Tim Thiebaut
12-18-2010, 1:57 PM
Well I learned a few things this morning, after not useing a lathe in almost 15 years, wow completely different then doing flat work. I thought I was being smart by cutting some pine to practise on since I didnt want to use my precious hard woods to practise with as it is hard to come by here, and expensive as well. I got everything done this week and setup, the lathe, the new sharpening system on the grinder, and got my dust collection all hooked up at the lathe, ready to rock and roll huh....not really. After about an hour of complete and utter frustration trying to make just a basic spindle and very, very basic finial "not tiny", everytime I touched the wood slightly harder then usual it would tear out large pieces of wood that would go flying across the shop. I was useing my old Harbor Freight tools as I wanted to practise sharpening those before trying my good new set. Finaly in completely frustration I chucked up a piece of mahagony I had ready, and grabbed one of the new tools from the Ben's best set I bought, and thought I would give it a shot even though I hadnt sharpened it yet...what a difference! I chucked the pine back up and was still getting horrible tearouts in it, so I went back to the mahagony, I was actauly able to turn a small spindle into handle for a firesteel, the wood was actauly cutting, albeit not as skilled as any of you all, but it was working. So, I learned to forget the cheap 15 year old tools and use the good ones I bought, and...I am not ready at all for such a soft wood as pine. I did think it would be easier to learn on something that soft, but I guess being that soft creates its own issues. Sorry for yammering on here just thought I would share...T