Thread: First Practice Wood Turning Project with a Few Observations and Questions

Had a chance last night to watch that vid. I had no clue there was so much involved. Looks like i will need to get a couple more tools soon. It was a helpful vid! I may have to watch it again and take notes.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Had a chance last night to watch that vid. I had no clue there was so much involved. Looks like i will need to get a couple more tools soon. It was a helpful vid! I may have to watch it again and take notes.

Yes, there does seem to be quite a learning curve. I have spent hours just watching videos on how to use the skew chisel, including this one with Alan Lacer, who does some truly amazing fine detail work with that huge radiused skew (if you can sit through the endless banter as he bores all those old farts in the demo lol):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhuGl7n-bNY

I'm so taken with the possibilities and versatility of this amazing tool that I'm thinking about ordering his (very expensive) handmade one from his website.

And then there's sharpening. You know how we make fun of knife guys who think they can hone a straight just because they can sharpen a knife? I feel like one of those knife guys as I'm learning to sharpen these tools with various wheels and diamond cards. I am finding that, with these super-hard M4 HSS steels, a few strokes with the diamonds and some fine dressing with a finger-sized soft ark stone I had laying around leave an edge that will shave bbs on my leg hair, especially if I strop a few strokes on a charged leather bench strop. Maneuvering around the curves on the gouges is another trick-sheesh! Oh, well, I always say I love to learn new things...

I'm learning a lot from Alan Lacer's videos especially. I picked up some square stock poplar to practice concave/cove cuts and concave/bead cuts today like in this video:

Hopefully others just going down this hole too will find these videos helpful.

I got a call and was able to pick up my lathe last night. WooHoo!
Today i spent some hours building a table for it. I could have bought the one made for the lathe like Aaron, but me being me, i wanted custom.

This saved me a 100 bucks but i had to order the casters. Im going with casters that fold up so the table will sit on the ground when in use. More steady is the idea.



2 drawers and a storage spot underneath. Might find a couple sand bags to put under it if i need too. But for now it will be for storage. So the first thing i turn will be 4 drawer pulls for the drawers. Maybe tomorrow as Im beat right now. BTW, this thing weighs 70 lbs by itself. The top is two layers of 3/4" Plywood glued and screwed. I could climb on top and jump up and down on this sucker. Its solid! I still want to wire up a power switch and outlet on the table but Im done-in for now.

Thanks for the vid Aaron.

Beautiful workbench, Jerry-I thought about making one like that, but my wife wanted the Laguna base, so "Happy wife, happy life." Honestly, I think your set-up will be rock solid, as the lathe hardly vibrates at all with that PWM motor. In fact, mine passed the nickel test from 0 to 3500 rpm and back down-very impressive.

If I could offer one piece of advice, consider making a wooden mallet one of your 1st turns (if you don't already have one). You can practice all the tools and the different cuts on a bigger piece, and I am using mine constantly to tap the knock-out bar for a sticky morse taper, to hit the spur drive a few whacks to engage the stock more solidly, things like that.

After spending a couple of days on videos and practicing the different cuts with some square stock poplar based on the Alan Lacer video above, I've got my 1st brush handle of sorts drying and almost finished using the drill chuck, forstner bit and cone center like we talked about.

If you have or plan to have any non-carbide chisels, skews or gouges, I also highly recommend the offset DMT paddle hones to keep them sharp-so easy to use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XH4L62/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

At some point, I'm probably going to have to get one of those metal CBN wheels and a jig to mount it on my 1750 rpm motor. I already rolled the edge on a gouge trying to free-hand it. I have found that a dulling tool will quickly tell you it is dull, and increases tear-out and other problems. I look forward to our mutual learning journey, and hope that this thread will help anyone else we can lure down this rabbit hole!

Today I got the electrical done in the table. I put a switch to turn off the p[ower and an outlet so I can plug in my Shop-Vac to clean up the Shavings. Or to plug in A light if I need one. Then I bolted the lathe down to the tabletop, Added knobs to the drawers (I had said I was going to make knobs but after some more thought I figured I could make four knobs. But to make 4 knobs identical... Nope! I ain't that good yet). Then installed the casters that fold up.

Lets get to Makin Shavins!

Here it is!
My first try at turning on my lathe. I had a chunk of Marblewood that was the perfect size for a brush handle, so I chucked it up. I went into the house and found a brush that had a handle that fits nicely in my hand and didn't look too hard to copy and brought it to the lathe for a reference. This is some hard stuff but after I got it cut out I was very pleased with myself. The finished product is drilled out for a 24mm knot. I still need to buy some knots but I know this is a size I enjoy.

If the rest of my turning goes this well I won't have anything to complain about. BTW, Finish is 600 grit paper and a few thin coats of C.A.

Nice

You do realize that you need to purchase a car cover for the lovely bride's car don't you Or perhaps you don't mind sleeping in the shop/garage

Nice work, Jerry!! I've got one in redheart I'm putting the last coats of CA on. If I don't eff it up, I may post pics later.:

Beautiful work Jerry.

Ya know, we haven't seen too much of HarryWally lately.

You and Aaron will be taking over as the new "Shave Brush Guys."

Looking forward to watching both of you progress.

Also looking forward to when (if) you dive into acrylics.

Awesome work guys!

Pete <:-}

Roy, The lathe is sitting just outside the garage. And if I was to cover her car she would never be able to drive it. Taking a cover off her car would be way more work than she would want to deal with.

Thanks, guys. As far as Harry Wally, I don't think we will be up to his level any time soon. But acrylics do sound like some fun. Aaron and I will do our best to fill in where the lathe work is needed. But, It's all just for fun. I can't wait until I have the comfort/Ability to make a large wooden bowl. That would make the wife happy. Right now I don't have much of a source for wood. Only what I can buy at Woodcraft. No firewood or any place to find rough wood. That is what I need to work on next. Finding wood. Well, Turn your dirty minds off and read that again. LOL.