Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners January 10, 2018

[lew]

It finally got above freezing the past couple of days but the basement shop is lagging behind in the warm up.

 

@Ksvet06 posed a question about sharpening lathe tools. He asked about grinders and sharpening jigs. Please look over his post and the responses. Let's give Zach all the help we can-

 

 

@Gerald is working on hollow forms for the Beads of Courage (BOC) project-

 

Check out what he has done for this very special cause-

 

 

 

@Smallpatch is recreating a couple of chess pieces for a customer-

 

Although Jesse says he's not a turner, you would never know it by how well these turned out! He tells us about the adventure here-

 

 

 

When I used to use my diamond parting tool, it almost always gave me a ragged surface. Here's a video from Rick Turns illustrating how to regrind the parting tool for a cleaner cut-

 

I must admit, I've abandoned my diamond parting tool in favor of the Easy Wood Tools parting tool. It creates clean cuts, no vibration and because it's a carbide tip- stays sharp a LONG time.

 

 

 

 

In Last week's "Wednesday's..." we mentioned @Steve Krumanaker had a mishap when he inadvertently turned off his vacuum system. That got me to wondering if a shop made vacuum  could be built. I found this PDF for making an inexpensive system. Not sure if I'll try it but thought it might give someone an idea. I believe the author is in England because the costs are in pounds and dimensions are metric.

 

http://www.gaw.org.uk/blog/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Vacuum-chuck-for-£10-or-less.pdf

 

 

The Woodturning OnLine newsletter arrived last week. As always there are interesting projects, articles and equipment. While scanning the "New and Hot" section I noticed this little jewel-

 

Looks like this laser could be adapted to most any tool. It is available through Tim Yoders' site- http://www.wtwtim.com/elbotool.htm about half way down the page.

The entire newsletter is at- http://www.woodturningonline.com/

 

Finally, here's an older video from Carl Jacobson turning a lidded vessel. Notice his use of the Easy Wood Tools hollower and the fantastic Easy Wood Chuck!

 

 

Safe turning

[Gerald]

Lew thanks for the post. I have the lase that Tim sells. It is a Ron Brown product and I saw at the AAW symposium in 2016 he replaced the adjusting knobs with single wing nuts so I ordered some and it is much easier to use.

Here are three articles on making Vacum Chucks:

        The Brusied Brothers

        Shoestring

        How I built mine

[HandyDan]

Thanks Lew.  Going to take some time to wade through all the good information you posted this week.  Vacuum chuck really caught my eye.

[Steve Krumanaker]

Lots of good information again. I also have that laser assembly from Ron Brown but I've been way less than happy with it, thought it was a good idea poorly executed. Before I had a vacuum pump I made my own rotary adapter and faceplate type vacuum chuck. It worked really well. There is a hazard to a shop vac when using this method though. A shop vac uses  the air flow to cool the motor, with a vacuum chuck there is basically no air flow so it can damage the motor if used for long periods.

 

Steve

[Grandpadave52]

Lew, your diversity of topics along with highlighting those on this forum is phenomenal.

It has to be one of the most informative Turning forums out there.

I enjoy reading just to see what all you guys & gals have going and how you get there.

Thanks for your dedication and energy!

[Gene Howe]

Another great post, Lew. 

[lew]

@Gerald Thanks! And thanks for the links and the comment on the laser.

 

@HandyDan Thank You!

 

@Steve Krumanaker Thanks! I hadn't thought about the airflow problem with the shop vac. I can see where that could easily become problematic.

 

@Grandpadave52 Thank You!

 

@Gene Howe Thanks!