I haven't used the wood lathe in waaaaay too long. It remains fun.

I did the casting at the last minute, right before we left to deliver the pepper mill, so I was extremely happy when I took the handle out of the sand and saw that it had turned out good enough to use. There wasn't time to make another.

And here's the CAD model I designed it in.

Here's the finished mill on a table.

Here are the blanks cut from that huge sycamore. I had to buy a new, larger chain saw just to cut it up.

Here's one of the blanks, cut round, with a screw in the center and a layout circle drawn on it, sitting on the bench in a fair amount of sawdust.

And the bowl on the lathe. It's the biggest thing I've ever turned.

And a quick clip of the blank spinning on the lathe.

And another present, in an hourglass shape with black accent lines. I forget who this one was for, too, and where the wood came from.

And from the side, showing the turned stem and foot.

And the finished piece.

This is one I can't remember much about, other than that I made it.

I like the crack in this one.

And this shallow bowl is made from some cherry left over from a dining room table I built with a friend.

Some more, in no particular order. Here's a pale one with a few patches of bark and defects, held up in front of my tool wall.

A deep bowl with a red streak running through it.

This one shows off its growth rings, and has a notch split into the rim.

This shallow one is turned from a dogwood that grew in the yard of our old house. I cut the tree down and was astonished at the interior, which was filled with green, white, and pink. The colors, unfortunately, don't really survive the drying and finishing process, but the wood is beautiful nonetheless, as was the tree it came from. (I made a goblet from the same tree, too.)

And a two-tone yellow and orange bowl, with the lathe shavings still on the bench behind it.

And a finished reddish bowl on a foot, sitting on a glass patio table in the sun.

And an oak bowl with a spalted, dark-veined patch in the middle.

A bowl on the lathe, with the shop behind it.

And one held up in front of the lathe, brown heartwood on one side and pale wood on the other, with a knot.

Here's a pen turned in a similar manner, from spalted maple off a branch I picked up in our yard.

Another spalted maple click pen, also from a branch I found in our yard, and also finished with superglue.

And a pencil with a figured wood barrel and chrome hardware.

And a pair of pen blanks on the lathe, between centers, getting turned down.

It came out a little chunkier than I would like, but it's kind of neat to have one that big. I might do more of these in the future.

Another handle, which I finished with purple dye, because I wanted to try wood dye. It came out pretty funky looking, but I think I like it.

I turned it a bit wet, unfortunately, so it dried misshapen.

This photo shows the wood a bit better. Here I'm cutting the blank that would eventually become the goblet.