'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum'--workshop actually

  This morning after breakfast I went down to the shop to do a small lathe project.  I have got three cute little bottles and decided that I should make some lids for them. I had decided on three lids with the same shape from three different woods.  The bottles could be used for something stylish like fancy salts or  spices. 
  On my way to turning the lids two bowls and a spindle got in the way, and the lids are put off until tomorrow.

  The bowl is maple and turned out pretty well. I turned it using a variety of my carbide tipped scrapper chisels.  Initially I used the monster roughing gouge that I made a couple of years ago at a blacksmith work shop.  Once I got the lump of wood round I switched to my 'Easy Wood' tools and then used bee's wax as a finish.  I guess the bowl can be used for keys or spare change or something.

  Why did I make a bowl, when I wanted to make three lids?  I found that my face plate was screwed to the wood and I had begun shaping the bowl, last winter, I guess.  If I took the face plate off I might not get it remounted accurately later so I decided to turn the bowl and be done with it.

  The spindle was the result of me changing my mind once the bowl was done and planning to make all three lids the same. Sadly, once I got the interesting piece of fruit wood round, it was just a little to small to be used for the lids. Now the spindle is in a bin awaiting an unknown future purpose. Man turning it made a mess.  I started with the bark on, for future reference, that really cries out for serious dust collection.  

  My other face plate had a small bowl on it.  It was an experiment to see how small a bowl I could turn on my face plate.  I am trying to avoid the cost of a multi jaw chuck, so far, I've managed but......

I do like playing with my lathe.  I should also buy a dust hood , by the time I was done playing today I was covered in chips and dust.  I did wear a dust mask and safety glasses, they increase health and safety but won't reduce cleaning time.

  Last week David and I made a flower trough/deck planter.  

  Since we began with a carefully drawn plan, we ended with excellent results.  Nice finishing job guys.

cheers, Ianw