John Walls

[John Walls]

Howdy ya'll!
Me, been retired 10 years. As a youngun, I *played* around with lathes when I had a chance, loved it. Took wood-shop in school and enjoyed using a lathe. Saying that, been a long time since. I've always had it in my mind to take up turning but life has been in the way mostly. Moving around every 3-4 years I never found the time or funds to do much woodworking. Military did not really give a body much time to have much of a life.... LOL I now have a decent amount of wood tools, but no lathe. For the past couple years I've been looking at, reading about, well.... drooling over a lathe in my shop. I've been looking real hard at a powermatic 3520C. It's a spendy toy, er... tool but I like buying good equipment from the start. There are more expensive lathes but this one looks like it will fit the bill for what I want to do.
Chucks, chucks, soo many, which ones to get? I will mostly do bowls/vases to start and go from there.
Tools, which one/brand to get? Been looking at a Sorby set, good start?
Wood, I have a lot of firewood, mostly oak/ash/elm/cottonwood and limited maple. Some looks to have alot of figuring to it, should be interesting. Have 5 acres of trees so I don't think green wood will be a problem.
Clubs, found one on the other side of the state, quite a drive but might be doable. Sure wish there was a club or 2 in my area (Grand Forks, ND).
A few more things on my mind but wife is telling me lunch is ready so I better git. Thanks for letting me join!

 

[John Walls]

Ok, lunch is done. Hobbies, fishing, hunting, motorcycle riding, beer and hard cider brewing, camping (might become a snow bird next year), wood working, hobby farm (another word for too big a garden... LOL) with lots of fruit trees. Occasionally farm hand for planting/harvest so access to large equipment possible, restoring old AC tractors, just too darn much going on. I tell folks, I work harder now than I ever worked in a job and I spent a few years after retiring from the USAF, as a construction worker. At the moment, I'm remodeling the lower level of our split-level home. Yeesh, I need to retire.... LOL

 

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome to the AAW forum, John. I think that you will find woodturning to be a very gratifying hobby. There are some who say that it is even addictive.

As far as chucks are concerned, there are many to chose from. I'm partial to Oneway and Vicmarc chucks. I use Oneway Talon chucks for roughly 90% of my turning. For the occasional very large turning I use either a Oneway Stronghold or Vicmarc 120. The tools that I have and like include Sorby, Crown, Robust, Hamlet, D-Way, and Thompson. Like many (maybe most) woodturners I began with a starter set. Sorby and Crown both have good starter sets. As it turned out, the tools in the set didn't see a lot of use mainly because there were other tools that were more suited to what I wanted to turn.

While you're spending money don't forget that you need to sharpen your tools, so you will need a bench grinder, aluminum oxide wheels, fixtures, and jigs.

 

[John Walls]

I was thinking about a Tormek T-8 system for sharpening with jigs. Also thinking about an over-head dust filter, I have an old Delta dust collector for cleaning up the floor, etc. Is there a better selection of tools than a starter set for what I want to do? 2 or 3 good tools would be better in my opinion than a set that would see little use. I think the overhead dust filter is a must for me since my work-shop, excuse me, my wife's garage is connected to our house. It's a work-shop when *she* allows me to park her car outside in this minus 24 degree temps we see so often this time of year.... LOL
I've seen Nova chucks for sale, how do they compare to oneway or vicmarc? I would want a good quality chuck to start to prevent having to purchase a different one later do to poor performance. Same for a (face?)plate and a live center.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I was thinking about a Tormek T-8 system for sharpening with jigs. Also thinking about an over-head dust filter, I have an old Delta dust collector for cleaning up the floor, etc. Is there a better selection of tools than a starter set for what I want to do? 2 or 3 good tools would be better in my opinion than a set that would see little use. I think the overhead dust filter is a must for me since my work-shop, excuse me, my wife's garage is connected to our house. It's a work-shop when *she* allows me to park her car outside in this minus 24 degree temps we see so often this time of year.... LOL
I've seen Nova chucks for sale, how do they compare to oneway or vicmarc? I would want a good quality chuck to start to prevent having to purchase a different one later do to poor performance. Same for a (face?)plate and a live center.

The overhead air cleaners are OK for helping to keep the shop clean so that there won't be as much dust settling on everything. It takes a few hours for them to clean the air if it's really dusty. However, they aren't effective for respiratory protection while you're generating dust at the lathe ... look at it this way ... your nose is much closer to the source of the dust than the air cleaner is so your lungs will help prolong the useful life of the air filter on the ceiling.

Deciding what tools to get depends on what you will be turning. Buying the Sorby set really isn't bad, but it probably won't include everything that you need. You said that you want to turn bowls and vases, but for starting out I think that some basic skill developing projects should be tackled first. Learning spindle turning might not be as glamorous, but once you master that, you have the fundamental skills to tackle more complex projects.

A lot of turners on the forum use Nova chucks and like them. I've used Nova chucks occasionally when taking a class and haven't been impressed. However, chucks used in classes are frequently badly abused ... I don't understand it, but there are people who can wreck an anvil with a tack hammer. Anyway, my opinion is that the best of the best include Oneway and Vicmarc. For general purpose use I would recommend the Oneway Talon. The type of faceplate that comes with most lathes is pretty cheap. You can get machined steel or aluminum faceplates that are much better. I have faceplates made by Easy Wood Tools, Oneway. Best Wood Tools, and some that have no name. They all do what they are supposed to do.

 

[hockenbery]

Welcome to the forum @John Walls

You expressed an interest in working with green wood - to me that means bowls and hollow-forms.
This is my favorite kind of turning. Starting out envisioning a form in a fallen tree. Prepping the blank and taking the piece off the lathe as the fruition of the original plan is always a reward.


Consider taking a class, if you can find an instructor in you area a quality class will
Get your skill level up to safely and competently turn on your own
Give you an insight on which tools you need.

Consider a trip to Fort Collins Co- a class with Trent Bosch will take years off your learning curve. https://trentboschtools.com/workshops/

I started a thread on working with green wood
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/working-with-green-wood.11626/

Tools you will need or want depend on what you are turning. This includes chucks.

The ONEWAY stronghold or talon with the ONEWAY jaws are excellent chucks for beginners because the straight walled tenon is easy to turn and check. I like dovetail jaws for bowls but they require a dovetail tenon turned at an angle to match. 7 degrees for ONEWAY dovetail jaws. 14 degrees for vicmarc jaws. I like the vicmarc chucks a lot too.
nova is ok.

to give you an idea of tool differences by what you would turn. Here is the tool list I use for different demos or workshops.

Bowl demo/workshop
½ bowl gouge (5/8 diameter bar) Ellsworth grind
3/8 spindle gouge fingernail grind
For highly figured wood a day 1 ¼ round nose scraper is needed about 20% of the time.

Seed jar demo/workshop
½ bowl gouge (5/8 diameter bar) Ellsworth grind
¼” bowl gouge (3/8 diameter bar) Michelson grind
3/8 spindle gouge fingernail grind
½ square nosed scraper
Pyramid tool

Hollow ball Christmas ornament demo/workshop
1 ¼ spindle roughing gouge
½” spindle gouge
3/8 spindle gouge
¼” round bar skew
½” skew
Diamond Parting tool
Narrow kerf parting tool
Home made angled hollowing tool 3/8 bar- Ellsworth design.