Hello All,
I'm a 70-year-old retired refinery worker, been turning for about 20 years. Started on a Harbor Freight lathe with a sliding head stock so when I upgraded 16 years ago I bought the 3520B. The VFD recently gave up the ghost and I found the article written by John Coppola here, where he replaced his stock drive with the Amazon Lapond SVD-P. Amazon still sells this drive but it is now a Lapond SVD-PS. I followed his installation and setup instructions and my Ole Mustard is up and running again. The drive is now $139.00, so not too bad a hit to the wallet. Anyone considering this path, John's write-up is very easy to follow, I did a few things a little different as far as mounting and will gladly share my methods if anyone is interested.
I burn firewood for heat as our home is all-electric, our Ashley insert has served us well. I have a Stihl ms660 and a Dirty Hands 27-ton log splitter so getting wood is not an issue. As I split the wood, I'm always looking for good bowl blanks. Mike Mahoney has been my inspiration, I only green turn and cure and I'm happy making simple bowls.
One of my favorite woods, sugarberry, is very white when cut and I only found it after cutting up a huge storm-downed tree. Being so white I only took a couple of pieces to rough out. After turning it green, curing it, I almost threw it in the fire. Never had much luck making really light-colored wood pretty. I did turn and sand it, and as usual, there was nothing special about that big white bowl. For some reason, I put a black walnut stain on it and it was like I waved a magic wand over it. I've included a picture of that bowl. I've also included a picture of two oak blanks I turned that had an unusual pattern of rings that were not growth rings. I used the McNaughton Center Saver to separate them, unfortunately, both cracked while curing which has been my luck when curing oak.....Love using wipe-on poly and have included a cherry bowl with poly finish. These bowls were turned over 10 years ago so my newer bowls have more defined bases though are still simple turnings.
I do not know of any other turners here in West Memphis, Arkansas but there are clubs across the river in Memphis. Wanted to join one but I have so many interests like motorcycles, offroading, hunting, pontoon, jet skis that I just haven't taken the time.
John Coppola's write-up was an immense help to me so I thought I would like to thank him (he has not responded) and also thank the folks on this site so that is the main reason for joining. Being retired maybe I can take the time to enjoy the forums and possibly share thoughts with others here. I have been retired for a couple of years but have been really busy .. I completely remodeled our old house we rent out inside and out, built a 15' square storage building, and have started the work we want to do to our present house which includes replacing kitchen cabinets, removing popcorn from the ceilings, replacing all the engineered flooring with wood look tile. I do all the work myself and I enjoy it though I wear myself out a lot now I'm getting older. I still need to find the time to go through my old 81 CJ-7.......
I'm a 70-year-old retired refinery worker, been turning for about 20 years. Started on a Harbor Freight lathe with a sliding head stock so when I upgraded 16 years ago I bought the 3520B. The VFD recently gave up the ghost and I found the article written by John Coppola here, where he replaced his stock drive with the Amazon Lapond SVD-P. Amazon still sells this drive but it is now a Lapond SVD-PS. I followed his installation and setup instructions and my Ole Mustard is up and running again. The drive is now $139.00, so not too bad a hit to the wallet. Anyone considering this path, John's write-up is very easy to follow, I did a few things a little different as far as mounting and will gladly share my methods if anyone is interested.
I burn firewood for heat as our home is all-electric, our Ashley insert has served us well. I have a Stihl ms660 and a Dirty Hands 27-ton log splitter so getting wood is not an issue. As I split the wood, I'm always looking for good bowl blanks. Mike Mahoney has been my inspiration, I only green turn and cure and I'm happy making simple bowls.
One of my favorite woods, sugarberry, is very white when cut and I only found it after cutting up a huge storm-downed tree. Being so white I only took a couple of pieces to rough out. After turning it green, curing it, I almost threw it in the fire. Never had much luck making really light-colored wood pretty. I did turn and sand it, and as usual, there was nothing special about that big white bowl. For some reason, I put a black walnut stain on it and it was like I waved a magic wand over it. I've included a picture of that bowl. I've also included a picture of two oak blanks I turned that had an unusual pattern of rings that were not growth rings. I used the McNaughton Center Saver to separate them, unfortunately, both cracked while curing which has been my luck when curing oak.....Love using wipe-on poly and have included a cherry bowl with poly finish. These bowls were turned over 10 years ago so my newer bowls have more defined bases though are still simple turnings.
I do not know of any other turners here in West Memphis, Arkansas but there are clubs across the river in Memphis. Wanted to join one but I have so many interests like motorcycles, offroading, hunting, pontoon, jet skis that I just haven't taken the time.
John Coppola's write-up was an immense help to me so I thought I would like to thank him (he has not responded) and also thank the folks on this site so that is the main reason for joining. Being retired maybe I can take the time to enjoy the forums and possibly share thoughts with others here. I have been retired for a couple of years but have been really busy .. I completely remodeled our old house we rent out inside and out, built a 15' square storage building, and have started the work we want to do to our present house which includes replacing kitchen cabinets, removing popcorn from the ceilings, replacing all the engineered flooring with wood look tile. I do all the work myself and I enjoy it though I wear myself out a lot now I'm getting older. I still need to find the time to go through my old 81 CJ-7.......
