Very nice!

I've been turning for several years and have wanted to try segmented turning. 

Do you use a drum sander to sand the layers before glue-up?

Tom.

Thanks! Yes, I use the performax 22-44 drum sander. You can get a book about Ray Allen that tells you other methods to get a flat surface. I thought I should mention that this piece is only th 15th piece I ever turned. Im only up to 18 right now. I've goofed around inbetween projects but I began my turning when I bought a Jet mini lathe in December 06' Then I bought the Jet 1442vs in march of 07' thats when I built this vessel. Thanks again for the kind words.

I have a table project comming up which is composed of maybe 80 pieces, which i thought much, but it pales in comparisson to the Monsoon.

Hats off, applause.

Great project.

Great work, Bill!  Now if you were only closer I would be twisting your arm to get you to teach a segmented turning class for the middle school program that just received all the great Festool and stationary power tools.  They would enjoy what you have done so well and some would also experience a "rapid learning curve". 

Seriously, if you can fit time into your schedule, seek out a local school with a wood working program and talk with the teacher(s) about doing a show and tell for their students.  Your work would be a real inspiration for them and sharing it with eager students would be a joy for you as well.  We look forward to seeing your future projects.

Jerry

Last summer during the monsoon season, every night that I got time to work on it, it was raining like heck. If there's one thing I love, it's a downpour while I'm in my work shop.  Not to mention the downpour of a learning curve this vessel caused. A year ago this time I was just building my shop so no insulation made it fun. As far as teaching students goes, as much as I would love to do that, I have 2 businesses in addition to my woodwork and my father just had a very extensive spinal surgery at the age of 81. I'll be helping to care for him until he is better. He'll be in the hospital for a total of 1-1/2 months. The doctor said it was the most complicated spinal surgery they've seen in 20 years. To make things worse, they had to go back in and remove some infection 2 days ago after being 2 weeks into it. Once he gets past this he shoud be better than he's been in 25 years.
 What I can recommend is getting 2 books, 1 is the book by Malcolm Tibbetts and the other is about Ray Allen. Rays book has a 1,2,3 style explanation on how to make a project. That's how I got started. I think I mentioned that Monsoon is only my 15th turning I ever attempted. Those books REALLY helped. If any of you ever want to try segmented turning let me know and I'll walk you through a project. I can send you a printed diagram that will tell you everything you need to know, cuts, angles, dimentions. Even a color picture of what it should look like.

Thanks DD. It really makes it worth while when it stirs people in this way.I'm glad you like it.

I'm sorry, I'll post the pics in a little while. I have to run for parts.

Here's a few shots of my first "So called" art show. The promoter never promoted it as promised so it was only traffic that saw the signs on the side of the road. Good time but no money made.

Thanks very much. I own Audio 2000 and WYCO offroad in Tucson AZ. I don't have a website for the offroad but my site for Audio 2000 is www.audio2000az.com My site is acting up right now but you can try to check out the gallery. We've been named one of the top 100 installation shops in the USA 7 times. Believe me, there are times I'd like to do just woodwork. I've only sold about 4 or 5 pieces of my work so far. For my tool investment, I've still got a long way to go to break even  So for now, I have to continue with the bread annd butter.

Thanks. I've always believed my best advertizing dollar is a little more time spent doing a better job than the competition. Seems to have a better return.

Bill already knows I love his work.

You know in my business, references and previous patrons mean very little. Yeah, its great to get a reference, but depending on what you do it may or may not matter. Seriously, the best advertising dollar from a business point of view is paying for the google search words. Specifically for a small woodworking company with a single worker selling single items.

If you have the balls to spend a 1000.00 a month not knowing you will get a sale, using a search engine for your web site is the way to go. Not sitting around waiting for references..You could never get 5000 people looking at your stuff  almost every day, like I do from google. From references its just not possible.

I am not saying do not do good work. I am saying from a business point of view the guy that ONLY relies on good references is not making as much money as the average worker using google search words or something similar. Actually, if you rely only on references you are probably out of business.

If Bill would let me make him a web site and post certain pictures of his excellent work and spend on google search, I could get him more work than he can ever possibly make, I am sure of that.

Make the items to the best of your ability every time and do not think that making a single client happy is going to make you money. Use that good work to show thousands what you can do. Word of mouth just is not what it use to be in this day and age of the internet and people who think they can compete by word of mouth only are living in the past. Since I started over 25 years ago word of mouth has decreased in making me sales. In the last 4 years I get 20 jobs or more for every call I even get by a referral. Its not that my quality is not there, it is a numbers game.

Nickao

Don, you're in Phoenix? I'm in Tucson. Maby we'll run into each other. Word of mouth keeps us busy in Car Audio. I do run TV adds for the offroad though. (I sell Joyner dune buggies out of Phoenix, I'm up there regularly.)

Wow, Bill!

did you build everything? The tables too? Awesome. Dudes got skills.

Eiji

If business doesn't pick up, this piece will be going to auction on the bay. I would take tools + cash if anyone here is interested.