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Anyone know a good metal spinner?

John Tisdale

John Tisdale

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Apr 11, 2014
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As I'm approaching 77yo, the attraction of hanging 400-lb logs on the lathe is a little less than it used to be - seems like they take longer and produce more aches and pain.. Maybe something a little smaller - thinking about turning urns with metal (probably pewter) linings.
Would love to chat with an experience metal turner - anyone out there in forum-land have a bud that turns metal and knows the craft?
 
damn wish I could see her. I've been doing a little spinning. There are some good videos. My problem is knowing what kind of metal to use. What type of aluminum or what type of brass etc. You would probably need to make an urn in 2 parts. The first person I saw spinning metal made hollow containers in 2 parts. He applied epoxy and put the together. Then turned the lath on to spin the epoxy out into the joint and keep it there.
 
Metal hand spinners of the type I think you're asking about don't usually do tall thin objects.

There are production methods to do it. One method is flow forming. Another is deep drawing. Both require expensive machinery and shape specific tooling.

One way you could do it is to roll flat material up into a tube with a soldered seam. The straight sided tube could be bulged to the interior shape of the urn. Spin a separate piece to solder onto the tube end for a bottom.

I've never spun pewter, I think it should spin easily though.
 
Pewter spins very easily. What I dont like about it is its so soft yo can scratch it with your fingernail. aluminum brass or copper are far harder however they work harden during the spinning process and have to be heated to be annealed.
 
Doug Rasmussen said:
I've never spun pewter, I think it should spin easily though.
Click to expand...
The Chesapeake Woodturners were fortunate to have John Brewer as member for many years until he passed away.
John was an accomplished spinner. Much of his life he worked in Silver.
When he did club demos he always used pewter because it was inexpensive and easy to work.
Unlike turning spinning takes some strength to lever the tools against the metal to push it toward the form.
John said as he got older he lost the strength necessary to spin silver. Also silver required periodic annealing to keep it workable.
Pewter does not require annealing.
 
Here's a deep drawn part made from 18 ga steel that could have been spun. This used simple tooling in a hydraulic press. We made a couple hundred of these for a customer. In this case the parts don't show any tool marks from spinning. The material thickness is consistent on the part. Hole was put in after the part was trimmed to length on a metal lathe. The steel is a special free forming variety that's become difficult to find and buy in small quantity.

deep drawn cups.JPG

I posted an unusual method of producing "spun like" parts using a CNC in the off topic section of this forum. That method is stretching the material. Asymmetric parts can be made.
 
Interesting about the strength issue. I learned to use my body and the professional spinners I have seen do the same. It doesnt take as much strength as roughing an out of round bowl. The professional I first saw live actually chained himself to the lathe so he could swing his body in an arc to control the forces. This guy was a production spinner.
 
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