Maxing out my Delta

I've been wanting to max out my 46-460 on a bowl for a while now. Got a river birch log from a friend a couple weeks ago. Turns out it was nicely spalted. Surprising as it has been in his garage over the summer.

Anyway, I was able to get pretty close to max round on the bandsaw. Roughed it out, and it's been drying. MC is down to about 14%, and I'm getting impatient. Thought I would true it up at this point to speed final drying. Wasn't too far out of round as this point, and since it's been somewhat humid, it's getting close to dry enough to final turn. I have to keep my patience, as I am afraid that if I try and final turn it now, I may have movement later.






It seems bigger than it looks in the photo. Right now it is right at 12". Can't wait to get it finish turned and a nice coat of lacquer. I'm thinking a couple coats of acrylic. I'm afraid an oil underneath would muddy up things too much.

Here it is finished.



Some scalloping in areas where the spalting softened the wood more than the surrounding area. Probably just have to live with it. It is also darkening somewhat from the above picture. Not sure how dark it will get.

Good Job:)

That turned out great! A beautiful piece, congratulations!

Doug, did you end up spraying with a gun? If so any issues with bounce back? I'm thinking of shooting the end grain maple that I brought to the meeting. It will need to be super wet in order to deal with the depth.