Cheap way to Practice Turning Bowls on the Lathe

Cheap way to Practice Turning Bowls on the Lathe

My wife and I have been interested in improving our skills on the lathe by making bowls and plates. But we did not want to spend a lot of money on high dollar wood only to make mistakes and have to discard of them.
A great tip that my wife picked up at a recent turning class that she took was to use pine lumber in place of your wood of choice.
This will allow you to practice several techniques at a low cost and if your newly turned item turns out beautiful, you can always give it away to family and friends who will be excited to receive your gifts.

Also some of the smaller pieces of scrap wood can be glued together to form larger beautiful versions of bowls and plates.
Just find the center, make a circle, trim off most of the excess, and turn away.

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2 Timothy 2:20

#woodworking #turning #tools

[ericeinsmann]

This is a very timely video for me! I just got my first lathe.. And once I get it cleaned up and running I will need some cheap wood to practice on.. I even have a old piece of reclaimed Masonite to glue in between the layers of pine to give it a bit of variety. Thanks!

[stevecorry]

Great video guys. I really appreciate it. I have been turning pens for about 7 years, but I have trouble trying to turn a bowl. So now I will practice on pine and see how far I can progress.

[hansonliu]

What a super creative method!
Thank you very much !

[JGAJ]

Wife & I love how the cylinder/cup turned out with the wavey lines, they seemed line up & match perfectly. You guys are AWESOME, give your wife a hug for a job well done, may you all be blessed & keep creating!

[pfiltz]

I'm a newb, and don't even have my lathe yet, but my first bowl was pine, coming from some waste blocks here at the plant where I work. We burn them in a burn pit, so I grabbed a couple and made a bowl out of it. The 2nd piece I turned was a small candy dish. Again from scrap pine blocks. This stuff is great for learning with.

[samanthabloggins]

I like the idea! i have wanted to learn how to use our lathe but have not had the wood to do so. now i will show hubby this video so he can help me to learn! Thank you

[davidfrishcosy]

Great job on that tool you made excellent idea

[mikegaulitz]

good video and good ideas especially for new comers to the lathe don't throw out those checked and cracked and cupped boards ca glue will fill the very fine cracks and add
some interest to your work for wider cracks fill with med or thick ca and add some color and the cupped boards can be glued up using some epoxy which can also be colored and
will add an extra element to the piece nice job have fun turning

[jim]

EXCELLENT video! Love the enthusiasm! Thanks!

[kevingraves]

Wouldn't running the wood through a joiner then a thickness planer (if you are doing more than two thicknesses) eliminate a lot of those gaps and the bowing/bending issue?

[DarkMoonDroid]

Super neat! Awesome that you're both into it!
☕🥐

[melvyndickson]

Good ideas to add to my learning experience.

[leksey]

Beautiful work! Good luck, my friend!

[asbrand]

Another cool thing you can do with pine is, after you turn it, you char it a bit with a propane torch. Not enough to set it on fire, but enough to blacken the lighter grains to a much darker one. Looks really nifty, too.

[Napalmgas]

Thanks for the Wonderfull idea!
Gary

[dougb]

I’ve laminated red cedar fence posts, makes nice bowls

[AllenOxendine]

Thanks for sharing. I’m a beginner turner so I need lots of help

[billthomas]

Fantastic ideas. Thank you so much for the information. You and your wife rock. Beautiful turning by the way. Thanks!

[richwilliam]

I have wanted to try wood turning and am setting up a bench/workshop to do so now. But I was really impressed by just how good those practice pieces in pine looked. Great video!

[allinafter]

Nice video. Thanks for the information. One thing that I have learned about soft lumber or green woods is to rough out the bowl down to about 1" to avoid any breakage, then put it on a shelf to dry for a while. Finish it up once it's dry.