My first goblet attempt

[John Charles]

I made this last evening, 7" tall 2" dia, maple with only mineral oil, too much of a hurry to get it off in one piece to do any more.
Ok JT finally I post a pic
John

[pops-shop]

And a good lookin' post it is.

I think I should have said:

And a good lookin' goblet it is.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

John

You got alot of firsts out of the way. Nice to see the photo and glad you figured that out and you did a great job on the goblet. I know cutting cross grain can be tricky and sharp tools are a must. What did you use to turn the inside with??? How thin did you make it??? You are well on your way. Good job.

[John Charles]

John T,
Well I probably did it all wrong but I turned the outside length to round then move the tailstock out of the way and did the inside very slow using a 3/8 spindle gouge from center to outside.

The cup is about 1 3/4 deep on inside and 2" outside making the bottom about 1/4, sides are about 1/8. until I finished the outside of the cup I doubt if I was above 200 rpm, I would imagine I should have had something on my tailstock to keep it centered but I can't use what I don't have!

One thing that helped was having my skew sharp for sure! Maybe if I saw someone else turn one of these or something like it I would have a better idea of what I should be doing!

John

[Gunny]

Hi John... really nice job.
Once you turn the blank round and hollow the cup, try using a tennis ball to steady it. I take a tennis ball and cut a 5/8" hole in it. Then I put the ball in the cup and use a 60 degree live center snugged up into the hole.
It's soft enough that it doesn't damage the cup and sturdy enough that it holds the piece firmly while I turn the stem...
There are a bunch of other methods I've seen but this one happens to work well for me.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Great tip Gunny!!! That one went into the memory banks. Thanks John for the explanation and again nice job with it. Learning the skew is a great tool for sure. I just learned yesterday I may have my skew ground to too sharp of an angle which will lead to more dig ins. I am going to have to look into this.

[John Charles]

I take a tennis ball

Thanks for the tip Gunny and the compliments!

It just happens that the grandkids that visit often have a bad habit of leaving all the tennis balls they find at the school court 2 blocks from my house, I have bags and rain gutters full of them!

The tennis ball sounds like a real good idea, maybe I will give it a try tomorrow, a couple of co workers actually want to buy a couple of these if I come up with a price!

Regards,
John

[Fotios]

Hey John
Very nice job. I have never worked with a lathe. I think it is a real good piece of work.
Keep up the good work.
:D

[Gunny]

Quick thought here regarding Skew chisels...
About 8 months ago I bought a set of two Benjamin's Best Versa Chisels...
They can be used as a gouge, scraper or skew. I find them a lot more forgiving than a regular skew and they do nearly the same job...
The secret (as with all cutting tools) is to keep it sharp (best way is by stropping the flat and leaving the bevel alone).