Posted on Wood Turning Question
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#1 posted 979 days ago |
You know I’m an absolute novice when it comes to turning so feel free to discard this as ridiculous, but here is something I was playing with a couple of days ago when using my spring lathe. I noticed when I got down to thinner stuff that it flexed. I took a scrap of sisle rope and made a bit of a loop at the end, then put the item through the loop as I re-mounted it in the lathe. I found I could pull the rope by locking it under my two little fingers of my left hand at the same time I held skew against the tool rest with my two larger fingers and thumb. I was able to put enough tension on the rope to support it while cutting and keep it from flexing. I also discovered the rope did a nice job of burnishing the surface. .... which got me totally off track and lead me down a path of using it to try a variety of objects to burnish .. great fun, but accomplished little. Great example of adult ADD. I found as a support, it worked even better and was easier to set-up and remove if I tied the rope on the tool rest, then wrapped it half a turn around the spindle and held the free end with my two little fingers on my left hand. Care has to be taken to make sure that if the rope binds it passes out of your hand without grabbing a finger as it goes. Don’t make it too long. Anyway. This might not work and in fact be real dangerous at electric lathe speeds, but it actually worked pretty well at spring lathe speeds. I’m not sure how slow you can go on your lathe. Avoid “plastic” ropes as they melt from the friction…don’t ask me how I know ;) -- Galootish log blog, http://www.timberframe-tools.com |
