Derrick Young

[Derrick Young]

So a couple of weeks ago I bought a little Delta Midi Lathe. Not totally sure why as I have never done any wood working in my life. I had a few ideas of things I would like to make moving forward but figured I should learn a thing to two first. So I signed up with the local Turner Guild and their hands on lessons.

So week 1 was sharpening and to make Honey Dippper or at least start it at the session and then finish at home. After ruining a couple of Chisels on my grinder I got around to finishing my Honey Dipper. But I have run into a problem and am probably to late to correct but would love to know where I went wrong and if I can fix.

Turning between centers I sanded my work and then used parting tool at Handle end cut off the end. I then mounted the dipper in 4 jaw chuck and cleaned up the end and sanded it. Now I have the other end, the business end of the honey dipper. I could not figure out how to cut the end off of that. So I used a hand saw and then tried to shape the end on sander. No luck..

So what I now have is a Honey Dipper with a reasonable sanding job everywhere but the business end.
How should I have parted both ends?

How can I finish the business end so it is as clean and smooth as the rest of the dipper

 

[hockenbery]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your honey dipper.

Here is what I suggest for the first few. Do them between centers.
Part in at both ends the dipper to a 3/16" -1/8" diameter waste tenon.
Then sand everything except the 3/16" waste tenons.
With a fine handsaw or hacksaw cut the waste flush and square.
These little flat spots will fit nicely with the design.
These can be sanded quickly keeping them flat.

Once you ger a lot of experience you can cut the end closest to the headstock free with a spindle gouge or a skew. You have to cut with the tool one handed so it is a bit advanced. I cut with my right hand.
As you cut it free you can complete a rounded ball shape on the end.
While cutting cradle the honey dipper in the fingers of the hand you aren't cutting with.
I position the tool rest so I can cradle the piece with plenty of clearance for my hand to cradle the piece without touching the tool rest and also so I can cut the piece free. As it is cut free the hand cradling it catches it and it is not under power so it stop.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome to the AAW forum Derrick. For a first lesson project I would say that you did exceedingly well. I would ask the instructor for his feedback about parting the ends off cleanly. I agree with Al about turning the honey dipper between centers and then parting the two ends to a very small diameter and completing the cut with something like a coping saw or or hack saw. You don't even need to buy the whole hacksaw frame ... just get a hacksaw blade and wrap some duct tape around one end to make a handle.

If you think that you damaged a tool by trying to grind the edge, talk to the instructor. Most likely the tool is fine and can be fixed with a little fine tuning.

 

[Derrick Young]

Thanks Bill for the kind words and thank you both for the advice. I did try and turn the ends as narrow as possible first however lack of experience made it very hard to judge how narrow I could go. Maybe a few scraps of wood and the parting tool are in order to see what the limits are.

I do like the idea of flattening the handle end off. Looking at the photo now it looks to much like a certain part of the female anatomy

I am sure the tools can be salvaged. I took great care to not let them get to hot. I plan on getting the Wolverine and Vari-Grind tomorrow. I will try and fix the issues. The classes are only 3rd Monday of Month so will be awhile before I get the chance to see instructors again.

 

[Owen Lowe]

If’n it were mine, I’d sand the honey end flat. As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s nothing in the rule book that says the end has to be a curved bead shape.

 

[Mike Johnson]

A flat end allows you to stand the dipper on end, with a lathe you can easily make a sanding disc that screws
onto the spindle or if you have an adjustable chuck a mount can be attached to your sanding disc and then mounted
in the adjustable chuck for different grits of sanding discs. There are a number of videos on YouTube that show several
different methods for turning a honey dipper. Every project you turn on the lathe always requires finishing one or both ends
of the project you are turning. There are a number of jigs and tools that help with different projects you decide to take on.
Many times you can turn the jig or tool on the lathe that will make turning and finishing your projects easier. Most wood turners
end up with numerous home built jigs and tools to make the process easier for the next project on the list. Sanding and finishing
is usually what makes your projects stand out, the jigs and tools that help with this task are always a great asset to make the
process easier for making nice looking projects that will impress everyone. There are a number of videos on YouTube that show
how to make sanding jigs that mount to a lathe for various projects. There are endless videos that also cover different types of
finishes that can be applied while your project is still mounted on the lathe.

 

[Dean Center]

We start our local high school turning group off with a honey dipper, so I have seen quite a few made by new turners. Derrick, you done good! One of the harder tasks is getting the grooves in the dipper end evenly spaced and you look to have done that quite well. I have two thoughts to share.

First, it's less important which end of the honey dipper gets parted off on the lathe, and more important that it be whichever end is toward the headstock. This is true for any spindle piece. If you part off at the tail stock end of your piece, it can whirl around and whack the tool rest and be ruined. NOT parting off while mounted on the lathe, but instead cutting the turned small ends off with a fine saw, as Al and Bill have mentioned, has several advantages. (Personally, I like a fine toothed Japanese pull saw for this. They're available at most hardware stores and it doesn't have to be a fancy model)

Second, one easy way to smooth and round the dipper end is to hold a strip of sand paper in your palm, place the end of the dipper against the business side of the sandpaper, and rotate the dipper with your other hand. Start with a coarse grit to get it reasonably rounded and smooth, then progressively finer grits to gets a nice surface. Easy peasy.