Even more spinny stuff

Hi folks.  I've been turning Something nearly every day lately.

Maple bowl 4" across

My wife Lori and I visited the annual Remsen NY Barnfest craft show and market this weekend. There were easily a dozen woodworking related booths there.  We both came away thinking... that was nice, but there wasn't anything we could afford that we couldn't make ourselves.  To that end, several turners at the show had French Rolling pins. Lori liked them, but asked if I could make her a smaller one for our kitchen. 

I had a nice length of ambrosia maple on the wood rack, roughly 10/4 thick. I cut off a blank, chucked it up between centers and roughed it out using my spindle roughing gouges. I followed that up with the dreaded Skew.  

I've mostly kept my lathe speed in the 'low' range on my little midi, which is 500 rpm. As I progress, I'm slowly getting more comfortable with it, and tonight I bumped it up to 1800 rpm since I was spindle turning. That was 'interesting'... I was very much aware of that relative speed as I turned. By the end of the session however I was much more at ease. 

The end product is 11" long, about 1.25" in diameter. Lori asked for a shorter pin, vs the 15-18" long ones we saw at the show. That wound up being a very good thing. My little midi can only fit about 15" between centers at the moment. I do have the bed extension for it, but until tonight i haven't needed the extra length.  I may consider putting it on though.  That would definitely require an update on my lathe stand, which is something I've been considering of late.