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First Turning (in many decades)

Joined
Apr 17, 2021
Messages
23
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Location
Hollister, MO
Website
timeoutside.net
I finally got my woodworking area set up enough that I could fire up the my new (for me) lathe. I haven't turned a piece of wood since I was a kid. I don't have any wood blanks or lumber harvested (yet), so a few days ago I just cut up and glued together some mystery wood from old bed slats. The previous owner of my equipment did not maintain the chisels and I am waiting on a part that I need to finish my sharpening rig. I know the bevels are not right, but I did the best I could sharpening the chisels (a gouge, skew, and parting tool) on a stone. I had three catches that blew out some wood (two with the skew and one with the gouge). But overall, I feel I did okay. I took my time and made different shapes as I worked down toward the center. I was starting to get the feel of the tools. There is quite a bit of roughness (I have forgotten the proper term) to the finished wood. I suspect that is due to a combination of poor technique and poor sharpening. I will not be doing much turning on my own. I want to wait for a mentor and not develop bad habits right at the start. But I just had to give it a spin at least once. :p

Today I attended my first local chapter meeting (via Zoom). The chapter is just getting their mentor program revitalized after being on hold due to COVID. Hopefully soon I will have a mentor and can really get started.

Andrew
First.jpg
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
Messages
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Location
Roulette, PA
Website
www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
Sounds about like something I would have posted back in october.. few differences: haven't been on a lathe since 1985 til last October.. You did way better than me (I had 8 or 9 catches.. but then I was turning a mortar bowl out of 4x4 pressure treated lumber with a spindle roughing gouge, though admittedly it was end grain -spindle oriented turning... ) and probably had better condition tools than I did (the cheapie set I was given with the lathe appear to be carbon steel, definitely not HSS, and all the gouges and the skew were bent (SRG was bent nearly 90 degrees at mid-point of the flute) - I straightened them in a vise (and some hammering) and sharpened them with a flat file.. (which is how I knew they were not HSS) .. very flimsy set.. not that long ago I splurged a little and got an 8-piece set of really cheap PSI gouges.. basically (except it included a 1/2 inch bowl gouge) the same set as the ones it was replacing.. but FAR better quality... Looks like you did fairly well on your first try.. The roughness in the wood you refer to is typically called tear-out...
 
Joined
Dec 15, 2017
Messages
255
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140
Location
South Plainfield, NJ
IMO. waiting to have a mentor is smart. I was turning for a few years, and making very slow progress. Then I took a 2 day class with Russ Zimmerman, at his house/shop in Vermont. In those 2 days, I learned so much. This was back in the 80s, when the internet wasn't available, and so many videos weren't on line.
But its still much better to learn with someone who can give you immediate feedback on how you hold and present the tool, and how you move with it.
 

Tom Gall

TOTW Team
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
956
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1,762
Location
Hillsborough, NJ
"....and I am waiting on a part that I need to finish my sharpening rig. I know the bevels are not right, but I did the best I could sharpening the chisels (a gouge, skew, and parting tool) on a stone".
Keep in mind that the wood doesn't know what your tool looks like. ;) The sharp edge meets the wood and it cuts. In the days before sharpening jigs everyone did free hand sharpening.....and for most amateurs the edges & bevels weren't pretty. We just moved the tool around a little until it started cutting. :)
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
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Roulette, PA
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www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
Brian, were you making a mortar as in mortar and pestle? For use with food? We’re you concerned about the toxicity of the wood? Turning dust breathing hazards as well...
Yes, as in mortar & pestle, and no, not for food use.. I know quite well the toxicity of treated lumber, so it was never in anyway intended for actual use (although because of me showing that around to some local people, I did get a couple commissioned mortar & pestle sets ordered, made from maple & cherry) .. It was "junk" wood - for practice.. I didn't worry too much about dust... after 30-odd years of working on small engines, cars, heavy equipment (brake dust! 2-stroke smoke! Grass,Leaves & mold! Shredded drive belt dust! Iron and Aluminum oxides! Welding Fumes! and more.... ) I figured a brief exposure to any mild dust from that (not that much generated from turning, and I didn't sand it) was gonna be the least of my long-term health worries.. :)
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2018
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Location
Baltimore, MD
Brian, you’ll have to forgive me my caution about airborne hazards. My dad died ten years ago at age 85 of mesothelioma. He was an engineer and only for a few years at the beginning of his career in the 50’s worked in a boiler plant (as a designer, not a builder) where asbestos was used. 50+ years later it came back to kill him. It’s not a pleasant way to die. As folks have noted on another thread, I do take some risks in my shop, but I try to be extra careful about my lungs.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2021
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Location
Roulette, PA
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www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
Yep, Lou.. My hometown is "next door" (6 miles away) from Port Allegany, PA - home of Pittsburgh Corning glass plant (if you've seen square glass blocks in buildings pre-2000's or so, chances are excellent that's where they came from.. also square glass change banks, among other things) so lot of friends of mine (and my brother too) worked there... it was the legal settlement over asbestos that pretty much killed the factory.. ever since, the town (and our town, and neighboring Coudersport which was Boom, then Bust thanks to Adelphia Cable) has been in economic decline.. only recently both of those neighbor towns have been making efforts at bringing back small local businesses (it was always sad to see all those empty storefronts that were once the local lifeblood..) Long story short, I also have been affected by Asbestos issues .. (Not to mention, lot of brake dust contained asbestos, so there's that!)

However... I always lived with the view anybody can go any time.. never know what's gonna kill ya, but fact is, *something* is gonna kill ya... so, why worry? Just got to try and take sensible precautions..
 
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