Christopher Knight
09-26-2006, 11:35 AM
I have been lurking on this site for over a year. Reading about turning, looking at the pics and occasionally asking a few questions. Well, my father-in-law got tired of me just talking about it and got me a lathe, just showed up one day on a big truck. It is a Grizzly 12”x35.5” lathe, brand new. He even included a set of 8 tools.
We have been finishing up some remodeling of the house, so it has been setting in the garage for awhile, and I finally got to assemble it last Sunday after Church. The headstock and tailstock lined up perfectly and it ran nice and smooth at low and high speed. Getting more excited, I placed a piece of wood, 1x1x12” on it and starting at low speed and working my way up to high it still ran nice and smooth.
SWMBO came out, looked at it and wondered why I was getting excited by something that just made wood spin.
By now I was anxious to try it out. Now I have read several books on turning and have looked at several forums but have no practical hands-on experience. So drawing on my vast knowledge I grabbed a roughing gouge and started to turn the long square block of wood into a long round one.
Having made a lot of wood chips and successfully producing a fairly round piece of wood. ( The diameter varies along the length.) I then decided to try my hand at the spindle gouge. I tried to make different cuts along the length of the wood. None of mine came out looking like what is on this forum, but I thought it was a good start.
I also unpacked the low-speed grinder, set it up and tried it out on the spindle gouge. It was then that I discovered how well a sharp tool cuts wood. It was like night and day.
By then I needed a new piece of wood but none was to be found. After digging through my scrap wood box I found a couple of pieces that would do. I need to find a good source of wood.
My friend is a member of the local Woodturning Club and he is coming over this weekend to show me the basics. He is also going to loan me some DVD’s to watch before the next meeting.
SWMBO has the digital camera in her purse at work today, so pics will have to wait until tomorrow.
I have this strange feeling that this ‘spinny thing’ is going to take a lot of time and money.
We have been finishing up some remodeling of the house, so it has been setting in the garage for awhile, and I finally got to assemble it last Sunday after Church. The headstock and tailstock lined up perfectly and it ran nice and smooth at low and high speed. Getting more excited, I placed a piece of wood, 1x1x12” on it and starting at low speed and working my way up to high it still ran nice and smooth.
SWMBO came out, looked at it and wondered why I was getting excited by something that just made wood spin.
By now I was anxious to try it out. Now I have read several books on turning and have looked at several forums but have no practical hands-on experience. So drawing on my vast knowledge I grabbed a roughing gouge and started to turn the long square block of wood into a long round one.
Having made a lot of wood chips and successfully producing a fairly round piece of wood. ( The diameter varies along the length.) I then decided to try my hand at the spindle gouge. I tried to make different cuts along the length of the wood. None of mine came out looking like what is on this forum, but I thought it was a good start.
I also unpacked the low-speed grinder, set it up and tried it out on the spindle gouge. It was then that I discovered how well a sharp tool cuts wood. It was like night and day.
By then I needed a new piece of wood but none was to be found. After digging through my scrap wood box I found a couple of pieces that would do. I need to find a good source of wood.
My friend is a member of the local Woodturning Club and he is coming over this weekend to show me the basics. He is also going to loan me some DVD’s to watch before the next meeting.
SWMBO has the digital camera in her purse at work today, so pics will have to wait until tomorrow.
I have this strange feeling that this ‘spinny thing’ is going to take a lot of time and money.