TURNING BOWLS AND PLATTERS. With Glenn Lucas 2014 ARROWMONT CLASS JIM PERRIELLO

Transcription

1 TURNING BOWLS AND PLATTERS With Glenn Lucas 2014 ARROWMONT CLASS JIM PERRIELLO 1. Glenn Lucas Instructor and Greg Schramek (Asheville, NC), assistant. a. Glenn Lucas is an Irish woodturner who is recognized as a master woodturner. i. Glenn Lucas is famous as a production bowl turner whose bowls are sold in major department stores worldwide. 1. In 2013 he turned and sold over 3,000 bowls worldwide. Uses local Irish hardwoods beech, ash, walnut and sycamore. Can turn a finished bowl in less than one minute and thirty seconds. 2. While most of the bowls he turns are usable, utilitarian bowl, he is also known for his artistic turning talents and his teaching abilities. Glenn Lucas grew up on a farm. Started wood turning when he was sixteen. While he was self-taught in as an apprentice in a wood turning shop, he eventually took some woodturning classes from Liam O Neil. ii. Glenn also operates a school for wood turning and conducts classes and demonstrations worldwide. iii. Glenn works with many manufacturers as an advisor. b. Greg Schramek owns and operates Flat Tail Studio for fine wood turning in Asheville, NC. Greg also teaches wood turning and can be reached at

2 2. The class assignments were to turn a cherry platter, cherry bowl and two maple bowls. The class was comprised of fourteen turners of varying experience levels from multiple states. 3. Information provided by Glenn: a. Lathe selection: i. Lathe should be constructed to reduce vibration. Lathe should be sized to the tasks to be performed. Glenn is consulting with Vicmarc on lathe designs. b. Tool selection: i. All tools buy quality tools. Many of the cheaper tools lack the thickness or hardness to be functional. ii. Gouges Glenn recommends that parabolic fluted gouges be purchased over V fluted or U fluted gouges. This is due to the increase cutting edge of the parabolic fluted gouge (see image #1). According to Glenn V gouges are better for rough shaping and U gouges are better for finishing the bottom of bowl. Parabolic fluted gouges are more versatile and are preferred by most professional turners. Parabolic gouges are available from Hamlet and Henry Taylor. Glenn has a line of turning tools through Hamlet. 1. Glenn provides a sharpening guide with all his tools that covers sharpening settings for all popular sharpening jigs. 2. Glenn prefers a 55 degree angle on his 5/8 inch gouge, a 45 degree angle on his 1/2 inch gouges (both bowl and spindle) and a degree grind on his 3/4 inch gouge. (see image #2) a. The 55 and 45 degree angles better facilitate the transition from the inside sides of the bowls to the bottom. iii. Glenn uses negative rake scrappers when needed (33 35 degree angles). iv. Glenn uses a diamond point scraper to turn the spigot of the bowl to the dovetail angle needed for the chuck. c. Sharpening: i. Grinder 1. Uses a low speed grinder (1750 rpm or slower). 2. Recommends on a pedestal with tool rest at elbow height. 3. Recommends Cubic Boron Nitride CBN wheels since they not lose diameter. Should last forever. 4. Alternative recommendation is a Norton 80 grit aluminum oxide ruby wheel and Norton 3X 46 grit blue ceramic 8 inch wheels. 5. Recommends using a single point dresser or using a diamond dresser moving from edge to edge. 6. Uses the Tormek sharpening system for finish sharpening. Locates on a bench at bench height. New jig from Tormek enables the user to use the Tormek sharpening jigs on the Wolverine sharpening system for rough sharpening. Glenn is advising Tormek on product development. 2

3 ii. Sharpening technique: 1. Uses the Irish grind or swept back wings grind. 2. Sharpens mostly free hand. 3. Has multiple Wolverine jigs set at fixed angles Varigrind jig setting 3 for 55 degrees and Varigrind jig setting of 2 for 45 degrees (hand out on sharpening his tools). Uses a homemade distance guide for the Wolverine jig bar. 4. Sharpens wings to the diameter of the gouge. For a 5/8 inch gouge he would only sharpen the wings a distance of 5/8 inch from tip. 5. Grinds a second bevel on all gouges to better facilitate the inside bowl angle. 6. Uses black marker on the edge of the tool and turns the sharpening wheel by hand until the marking is removed. 7. Sharpen tools before they get dull. 8. Recommend purchase of the Glenn Lucas sharpening video. d. Chucks i. Glenn recommends using dovetail jaws chucks as opposed to the serrated chuck jaws. 1. Glenn s observation was that dovetail jaw chucks are more common in the Western United States and serrated jaws are more common in the Eastern US. ii. Uses a diamond point scraper ground to the angle of the dovetail jaws to turn the bowl spigot. iii. Glenn does not recommend using the OneWay dovetail jaws due to the steep angle of the bowl foot wood required for a secure fit which can release due to vibration. Glenn recommends the Vicmarc dovetail jaws chuck for a secure grip. The bowl foot must be of a diameter to be totally enclosed by the dovetail jaws. e. Production faceplate: i. Modified six inch faceplate for rough turning. 1. Integrated three spur drives screwed and lock nutted into the face plate. 2. Uses an engineered beveled stub arbor to put the bowl blank on. 3. Drills a hole in the bowl blank center that will ride on the beveled stub arbor. 4. Uses tail stock to hold the bowl gouge on the modified faceplate. f. Jam chuck: i. Constructed a jam chuck out of MDF with black rubber facing. ii. Three pieces of MDF. Two support wings. iii. Uses a cup live center on tail stock for support. 3

4 iv. Also uses a smaller jam chuck for finishing the bowl. g. Sanding: i. Outside of bowl , 180, 240 and 320 grits. Three inch and two inch Velcro sanding pads. Use the part of the pad that is turning opposite the rotation of the bowl. ii. Inside of bowl grit for end grain. Lock the spindle and work the end grain , 180, 240 and 320 grits. Oil overnight, 2000 grit good quality wet/dry abrasive paper. Abrasive wool super fine. h. Finishes: i. Uses food safe finishes 1. Mahoney walnut oil i. Others: i. Uses a push cut for his finishing cuts ii. Uses concrete PVA bonding agent to seal wood. Wax based sealers created a slipping hazard in his shop so he switched to using less expensive concrete bonding agent available from any home improvement store to seal his wood. He dilutes the bonding agent one pint of water per gallon of PVA bonding agent. While I have purchased the concrete bonding agent, I have not had an opportunity to test it on green wood. iii. Glenn buys all of his wood from the same tree cutter so he gets the wood he wants. He selects all his wood and specifies the cuts. iv. Glenn recommends the OneWay coring system. He did caution that OneWay did have rod stock dimension issues that created assembly issues. Not sure if it was resolved by OneWay. All in all, the class was very enjoyable and I did learn a great deal. Glenn Lucas is an excellent teacher and I do recommend taking a class from him. He will be teaching at Craft USA in 2015 and will be demonstrating at the Tennessee Woodturners symposium in As I said, the participants in the class were of mixed experience levels. Some of the participants are going to Ireland in fall 2015 to take another class from Glenn. 4

5 Image #1 gouge shapes Image #2 grind angles 5

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