Wood Turners
Show off your wood-turning projects and help others perfect their wood-turning skills.
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1,702 topics in this forum
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- 3 followers
- 2 replies
- 71 views
Hey, Turners!!!! Please consider posting your projects- completed or in the process- in the Woodturners main forum! We want to have your work get the attention it deserves!!
Last reply by lew, -
- 8 followers
- 41 replies
- 768 views
Sanding may sound elemental but to get that good finish it is essential part of the process of turning to a finish. The best way to improve your finish is to first learn to turn to a better finish off your tools. This will take time so lets look at what to do till that happens. Always sand from beginning grit to finish grit. Do not skip grits. My progression is 80,120,180,220,320,400,600,800,1000,2000, 4000. Unless my finish off the gouge is good those steps are followed. Might start at 60 for a bad piece of wood , yes it is always the fault of the wood . For most turnings I only go to 400. How long do you sand with each grit? Answer=Till all scrat…
Last reply by AndrewB, -
- 2 followers
- 5 replies
- 27 views
I got the walnut log cut in half and one bowl rough turned.
Last reply by Gerald, -
- 3 followers
- 31 replies
- 285 views
I'm interested in lowering the speed on my mini lathe for applying friction finish evenly with no drip or flying finish. I think this will allow max finish saturation at low rpm and ease application. Then as my friction finish drys, I can speed it up. The minimum speed is 500 rpm at the lowest the speed rheostat and belt configuration. The label on my Jet mini motor shows half horse 60 Hertz and below shows 162 vdc 3 amp. A contradiction of info. Is it a dc motor that gets is source from the speed controller?
Last reply by Larry Buskirk, -
- 5 followers
- 49 replies
- 563 views
So I've been on the fence about this. I know I really enjoy having my carbide cutters I like them. How ever I think its due time that I do go back to getting into HSS gouges. So I'm currently trying to research decent HSS gouges for myself that wouldn't be too expensive and way out of my price range. I'm also looking into a stone bench grinder for sharpening and some sort of jig for getting the angles rather than just eyballing it. If you guys have any suggestions on certain tools I'm all ears. I'm just not looking to break the bank.
Last reply by PostalTom, -
- 3 followers
- 10 replies
- 70 views
I called a local mill and asked about some free scraps. The guy was really nice. We ended up talking for an hour or more. He gave me a walnut log and one he called Osage orange. This is all I had room for. He said I could come back and get more when I need it.
Last reply by Gunny, -
- 4 followers
- 9 replies
- 69 views
WOW! What a week it has been here in the Woodturner's Forum. Forgive me if I missed a post. Before we get started, please check out this post for posting your projects. We want your projects to be front and center in our forum and get the attention they deserve- Our Patriot Turners- @John Hechel is cranking out some awesome French rolling pins. He certainly has his work cut out for him. In his post, John explains his processes and some of his techniques- @RustyFN brought us up to date on the bowl and emblem he was working on last week. The emblem looks spectacular, as well as the finis…
Last reply by lew, -
- 3 followers
- 7 replies
- 43 views
I made another bowl. It is 11 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall. I put some wipe on poly on it and had a few bad spots show up that I couldn’t see before. I started over sanding from 60 grit back up to 400. Looks a lot better now.
Last reply by AndrewB, -
- 2 followers
- 10 replies
- 71 views
I took some brass candle sticks to the metal lathe and made some ferrules and went to town on some Mahogany furniture legs that I had salvaged some time ago. For the metal points I used pieces of commercial peg board hooks. They were 12" long and I cut 6" off a bunch of them and tapered the cut off pieces at the lathe. They commercial peg board hooks are hard so they don't bend under the weight of the merchandise. The ferrules are a press fit onto the body and the metal points are a press fit into the brass and the wood. One of them is designed to be what is called a bird cage awl. I made a few smaller ones too. They are appx. 4" overall. I …
Last reply by Gerald, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 47 views
My process when I'm making lids involves two basic steps. First, mount a blank in a four jaw chuck, drill for the lid and fit it. However many I'm making I will do this step to all of them. When they are all drilled, they get flipped around and all the finish cuts and sanding are done. I discovered early on a four jaw chuck wouldn't work for the second step. There is no room for tooling and it puts my fingers too close to the spinning chuck. My solution was to make a wooden expansive chuck. That actually worked really well and I've been using it for years. It uses the same principle as a four jaw chuck with all four sections expanding. I also disco…
Last reply by Gerald, -
- 2 followers
- 4 replies
- 103 views
I made a purchase early on when I had first purchased my Wen 12 by 18 inch variable speed bench top lathe. I didn't even bother to look at the size of the banjo tool rest holder dimensions which now knowing that was 1 inch in diameter. How ever I made a a mistake buy as I said well a couple of them the harbor freight lathe being one of them. I bought a set of 4 tool rests from Amazon. Come to find out they work and fit on my Delta lathe perfectly. So in the long run now I'm glad I bought them even though I had no idea 2 or three months ago that I was going to buy a delta. So the tool rests just sat in their amazon delivery box until I looked at the banjo on the delt…
Last reply by AndrewB, -
- 3 followers
- 8 replies
- 49 views
I have had a problem for a while in the shop with the crank handle on the planer. It juts out into the narrow walkway between the jointer and the planer and I have an ongoing set of hip bruises as a result. The solution was to turn a handle that has a wooden tenon that I can just insert into the threaded hole for the handle and only when I need it. It probably won’t last forever but hopefully for a while.
Last reply by HandyDan, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 77 views
The bee farm gift shop that sells my honey dippers also sells LOTS of loose leaf tea, I think she told me she stocks over 50 flavors. She wanted to know if I could make lids for those tea jars. They are much smaller version of the dipper lids but with no dipper. The lids these wrap are about 2-1/2" diameter and ideally I would just drill that with a forstner bit. I don't happen to own 2.5" forstner and didn't want to spend 40 bucks on speculation. It occurred to me that I have a 2.5" hole saw and I wondered if I could drill with that and then hollow out the center with a 2-1/8" forstner and scraper. Took out the pilot bit and chucked the hole saw and it worked very well.…
Last reply by FlGatorwood, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 88 views
I built a center steady years ago. It works fine, however the wheels I used (white) were used on shower doors. No bearings. Wheels hard plastic. They worked fine, but I kept my eyes open for wheels with bearings at a good price. I found some at Amazon. They are made for printer mechanisms. They do have bearings and (not as) hard plastic wheels. I added them to my old center steady. I have NOT tried them yet, but I can not see any reason why they won't work. The one dimension I wish was smaller is the 3/8" wheel thickness. They were really cheap 5 for $7 I set the two spares down with the ruler. BIQU Big Plastic Pulley Wheel with Bearing Idler Pul…
Last reply by HandyDan, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 65 views
Do not cut bowling balls in half on a band saw. They will ruin the blade quick.
Last reply by RustyFN, -
- 3 followers
- 8 replies
- 62 views
I made a small bowl while I was putting the finish on my other bowl. It is around 5.5 inches in diameter. Also a picture inside the other bowl I just finished.
Last reply by Gerald, -
- 5 followers
- 10 replies
- 66 views
Just got everything set up and running. Took a seasoned log and practiced some basic shapes to get the feel of the tools, familiarize myself with the lathe, and see how it all works together. not a masterpiece but feel it’s a great start.
Last reply by Gerald, -
- 1 follower
- 8 replies
- 123 views
This is fantastic
Last reply by Gerald, -
- 3 followers
- 22 replies
- 192 views
Started a new bowl. It is a log the neighbor gave me. I think it is apple.
Last reply by RustyFN, -
- 4 followers
- 8 replies
- 82 views
Welp first turn of the new year. 2021. As well as the first turn on the brand new delta lathe. It took me a few minutes to figure out that forward is backwards and reverse is forwards basically. Either way I love the lathe so thanks to who ever suggested buying that one it was well worth the 600 some odd dollars I spent on it. It is extremely quiet and I'm honestly over all happy and impressed with it. Beats the harbor freight lathe by 1000 fold. I also got my new cole jaws for the larger bowls as well but I wanted to do a small little myrtle wood bowl for myself to throw my keys in when they are not in my pocket so it works. But roughly done.
Last reply by FlGatorwood,
