A litle 'change dish' from a yew offcut.

[Yorkie]

i wish i could do things like that
rob t

Thanks for reading my post and taking the trouble to respond Rob.

Re your comment, you could do things like that if you had a lathe, some tools and an hour's tuition. Little projects like this aren't in any way challenging once you've been taught how to present a bowl gouge to the wood in a way that doesn't risk a 'dig-in' causing the wood to part company with the chuck. There are endless DVDs and videos on youtube showing tools and techniques - it's hopeless to try to turn anything without at least some tuition.

Incidentally, the biggest risk in woodturning isn't pieces of timber turning themselves into projectiles by taking flight at 1,000RPM - it's far more insidious - dust. Some timbers present particular risks - yew, laburnum, luan, and spalted woods can cause repiratory problems or worse. When sanding it's important to wear a proper respirator - not one of those silly white disposable things, whose only purpose in life is to fool our wives into thinking that we're taking sensible precautions.

I also have a woodturning dust vac with the hose adjacent to the workpiece when sanding, and I have a filter unit hanging from the ceiling of my workshop which comes on for a copule of hours each night to filter any dust out of the air in the workshop. It's surprising how much the filter collects.

David