<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Oh yeah, the UFO bowl 😂 Two years ago I was turning a large (probably 14-15” dia) mesquite bowl as a wedding present for my bride to be. It came apart explosively, a piece hit me, several flew across the shop, and I’ve never even found some of them. Luckily I was wearing good PPI, including a very stout helmet. I had some bruises, but no cuts or bleeding. Once I got my senses back, my thoughts were the same: Well, shit, that didn’t work out. <div><br><div>My story goes on, though. <div>I also had a nice 16” pecan blank dry and ready to turn. I thought that would do well as a replacement. So, I turned it more carefully. No inclusions in this blank. Of course, just as I took my last cut on the ID (the OD was done), I saw a little pinprick of light in the side wall about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. Right. Too thin. I’ve been trying for 2 years to figure out if there’s any way to salvage it. It’s sitting in my shop, haunting me, as we speak. </div><div><br></div><div>The rest of the story: some of my very good Woodturner “friends” made a bowl for her as a wedding present 😄She loves it, but is still merrily asking when I’ll finish “my” bowl. As the story goes, Real Soon Now 😂</div><div><br></div><div>But, if you really need one, I’ll happily finish one of the dozens of semi-finished bowls that I have in my shop for you! Just not quite as big or exotic. </div><div><br></div><div>John McCaskill<br><br><div dir="ltr"><ul style="margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Everything is always okay in the end, if it's not, then it's not the end.</span></li></ul></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Aug 14, 2021, at 5:07 PM, Gary C Williams via Woodworkers <woodworkers@lists.sawdusters.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
<div style="color:black;font: 10pt arial;">I volunteer with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity on the construction side and we have a volunteer of the year award.
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<div>Last year because of Covid we didn't have our annual farm to table dinner. So this year we are planing on awarding a gift to two people, one for last year and one for this year.</div>
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<div>One of the long time volunteers that died a few years ago was a great bowl turner so they have named the award after him (Steve Thompson).</div>
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<div>After his sudden death, his wife gave me the opportunity to take as many bowl blanks that I wanted, which without being greedy, I took probably 10. </div>
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<div>These blanks went back to 2014 -2015 so they are really, really dry and some have major cracks. </div>
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<div>I was turning a Spalted Red Oak bowl this afternoon, while I had finished the depth and was working on thinning out the sides, <span style="font-size: 13.3333px; background-color: transparent;">suddenly it became a UFO.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;"> .</span></div>
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<div>I had thought 30 minutes before that I should probably stop and fill the cracks with epoxy and let it cure for a couple of days. But, no in my infinite wisdom, I figured I would play the odds and finish it up and then fill the cracks.</div>
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<div>I saw a T-shirt yesterday that said my last words would be: Well shit, that didn't work out so well.</div>
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<div>As I was picking up the pieces, I thought exactly the same thing.</div>
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<div>Lol</div>
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<div>Gary Williams</div>
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<div><Red Oak Bowl on Lathe.jpg></div><div><Red Oak Bowl with Cracks.jpg></div><div><UFO.jpg></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>I want to be one of my friends for a day so I can see how cool it is to hang out with me.</span><br><span>Woodworkers@lists.sawdusters.org</span><br><span></span><br><span>To unsubscribe from this list -</span><br><span>http://lists.sawdusters.org/listinfo.cgi/woodworkers-sawdusters.org</span><br><span></span><br><span>Address to contact the list ADMIN staff -</span><br><span>woodworkers-owner@lists.sawdusters.org</span></div></blockquote></div></div></div></body></html>