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New shop
- Thread starter joe marra
- Start date
Beautiful shop, what I can see of it. Envious of the new toy too. Have a great time turning and filling that shop with new tools.
Tim.
Tim.
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Beautiful shop. The only problem that I see is that it is neat and orderly. 
Beautiful shop. The only problem that I see is that it is neat and orderly.
Give me some time.
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Hi Joe -- Your new shop looks great & your new PM lathe is a fine machine!
Many of my woodturning friends have them, & love them. Hope you enjoy many fine hours of enjoyment with your new mustard colored friend!
Just a couple of friendly safety/suggestions from looking at the pictures:
You have mounted a spindle between centers using a scroll chuck on the headstock -- can't quite see if there is a drive center locked into the chuck or if the chuck is tightened down onto the wood spindle itself. Either way, you might want to just use a spur drive with a #2 morse taper inserted into the lathe's spindle MT and not run the chuck at high speeds for spindle work. Spindle turning of smaller pieces is usual done at high rpm speeds. Many chucks have a max rpm of 2500- 3000 rpm & I noticed the number 2465 on the PM's digital readout in the picture with the lathe running -- could be getting right up there near max rated!
Also wonder how you made your first beads & coves? They look fine, but it looks like you might have used a scraper from all the fine sawdust. If you "cut" beads & coves with a spindle gouge or a skew, using correct technique, you will have nice shavings & very little sawdust, even on very dry wood.
I noticed some loose items, chuck wrench, etc. on top of the PM's headstock with the lathe running -- not usually a good idea. Even very slight vibration can cause those items to "walk" & fall off, without you noticing them as you are focused on the turning ... they might fall off & hit the rotating chuck & launch back at you with terrific force, causing serious injury. Something just to be consciously aware of.
One final thought: You are very fortunate, in that I notice that you live within ~30 miles of Quakertown, PA -- "driving distance" to the home & woodturning studio/workshop of David Ellsworth, one of the greatest professional woodturners & teachers of all time. David still runs a woodturning school there and limits the 3 day classes to just 5 students for great teacher/student cohesiveness. The school is open to all skill levels -- bare beginner to well advanced. I attended his class about three years ago and it was a tremendous learning experience for me as I know it would be for you too.
(You can find his current woodturning workshop schedules by Googling: David Ellsworth woodturning studio.) There is no better way to accelerate your woodturning skills than by investing in some classes from a top professional.
Incidentally, if you don't already belong to the AAW and an AAW chapter local woodturning club, you are also very close to Bucks County Woodturners, a very top Pennsylvania woodturning club, with many helpful turners there to bring you along & make great friendships with.
Happy Trails (& Beautiful Shavings!)
Regards,
Lee Tourtelotte
Minnesota Woodturners Association
www.mnwoodturners.org
Many of my woodturning friends have them, & love them. Hope you enjoy many fine hours of enjoyment with your new mustard colored friend!
Just a couple of friendly safety/suggestions from looking at the pictures:
You have mounted a spindle between centers using a scroll chuck on the headstock -- can't quite see if there is a drive center locked into the chuck or if the chuck is tightened down onto the wood spindle itself. Either way, you might want to just use a spur drive with a #2 morse taper inserted into the lathe's spindle MT and not run the chuck at high speeds for spindle work. Spindle turning of smaller pieces is usual done at high rpm speeds. Many chucks have a max rpm of 2500- 3000 rpm & I noticed the number 2465 on the PM's digital readout in the picture with the lathe running -- could be getting right up there near max rated!
Also wonder how you made your first beads & coves? They look fine, but it looks like you might have used a scraper from all the fine sawdust. If you "cut" beads & coves with a spindle gouge or a skew, using correct technique, you will have nice shavings & very little sawdust, even on very dry wood.
I noticed some loose items, chuck wrench, etc. on top of the PM's headstock with the lathe running -- not usually a good idea. Even very slight vibration can cause those items to "walk" & fall off, without you noticing them as you are focused on the turning ... they might fall off & hit the rotating chuck & launch back at you with terrific force, causing serious injury. Something just to be consciously aware of.
One final thought: You are very fortunate, in that I notice that you live within ~30 miles of Quakertown, PA -- "driving distance" to the home & woodturning studio/workshop of David Ellsworth, one of the greatest professional woodturners & teachers of all time. David still runs a woodturning school there and limits the 3 day classes to just 5 students for great teacher/student cohesiveness. The school is open to all skill levels -- bare beginner to well advanced. I attended his class about three years ago and it was a tremendous learning experience for me as I know it would be for you too.
(You can find his current woodturning workshop schedules by Googling: David Ellsworth woodturning studio.) There is no better way to accelerate your woodturning skills than by investing in some classes from a top professional.
Incidentally, if you don't already belong to the AAW and an AAW chapter local woodturning club, you are also very close to Bucks County Woodturners, a very top Pennsylvania woodturning club, with many helpful turners there to bring you along & make great friendships with.
Happy Trails (& Beautiful Shavings!)
Regards,
Lee Tourtelotte
Minnesota Woodturners Association
www.mnwoodturners.org
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I guess that the speed is changing ... it now reads 2359.
I agree with your safety assessment. It is too bad that some lathes have the "convenient" tool tray on top of the headstock. While it generally is not a problem, all it takes is an accidental bumping of something off the headstock or an out of balance piece to cause a disaster.
That's a good looking shop can we have pics of the whole shop wish I could have started with a new lathe like that. the advice above is very good and if you join a club you will get lots of help but most of all stay safe and have lots of fun it is adictive.
Ian
Ian
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When I started turning my wife made me sign up for a few classes. I thought I could muddle through fine on my own. I don't know if I would have been patient enough to figure things out or if I would have given up. The classes were worth 10x what I paid for them.
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Joe great looking shop.
I'll second and third Lee's suggestion. Invest the time in taking some quality classes. The skills you learn in a class will put your turning on a level that lets you have more fun, produce much better results, and do it safely.
Also consider classes a arrowmont and Campbell, local mentors.
Living so close to David get into one of his classes - even better than Lee described!
Work safely.
Al
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Ditto david too!
speed
Joe,
Beautiful shop and machine! OK, I don't know why they settled on that butt ugly yellow color for them, beautiful other than that.
Since others are talking about speed I thought I would talk about it from another beginners standpoint. A little speed makes an interrupted cut a little easier but even then I'm talking a little, usually still under 1000RPM. After my early speed thrills phase I deliberately slowed my speed down to a maximum of 800RPM for awhile. Benefits are bigger shavings and less dust and the inevitable catches new turners are almost certain to have are far less exciting and do a lot less damage to the wood, the tools, the nice shop, or the body! If the tool is sharp and presented correctly speed doesn't matter a great deal. If my Reeves drive on my lathe didn't have issues with slower speeds I might have imposed a 400 or 600RPM speed limit on myself for early turnings.
Sawdust is often a sign of too much speed or dull tooling so seeing sawdust is one warning sign in itself. Very dry wood will create some sawdust but there should still be some curls in with it all the time.
You can give your new shop that well seasoned look in a hurry turning green wood but green wood is much more pleasant to turn than much of the dry wood. One of the best pieces of advice I received is that short pieces of pretty small limbs that go on the lathe as full rounds are just fine to practice coves and beads on. Saves on nice wood and a practice piece with a few coves and beads trying to make every one of them identical is a good "warm up" for every day's turning. Many far more experienced turners still do this from what I have read.
You have found a great place for a beginner with a lot of master turners who are very willing to help someone just starting out. I'm not lucky enough to have a local mentor where I am at and this forum has saved me at least hundreds of hours in the learning curve and quite likely some equipment and bodily damage. Great people here!
My threads and posts are still few and I asked a lot of the beginner questions or participated in beginner threads others started. A quick skim of them may be helpful, stopping to read what is of interest to you.
I would contact David Ellsworth even if for a few hour or one day visit. That and shaping and sharpening tools properly will make your beginning journey far more pleasant. I feel like I wasted the first month or month and a half trying to turn with tools that were hard to work with and not having a clue what I was doing.
Being in his backyard David Ellsworth would be a very natural turner to choose but select a turner whose style and philosophy you like and model yourself after them in the early going. In time you will find your own artistic style and way of doing things but as some of the best in the world have told me gently, there is no need to completely reinvent the wheel! I review the excellent video's that Lyle Jamieson has on youtube at least once a week and will buy some of his stuff soon. He also has an excellent newsletter that is archived free too.
Did I mention learn to sharpen properly first? Obviously you can afford the cost of a variable speed or low speed grinder and good jigs and fixtures. Get those, study how to sharpen, and start off with one of the swept back wing gouge designs when you start turning bowls and hollow vessels. I am somewhat funding challenged so I use one bowl gouge for over 90% of the work I do. That might be a good thing because like the man with one rifle I am learning to use it well. I sharpen to something between an Ellsworth and Jamieson grind and then relieve the flutes a bit with a secondary bevel ala Johannes Michelsen. I would prefer a Jamieson gouge, a Michelsen, and a bottom feeder, but my one gouge is a do it all as mentioned earlier. In your shoes I would swap the Jamieson for an Ellsworth purchased straight from the master. If you decide you want a different swept back wing grind most of them are so similar it is only a matter of a minute or two on the grinder to change profiles between them.
The best advice I was given? Have fun! Enjoy the never ending journey of wood turning.
Hu
Joe,
Beautiful shop and machine! OK, I don't know why they settled on that butt ugly yellow color for them, beautiful other than that.
Since others are talking about speed I thought I would talk about it from another beginners standpoint. A little speed makes an interrupted cut a little easier but even then I'm talking a little, usually still under 1000RPM. After my early speed thrills phase I deliberately slowed my speed down to a maximum of 800RPM for awhile. Benefits are bigger shavings and less dust and the inevitable catches new turners are almost certain to have are far less exciting and do a lot less damage to the wood, the tools, the nice shop, or the body! If the tool is sharp and presented correctly speed doesn't matter a great deal. If my Reeves drive on my lathe didn't have issues with slower speeds I might have imposed a 400 or 600RPM speed limit on myself for early turnings.
Sawdust is often a sign of too much speed or dull tooling so seeing sawdust is one warning sign in itself. Very dry wood will create some sawdust but there should still be some curls in with it all the time.
You can give your new shop that well seasoned look in a hurry turning green wood but green wood is much more pleasant to turn than much of the dry wood. One of the best pieces of advice I received is that short pieces of pretty small limbs that go on the lathe as full rounds are just fine to practice coves and beads on. Saves on nice wood and a practice piece with a few coves and beads trying to make every one of them identical is a good "warm up" for every day's turning. Many far more experienced turners still do this from what I have read.
You have found a great place for a beginner with a lot of master turners who are very willing to help someone just starting out. I'm not lucky enough to have a local mentor where I am at and this forum has saved me at least hundreds of hours in the learning curve and quite likely some equipment and bodily damage. Great people here!
My threads and posts are still few and I asked a lot of the beginner questions or participated in beginner threads others started. A quick skim of them may be helpful, stopping to read what is of interest to you.
I would contact David Ellsworth even if for a few hour or one day visit. That and shaping and sharpening tools properly will make your beginning journey far more pleasant. I feel like I wasted the first month or month and a half trying to turn with tools that were hard to work with and not having a clue what I was doing.
Being in his backyard David Ellsworth would be a very natural turner to choose but select a turner whose style and philosophy you like and model yourself after them in the early going. In time you will find your own artistic style and way of doing things but as some of the best in the world have told me gently, there is no need to completely reinvent the wheel! I review the excellent video's that Lyle Jamieson has on youtube at least once a week and will buy some of his stuff soon. He also has an excellent newsletter that is archived free too.
Did I mention learn to sharpen properly first?
Obviously you can afford the cost of a variable speed or low speed grinder and good jigs and fixtures. Get those, study how to sharpen, and start off with one of the swept back wing gouge designs when you start turning bowls and hollow vessels. I am somewhat funding challenged so I use one bowl gouge for over 90% of the work I do. That might be a good thing because like the man with one rifle I am learning to use it well. I sharpen to something between an Ellsworth and Jamieson grind and then relieve the flutes a bit with a secondary bevel ala Johannes Michelsen. I would prefer a Jamieson gouge, a Michelsen, and a bottom feeder, but my one gouge is a do it all as mentioned earlier. In your shoes I would swap the Jamieson for an Ellsworth purchased straight from the master. If you decide you want a different swept back wing grind most of them are so similar it is only a matter of a minute or two on the grinder to change profiles between them.The best advice I was given? Have fun! Enjoy the never ending journey of wood turning.
Hu
Focus on good workstation design as well as technique
Hi Joe!
You have received good advice so far in this thread, but I would like to emphasize the point that as you set-up a new shop and a new lathe workstation you have an opportunity to "do it right the first time", and carefully consider how you arrange the lathe, lighting, dust collection, tool storage, position of the grinder, and other major attributes that go into the layout of a safe and efficient woodturning workstation. I do a full demonstration on this topic for turning clubs, and explain the importance of understanding how the space around the lathe and support equipment & supplies can best be arranged to maximize safety, efficiency, and enjoyment while turning. Getting-in early on the design process is important for you to understand how you relate to the lathe (and vice versa), how it should be adjusted to your body size, providing the necessary "infrastructure" (flooring/anti-fatigue matting, electrical, lighting, etc.), which must also include adequate dust collection, is a great position to be in, so make your choices wisely as you go through the process of setting up your lathe.
I have sent you an e-mail directly with a few more suggestions, but please don't have any reservations about asking questions here. There is a LOT of collective experience abounding on the AAW Forum, and it is a great group of people willing to help!
Turn safely!
Rob Wallace
Hi Joe!
You have received good advice so far in this thread, but I would like to emphasize the point that as you set-up a new shop and a new lathe workstation you have an opportunity to "do it right the first time", and carefully consider how you arrange the lathe, lighting, dust collection, tool storage, position of the grinder, and other major attributes that go into the layout of a safe and efficient woodturning workstation. I do a full demonstration on this topic for turning clubs, and explain the importance of understanding how the space around the lathe and support equipment & supplies can best be arranged to maximize safety, efficiency, and enjoyment while turning. Getting-in early on the design process is important for you to understand how you relate to the lathe (and vice versa), how it should be adjusted to your body size, providing the necessary "infrastructure" (flooring/anti-fatigue matting, electrical, lighting, etc.), which must also include adequate dust collection, is a great position to be in, so make your choices wisely as you go through the process of setting up your lathe.
I have sent you an e-mail directly with a few more suggestions, but please don't have any reservations about asking questions here. There is a LOT of collective experience abounding on the AAW Forum, and it is a great group of people willing to help!
Turn safely!
Rob Wallace
Thanks all for constructive comments. Sawdust(using very dry Poplar), seems I was scraping not cutting, today made chips. Also slowed down the lathe. Going to attend David Ellsworth class in December, first available class. Today I made my first bowl looks pretty good (to me anyhow). I am a member of the Lehigh Valley Association, great bunch of guys and very helpful. I have a Oneway grinding system that I purchased with the lathe, I need to speed some time learning how to grind. Well thanks again.
Attachments
enjoy, joining a good community, will watch your learning curve with interest, the path has many twists and turns, enjoy
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First Bowl -- Save it!
Joe -- Your first Bowl looks terrific! -- Great Form & Very Well Done!
Last suggestion: Hang on to that first turned bowl! Only the future knows how far you might go with this "turning" thing! Richard Raffan still has the very first bowl he turned and he has turned thousands of them in his legendary career.
Great to hear you are signed up with David Ellsworth in December!
He will be your Santa Claus this year & give you many valuable gifts!
Regards,
Lee Tourtelotte
Minnesota Woodturners Association
www.mnwoodturners.org
Joe -- Your first Bowl looks terrific! -- Great Form & Very Well Done!
Last suggestion: Hang on to that first turned bowl! Only the future knows how far you might go with this "turning" thing! Richard Raffan still has the very first bowl he turned and he has turned thousands of them in his legendary career.
Great to hear you are signed up with David Ellsworth in December!
He will be your Santa Claus this year & give you many valuable gifts!
Regards,
Lee Tourtelotte
Minnesota Woodturners Association
www.mnwoodturners.org
Great looking bowl well done you are now on your way to an addiction that will be hard to cure have fun stay safe
Ian
Ian
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That is a mighty good looking bowl.
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Are you asking about the identity of both or for the second one? The second one looks like it might be maple.
Nice shop. Very nice lathe. Would love to have one of those someday.
Any chance of catalpa??? I have turned some and very light in weight, some tannishness, and very wide annular rings. Gretch
Sorry, yes the second. Thanks