Thread: I love having a lathe

Boy I love having a lathe (and other wood working tools). I was bringing in some wood for the fire and picked up a hunk of cherry I had cut earlier this year. This is what you would call a piece of crotch wood. That is the place that two limbs branch out at an angle verses the usual 90 degree trunk and limb orientation, I will leave it to you to decide how the wood gets that name. At any rate, I had just turned some brush handles and got to thinking that hunk of cherry would make a nice handle. The hunk is not the one I cut but is an example of 'crotch wood'.

So I opened up the guide on the band saw and quarter sawed that piece of wood into a couple of wood blocks. I chucked it into the lathe, made a pile of shavings and have a handle for a 28mm. I gave it a quick dip in Danish oil to bring the grain out for the photo but it will get much deeper and richer after a two day stabilizing soak. Hopefully it will not crack. That is the problem with green wood, there is so much moisture still in the wood that it tends to warp and crack as the wood dry’s.

Nothing like making something out of a hunk of firewood.

Awesome!

I wish I had a lathe.....

Lathe wouldn't do me much good. No skills...

I've got to say that razor you sold me has absolutely beautiful scales you made for it. I think the scales were worth more than what I paid for the razor which has a fine blade too

Awesome work!

I miss having a lathe. Quick, if lack of skills is all that is keeping you from using a lathe, I encourage you to give it a try. Go easy on it and it's hard not to make something nice. The one I learned on was a no frills ancient machinist's lathe and I was able to turn out some decent stuff.

Wish I had one...but I wouldn't even know where to place it in the house.

That's awesome. I've got some cherry firewood from a couple of trees I fell this fall. I have no lathe, but maybe I can borrow one or find another route

Turning is relatively straight forward and not that difficult to learn. As to placement in the home, I am limited on space as well. The Delta I have is a Midi lathe. It is a tweener size, much bigger than a mini lathe which is not good for much other than turning pens, and a full size lathe. I have a bed extension so when I am working something long I just put the extension on. That cuts down the footprint of the equipment. But be for warned, it is addictive and once you start you may find yourself getting rid of the car to make room for gear and turning tools. It is kind of like razors. You get a $120 razor and then end up spending $300 on stones for the razor, you get a $400 lathe and end up with a grand in tools for the lathe.

Then the problem becomes what to do with all the stuff you made. I have cups full of pens, bowls everywhere, bottle stoppers, ceiling fan pull chain ends, yo-yo’s, even made all wood controls for my espresso machine. Next thing you know you are replacing the handles in your kitchen, closet doors, and anything else that is round.

I must say I miss having a good lathe, former wife took care of most of my good tools. the cherry looks nice but may I sugest Purple heart wood for a handle. I've made many things out of the piticular wood and they all turned out very nice, I will warn you tho it's a easy wood to turn but a extremely hard wood to cut and will dull any cutting edge out very quickly because of it's hardness.

I have worked Purple Heart before, not to bad but you have to pay attention to heat. It is an easy wood to burn when working. I have a batch of redwood burl, maple burl and ebony brushes that are about ready to go out to an online vender. Pink ivory makes a nice brush as well.

i've wanted sort of a woodshop since high school. that's cool.