I do bowl turning partly because I can use a faceplate that I screw to the piece of wood, spindle turning using small diameter pieces and centering them between the headstock and the tailstock is almost impossible because you need to hold the piece of wood steady with one hand while the second hand slides the tailstock to tighten the piece down. If I had access to freshly cut wood it would be so much easier. Green wood turns much easier and sprays you with water/sap as you are turning. The objective in turning green wood bowls is to leave a substantial side wall thickness so after they dry into oblong shapes you still have enough material to make them round again. I however have to use dried half logs. In order to get them rounded down the easiest you normally would take them to a bandsaw and rough cut them to a round shape. Bandsaws at best require two useable hands to push the wood thru the blade. I don't have 2 useable hands or a bandsaw so I punted, I bought a JAW-horse, which you can use its rachet clamp on your piece of wood to hold the wood while you use a hand bucksaw to cut off the corners. For some of my wood I have 12 in logs that first need splitting. I stand them upright in the JAW-horse and cut a 2inch deep kerf to start the splitting process. My splitting wedge has a very blunt end and in order to use it I first have to drive 2 wood chisels in the kerf to open it up. Holding the wood chisels in my left hand still in order to pound them in is real problematic, I can't grasp my fingers tightly enough to hold the chisel. My spastic wrist curls in, pulling the blade out of the kerf, my spastic pecs pull the whole arm away from the block of wood. When I finally get them buried I get out the 3 lb. splitting maul and try to hold that upright while I use my 2 lb. hammer on it. So far no smashed fingers or hand. Lots of swearing though.
The actual turning, my left hand pretty much just rides along with the tool as the right hand controls the angle and pitch. I'm hoping that the vibrations will send signals back to whatever proprioception center I have or am recreating
JAWhorse here: 3 legs, the jaws rachet closed with the foot lever
Yellow button locks the jaws in place
What the wood looks like when clamped in, I cut off the corners
My bucksaw I use, Its a takedown model, it took lots of swearing to put it together one-handed
One corner off:
Two corners off
My splitting wedge, its almost impossible to hold this upright with my left hand and be able to pound on it. Wood underneath is a blue spruce.
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