First Turn at a stand still for the moment oooooooooof

[AndrewB 3,295]

So for the first time I'm at a stand still on wood turning for the moment.  The plug on my bench top lathe decided to break, so that wont get fixed until I can get my electrician over here to wire me a new cord.  Well that happened to be the perfect excuse to order a new lathe haha.  So I picked one up I did go with the harbor freight one since I'm just the hobby turner and newbie.  How ever I'm hoping that the faceplate from my Wen will fit the harbor freight lathe.  Any how with that being said I wound up working on the project and where I've gotten so far was a small goblet rather than a candle stick.  What I did notice on the Wen was it didn't really allow for a lot of room to work with getting in to carve out in the interior of the goblet.  Not turning since high school woodshop it took a bit of playing around with to get back into the feel of things.  So far so good.  I'm at a point now where I could use any suggestions from you guys that are pro turners on this one.  I did pick up a few tips and tricks from youtube about checking the work to see if it was leveled when turning running the chisel a top the piece to check for flat spots.  Worked quiet well.  Here are the pictures any suggestions on this?  On where I should take it.  Please keep in mind I'm trying to keep this one quite simple.  Thanks ahead of time.

[lew 19,622]

Congrats on the pending new lathe! I'm sure you'll find it an improvement over the "broken" one 

 

Looks to me like the project can go either way. The only thing I would point out is that your current set of tools are more suited for spindle work. Those are better for things like a candle holder. Hollowing out for a goblet is a little iffy with spindle tools.

 

I imagine the Harbor Freight lathe will include a faceplate but not sure about the size compared to the one you have now.

[AndrewB 3,295]

I'm not sure as of yet either, I think I was using the 1/8th inch gouge to hollow that out and the 1/2 inch skew.  Its been working only had one or two catches because I didn't have the tool rest in close enough.  That's part of the process of learning I guess.  Either way I'm still a little ticked that the plug broke on me either way it can be fixed and then I'll have two lathes.  LOL so more fun for me and I had just got done building a better bench for the other one when I had noticed the problem sheesh.  How ever with the variable speed that will be coming would that be better off turning the goblet at a lower RPM rather than the higher one that I was working with on the current broken lathe LOL?

[Gunny 59,455]

Congrats on the new lathe. As for the cord did the plug break?

[lew 19,622]

I want to make sure I understand,  are you thinking about using the skew for hollowing? If so, only use it for the shallow scraping. To go deeper, either use a dedicated scraper, bowl gouge or carbide tool 

[AndrewB 3,295]

makes sense I'll give the bowl gouge a go when the new lathe gets in. forgive me if I miss name a proper tool or get the tools mixed up a bit I am still learning the proper names for each one so that will take a bit to get used to.

[lew 19,622]

No problem! That's how we all learned. I'm a self taught turner- before the days of high speed Internet in my area. Learned mostly from books.

 

If you're not sure, post pictures to help us get on the same page. We love pictures 

[Gunny 59,455]

4 hours ago, AndrewB said:

bit I am still learning the proper names for each one so that will take a bit to get used to.

Then they come up with another new one, it is a vicious circle.  

 

4 hours ago, lew said:

We love pictures

 

And not just for us to see but for you to keep a record of your progress over time.  

[Gerald 12,762]

There was quite a similaer question on another forum. For hollowing to make it easier and quicker use a forstner bit to drill out part of the hollowed area. To do this mount a Jacobs chuck in tailstock on a Morse taper to fit it. When drilling use lower speed of 400 or less and draw the bit out frequently to keep from jambing the bit in the work piece and to clear chips.

   The 1/8 gouge may be a misnomer unless you somehow bought some specialty gouges. The smallest I have for a spindle gouge is 1/4 and would not use it to hollow. Use a 3/8 to hollow. Yes scrapers will work to hollow endgrain only and you must remember that the handle on scrapers must be higher than the point or bad things will happen. I usually use scraper for the last thing and to smooth the bottom in hollowing.

[HandyDan 97,051]

Remove the tail stock from the Wen lathe when hollowing.  Works for me.

[AndrewB 3,295]

Well the Chisels unless I'm getting my numbers messed up came from amazon and they were about 24 bucks to start, so what I may wind up doing is going back over to harbor freight after the new lathe gets in and buying another set of moderately priced HSS chisels, I do have a good set of carbide tips coming (made from the Savannah Company)  Bought off amazon.  How ever I do like using the HSS for most things, I did want to have a good carbide tip to use for roughing some shaping excetra and have the HSS for the better cuts,  how ever buying cheaper tools I know I would have to sharpen them more often how ever not an issue there.  My big 2x72 can handle that quite well so no need for other equipment to buy for sharpening.  As far as hollowing for now.  I'm kind of trying to learn the more difficult way first so that way I can be more comfortable with it rather than simply drilling a hole into the piece.  If that makes any sense.

[lew 19,622]

7 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

rather than simply drilling a hole into the piece

One of the advantages of drilling a hole is that you can pretty accurately gauge the depth to which you want to hollow. 

[AndrewB 3,295]

That makes sense, at this time I do not have a Jacobs Chuck to be able to drill out anything unfortunately.  The fist lathe "the broken one" came pretty stock with a couple of live centers that was bout it.  I'm sure the HF lathe will be the same way when it comes.  Drilling out at this point until I can get my hands on a chuck, Id also like to get my hands on a chuck for spinning bowls as well but those will have to wait for a bit to purchase.  So for now it will be doing it with the gouges.  Matter of fact even in high school if I can take my memory back all that way I never drilled out any centers when turning projects.  So we shall see how this goes until I can get the two chucks that I want.  As far as gauging depth I understand that one.

Edited May 27, 2020 by AndrewB

[Gerald 12,762]

Here is your Jacobs at HF https://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-mt2-mini-lathe-drill-chuck-42340.html

 

I would just get a good bowl gouge instead of another less than set. Look at 3/8 bowl gouge from Crown, or Craft Supplies at mid level. If you want a best of look at Thompson.

 

The tools you now have will work for a while and when you get better ones you can repurpose those. I have a HF set and everything except one skew have been repurposed.

 

You might also look at ebay for some tools at a good price. Watch for cheap stuff there , just look at name brands.

[JimM 2,912]

8 minutes ago, Gerald said:

Here is your Jacobs at HF https://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-mt2-mini-lathe-drill-chuck-42340.html

 

I would just get a good bowl gouge instead of another less than set. Look at 3/8 bowl gouge from Crown, or Craft Supplies at mid level. If you want a best of look at Thompson.

 

The tools you now have will work for a while and when you get better ones you can repurpose those. I have a HF set and everything except one skew have been repurposed.

 

You might also look at ebay for some tools at a good price. Watch for cheap stuff there , just look at name brands.

Gerald - I posted a request for information on chisels few weeks ago.  At your suggestion, I went with a Penn State Industries set.  It pained me some to buy it on Amazon rather than the PSI site, but it was enough less $ to get my attention.   And I think it came directly from PSI.  I don't know why they do that!

[AndrewB 3,295]

Thats not a bad price for a Drill chuck I will have to pick one of those up.  There are a few things that I still have to pick up just cant get them right away, I went a lil over board with tools and what not LOL.  Probably next month.

[Gunny 59,455]

1 hour ago, AndrewB said:

Thats not a bad price for a Drill chuck I will have to pick one of those up.  There are a few things that I still have to pick up just cant get them right away, I went a lil over board with tools and what not LOL.  Probably next month.

I feel ya. I can make a wish list with the best of them. Paying for it, that is another matter.

[AndrewB 3,295]

My new lathe just needs to hurry up and get here I'm also trying to contemplate after watching so many videos of the HF lathe being a little overly light weight of how exactly Im going to weight that thing down, I suppose I could use my coal forge fire pot and my 55 pound anvil that might just do the trick lol as well as attaching it to the wall of my shed we shall see what my options are the ground isn't very level  in the shed two different types of concrete how ever I may have to move some things around in order to get it to work.  Update space cleared out with level concrete not that danged driveway asphalt.  So when the lathe gets in its right next to a  plug and I'll be able to bolt it to the concrete with out having to worry about trying to get it level.

Edited May 27, 2020 by AndrewB