
Steve

[Joe DeFazio]

Did not realize I could water down CA.
Thanks
Steve

Hi Steve,

You cannot water down CA! Water causes it to cure very quickly. I thing that guycox meant that you could water down the PVA glue (titebond, etc.).

Besides, the thinnest CA is at least as thin as water and penetrates wood more readily than water....

Joe

[MikeMcCoy]

Is this the angle drill you grabbed at HF?? http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92956

That's the one and kind of hard to beat at that price. I originally got it to help me put some wiring in some studs with limited access.

[SteveR]

You cannot water down CA! Water causes it to cure very quickly. I thing that guycox meant that you could water down the PVA glue (titebond, etc.).

Hi Joe, Thanks for the clarification.....I need to read the posts better!

Thanks for the verification Mike, yea, I figure that is a smokin' price, even if it only lasts a year or two.

Speaking of CA, I had to go to woodcraft to get some more. I had been using this type http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx...yID=346&cs=339 which is known as hot stuff. I had issues with half of the bottle going bad OR getting that screw lid off for the next use. The WC guy told me about some brand new CA they had in.....more pure, etc. It is not on the website yet that I have found, but one of the great things about it is that the cap has basically a nail in it and helps with the problems of the stuff going bad on you. I really like it so far PLUS it is about a buck cheaper than the hot stuff brand. He also told me trim carpenters like it to assist in hanging crown molding, etc., when you need 3 or 4 hands for project.......what a great idea. He said they place one of the freeze ice pack deals in a lunch box to keep it from curing during hot days on the jobsite.

Steve

[guycox]

Actually, the cap doesn't make a bit of difference. CA is anaerobic - it cures in the absence of air... So the cap is just there to keep the dust and accelerator out of the bottle..

Anaerobic you say -- Ok, that this test.

Put one drop of CA on a clean sheet of glass and time it to see how long it takes to get hard...

Then locate the debonder/acetone and take a drop an CA and put it on the tip of of the index finger of your writing hand and write down the time from step 1. Did you feel that sudden flash of heat as the CA cured in the airless environment between your index finger and the pencil?

Now get the acetone and remove the pencil from the end of your finger...

-- Put you CA into a dustless/dry place -- it's the best you can do.. Putting opend CA back into a refridgerated environment will hasten its demisse due to the condensation.. I leave my hotstuf uncapped and usually get to the bottom of the bottle.. My polyurethane usually goes bad before my CA - so I must be doing something right.