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How the Bug Bit Me

hcgernhardt

hcgernhardt

Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Messages
38
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Location
Lexington, KY
It all started because I wanted to build an enclosure for a homebrew regenerative receiver... Then I saw this nifty toy at Wal-Mart. The first pic shows it set up as a lathe, the second includes a turning I did with it. It came supplied with 4 balsa dowels and a few small sheets of thin balsa panel.
 

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That is a pretty nifty toy and the turning looks good too!

I got started by turning a bowl for a wedding gift on a cheapie lathe that I bought and had stored in the garage for 7 years. Now there is no more room in the garage from all the wood, tools, and other stuff!
 
I went to a local museum to view a show called "Artistry in Wood" (I've always been involved in wood work). On the steps of the museum was a fellow who was turning bottle stoppers. It looked fun! I went home and got down my old hobby lathe which my grandad had given me. A cheap little rattly machine but I had some fun for a couple weeks. Then was encouraged by my wife to get a better machine. When I was in the store purchasing the Delta Midi, she saw a book on pen making. Thay book and some suppplies ended up in my Christmas stocking. It just has gone on from there.

- Scott
 
One good turn...

Dad was a patternmaker so I've always been around tools, worked with wood, etc. Turned a baseball bat and other spindle stuff on his old Powermatic when I was a kid. When I became "A Man" and got my own house first thing to do was set up shop with whatever I could afford. And that wasn't much. I'm a musician and I built a LOT of speaker cabs, amp racks, cases and other boxes in that shop in the last 25 years, a lot for $$, a lot for me. Always wanted to build furniture but couldn't afford the materials much less all the equipment. Now that the kid is through college I'm spending all my "band money" on the shop. All new tooling in the past three years and more to come.

The one thing I had always wanted though was a lathe. I consider it to be the potter's wheel of woodworking. It's the one piece of machinery on which even a beginner can make something nice. It's such a "zen thing" applying the tool to the material and just watching what comes out. So last summer I bought a little Penn State MIDI cause I didn't know if A) I'd be any good at it and B) if I would enjoy it as much as I remembered.

Well. You all know how that goes. It turns out (sorry) that A) I'm not too bad at all and B) I like it so much that now I have to pull myself away from the lathe to work on my furniture projects. The wife and I are already talking about woodturning as a retirement income enhancer and that won't come for another 10-15 years.

I'm currently saving for a 16" swing model. No room in the shop for a big PM.
 
I like the name on this little fella...

"Real Power Tools"

I got a chuckle outa that. :D


I imagine though that a lot of bow lathes weren't much bigger....


Welcome to the Vortex! May your addiction be long and happy....
 
Real power tools

Now that's something I'd like to bring to the office. I work with a group of young architects who come to me all day for advice. Just one look at that will turn them away forever. Talk about destroy my credability.
 
Dave Hout bit me. :eek:


Actually, that is how I became interested. A few years ago I saw "Woodturning Techniques" on the DIY station and was fascinated. I promised my wife I would wait a year from becoming interested in a hobby before I jumped in....

A year later I got started. :D
 
O-O-O-O-O-Oh, don't know about this. Taking kids' tools away from them? Think we might have some serious addiction on our hands here.

Wait'll he gets a real lathe . . . .

"Oh, Auntie Em, It's a Twister, It's a Twister"

Chalk another one up to Charybdis. :rolleyes:

:D :D

M
 
I am a custom home builder and trim carpenter so I had a natural interest in fine woodworking. I built a ship and set everything up and started make furniture and mesquite mantels.

My wife and I had been trying to have a baby for a while and couldn't so we decided to persue adoption which is very expensive. I was sitting in my shop one day and remembered that I had a pile of pen blanks I had made from scrap mesquite and decided to sell them on the internet as a way of raising money for the adoption. Orders started flying in and I added bowl blanks. I had no idea what turners needed or found desireable in turning stock so I decided to buy a lathe and get some experience. How can you sell a product if you don't know how to use it!

I bought a HF 34706 and got severly adicted. I posted here looking for someone to give me some hands on demonstration and Jimmy Tolly from the Central Texas Woodturners Association responded. Once I learned the tools I really felt good. My dad was really interested in my turnings and gave me $1,000 to put towards a better lathe. I now own a Nova DVR and use it every day. I am completely hooked!

I am still selling blanks and now feel much better about the blanks I am providing. I can actually answer questions properly, too!
 
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