I'm officially a turner

[Tom Sweeney]

Well I finally did it!
I've been too busy to hang out at the Creek much lately - & now that I'm here it's all new :cool: -

But a few weeks ago I bought a cheap used craftsman lathe. I did'nt expect too much from it but I figured what the heck.

Well last night, after I cut my jungle er I mean lawn, I cut a rough bowl blank estimated the center & chucked it on the lathe.
The wood was some of the maple from a huge old tree that I've been cutting up for about 3 years now. The wood has a lot of figure, spalting & nice grain to it. :D

Any way I got out my awsome array of turning tools

1 Craftsman 1/2 " Gouge
2 Harbor Freight hand chisels
1 4 1/2 " Grinder to keep a keen edge on those premium tools

And had at it. I ended up with a very nice, IMHO, shallow bowl.

Man I'm in trouble now - I actually completed a WW'ing project in 2 days & it looks pretty nice .

[John Miliunas]

Congrats indeed! Wonderful feeling, ain't it? BUT, where's the pics of your finished piece? Come on Tom, give it up! :cool:

[Jim Becker]

Man I'm in trouble now - I actually completed a WW'ing project in 2 days & it looks pretty nice .

Wait 'til you see how fast you do it in a few weekends from now...since you'll undoubtedly become overjoyed with turning and get plenty of practice.

Seriously, one of the major nice things about turning is the almost-instant gratification. Unlike furniture and the like, many turnings are done in anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. And it doesn't take long to get the hang of it to make that a reality!

As I've said many times before and will undoubtedly say many times again..."Welcome to the addiction!"

[Don Farr]

As you saw from one of my post I am right behind you. I want to turn a couple of collection plates for my Church, but don't know where to start. I have it in my head what I want them to look like, but that's about it.

[Richard Allen]

Hi Don

Collection plates!?

Find the local woodturnign club. Go to a meeting and hook up with the mentoring program. You will find someone who will show you the path.

A collection plate should be easy enough but this is something that is going to be seen and handled by many of your friends. A little hands-on guidance from a local woodturner will go a long ways towards making those collection plates something that will do justice to the task at hand.

Good luck

[Bob Janka]

Well I finally did it!
...
Man I'm in trouble now - I actually completed a WW'ing project in 2 days & it looks pretty nice .

Tom,

If you think 2 days is fast for a woodworking project, just wait until you try pens or other small spindle items. The LONGEST I have spent on a single pen was 2 hours in the beginning. That includes prepping and gluing the blank.

Lately, I split up the tasks into 3 sets: Prep, Turn, and Assemble. I usually do these in batches of 5-10 pens each. Prep work involves cutting wood into square blanks (1/2" - 7/8" square by 4 1/2" - 6" long). If I'm using pre-cut blanks, then I go directly to cross-cutting the blank into halves to match the brass tubes, boring the center so the tubes will fit, and then gluing the tubes in the barrel blanks. Time per pen averages about 5-10 minutes.

Turning is mounting 2 halves of a blank, shaping it, sanding it and finishing. This takes me about 20-30 minutes per pen as I use Micro-Mesh all the way to 12000 grit and I apply multiple coats of friction polish.

Assembling is picking out the plating (I use Titanium Gold primarily, but have also tried satin finishes and chrome), easing the edges of the barrel ends, press fitting everything together in sequence, and then applying a final coat of Renaissance wax. Time per pen averages 5-10 minutes.

All together a single pen would take 30-50 minutes.

Enjoy the dark side of Woodworking. Soon, everything will look round to you. You will forget about silly things like mortise and tenon joints or raised panel & frames. :D

Cheers,
Bob

addicted to pen-turning...

[Jim Becker]

As you saw from one of my post I am right behind you. I want to turn a couple of collection plates for my Church, but don't know where to start. I have it in my head what I want them to look like, but that's about it.

I believe there was an article in American Woodturner (the <a href="http://www.woodturner.org" target="_new">AAW</a> magazine) not long ago that showed a similar project. What I remember most about it was the careful attention to insure that the turnings "nested" correctly when stacked for storage as is common for these items.

[Anthony Yakonick]

...A chainsaw with more HP than some cars
A new meaning for roadkill
More mulch than you know what to do with it. Last October I cut, rough turned and finished 13 hollow vessels 5"-9" dia. in 8 days, total time (gloat) 15-20hrs, total barrels of chips 6-8 40 gallon barrels.
Thinking about selling your tablesaw
Proper use of a tablesaw (pic)

[Anthony Yakonick]

Sorry pic won't work!

[Jim Becker]

Sorry pic won't work!

It has to be less than 100K in size to display (unless you are linking from another site via HTML). Try reducing it to 640x480 and increasing the JPG compression to 10:1. It should end up between 40-50K or so in size.

[Jim Becker]

Proper use of a tablesaw

I'm sure you remember this one from the "other forum"...not normal in my shop, but it was the day that all this arrived in the back of Allen Darrow's pickup truck all the way from Iowa!

[Tom Sweeney]

Proper use of a tablesaw

I did almost have 2 accidents on the way to work this morning cause I was looking at downed trees instead of where I was going ;)

Considering my history with flat WW'ing - I might consider selling all my flat working tools & buy a better lathe :D

[Anthony Yakonick]

I'm really screwing up to night, one more try!!!!

[Anthony Yakonick]

Jim, it's normal for me I can get to my lathe or bandsaw within 30 seconds but my tablesaw could take some time!

[Don Farr]

For turning me on to the woodturners website. A lot of good info. there.

[Jim Becker]

...for turning me on to the woodturners website. A lot of good info. there.

The AAW is a wonderful organization. I urge you to at least get involved with your local chapter, if there is one, and do join the national. The magazine is worth TWICE the price of the membership and is a constant source of inspiration, information and learning opportunity. It's a small investment in the scope of things that will pay you back handsomely over time. Your local club, if there is one, is also an incredible source of mentors to learn from and an opportunity to regularly see well-known turners demonstrate their techniques and thoughts.