My Biggest Turning !

[Don Orr]

This is the biggest thing I have ever or probably will ever turn on my lathe. It will become the mainsail winch for the Onrust which I am helping build locally ( www.theonrust.com (http://www.theonrust.com/) ) This thing totally maxed out my Jet 1642, which is the 1.5 HP vesion. Obviously 1642 means you should be able turn a piece of wood 16” diamater and 42” long. However you have to figure in the drive spur and the revolving center in the tailstock and the height of the banjo. So in reality the actual capacity ends up at just under 12” diameter and about 38” long. Guess how big the piece of wood is ? 12” x 38” ! It took 2 of us to lift it onto the lathe. It's white Oak. It started out at 12” x 12” x 54” and I knocked off the corners and trimmed it to length (only hit 1 nail !) It took 2 hours just to rought it down to a cylinder with lots of sharpening. Two friends from my turning club came to help as well as the 2 people in charge of the Onrust project who came to video and photograph the process. We had a lot of fun and it took a total of 3 hours. It ended up at just under 11.5” and 36” long including the tennons. I forgot to weigh it though, I figure about 100 lbs finished.

The photos are of me and Mike roughing and me finishing up the tennons and checking the final piece. I was very pleased how my lathe performed. It never hesitated and the whole process went very smoothly. The Onrust folks vere very pleased with the results.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

What it didn't seem to have in detail challenges, it seemed to make up with size and mass challenges! Nicely done Don. Did the lathe groan when you took it off?

Wow!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow Don!! Spindle turning on steroids! The entire project looks like it would be a blast to participate in! Great sequence of photos! Thanks for posting!

[Don Orr]

Ken, you're right about the lack of complexity, but bigger is better right ! The lathe never faltered in the least but I think it was relieved when we finished.

Steve, thanks for the nice comments. Now you know what your lathe can handle:D.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Don - that may be true about what my lathe can handle but I would have to rent somebody to lift the log and set inplace for me!!! LOL

[robert hainstock]

An xercise in slow speed turning I presume. Nothing much like that being turned in home shops anymore. AWESOME! :D
Bob

[Bernie Weishapl]

Wow Don that is one big hunk of wood. I would have to hire 3 or 4 kids to get that on my lathe.:eek::D Well done.

[Cody Colston]

That is one monster spindle!

I noticed you were using a spindle roughing gouge to round that log. I don't see much difference in rounding a 12" bowl and rounding a 12" spindle. Evidently a spindle roughing gouge is perfectly acceptable for that, huh? ;)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Cody,

Shouldn't be much cross-grain situation on this.....

[Cody Colston]

Cody,

Shouldn't be much cross-grain situation on this.....

I don't see that it makes a difference as far as spindle gouge vs bowl gouge, IF you keep the tool rest close to the stock. You could probably use a screwdriver if that's all you had. I remember Bill G getting flamed here once when he stated that using a bench chisel for turning was okay with the proper presentation.

But, conventional wisdom always prevails in these discussions, especially here...right or wrong. I'll let it go since it isn't important to me, anyway.

[Don Orr]

Cody,

I actually used both a spindle roughing gouge and a bowl gouge on this "spindle" oriented piece. However as a matter of practice I personally do not use a spindle roughing gouge on a bowl oriented piece. Not because someone told me not to but because I feel I have much more control and strength in a bowl gouge. Could I use a SRG on a bowl oriented piece-yes, I choose not to. Should others-their choice at their risk.

[Jim Becker]

I remember turning a similar large piece on the OneWay 1018 a few years ago for the pedestal that holds up our kitchen table. Very scary!!

Great job on that one!

[charlie knighton]

cool, will the ship actually sail????? i imagine that a bunch of stuff will need to be turned for that ship

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Ever thought about the tools they used in Holland 3-4-500 years ago to make these parts and the much larger shafts for the windmills and water-wheels ???, I don't think they used gouges as we do now, probably large chisels.

[Barry Stratton]

That is GREAT Don!!!! Well done.

BTW, where's you sign it??????????:D

[Richard Madison]

If they had a 1642 in 1614, it would be really old by now, probably almost obsolete.

Very cool project Don.

[Keith Burns]

Great work Don for a really neat cause. Something to be proud of.

[Chris Stolicky]

Hey Don, is that why the power flickered around here last weekend? I'm amazed that the lathe didn't walk away on you....

Imagine the size of the pen you could make with that? :)

I'll have to go check this boat out one of these days. Its good to see you recruited reinforcements.

Good job.

[George Guadiane]

Nice work Don!!!
Looks like you had fun there.