neilk

Glad to see that you have made Lumberjocks a part of your Woodworking experience… Welcome…

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

Welcome to LJ’s (Enjoy)
God bless

-- Gene, a Christian in Virginia

Welcome to LumberJocks. Enjoy the community.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

Welcome to LumberJocks. Glad to have you aboard.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Welcome aboard. We look forward to seeing your projects, answering your questions, and your sharing of experiences.

-- Greg - Charles Town, WV

Hey! Welcome to LJ!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Hi neilk i see that you are on line, did you buy the lathe?

-- OC down in Costa Rica. come down and see me some time. I'll keep the light on for you too-oc@hotmail.com mail.com

Hi Occie wow you have quite the memory! :-)

Somebody gave me an old Rockwell 46-111, which sat in a pile in the garage till I finally got it assembled a couple weeks ago, which explains why I’ve been poking around on Lumberjocks again.

It’s a pretty scary rattletrap of a thing, but it came with a set of seven tools and so far I have managed to turn a few sticks without killing myself. Have graduated to dowels, even. I added some MDF and a new plywood base to the metal table which calmed it down somewhat. I have some nice cherry wood from a tree out back, and some fast-growing soft wood to practice on.

For practice and because I could use them, I’m trying to turn six-inch sections of the soft wood into small flower pots. It’s fun because though they’ll eventually rot it doesn’t matter and they fulfill a function I need in the meantime, and even when rough they (well, it) look(s) cool. So far I have made one. :-) I am having trouble though hollowing out. Not sure why. The tools seem sharp. I have a grinder with a 60-grit aluminum oxide wheel and have been trying to keep them sharp. Don’t have a sharpening jig yet, and haven’t made one. I gave up trying to hollow cause it seemed dangerous (have had a couple of catches) and ended up hollowing my one pot out on the drill press, which wasn’t really satisfactory.

Over time I’d like to invest in some decent gear like chucks and maybe better tools. It only came with a couple of faceplates and one four-pronged spur and two tail centers . Actually I made a couple of “tea lights” from the cherry which didn’t start out as tea lights, but when I tried hollowing that’s as far down as I could get ha ha, so they became tea lights. The wood’s so nice you almost can’t go wrong—the nicks and bumps add “character”. For now money’s tight so the better gear will have to wait. I did get some safety goggles.

Thanks for taking an interest. I should find a topic about hollowing out.

-- Neil (so I don't have to remember to sign my name)