woodworking plans owl box

hi, alan stratton from as wood turns dot com.a couple of months ago, we had the storm of the century here in the northwest and a lotof damage was done. in fact, a gum tree fell right in front of my house, missing the houseby three feet. every cloud needs to have a silver lining.for the silver lining here, well, let's make a natural edge bowl, turned green, out ofthat gum tree. i've mounted a half log on my lathe with thebark towards the headstock. i'm using a spur center in the headstock and a cone centeron the tailstock. i'd prefer a live center with less of a point -- i'll have to retrievemine from arizona. this arrangement is deliberate. i used to use a screw center for these turnings.but after a class with kirk deheer, i'm using

this setup. but still the first order of businessis to round out the blank. i probably should have trimmed it more on a bandsaw -- i reallydon't have a good excuse. here's where the mounting setup that i learnedfrom kirk pays off. with the lathe off, i'll find the lowest point of the bark on the naturaledge and draw a line around the bowl. then i'll loosen the tailstock and move the pointtrying for one half the distance between the high and low bark edges. this is to even outthe bottom edge. then tool the bowl round again.next i'll do the same with the top bark edge. mark the line and move the tailstock aimingfor one half the distance between the lines. actually, my top edge was pretty good already.then repeat until edges are close enough for

a well-balanced bowl.then i'll finish the outer profile including a mounting tenon.now to sand and wax the exterior. then hollow out the interior. this is wherei can really make shavings with my bowl gouge. then i'll finish off the interior bottom witha heavy bowl scraper, and the inside edge with the bowl scraper in shear scraping position.finally sand and wax the interior. just a little bit more now. i've padded anold jamb chuck with a sanding pad and i'm using the old tailstock center point to positionthe tailstock again. with this all ready, i'll carefully cut off the mounting tenonstill leaving a little stub and finish the bowl bottom.i've given this bowl to a friend who helped

process the tree when it fell. i gave theminstructions to keep it in a paper sack until it feels lighter and does not feel cold. thewax i applied will retard moisture loss and hopefully prevent it from cracking. afterthat, they can take it out of the sack but keep it out of direct sunlight. then in 2to 3 months, it will be dry and finished any any warping. they are to return it to me fora little more maintenance: i'll remount it using the stub to center the bottom, and toolthe bottom to remove the stub and to enable the bowl to sit flat without rocking. i'llalso re-sand and touch up anything that needs more attention.and sand and wax the bottom. voila, a natural edge green turned bowl thathas nearly its final shape and without waiting

a year for it to dry. it's kind of a compromisebetween instant gratification and getting the bowl well shaped. i like this processand will use it more for all natural edge bowls in the future.be sure to like this video and subscribe to my website and youtube channel. wearing aface shield keeps the turning fun. until next time, this is alan stratton from as wood turnsdot com.