Hi guys and gals

[Rich Stewart]

Been watching and reading and learning for a while now and decided to jump in. I was in Taiwan with my wife and son in Dec and saw a little old chinese guy turning trinkets out of tree branches. Instant fasination with turning. Got home and bought a 50 dollar lathe from E bay that could hardly turn itself. Bought a better one. One of them hundred dollar jobs with the sheet metal base. I mount it on a craftsman work bench. Looks pretty funn y because the bed hangs down. Bed is bent. Now have built a wooden base for it. I have been turning spindle type things. Small weed pots and goblets. Wife thinks they are pretty good but I know better. Having a lot of fun though. I want to try a bowl soon but am having some second thoughts about if my lathe can handle it. Anyway, it's been great listening to you all. I've learned a lot. I'll send some pics when I get some. You can all use a good giggle. A;lso might need some help to figure out how to post a pic.

[John Shuk]

Welcome Rich,
Great place to learn. Where in NJ are you. There are some good clubs throughout and if you are in Northern there is a group that meets in Rockland County, NY . You might want to think about a bigger machine for bowls. I did the same thing with the EBAY lathe and it was junk. I have a Jet-1236 now and it is pretty good for what I want right now. I hope you keep in touch here and post pics. We all learn right along side of each other it seems.
John

[Rich Stewart]

I live right outside Atlantic City. How do you post pics? My nighbor is a cabinet maker so he really gets a laugh out of my stuff so far but he does say my finishes are pretty good. Trouble with my bent lathe is i cannot get a piece to turn the same way twice. I have to finish the whole thing on the lathe because once it comes off the lathe it aint going back on the same way. My tailstock has quite a bit of play in it. Tried matching it up with the headstock as i heard somebody suggest and it slops all over. About half inch either way. It's still loads of fun. Keeps me out of the bars. Been using BLO and french polish. Comes out pretty nice.

[Glenn Hodges]

Good to have you aboard Rich. I also tore up my first lathe, the lathe wasn't all that bad, it was my fault.

[Rich Stewart]

I didn't exactly tear it up. It actually works pretty well. I've turned oak, maple, black walnut, some green oak, and just got some cocbolo and purpleheart from Penn State. Also got some clamps recently. Got a deal going on. Got my tools from there too. A set of 8 that were on sale. High speed steel but my nighbor says it is CHINESE HSS. Not that good. My wife is chinese so he might have just been bustin on me. Haha. I haven't been having too much trouble with sharpening them though. Seems to have come fairly natural to me. I got a cheap grinder. Everything I have is cheap. Bandsaw, drill press, and grinder. All from GMC at Lowes. You seen the Red Line series. Haha. Work good enough for me though. I got a couple 2x2 pieces of poplar and oak and glued it up four pieces of it and made a little goblet. Sand them down to about 400 and BLO and french polish. Don't look THAT bad. Oh I forgot to mention, i dont have a workshop so I gotta set all this stuff up on my deck. Everytime. But on the up side all I do is get out the blower when I'm done and clean up. Gotta work up the nerve to do something with that faceplate that came with it. I been watching you all for quite a while now and haven't said anything and now you won't be able to shut me up. Take care.

[John Shuk]

Rich,
Posting pics is easy. Just have them loaded in the computer. Then when you post just go to the manage attachments button. click it then go to browse and it will let you go into the folder where the pics are stored on your computer. choose the picture and hit upload. The only thing is that they have to be a certain size.(I can't remember what it is.)

[Michael Pfau]

Welcome aboard Rich, looking forward to some pictures...its easy...

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Rich,

Welcome aboard! We are glad to have you as a member!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Welcome to the Creek Rich. Neat place to exchange information!