July 8th – Ready to serve it up!  The turning club’s next challenge is to make a platter.  Not a whole lot of difference between making a bowl and a platter (or plate), the technique is the same.  All that really changes, is the size.  Getting the flat spots and the curvy parts to be consistent across something 14″ wide  is a tricky at best.

At least 5 years ago, someone gave me three walnut boards that had been glued together.  It was a cut off from some project he had done, and since I didn’t know what I was doing back then, I threw it up on a shelf with some other wood and forgot about it.  When I went looking for “platter wood” to use for the challenge, I realized  it was big enough that I could start with a blank that was 15″ wide and about two inches thick. Here’s my entry into the competition.  Not bad for a first effort on something this wide and this shallow!  Many thanks to Bob for the use of his big lathe, I couldn’t have done this on my little Jet.  I’m getting closer and closer to the day when I can rebuild a shop that actually has the right tools and enough space to use them!