Thread: Loving Learning my Lathe

Nice couple little projects! I'm going to see if I can possibly make a new brush handle over the holidays too. Maybe some polished stainless or aluminum?

Once I retire and get a chance to put down roots - meaning at least 3 truck-sized bays and a lift in my garage, I intend to get back into some machine work. I wish I knew enough to do the big engine head milling, line-boring and such things, but I've only ever done hobby work. That said, I've turned hot and cold-roll steel, 316 and A20 stainless, magnesium, monel and some hastelloy B and C variants. Magnesium can be a lot of fun...

It occurs to me that with a wood lathe and a metal lathe, I could do metal caps and trim rings as well as the wood handles. Then I'd probably end up with 3 truck-sized bays full of shaving brushes and bowls/mugs... But really, I just miss having access to a lathe. Of course it wouldn't take me long to want a milling machine, too. Tooling definitely gets expensive, and I have no idea at this point where all the money is going to come from!

With a little imagination you can do soft metal trim rings all on a wood lathe.

Lignum and copper.

You are inspiring me!! I'm a hobbyist woodturner and I made my own brush handle a while back. Now I want to remake it using brass rings that I used for making duck and goose calls. Thanks again for inspiring me!!

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Lignum and copper.

Originally Posted by sheffieldlover

And THAT one looks expensive...drool...

Not really,If you do your reaserch you can find a nice (untooled SB, 9 in.for maybe 350 bucks) The key word is tooling.
I went to a tool auction in placerville a few hrs ago,They had a SB heavy ten on the block,mint, 10x52,this is a gunsmiths dream lathe, you can turn full barrels with this lathe,it sold for $450.00 (no tooling) all the money is in the tooling,chucks,collets,tool bit holders,all the measuring devices,the list is never ending.do you need all this stuff??? absolutly

Well I finally turned and finished a brush and just seated the knot two days ago.



This one was black palm, if I was more experienced I would have known to tell a novice like myself to avoid this as it was very difficult to get the large fibers to cooperate and it took a lot of sanding. Even after a ton of sanding there were still small dimples and such in the wood due to the very large fibers that compose the wood. So while it didn't get a "mirror" finish it still looks good IMHO.

Now im going to go use it RIGHT NOW

That looks fantastic