Wood Turning on the Table Saw Part One

PART ONE: Inspiration, Planning, Preparation and Selection

Almost everyone assumes turning a bowl is something you do on lathes.  How about turning a bowl more than 20 inches across out of a huge slab of highly figured hardwood?  Or turning a huge bowl with pockets of rot or bark?  Now that would totally take special and expensive equipment right?  What if I told you there is a way to create massive bowls without a lathe at all?  That is what we are doing here!



Using nothing more complicated than a table saw and some scrap lumber I turn some highly figured Box Elder wood into the two pieces you see above.  Before we start lets take a moment to talk about WHY you might think of doing it this way in the first place.

To start off with I do own a lathe but it is NOWHERE near large enough to tackle a project like this.  Trying to turn something this size on my under-powered machine would be an exercise in futility, but lacking the horsepower isn't the only reason someone might shy away from lathe turning.  Maybe it is a one off creation and you don't want to make the investment.  Maybe there is something inherently unstable about the stock you want to use, something that would make a 24 inch spinning disk potentially very dangerous.  Now I am the first to admit you are exchanging one type of danger for another, but I can also see where this method might be the only way to accomplish a task.  As a "for instance" I have always wanted to make something out of the gallery of a large carpenter ant nest.  For the life of me I can't think of a single way to turn that safely on a lathe but I think it COULD be done using my method.

In this first video I am just introducing the concept and there is little to add but still a few words of advice...

Picking your stock:  Chose wood that is dry and has stabilized.  Turning wood that is still wet will be a recipe for heartbreak.  It is going to warp and twist on you making it next to impossible to progress from step to step.  Make your selection carefully and then set it aside in your work space for a long time.  Give it a chance to acclimate.  If upon inspection you find that the material has warped, twisted bowed or moved in any real way give it a little more time.  Wait for it to stop moving.

Know your tools:  This IS your responsibility.  No one is in charge of your safety but you.  Later in the series I will be doing things that, and this is important to remember, YOUR TOOLS WERE NEVER DESIGNED TO DO.  Now that isn't to say they can't or wont but it bears remembering, pushing boundaries isn't without its own set of risks.  Only you know what you are capable of doing, what your skills allow and what your tools can handle.

Check out our first video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKzXVLsRV8&feature=youtu.be

Turning Large Bowls on a Table Saw

This has been one of the most interesting projects we ever turned out on the table saw.  The video of doing this has won us awards on instructables and the bowl itself won awards at the fair.  Every once in a while someone will come up to me and say how they used to cut circles on a table saw, and occasionally I will see a small bowl turned in much the same way but never more than about 10 inches or so.  I am proud of this idea, not claiming I was the first to ever do it, far from it, but I can say that I thought it up myself independently.  There is some pride in that.

Some have raged against the practice, mostly on the side of either the saw is going to kick back/bowl explode, or that you can't see the cutters and might stick a finger into them.  I suppose those both have some validity but then they are true for nearly any other project as well.  As for not seeing the cutters, lots of tools, jointers, routers, plainers, even dado cutting on the table saw, obscure their cutters.  Why would this example be inherently any more dangerous than any other?  For the most part I dismiss that complaint as an internet expert.

The kick back... well this isn't something that can be feather boarded in place for each cut.  That would take days and I don't see an easy way to do it.  It is true that the project is captured only by that dowel but that is a substantial hardwood dowel and it would STILL have to lift and throw the sled on top of it.  I keep lots of weight on the sled and keep the sled contained in its tracks.  I have been doing this for quite some time now and other than blatantly forcing that dado blade to take huge cuts AND counter feeding it I just don't see how it could bite hard enough to blast that whole mess.  All woodworking is dangerous but I don't even see this as more dangerous than say ripping thin strips of figured wood.

Below you can find more videos of us using this unusual idea.

Children's Woodworking: Mother's Day Cutting Boards

This project was a blast and my little guy loved it.  The whole process is very simple and little hands struggling with dexterity can help with a lot.  I had an idea in my head of what I wanted but he got to make most of the decisions about wood selection.  My advice, encourage your little guy to make all the choices he or she can and as long as it has no effect on the functionality use them.  He is still proud when they get taken out and used and they have held up well.

On your wood selection I recommend sticking with woods that grow things humans eat for the most part.  A nice bland wood like maple, birch or cherry (as I used here) will not impart a taste to the food.  Some people can be allergic to black walnut and oak can leave a flavor.  I would avoid pine, fir or larch and ALL mystery woods.  Ceder would work well and would be gentle on your knives but it will show it's use more than others.

Filtering Used Oil For Reuse

People have asked me why someone might want to do this, well to save money and to help the environment  There are lots of applications, maybe not used motor oil, but lots of other applications where the oil isn't 'worn out' it is just contaminated.  Oil that comes from the rear ends or transmission of heavy trucks for instance is normally changed either because modern equipment mandates it or because it is dark/contaminated.  Older trucks and tractors just don't care as much about this sort of stuff.  My grandfather was always fond of saying you could use peanut butter in a tractor differential and it wouldn't care as long as there was something in there.  Now he wasn't serious about sandwich spread but there is still a lot of truth to it.  Our old equipment isn't very particular and rather than discarding this material this is how I get the chunks out and put it back to use.  I do this with gear oil and hydrolic oil.  I wouldn't put it back into a road vehicle but for mowers, tractors heck even chainsaw bar oil it works a treat.

Preparing your camper for winter!

The video does a great job covering the steps and it isn't very complicated.  People seem confused about the antifreeze, remember this isn't so you can use regular antifreeze, that is poisonous.  I simply want to use as little of the RV antifreeze as I can because I don't like the taste and I don't want to buy more than I need.

It is also important to drain your holding tanks either before or after you do this.  The little bit of water and antifreeze that might find it's way into those tanks as you winterize should not be an issue.  If you get a lot of water in the tanks and don't want to go and redrain them you will have to put antifreeze in there as well.

Lowes Fire Truck Build

This was a great project for my little guy as he got to participate so very directly.  I build things for him all the time but often that process is spaced out over several days.  This was kind of nice because we started with all of the pieces and he simply got to put it together.

The kit was what you would expect from something like this.  The pieces were all pre-sized, drilled and finished but didn't always match the pictures or directions.  Nothing split or chipped during assembly so that was nice.  I did have to pre-start some of the nails to prevent him from bending them over.  I didn't like how the nail head sit proud of the wood unless you really sink them.  I would advise doing that for your little carpenter as a few hard misses can really mar the finish.

You can find this kit here:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_75215-94546-107019239213_0__