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Lathe Problems.

2K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  Loren 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Several months ago I picked up a craftsman wood lathe and the tools the gentleman had who I bought it from. I just recently tried to test turn a piece of wood, just wanted to see how the lathe worked. The test was an epic fail, when I bring the tool to the stock it just bounces and then stop the wood from turning. The tools were fairly sharp but could use some TLC. I just recently bought some brand new pen turning tools which are very sharp, went and tested on the lathe again, same results.

Any ideas on what could be the problem? The belt is on the large pulley on the lathe side and the smallest pulley on the motor side, The stock turns counter clockwise (towards me). I appreciate any and all advice.

Thanks for taking the time to read and/or respond
 
#2 ·
is the stock still square? in which case you'll have quite a bit of bouncing of the tool until you gt the stock rounded off. you could use a hand plane/ saw to bring the stock as close as possible to round to ease the rounding-over step which will also minimize the amount and hardness of the bouncing. hold tool FIRMLY to the rest, and take light cuts until the stock is round, and the cut is continuous.

did you sharpen your tools, or just used them out of the box? even though they may seem sharp - they might still be not-sharp-enough (just a thought and a guess since I'm not sure what you did/nt with your tools).
 
#3 ·
Is the piece of wood you are attempting to turn already round, or does it still have square edges?

It is helpful to round off the edges of a blank on the band saw if possible before mounting it on the lathe. You can mount something with square edges and turn it, but the trick is that you must bring the cutting edge to the workpiece VERY slowly, so that when it first makes contact you are only taking off a tiny bit of material. Bringing the tool to the piece quickly will almost always have the result you are describing.
 
#5 ·
I would start with a spindle roughing gouge. Slow Speed at first. Make sure the tool rest is about a 1/4 inch from the corners (If Square). Slowly raise the handle until it makes contact. Turn the handle about 15 degrees to the right and move the tool to the right. What you want to do is turn the Woodturner shift as i call it. Where you move your body left or right with the handle on your hip.

This might give you an Idea.
 
#7 ·
The next question: When the piece stops, is the spur drive still spinning? If it is, then your piece is just not seated firmly enough on the drive. If the spur drive is NOT moving when the piece stops, then the taper is not seating properly.
 
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