Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners September 18, 2019

[lew]

Just looking out of the window at the beautiful sunset. Days are getting shorter and the leaves are beginning to show signs of fading.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@Ron Altier glued up some pieces of colored plywood and turned a couple of sweet looking ornaments-

 

Check out his post to see how a simple rearrangement of the pieces creates completely different designs-

 

 

@Gerald turned some beautiful crosses for a ladies group at his church-

 

Gerald tells us about the group and his turnings in his post-

 

Gerald also gave us more information on a post he did about lathe wheels-

 

 

Gerald wins this week's gift certificate for a free one year membership to the Patriot Woodworker site. He posted three turning related subjects in one week! He gave us a link to an article on building a Universal Jam Chuck. The article is from Woodcraft Magazine- one of our proud sponsors!

 

What’s Coming Up-

 

The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is having a workshop (Gatlinburg, TN  October 6 - 12, 2019) that introduces students to 3-point off-axis turning. If you are a wood turner looking for something different and unusual, the world of twisted segmented turning provides unique opportunities to create non-round objects on a lathe. 

 

Click on the above image for a link to more information and registration

 

 

For The Newbies-

If you are like me, there were no turning clubs in my area when I began turning. The Internet, for me, was available on a 300 baud modem on a shared telephone line. Videos were out of the question. Well now, at least, fast Internet is available and groups are out there to help the new turner. A well known personality in the turning world, Capt. Eddie Castelin, is creating a website to bring turners of all levels together. The site is currently under development but check out what Capt. Eddie has to say in this video-

 

Here's the website link- http://www.worldwidewoodturners.com/

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

Acrylic and acrylic hybrid turnings are becoming all the rage lately. Woodcraft has started stocking Alumilite products including resins and colors. It can be fun to create your own turning blanks or use the casting resins as "fillers". But beware, to have castings free of voids and bubbles can get expensive. Pressure pots, compressors, vacuum chambers and pumps are some of the additional equipment necessary. If you decide to try this, Easy Wood Tools negative rake cutters are the best way to get the smoothest finish @Jim from Easy Wood Tools

 

Recently, Carl Jacobson turned this little jem from an acrylic/carbon fiber blank-

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

The folks at Woodturners Wonders have redesigned their website. It's easier to navigate.

 

This isn't really a new turning item but rather a novel idea for using a "regular" wood working device. Rick Turns shows us how he uses a woodshop moisture meter to check if his bowl blanks have dried. Watch for his little "drying kiln" in the video-

 

 

 

Everything Else-

 

I forgot to put this in last weeks Wednesday's. The Woodturning OnLine newsletter is available at-

https://www.woodturningonline.com/index.php?edition=092019. There's a link there to an article on milling trees to turning blanks.

 

A month or so ago, we posted some information on thread chasing on the lathe. Mike Peace has added some more information on that subject but instead of buying the tools, he shows us how to make them using bolts. His trick for tapping a hole is especially cost effective and I can attest that it works great!

 

 

 

Safe turning

[Gunny]

Nice work @lew.  Another jam packed post for me to drool over this week.  

[HandyDan]

Thanks Lew.  Capt. Eddie's new venture sure sounds inviting.  Going to keep an eye out for it.

[lew]

@Woodbutcherbynight Thanks!

 

@HandyDan Thank You!

[Gerald]

Thanks for the award Lew. You spent some time on that post.  I just try to post anything that I find interesting or that will help someone out there.

 

Keep up the good work.

[lew]

@Gerald Thank You!

[Jim L]

@lew thanks for the post - great as always.  I really did not like Carl's carbon fiber bowl....  just because of the scare factor.  Seems like something could have easily gone wrong.  It's kind of cool looking, but not worth the risk.

[lew]

53 minutes ago, Jim from Easy Wood Tools said:

@lew thanks for the post - great as always.  I really did not like Carl's carbon fiber bowl....  just because of the scare factor.  Seems like something could have easily gone wrong.  It's kind of cool looking, but not worth the risk.

Thanks! 

 

It did look like it could fly apart with all those deep looking cracks. I noticed he kept the tailstock up on the piece during most of the operations. Being that thick, I guess a lot of the cracks didn't go through the entire piece. Those EWT negative rake cutters made it look like it was made from soft butter!

[FlGatorwood]

12 hours ago, Jim from Easy Wood Tools said:

@lew thanks for the post - great as always.  I really did not like Carl's carbon fiber bowl....  just because of the scare factor.  Seems like something could have easily gone wrong.  It's kind of cool looking, but not worth the risk.

Jim, I have to totally agree.  The end result was fascinating.  

 

Lew, thanks for another neat thread and lessons.  I will be seeking out Cap'n Eddie's new venture.  Sounds exciting.  

[lew]

@FlGatorwood Thank You!