Steps for turning handles for a shop made bow saw.

[Dennis Hawkins]

Greetings all

I'm nearing completion of my first bow saw but I need to turn the handles. I have a small Dunlop/Craftsman wood lathe but have not spent all that much time turning.
What is the best sequence of steps to turning the handles for my bow saw incorporating the 1/4" holes to accept the brass pins for mounting the blade.

I realize like everything else there is probably more than one way to do this.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Dennis

[Ryan Mooney]

Method 1 (no chuck):
Mark your centers.
Drill the hole with the piece square in a drill press a bit deep (say 1/4").
Put the hole on the tailstock side
Turn, part off on the headstock side
Cut off the small bit of wood on the tailstock side.

Method 2 (chuck):
Turn round between centers. make one side sized appropriately to go into a chuck (a collet chuck would be my first choice here)
Mount the piece in the chuck, make sure its true/straight (bring up the tailstock to help align it)
Put a drill chuck in the tailstock (assuming it has a moris taper that you can use)
drill the hole
turn the piece and part off as in method 1.

[Dennis Hawkins]

Thanks Ryan

Method 1 could be it as I dont have a collet chuck. My only problem I see with this is getting the spur exactly centered after the hole is drilled on the drill press. I suspect it may shift a wee bit. I'll give it a try on some scrap before committing to my project stock.


I was thinking I'd mount my stock to a base plate so I can get it trued. Then drill into it from the tailstock mounted drill chuck . Then remount the live center set into my drilled 1/4'' hole and proceed to turn the handle.

[Ryan Mooney]

Thanks Ryan

Method 1 could be it as I dont have a collet chuck. My only problem I see with this is getting the spur exactly centered after the hole is drilled on the drill press. I suspect it may shift a wee bit. I'll give it a try on some scrap before committing to my project stock.


I was thinking I'd mount my stock to a base plate so I can get it trued. Then drill into it from the tailstock mounted drill chuck . Then remount the live center set into my drilled 1/4'' hole and proceed to turn the handle.

I meant that you should put the hole on the live center (tail stock) side to start with - I assume that you have some sort of cone or similar on the tailstock side, the spur should definitely go on the side opposite the hole.

If you pre-mark the centers with a punch and drill while its a square blank you can get it pretty accurately laid out so I don't think that that should be a huge problem.

I'll see if I can slap together a example of what I mean and take a couple pictures tonight and PM them to you. Maybe it'll even encourage me to get off of my duff and finish my turning saw that's been sitting half done for a year :rolleyes:

[Dennis Hawkins]

I meant that you should put the hole on the live center (tail stock) side to start with - I assume that you have some sort of cone or similar on the tailstock side, the spur should definitely go on the side opposite the hole.

If you pre-mark the centers with a punch and drill while its a square blank you can get it pretty accurately laid out so I don't think that that should be a huge problem.



Ryan
I did understand you correctly its just that my spurs are a bit bunged up and I'm not sure how accurately I can get it placed even with pre-marked and punched centers. I will give it ago and see how it turns out. (no pun intended).

[Ryan Mooney]

Ah that's to bad, I think it'll still work find though and if you make the blank a bit longer than you need the error will get kind of averaged out some more.

We left work early because of the incipient blizzard and I'd already gone out and whapped together a sample (out of alder which is imho a bit soft for this purpose but turns fast :D) so might as well upload them. Apologies for the horrid pictures.

Mark and punch both sides.
281921

Drill - about 1/4" deeper than you need.
281922

On the lathe, I don't think the headstock side has to be perfectly aligned, as long as its pretty close (within say 1/16 or less) the error will somewhat average itself out over the length of the piece. Of course the closer the better.
281923

Turn to shape - I should probably have made the end with hole a bit flatter so it'd take a ferrule better.
281924

Cut the residue off the headstock side and trim the end from the tailstock side because the live center will have opened it up a little right at the end (although with something like maple the amount is small enough you could probably skip that).

281925

And done!

Hope it "turns out" :D

[Dennis Hawkins]

Ryan

Thank you for taking the time to provide me a bit of a tutorial. This is very helpful and greatly appreciated.
I had another look at my spurs and I think I can get one of them cleaned up to work properly. The next issue for me is to get the workpiece lined up on my old Walker Turner drill press. It has a bit of run-out on the quill but I think I can pull it off. This obviously does not require that much precision so off I go to make some wood dust.

BTW
Where in Oregon are you located? I did some bicycling in the Northwest back in my younger days. A place called Steamboat brings back some memories. North Umpqua River steelhead.

[Ryan Mooney]

Ryan

Thank you for taking the time to provide me a bit of a tutorial. This is very helpful and greatly appreciated.
I had another look at my spurs and I think I can get one of them cleaned up to work properly. The next issue for me is to get the workpiece lined up on my old Walker Turner drill press. It has a bit of run-out on the quill but I think I can pull it off. This obviously does not require that much precision so off I go to make some wood dust.


No problem, hope it works out well.
You could hand drill the holes if you have a brace, but even with a little run out the drill press is likely easier, especially in end grain :D



Where in Oregon are you located? I did some bicycling in the Northwest back in my younger days. A place called Steamboat brings back some memories. North Umpqua River steelhead.

Just outside of Hood River which is about 80 miles or so east of Portland in the Columbia River Gorge area. The Umpqua is quite a bit south and a bit west of here, really pretty country in both places though.

[Dennis Hawkins]

Ahh
Your in wind surfing country !