Woodturning

[Angler]

Hey guys,

Turns out besides making knives, working in my backyard, and doing tool restorations, my hobbies expand to woodworking too now!
I bought this lathe 1 year ago but only now, finally found some time to work on it! I will, eventually, start turning bowls but for now, just practicing at spindle turning using some pipe dunnage material.

Wanna see what I turned?! Check the video down below!

https://youtu.be/RqMCeR0yCzE

Let me know what you people think!

I wonder how many woodturners here on this forum..

Thank you for watching!

[mahuna]

Well I know nothing about woodworking but I loved watching that! What a beautiful talent to have.

[owlhoot]

Nice job. I never thought to make Xmas decorations. Looks like an old Beaver/Rockwell Gap Bed Lathe. You must make your own tools.
Here is a bowl I made from an old trunk of Spalted Maple,

[Angler]

Originally Posted by mahuna

Well I know nothing about woodworking but I loved watching that! What a beautiful talent to have.

Glad that you enjoyed it!

[Angler]

Originally Posted by owlhoot

Nice job. I never thought to make Xmas decorations. Looks like an old Beaver/Rockwell Gap Bed Lathe. You must make your own tools.
Here is a bowl I made from an old trunk of Spalted Maple,

That's the one! Old one but still does the trick! Yeah, I did the Skew and Parting tool from old files.(https://youtu.be/zfvY-OYW6gM)

That's a gorgeous bowl you turned! I love spalted wood!

[Twisted Canuck]

Good video, enjoyed that.

And that spalted maple bowl is gorgeous owlhoot!

[Angler]

Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck

Good video, enjoyed that.

And that spalted maple bowl is gorgeous owlhoot!

Thank you, sir!

[jungleboy]

It's been a while since I fired up my little lathe . I used to turn some pens and fishing lures etc .
[IMG][/IMG]

[Angler]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

It's been a while since I fired up my little lathe . I used to turn some pens and fishing lures etc .
[IMG][/IMG]

Wow! Those look real good! You should maybe fire it up again!
Do you happen to have pictures of the fishing lures that you turned? That'd be cool to see

[jungleboy]

Thanks , lost most of my pics last spring when my hard drive crashed so no Lure pics that I can find so far.

[amosfella]

I used to make pens and bowls in pretty large quantities. I still have a handful of pens and a few of the bowls a made for competition kicking around.

Housecleaner dropped a few of my really really nice bowls though...

Pens were about the only spindle work I did on the regular. I could whack most types of pen barrel kits out in under 10 min. on the lathe. I didn't use mandrels or bushings. Drilling, gluing, and squaring time not included.

Bowls are a completely different set of skills. Always wanted a bowl saver kit, but never got one.

I'll have a look at your video, op.

[badbrass]

To Cool! You have talent! Keep it going!

[flyrodfisher]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

It's been a while since I fired up my little lathe . I used to turn some pens and fishing lures etc .
[IMG][/IMG]

Very cool!
You could turn some fancy flyrod reels seats with some of that wood too...

[Angler]

Originally Posted by badbrass

To Cool! You have talent! Keep it going!

Thank you! Will do!

[Angler]

Originally Posted by jungleboy

Thanks , lost most of my pics last spring when my hard drive crashed so no Lure pics that I can find so far.

Ohh, too bad..

[amosfella]

It's a good video. I understand you use of the bandsaw to take the corners off after seeing your rig. I never took the corners off any of my wood.

Few things. You will find your skew chisel easier to use if the angle of the bevel and edge was 30* off of square instead of 45*. Taking it back to 30* and rounding the end would make it even easier to use. Also, never lay a skew flat and use it to cut like a scraper. It can grab, and throw the tool and rip the piece off the lathe.

Another thing, when you're hearing that screech where you were using a carbide tipped ring tool, you're pushing the tool into the piece too hard. Less pressure and let the tool cut. If it won't cut, time for a new insert. This is true of any of your tool, unless you're looking to create a chatter effect.

Also, for your cuts, you should never cut against the grain. Always cut with the grain. So, for between centers spindle cutting, you want to cut from the largest diameter to the smallest. You can tear out the grain in the wood, or in woods like oak that are brittle for turning, you can blow pieces off the work piece if the tool grabs.

The gouge you had has a bowl grind on it. That's too obtuse of a grind for spindle work. They cut very slowly in spindle work. The grind whould be between 35*-40* from the flat of the tool. Then the tool runs in the top 1/4-1/3rd of the workpiece. It cuts much faster and cleaner that way. When ground that way, you can trail the handle of the tool about 45* and at about a 45* angle downwards, and it will take as big of a cut as your gouge and lathe motor can spin.

NEVER twist the parting tool in the cut to expand the cut. If the wood grabs the blade, you can eat the tool, and have the workpiece ripped out of the centers. It hurts to talk after. Take a second or third cut.

Once the piece is round, speed up your lathe. Speed is your friend in between centers turning. Doing pens, I had my lathe running between 5000 and 9000 rpm. (I redid the wiring on it. The bearings didn't like those speeds). I could cut a pen, and go straight from tool to finishing shelac/varnish. No sanding.

Over all, you did very well for working the lathe. I thought I'd give some pointers to help speed up your work and keep you safer.

[jungleboy]

Originally Posted by Angler

Ohh, too bad..

The pens other than the two in the middle are all turned from Caragana wood. I still have some of it if you would like a few pieces to play around with on your lathe.

[Angler]

Originally Posted by amosfella

It's a good video. I understand you use of the bandsaw to take the corners off after seeing your rig. I never took the corners off any of my wood.

Few things. You will find your skew chisel easier to use if the angle of the bevel and edge was 30* off of square instead of 45*. Taking it back to 30* and rounding the end would make it even easier to use. Also, never lay a skew flat and use it to cut like a scraper. It can grab, and throw the tool and rip the piece off the lathe.

Another thing, when you're hearing that screech where you were using a carbide tipped ring tool, you're pushing the tool into the piece too hard. Less pressure and let the tool cut. If it won't cut, time for a new insert. This is true of any of your tool, unless you're looking to create a chatter effect.

Also, for your cuts, you should never cut against the grain. Always cut with the grain. So, for between centers spindle cutting, you want to cut from the largest diameter to the smallest. You can tear out the grain in the wood, or in woods like oak that are brittle for turning, you can blow pieces off the work piece if the tool grabs.

The gouge you had has a bowl grind on it. That's too obtuse of a grind for spindle work. They cut very slowly in spindle work. The grind whould be between 35*-40* from the flat of the tool. Then the tool runs in the top 1/4-1/3rd of the workpiece. It cuts much faster and cleaner that way. When ground that way, you can trail the handle of the tool about 45* and at about a 45* angle downwards, and it will take as big of a cut as your gouge and lathe motor can spin.

NEVER twist the parting tool in the cut to expand the cut. If the wood grabs the blade, you can eat the tool, and have the workpiece ripped out of the centers. It hurts to talk after. Take a second or third cut.

Once the piece is round, speed up your lathe. Speed is your friend in between centers turning. Doing pens, I had my lathe running between 5000 and 9000 rpm. (I redid the wiring on it. The bearings didn't like those speeds). I could cut a pen, and go straight from tool to finishing shelac/varnish. No sanding.

Over all, you did very well for working the lathe. I thought I'd give some pointers to help speed up your work and keep you safer.

Wow!
Thank you very much for taking your time on writing all this! I appreciate it a lot, there are lots of good points!
I wouldn't twist the parting tool if the cutting edge was thicker on the end like on a fabric tool, since I made it myself it has the same thickness, so I'd need to regrind it.

Don't know much about angles and proper grinds for the tools, it will come with experience, so far I enjoy playing with it.

As for the speed, I think it's already on the fastest gear right now.
If I won't abandon this hobby would invest in a better lathe. So far so good.

Thanks again!

[amosfella]

Originally Posted by Angler

Wow!
Thank you very much for taking your time on writing all this! I appreciate it a lot, there are lots of good points!
I wouldn't twist the parting tool if the cutting edge was thicker on the end like on a fabric tool, since I made it myself it has the same thickness, so I'd need to regrind it.

Don't know much about angles and proper grinds for the tools, it will come with experience, so far I enjoy playing with it.

As for the speed, I think it's already on the fastest gear right now.
If I won't abandon this hobby would invest in a better lathe. So far so good.

Thanks again!

Ya, no problem. I hope you find what I said useful in practice.

As for the width of the parting tool, that's easily overcome by taking a second part width cut about every 1/4" of cut into the spindle. It would probably work better if you took the teeth of the file right down to smooth metal. Some companies use a diamond cut the length of the parting tool so the blade is kinda like a dagger. I didn't like that as it meant that you had to perfectly sharpen the tool to keep part of the blade from being wider than the cutting edge. Lee valley tools' catalog has good illustrations for that.

My favorite for a parting tool was to taper the blade of the tool towards the top, even if only a few degrees. Then you have one bevel going from the top of the tool to a point at the bottom where it's the widest. You can recut that tool you have like that if you wanted. For 99% of uses, your parting tool doesn't have to be longer than 3 inches.

Another parting tool you can make is a thin parting tool. Those are always tapered to the top of the blade and sharpened with one bevel like I described above. That's something easily made from a saw blade.

Parting tools when you make them are fun. You can sharpen them with tapers so that a point is presented into the wood with one side cutting faster for cleaner cut offs, etc. In fact, you can cut off both ends without taking it off the lathe if you know how to use these thin tapered point parting tools. I'll try to describe it for you.

First you cut your tailstock end where you want it to part off down to a 1/4" dowel or slightly thinner. Make that cut 2 widths of your parting tool, and have the end being taken off the piece cut to a taper. Then part the drive end down to about 1/4" two widths of the tool. Slow the lathe way down. Very gently cut off the end at the tailstock with the point of the narrow parting tool facing so the side that you're cutting off is being cut the fastest. When it comes off keep the piece pressed into the drive spur. Doesn't have to be pressed hard, just enough to keep in in the spur while it's being cut. Quickly grab the thin parting tool with the other taper so that the point is toward the inside of the workpiece. Gently cut off the last 1/4" left near the spur. Done right you should be left with less than 1/16" nub to sand on each end, and both the tailstock and drive end cut off pieces should fall out at the same time when you lift your finished workpiece from the lathe. This will vary by tool sharpness, wood strength, and pressure you put on the tool and on the piece when you hold it.

I hope that doesn't hurt your head too much.

[Phil McCracken]

Some beautiful work here!

I do not personally play with lathes, but do other general woodworking (ie.handcrafted knives).

Thanx for sharing the pics...

[Angler]

Originally Posted by amosfella

Ya, no problem. I hope you find what I said useful in practice.

As for the width of the parting tool, that's easily overcome by taking a second part width cut about every 1/4" of cut into the spindle. It would probably work better if you took the teeth of the file right down to smooth metal. Some companies use a diamond cut the length of the parting tool so the blade is kinda like a dagger. I didn't like that as it meant that you had to perfectly sharpen the tool to keep part of the blade from being wider than the cutting edge. Lee valley tools' catalog has good illustrations for that.

My favorite for a parting tool was to taper the blade of the tool towards the top, even if only a few degrees. Then you have one bevel going from the top of the tool to a point at the bottom where it's the widest. You can recut that tool you have like that if you wanted. For 99% of uses, your parting tool doesn't have to be longer than 3 inches.

Another parting tool you can make is a thin parting tool. Those are always tapered to the top of the blade and sharpened with one bevel like I described above. That's something easily made from a saw blade.

Parting tools when you make them are fun. You can sharpen them with tapers so that a point is presented into the wood with one side cutting faster for cleaner cut offs, etc. In fact, you can cut off both ends without taking it off the lathe if you know how to use these thin tapered point parting tools. I'll try to describe it for you.

First you cut your tailstock end where you want it to part off down to a 1/4" dowel or slightly thinner. Make that cut 2 widths of your parting tool, and have the end being taken off the piece cut to a taper. Then part the drive end down to about 1/4" two widths of the tool. Slow the lathe way down. Very gently cut off the end at the tailstock with the point of the narrow parting tool facing so the side that you're cutting off is being cut the fastest. When it comes off keep the piece pressed into the drive spur. Doesn't have to be pressed hard, just enough to keep in in the spur while it's being cut. Quickly grab the thin parting tool with the other taper so that the point is toward the inside of the workpiece. Gently cut off the last 1/4" left near the spur. Done right you should be left with less than 1/16" nub to sand on each end, and both the tailstock and drive end cut off pieces should fall out at the same time when you lift your finished workpiece from the lathe. This will vary by tool sharpness, wood strength, and pressure you put on the tool and on the piece when you hold it.

I hope that doesn't hurt your head too much.

Thank you so much for another detailed message!
I for sure will use your advice.

Cheers!