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I know you all know this but...

I found out the same thing when I started about 2 1/2 years ago. I bought a new lathe in March and there haven't been many days it hasn't run. I haven't done much turning for the last month though I was building a bathroom vanity for my daughter.
 
My flat woodworking area is 33' X 33' and has plethora of equipment. When approaching retirement a friend (also a woodworker) and I thought we should add a lathe to our shops. After the first try on my new lathe where I almost took my head off my shoulders I told my friend that we should join this new club that had just started, the Presque Isle Woodturners. That was in 1991 or 1992 and about 6 months into that club was the last time I used one of my table saws until about 4 months ago. The reason is probably "Instant Gratification", I no longer had to wait months to finish a project. Woodturning is one of the most addictive drugs known to man :).
 
A good friend describes it this way. The first two things he made from wood were a boat that took him 10 years and a dining room table that took 6 months. Then he found out he could make a bowl in 2 hours and never looked back.

The process is fun - There is wonderful tactile feedback through a tool that is cutting well.
It’s fun to see shapes forming as a piece reaches completion.
It’s fun to see a piece find a new home
It’s fun to watch eyes light up when you pass something on to another turner.

Beyond that there is a community of woodturners centered around AAW willing to share and provide support and encouragement.
 
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As I look back.....yes, I remember the thrill of producing something on my early lathes that I took instant pride in.....and, it just kept getting better and better over the years!

IMHO, the one thing that made my early efforts possible, is power sanding. Without it, my newbie efforts to produce a bowl worthy of pride, were not possible.

If I could offer some words of encouragement to new turners, I'd say, "Have fun, but never lose sight of that which makes your turning efforts stand out.".....and, in short, what opens so many doors, is to have a tooled finish prior to sanding that is free from any tear-out.....even on the most difficult of dry, dense hardwoods. The advantage to starting sanding at 240gt should be the goal here. This makes advanced shapes so much more easy that it seems intuitive, when looking in the rear view mirror....(but, not so much when I think of myself as a new turner.)

Don't think so much of the end result, as the process to get there......that, is what will make your personal turning journey keep getting better.

I'm not sure what the average life span of a turner is.......but, I'd guess 3/4 quit within the first few years. There may be a variety of reasons for this, but the biggest reason is not paying attention to the clues on how to improve the process. :( .....those clues are numerous, and be absolutely aware that there is no mentor, no book, no instructional video, no seminar, no club participation, no nothing that will ever make you a better turner. These things might give you some ideas......but, there is no magic to it......the only thing that can keep you advancing......is you.....in your shop, turning day, after day, after day.....and all the while feeding your individual spirit! :)

-----odie-----
 
As I like to say, the wood lathe is the best Christmas present I ever got myself. I was born to work with my hands, no question. Never had an opportunity for any shop classes at my high school. Only class I ever got straight A's in was PE. I don't do production work any more since I only do one show a year. I am getting into flat work again, trying to learn Japanese/Asian joinery.

robo hippy
 
David, addictive is an appropriate term to use. Like most, I started with a very small lathe, made a dog food bowl, really liked the process and end result was something useful and practical. Biggest leap for me was finding a local friend that had been doing turning for many years by himself. We teamed up and with his patience and help we now work together on gathering wood, buying tools, comparing work and selling our work at local markets. Having a "buddy" can make a huge difference. If like me you'll go through stages of progression as your skills advance and you see something online or here that you can then say hey, I'd like to make something like that. I hate to miss a day at least turning something, trimming some blanks for the next day, sanding something from my shelf for a show (ok, not the most fun of the hobby), gathering some new and interesting logs or spending the day at a local craft show showing and selling what I've made. It's a hoot for sure. Right now I'm trying to move from volume style to fewer more interesting and challenging items. Will still make my standard 9"-12" natural edge bowl, they sell well at markets, but the challenge is not there now so on to fewer higher end items - I hope.

Forgot to mention - try to find someone with experience that will honestly tell you what you need to do different on your pieces. Friends and family will always just say "that's nice". That's not much help. My buddy has been great at saying well, this looks OK here and here but, this is wrong or needs work.
 
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I didn't find turning to be addictive early on like @David Wrate. It was just another new challenge to overcome.

I used to enjoy the challenge that golf provided...similar to being a new turner! Can this really be this difficult?... (my first golf outing with an experienced golfer teaching me the ropes took 7½ hours...a score of 148 with many do-overs). Eventually I became a pretty good golfer.

My first time at turning.. it took two days to successfully scrape my way through six simple spindles for a kitchen project, using my brother's $99 AMT tube lathe. I thought "there must be a better way"...and there was...with a lot of practice!!!
More time in the saddle - as Odie would say.
 
I started turning about 3 years ago, 6 months pre-Covid. Joined the local AAW associated club (Detroit Area Woodturners) and had a couple of mentoring sessions with the club mentor, before the pandemic shutdowns hit. Fortunately, that was enough to get me started (and firmly addicted) and I credit woodturning with me being able to keep my sanity during the periods of isolation. This forum has been a tremendous help with problems and questions along the way too. 4 months ago we lost our 4 year old grand daughter to brain cancer, and again woodturning and this forum have helped me weather some of the worst that life can throw at us. It was the people involved in woodturning, and their open and welcoming attitudes, who made me want to be a part of it. Thank you all.
 
I love all kinds of woodworking - furniture making, cabinets, jigs . . . However, I found that, after 40 years of woodworking, turning ended up being the one thing that I can be the most creative at. I am not a great design person. I can take an existing plan or design, make modifications, and make it my own, but designing from scratch isn't easy and I'm not good at it. However, when I'm turning a bowl, I'm sort of designing on the fly. While I may have some idea what I want the final piece to look like, many times it ends up different because I saw something during the turning process, or maybe made an error and took a different direction. Anyway, that's what turning does for me - allows me to design and be creative. I love the process of making a piece of furniture, but wood turning is a more free-form type of woodworking.
 
hockenbery said:
A good friend describes it this way. The first two things he made from wood were a boat that took him 10 years and a dining room table that took 6 months. Then he found out he could make a bowl in 2 hours and never looked back.

The process is fun - There is wonderful tactile feedback through a tool that is cutting well.
It’s fun to see shapes forming as a piece reaches completion.
It’s fun to see a piece find a new home
It’s fun to watch eyes light up when you pass something on to another turner.

Beyond that there is a community of woodturners centered around AAW willing to share and provide support and encouragement.
Click to expand...
Sir, we have read my mind!
 
Randy Heinemann said:
I love all kinds of woodworking - furniture making, cabinets, jigs . . . However, I found that, after 40 years of woodworking, turning ended up being the one thing that I can be the most creative at. I am not a great design person. I can take an existing plan or design, make modifications, and make it my own, but designing from scratch isn't easy and I'm not good at it. However, when I'm turning a bowl, I'm sort of designing on the fly. While I may have some idea what I want the final piece to look like, many times it ends up different because I saw something during the turning process, or maybe made an error and took a different direction. Anyway, that's what turning does for me - allows me to design and be creative. I love the process of making a piece of furniture, but wood turning is a more free-form type of woodworking.
Click to expand...
Describes me to a T.
 
Working with flat stock, building high class furniture (and I've done quite a bit of it)...getting those dovetails and tenons to fit just right has always been kind of stressful for me.

No two ways about it, a lathe is just plain FUN. I love how the project is created on the fly and just seems to flow out of my head and my hands.

Monty
 
You know your addicted when: When your wife mentions something she's like me and your first question is "is it flat or round?" and the answer determines how soon I'll get around to it!
 
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