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What’s on your lathe?
- Thread starter Rusty Nesmith
- Start date
Odie, the more I look the less I understand what I'm seeing. I recognize the lathe and the steady... And then there seems to be a million tubes, attachments and accessories attached to the lathe which I'm a bit unclear on.
What all am I looking at?
Odie
Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
Hello James.......
About the best I can do is to suggest you run some searches for past threads over the past 20 years. Almost everything on my lathe have been discussed at some point in time.....
Except for the rotating headstock, pretty much nothing has changed since my purchase of a Vicmarc VL240 lathe.
=o=
Beautiful, love those colored rims!
A beauty in the making!
Was given a box of free wood consisting of Zoita, Guatambu, Castello Boxwood, San Domingo Boxwood, and Loro Negro. None of them were labeled. I grabbed two pieces and made a needed mallet.
12" spalted pecan bowl
A neighbor left half of a cottonwood crotch along the road with a "Free" sign attached to it so I thought I would do her a favor and transfer it to my burning pile. After I got a chance to look at it I used my little sawmill to slice it up and make some bowl blanks. Most of them have some nice figure. This 10 inch bowl proves that even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. Turned to final thickness wet, I will sand it after it has a chance to dry.
Attachments
Amazing score. Superb!
Now that is a beautiful piece of wood!!
Wow what a beautiful piece of wood!
Kevin Jesequel
TOTW Team
Spalted Maple
I know a lot of guys here have 20k or more wrapped up in their lathe and accessories. I don't have that kind of budget. I have an all original 1946 Delta Milwaukee 12" lathe that I picked up at a yard sale dirt cheap - $150 for the lather and a 10" craftsman tablesaw and a 12" thickness planer. That chuck came with the lathe. I've bought a self-centering chuck but sometimes I use the old one rather than switch jaws on the new chuck. It takes a little time to center it properly, but less time than switching jaws. Someday I'll buy a couple more chucks so I won't have to switch jaws.
Stunning piece of wood!
I’m dying to see what tools you use . . .
Just got this one to the finishing stage. Sanding sealer and sanded to 320. First coat of lacquer here. Love the rippled grain, wife saw it and said it needs ironing!
Gary, what is the wood? Looks like Oregon Myrtle/California Bay Laurel to me.... It is one of those woods that the higher grit you sand to, the more it glows.
robo hippy
robo hippy
It may be that. This is some of that unidentified wood I used on previous piece. Im planning on sanding it much more, the coat of lacquer is grain fill and will be sanded back and recoated after the final grit.
Kevin Jesequel
TOTW Team
Thanks much. This helps. You must have a light touch or the torque would quickly twist the tool.
Have an order for five cherry bowls. I second turned three today and will turn two more later this week and finish them all at the same time.
Production turner! You’re a machine.
I probably one of the few turners who doesn’t want orders
. I just want to turn when and what I want to turn, if you want it, fine and if you don’t, that’s fine too! Thinking about turning some African Blackwood to see if it’s really oily
Well me too I turn what feel like turning, don’t want it to become a job. It’s nice to try different things!I probably one of the few turners who doesn’t want orders
Thinking about turning some African Blackwood to see if it’s really oily
Without making a giant hole in a hollowform you can hollow out about 85% of it with a straight tool and you know you'll need these bent tools to get under the curve closer to that hole. I myself didn't use that method that Kevin is using very long as early on I stumbled upon the Monster hollowing system. Those tools should supply you with an appreciation for Kevin's turning skills.
Exactly how I think! If I make something and someone wants to buy it fine, but I used to sell game calls and it became work. I already have two jobs don’t need a third. Almost ruined my hobby. Never again.I probably one of the few turners who doesn’t want orders
Thinking about turning some African Blackwood to see if it’s really oily
Funny thing is if turning for myself I can turn bowls all day long, green or second turned and the same with hollow forms now. But these three were not as fun because I felt like production mode (psychological ) and could have turned the other two but just stopped
.I had someone bring a log by this past week and wants 12 bowls out of it. I told them I’d cover the log but may be a year or more before I get to it, thinking they would take it back. No, they don’t care how long it takes, hard to say no to friends.
Gary, some times it will have a sweet spicy smell, and some times it smells like it came out of a horse stall. I do like the spicy smell. It is related to the bay tree whose leaves are used in cooking.
robo hippy
Odie
Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
My latest experiment was not particularly successful, but provided some answers to whether applying Danish Oil as a hardener to spalting prior to finish turning is a good answer to the question of how to treat severe spalting...
This Maple burl bowl is heavily spalted and excessively soft in places. After seasoning the roughed bowl, it was brought to round. At this point, I applied a heavy coating of DO, with the hopes that the spalting would become hard enough to turn......(providing sharp tools presented well is a part of the equation). After waiting a few days for the DO to cure, I then attempted the 2nd finish turn. What I found was the DO does indeed harden to a turnable degree......ON THE SURFACE. Below the surface, the DO becomes gummy and smears on the surface as well as severely clogging the sandpaper. I wasted a lot off sandpaper dealing with this, but I eventually did acquire a decent sanded surface.....ready for final finishing.
I'm not sure the drawbacks are worth the effort to attempt hardening the spalted wood with DO.....but, it certainly is doable
=o=
This Maple burl bowl is heavily spalted and excessively soft in places. After seasoning the roughed bowl, it was brought to round. At this point, I applied a heavy coating of DO, with the hopes that the spalting would become hard enough to turn......(providing sharp tools presented well is a part of the equation). After waiting a few days for the DO to cure, I then attempted the 2nd finish turn. What I found was the DO does indeed harden to a turnable degree......ON THE SURFACE. Below the surface, the DO becomes gummy and smears on the surface as well as severely clogging the sandpaper. I wasted a lot off sandpaper dealing with this, but I eventually did acquire a decent sanded surface.....ready for final finishing.
I'm not sure the drawbacks are worth the effort to attempt hardening the spalted wood with DO.....but, it certainly is doable
=o=
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- Silver Spring, MD
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I suspect you would have better results with waiting several weeks or more. Anything that has penetrated is going to take longer to polymerize (particularly after surface polymerization).
Among the most beautiful pieces of Padauk I’ve worked. Will be part of a flower-like sculpture in the end.
Odie
Panning for Montana gold, with Betsy, the mule!
I suspect you're right.....
I also suspect it could take much longer than several weeks!
The Watco DO info says it "seals" the wood and hardens. That is the prescription for a longer wait I think.....
Anyway, I have another spalted bowl that I'm going to try using a thinned Titebond III wood glue as a medium instead of the DO.
Stay tuned....
=o=
You’re not going to paint that beautiful piece of wood are you????
I thought about saying “too bad it’s going to be covered with paint” as a joke. Definitely not painting this beauty. Will do a lot of carving though
