Happiness is .... sawdust?!?

Sometimes you turn a piece, sometimes you make sawdust ... last night, I made sawdust. I had a nice looking piece of Ambrosia Sycamore to work. I studied the grain pattern, determined the best way to mount it to the lathe, and began turning.

I changed the design 3 or 4 different times (which is typical for me) in the process of shaping what I think would've become a bowl. I say "I think" because I never really know what I am doing out there.

The wood "tells" me what it is going to be at some point. That point never really arrived last night.

The main problem was that I kept getting shear cuts. Basically little rough spots. I could manage to fix it here, but then would have it show up else where. They were too rough, in my opinion, to sand out, so I kept on working it trying to smooth it out more, resulting in more sawdust and less material to work.

I had just about gotten it smoothed down to where I wanted when about 2/3 of the way up the piece (close to the headstock) when I heard an odd noise. At first, I sighed, and accounted it to be *more* shear tearing.

I quickly found that it wasn't the WOOD I was hearing as it got louder and the vibration was much worse. I thought I knew what it was, and upon turning off the lathe, my fears were confirmed.

I was hitting one of the mounting screws. Maybe it's time to start using a glue block -- I'm tired of wasting material anyways.

Damn! I already needed to sharpen my chisels, now it will be imperative (at least on that one). I know I should've sharpened them prior to starting, but the garage has become so cluttered, it would take an extra half hour to get a place on the bench cleared out for the grinder *before* I COULD sharpen them, then the half hour or so sharpening would mean I already lost a full *hour* of turning time.

I made a bunch of sawdust and sadly "wasted" a nice piece (I think I can still work it into something else, but will have to sharpen tools before I attempt it). However, as sad as it is that I messed it up (possibly), it was quite nice to be out playing in the garage again. It's been MONTHS!