All Replies on Lathe of your Dreams

Shane, learn some about the Stave bowls and vases and other glueups you can use 4/4 material on as well….. Like that Vase I made for example….

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

Hey I’m getting a lathe together and I’m to the point of choosing my driver pulleys. If all goes according to plan I’ll have 9 speeds available. How does this speed range sound (464 – 2975 RPMs)? It’s a 7×12 lathe. I know some mini-lathes go up to 4000 but that seems too fast.

-- -- Rick M.

All – thanks for the input on my lathe decision question!

Rick – thats a good question you have there regarding speed. My Dad has done some larger bowl turning and he said that for him, a low speed option was really important for that. I don’t know anything about it, but he advised me (for bowls) to shoot for the low 400’s at least.

Does that sound right to you bowl turners out there?

-- Jason K

Mauricio, this is not a wooden chuck, but it is my poor boy way of turning the bottom of my bowls.
Just a piece of plywood mounted to a face plate. Some bolts, nuts, locks, and washers with dry hot glue used as padding secure it.

-- Scott Smith, Southern Illinois

Rick, Having a range from 200 rpm on up does have its advantages….. I even use 100 when it comes to finishing…..
very Seldom do I ever go above 3,000 max I can do is 3,500, then again we are looking a possible time travel at those speeds…..LOL

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

There are two rules of thumb I have learned regarding speed. The first is the “turn it up until it gets scary, then back off a bit” method. The second is to divide 6,000 by the diameter of the piece for the lowest speed, and 9,000 by the diameter for the highest speed.

So, when turning a 6” bowl the range would be 1,000 – 1,500 RPM (6,000/10, and 9,000/10)

However, one must also consider the balance of the wood (sometimes a piece is out of balance when turned slow, and balanced when tuned fast. This is often the case with burls or spalted wood), any cracks or voids that exist, the shape being turned, and so on.

Speed is often a “feel” thing, and is a function of both the methods in paragraph one. In general people turn faster the more comfortable they get, but you have to use good judgement as well. Remember that the faster the RPM the smoother the cut.

-- Robert --- making toothpicks one 3x3x12 blank at a time!

Here is a good site about speeds.

http://www.docgreenwoodturner.com/lathespeed.html

-- Robert --- making toothpicks one 3x3x12 blank at a time!

Good stuff Robert, thanks!

If I recall when I turned my mallet handle, Dad had it spinning at 1400 the entire time, never changed it once…As a first time turner, that scared the crap outta me. I can’t imagine 3000…

-- Jason K

RV, thanks for that link, nice one! I’m still a newbie, so turn kinda slow…2,000 rpm max.

Shep, that’s another impressive piece! I love your plywood face plate with shop made holdfasts. Really, dried glue pads the workpiece well enough? Awesome…another accessory I must have! :) Been thinking of something similar that uses old poly cutting boards scraps to hold the wood…

Still drawing plans for my ‘mini’ mallet…guaranteed to please this gang!

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

SAS you always have the MacGyver solutions to things. That looks pretty good, how do you ensure that the bowel is centered?

How about the guys who do green woodworking. I see them turn bowls like this but I don’t understand what that column is in the middle. Is that glued on?

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

I have now turned several chisel handles. I am thinking this whole “turning thing” is pretty cool. I think I will pick the shape I like the best out of the ones I have made, and get me a template so I can knock out a matching set. I have been using walnut, and one in Zebrawood. I am not sure what I will use on my “final” set. Cherry, BE Maple, Figured Maple, Figured Walnut…buy something else? But I think I will go with the Swans in one wood and the Stanleys in another.

I am already to the point I want to glue some stuff up to turn and raid a fire wood pile or two. Gotta try a mallet and some other different shaped stuff. Probably need to learn how to sharpen the chisels too. LOL

Maur, to make sure it is centered I just eyeball it to the circles drawn on the plywood.
When I made it I cut the plywood roughly round on the bandsaw then mounted it to the faceplate.
I trued it to round first, then I trued the face flat. After that I turned the lathe on and with a pencil made circles every 1/4”(barely visible from the pic above.) I then just center the bowl using the circles as a reference. If I make a different sized bowl than normal I just drill a new holes where I need them.

Terry, the dried hot glue(about 1/4” thick) works well as padding.
When I turn the bottoms I usually have the rest of the bowl finished (salad bowl finish). The glue keeps the washers from scratching the finish. You could use leather instead I would imagine.

I also always leave the face plate on the plywood so I don’t have out of center issues.

I will have to post some pics of my shopsmith 10er that I upgraded to variable speed. I now have variable speed from 1-3000 RPMs. I used a $100 VFD and a 3 phase Baldor motor. It is much nicer now.

-- Scott Smith, Southern Illinois

ooops…sorry, Scott, I didn’t mean to call ya by the wrong name. I like the idea of using leather as you mentioned…whenever I mess with hot glue I just get it all over ME and not the project.

Again, awesome bowl! Looks like a ton of work just creating the blank!

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

No problem, terry.
That bowl is not as difficult as it looks. I can make the blank and turn a 12” bowl in that pattern in about 4 hours, not counting glue drying time or applying the finish.
A bowl like the one below is much quicker to make.

-- Scott Smith, Southern Illinois

Mauricio, When I look at that pic with the long shaft there, I see that his tail stock is a big block, which would make it more difficult to get up close to the work. With the long column I see it as a extra support to keep the work secured. When I did the platter for example. after I got the center smoothed out I used something very close to this to keep the platter holding hard against the chuck. It just made me feel safer. As your trning large bowls/platters as you tend to get to the outer edges there is some flex and having that extra support gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling…..

SAS, nice looking bowl…..

Terry, get some large plastic clear hose, they have they stuff around here at Big R, it will work just as a leather washer, hot glue, to protect from getting scratches and dents in your wood. To keep a bowl from expanding I will do the same as SAS on his faceplate jig except I will create a 1/4 in deep channel so the bowl edges sit inside and can not expand. Having some good Baltic birch plywood around sure does come in handy…... Here is a good jig to have….This is the jig I use for making my Stave Vases…... Bob Fulton jig.

www.woodturner.org/products/aw/articles/StavedJig.pdf

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

Absolute noob question here, but can a rheostat be put on an electric motor, in a lathe specifically, to get varied speeds? A simple dimmer switch?

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Smitty, I tried that once but could not get it to work and even tried the variable speed router gaget with no luck when I was rigging up a mop sander….....

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

Now that’s a original bench dog…lol

Smitty, I tried it on my grinder. Didn’t work.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Did some googl’ing… Looks like variable speed and cap start motors don’t play together.

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Some can, some can’t. DC motors can be slowed by a rheostat, boat trolling motors for example. I don’t know about all, but some treadmills use dc motors. I’m sure that some clever person could make a homemade lathe with a treadmill motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJUhAMq5J24

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

Absolute noob question here, but can a rheostat be put on an electric motor, in a lathe specifically, to get varied speeds? A simple dimmer switch?

Smitty, if you get a 3 speed AC fan motor I have a blog post on wiring them for a lathe here:

http://lumberjocks.com/wormil/blog/33768

-- -- Rick M.

Got a chance to play today…turned a vise handle for a fellow LJ buddy who doesn’t have a lathe. Made from red oak, 7/8” shaft for an old Wilton patternmaker’s handle, 10” long. I simply used a wood screw to re-attach one knob after being cut free…

lots of fun…another item I hadn’t considered making before the lathe purchase…

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

The Jet Lathes are great and I visit mine every day.

Sweet pic Terry.

nice handle Terry. You should have let Mauricio thread it for you.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Nice handle, next time Terry make one end a tenon and install it on the vise and expoxy it and eliminate the wood screw all together. Just a suggestion, it is a bad omen when you do lathe work and have to use a screw to keep it together…. Just sayin….LOL

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

Bummer…I had no idea it was a bad omen. Would’ve been easy to form a tenon as Shep says. I was just trying to make re installation easy for my bud.

Now I know…

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

I didn’t know it was a bad omen either Terry. I tend to “screw up” a lot of things :-)

Not to change the subject, but I put metal pipe clamps on both ends of mine. I like the clank sound it makes when your using it.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Not me. I put rubber bands on them. My Twin-Screw vise had very short screws and that slap eventually knocked one of the balls off. I like rubber bands, they are almost as good as rock bands… ;-)

-- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..."

Well, I was asked to make a wooden handle that replaces a current metal one…buddy didn’t like the clank sound or the feel of metal. Guess we are all different? :) Lucky for that fact, or the price of Ford f-250’s would double!

Ya know, as a joke, I almost mailed the turned handle in ONE piece! :)

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

that would have been funny. :))

-- In the end, when your life flashes before your eyes, will you like what you see?

What is the preferred method for drilling/hollowing out end grain? I was using a forstner bit in a jacobs chuck and it seemed to be overly difficult. Also turned some freshly cut maple from the firewood pile. Is it possible for it to be too wet? it turned easily, but it almost felt damp. Turned a small mallet out of some mystery wood, maybe elm. Need to get some pics up.

Shane, glad you are up and running! :) photos please!

How were you drilling? on the lathe? start with smaller diameter bits and work your way up to the final size. they should cut pretty easily in end grain. I use a square tipped chisel to hollow out more wood after the drill bit..just pushing it directly into the grain at low speed. I only try to remove about 1/4” width of material using that method…stair stepping the hole larger and deeper. a photo would be nice here…

Wet wood is soft as butter…should turn quickly…but will leave water everywhere. If you have access to freshly cut logs, I highly recommend (again!) Turning Green Wood by Michael O’Donnell. He turns green wood so thin it can’t split when it dries…gotta know wood structure for that…he even dried out small wood pieces in the microwave post lathe! Cool ideas…

My understanding is…you can’t turn wood that is too wet. However, the wood is gonna move as it dries. Spindles bend. bowls warp. Just part of the process. But green wood is usually free or cheap…so I def want to learn more about this topic! So far, all I have is ‘book knowledge’...

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

You can turn wet wood, just leave it oversized and put it aside to allow it to dry. It will move as it dries, but then just return it to its final dimensions to get rid of that. You would want to consider using anchor seal, putting it in two brown paper bags, etc. as it dries to slow the rate of moisture loss, and therefore reduce cracking and moving.

As far as hollowing end grain goes, if you are going the drilling route vs. using a spindle or bowl gouge, then as Terry said, start small and move up, this reduces the work on the lathe. Also, use slow speeds, in the case of your machine, as slow as you can go. Generally around 200 – 250 RPM works well.

-- Robert --- making toothpicks one 3x3x12 blank at a time!

Thanks guys, I didnt use the progressively bigger method. I chucked up a forstner bit, a large one, didnt look to see what size…but I am thinking it was 1 1/4” +. I was a little nervous. Also, I will go as slow speed as possible. In my infancy, I am more comfortable turning between centers. Plus, I still have basically no idea what I am doing.

Shane, relax, and have fun! :)

Remember woodworking tips you already know like sneaking up on the line…same principle on fortsner bits on the lathe. Remove wood in small amounts like a handplane…control…ya know?

I think a narrow spindle gouge is next on my wish list…have to admit…I prefer HSS chisels so far over the carbide tipped ones. The carbide cutting edge is so thin and un-supported for a small distance, that it vibrates badly…especially on end grain, and when extended 3” past the tool rest. Much worse than a thick piece of steel that’s been honed to a point.

Just my observation at this point…

-- tr ...see one, do one, teach one...

I was eyeballing some carbide ones last night. I still have not brought myself to sharpen the HSS Sorby set I have yet. The carbide does look tiny compared to the one I am using now. I am going to need to man up and learn to sharpen the set I have.

Shane, you could buy the cheap harbor freight lathe chisels to practice sharpening. then when you get comfy with the sharpening you can make custom shapes for specific cuts. I made a hook shape out of a cheap duplicate i had to do captured rings.

-- In the end, when your life flashes before your eyes, will you like what you see?

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/tls/3547335356.html

if I only had the room and the money

-- If your not supposed to have hair on your face......why does it grow their

No problem. I’ll just put in my. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .never mind. lol

-- In the end, when your life flashes before your eyes, will you like what you see?

Very Nice! I am jealous!

-- Derec

I do not even have room for that fancy outboard tool rest they are showing in the last picture with the
motor, but it sure does make you wish.

-- As ever, Gus-the 74 yr young apprentice carpenter

I have a soft spot for old iron

-- If your not supposed to have hair on your face......why does it grow their

Rikon 70-100

Well, I guess I am a little late on replying to this but my dream lathe is a oneway. I went to a place called wood chuckers. They are oneway and robust dealers. I sorta “looked” at both lathes. But with the robust, is just didn’t feel at good as the oneway. I dont know what it was but it just didn’t feel as well designed. Don’t misundestand me, the Robust is a GREAT lathe, but I just like the oneway better. Oneway is Canadian made, Robust is American made. There both in the same ballpark. My words on the PM: I have never used or seen a 4224(b), however it seems like a very traditional lathe. It doesn’t allow outboard turning, and if your buying a lathe for 7 g+ I expect it to have outboard. Also, it’s made in Taiwan and although taiwanese made machinery has come up in quality it a mass produced lathe. Oneway is a semi-custom lathe. Each one is hand assembled and made. It is equipped to your personal specifications by a small, Canadian company that actually cares about the end result. And did I mention that it was cheaper! The pendant works very well and with a 3 HP motor, only the robust can tough it. If I had to choose, I would take the Oneway. I would be happier with the Oneway, but it’s not like I’d refuse a Robust. I just want to support a small Canadian business. But you probably shouldn’t choose the PM. Not only is it too expensive, but it not tailor made for you.

Guys – Check out this charming Holtzapffel treadle lathe on ebay.co.uk. Nice photos and the seller’s text makes for intereting reading too.

-- Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.

That would look good being used in your garden Andy, along with your new workbench.

If you are feeling wealthy check out the American version – www.ornamentalturner.com/Archive/LAWLER.HTM

-- As ever, Gus-the 74 yr young apprentice carpenter

No Shane, that won’t be coming home to me. It deserves to be owned by someone who is a fanatical turner. I just thought you guys would appreciate it’s charm.

-- Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.