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   Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:36 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

   For the first time in months, I started turning a new bowl. It began as a crotch from a chokecherry tree, then I turned it roughly round, with the pith running horizontally in the bowl to be (yes, I know, that will probably cause cracking). Also, there was a bark inclusion in the blank, which I am now filling with purple-pigment-filled epoxy. If you’ve seen a yarn bowl, the bark inclusion looked similar to the curved hole in yarn bowls. At least one more pour before it goes back on the lathe.

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     Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:29 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

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     This evening, some more shop time. I finished hollowing the bowl, and sanded the inside, but there’s still quite a bit of hand-sanding to be done, since I patched the cracks from the inside as well. But I made a custom shaped scraper and cleaned up the excess glue and fill before I called it a night, plus cut off the tenon on the bottom of the bowl, and began cleaning that up. It’s looking pretty good so far. My big worry is I’ll break it at this point, but I’m hoping that’s a healthy worry.

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     Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:30 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

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     I put a test-coat of oil on so I could see how things are progressing. A little hand-sanding, and the outside will be done, except for turning off the tenon on the bottom and smoothing the bottom of the bowl. Not sure if that will happen on the lathe (with a jam chuck, most likely) or by hand in the bench. A lot will depend on how thin I turn the walls tomorrow or Friday. More details in the alt-text. #woodTurning #crackRepair (2/2)

     Mr. Bill repeated this.
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     Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:31 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

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     This morning, I spent another hour and change finish-turning the outside of the bowl, then going back and filling the tiny cracks from the juniper drying with purple cosmetic mica and CA glue. This combination ends up being harder than the juniper wood (I might’ve said this was chokecherry earlier; I was confused), so when I sand off the excess, I’m still left with a tiny ridge. Not really visible as such, but it’s interesting to touch, and more kintsugi than wabi-sabi. (1/2)

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     Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:33 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

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     Got a session out in the shop this evening. Rough-hollowed the bowl so that I can finish turn it maybe next week. It gets the weekend for the epoxy to cure and the wood to finish drying, and possible crack some more. I also might decide to touch up some of the chip-out in the epoxy where it wasn’t cured enough, but I’ll decide that tomorrow, as any patches will be small enough to cure very quickly. I think it’ll end up being a right handsome bowl when complete, though. #woodTurning

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     Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:34 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

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     Third, and hopefully final epoxy pour complete. A total of 5 oz (150ml) of epoxy resin was used, which is less than most of my pours. I realized that I could fill the majority of the crack with sawdust, because it will be the interior of the bowl, which will get turned away. Didn’t pack it as tightly as I might’ve, or I probably could’ve cut it to 3oz.

     Anyway, a couple days to cure, and I’ll be able to hollow the bowl and get a better idea of what I’ll have. #WoodTurning #epoxy

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     Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 18-Oct-2025 02:53:35 JST Dave Polaschek (he/him)

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     As for any eventual cracking, my plan is to fill those cracks with epoxy as well, though depending on their size, I may need to use cosmetic mica and CA glue. Time will tell.

     Edit to add link. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cosmetic+mica+powder