Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners July 15, 2020

[lew]

Fairly active week here on our forum with lots of posts and discussions-

 

Please remember that we only have about 2 weeks left to reach our fundraising. Plenty of Raffle tickets left. If you haven't made a donation, please consider it-

 

One last bit of housekeeping. Please remember to add Tags to your posts. The tags make it easier for folks to find similar information throughout our site. Tags can be materials used, tools used, techniques used, finishes used, turner's names, object types, etc, etc.

 

 

Our Patriot Turners-

@AndrewB has been busy with his turnings. He is experimenting with various finishes as well as giving us a glimpse of his new toys to drool over!

 

In one post Andrew took us along as he progressed through the making of this cup-

 

He received lots of comments and there was a great back and forth as he worked on it. 

 

 

Andrew is working on a set of these hollowed forms-

 

He gave us a nice pictorial journey with this on-

 

 

Andrew also  got a shipment of new toys. I hope he has had time to wipe off the slobbers from everyone drooling over them.

 

You can see the rest of the haul at-

 

 

What’s Coming Up-

Cindy Drozda continues to do live demonstrations. Check out her schedule at-

http://www.cindydrozda.com/html/Demo.html

 

 

 

For The Newbies-

I have an account on Reddit. While doing a little exploring, I found this in the Turning Forum-

https://www.reddit.com/r/turning/wiki/index

Quite an extensive list of information for beginners and experienced alike.

 

A nice project that can help you transition from spindle turning to glue block/chuck turning.

 

https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/project-turn-a-trivet-and-wine-caddy/

 

This project is from the latest Woodworker's Journal Woodturning Monthly. The entire newsletter is available at-

https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/woodturning-monthly/?utm_medium=email

 

 

A lot of discussions centered around chucks this week. Here's a video on making a specialized chuck- the Longworth Chuck-

 

 

 

Expand Your Horizons-

We all like to think our workshops are perfectly laid out and will never change. But just in case, here's Ernie Conover discussing moving one of the heaviest pieces of equipment in the shop-

 

 

 

Got an email from Ruth Niles the other day. In it was a repost of an article about selling your work. It's amazing to see how many "Makers" actually earn a comfortable living from their talents. Sorry about the formatting.

 

"Can you make a living with your craft? 
Here are some excerpts from HANDMADE Business magazine article written by Patrice Lewis. Plus I injected some tips from my own personal experience!
Finding your unique niche will probably be the single most enormous hurdle to overcome. The reason this is difficult is most people focus on making items they themselves like. You must consider what competition there is for that particular product and how many others share that interest.
Can you make your craft item fast enough to meet demand. If you can only make one a week, you won't be able to make a living. You have to make your item fast enough, without loss of quality, so you can sell them at a moderate price.
 WHOLESALE vs RETAIL
How to market your product will come down to determining if your craft business will be wholesale or retail. 
Retail is you, you, you: you sell the item, you go to craft shows, you open the storefront, you develop a web page. You probably will need help because if you're doing all this, you won't have time to make any new items. The good part is you keep all the sales money and charge retail prices.
By selling wholesale, you don't have to worry about the time and expense of being away from home to sell your craft item. The craft shows are a lot of fun but are also a ton of work and preparation and you have to make a lot of products that you end up bringing home time and again! When you wholesale, you know what to make and how many. Statistics show, while most crafters still prefer retail shows, more revenue is generated from wholesale markets.
 DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB ...... YET.
Rule #1: Until your craft business is profitable, you must live below your means. Don't make the mistake of blowing your early profit on luxuries like restaurant meals or unnecessary electronics. 
Rule #2: Ditch the debts. Pay off excessive credit card balances, pay down car loans, etc. Watch your spending so you are not tottering under the load of debt.

    HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Can you look at your items unemotionally and rationally to determine which have the potential to be built into a successful business and which should stay as a hobby. Naturally we love what we make and the suggestion that not enough people would be interested in buying that particular item is sort of insulting.
 TARGET YOUR MARKET 
You won't do well selling hand-carved dolls at a motorcycle rally. Motorcycle people are not passionate about carved dolls! It's not a marketing match. Carving and painting or making bottle stoppers with hot-air balloons to sell at a Hot-Air Balloon Festival is perfect: or apples at an apple fest.
 SELF-MOTIVATION (this is my nemesis!)
Doing a craft as a part-time hobby and applying yourself to a full-time home craft business is quite another thing. It's not hard to be in your shop producing, it's all the boring stuff that is the hard part. Those who know me, know I really hate the computer work on my website, making ads and doing bookkeeping. Also marketing research is necessary and not a lot of fun. This takes self discipline. No sleeping late and playing solitaire on the computer thinking "I have all day to get all the bowls done." "

 

 

Last week we mentioned the use of tenos or mortices for a turning. "Rick Turns" posted a video illustrating what can go wrong if the wood isn't solid-

 

 

 

New Turning Items-

@Jim from Easy Wood Tools shared information about two of their new products. 

They have completely redesigned their parting tool. It permits deeper cuts than their previous parting tool. It still has the replaceable cutter, however, the new design replaces the cutter and its holder. The carbide tip is permanently affixed to the holder. No more lose tips to worry with.

 

The second new product is a really handy set of flexible templates to help you create the exact sized mortise/tenon for any of the EWT chuck jaws. No need to hassle with calipers, compasses or dividers. Included is a magnetic holder to keep them right on the lathe ready for use.

 

The set I ordered came today and they are so easy to use!

 

Everything Else-

Rick Turns posted his weekly list of YouTube turning videos-

 

 

Started playing with the cherry logs. One of the logs I cut into blocks to try some hollow forms. 

 

 

Once it was rounded, I cut it in half. Less waste. Then created this form.

 

It's partially hollowed. The wood is very wet and needs to dry before continuing. I've been experimenting with the soap solution drying method to reduce cracking.

 

 

The piece will stay submerged for a couple of days, then moved to a bag of shavings. We'll see what happens.

 

The other half of the block had a split. Turned it into a rough bowl. Got to use the EWT template for setting up the mortise.

 

 

 

It's rough turned and submerged in the pot with the hollow form.

 

Safe turning and stay well

[Gunny]

Busy week.  @AndrewB has kept us busy with all his projects and new toys!!  Had to dig out some old photos of jigs I use for pen making and such.  Like others can attest we use jigs we make over time and think nothing more about it until someone ask how to do something.  Use this jig, yeah cause they know all about it.  

[AndrewB]

TOLD YOU GUYS I WAS A FORUM JUNKIE TO BE FAIR I WARNED ALL OF YA LOL LOL LOL

[Gerald]

Ok now I get further behind watching more videos. Thanks Lew. Will whole hearted response to the marketing ideas. If you like it too much or it takes too long to make then you will not make money or may not make sales. That was a very good find.

 

I have a friend wanting to sell all of his Easy Wood Tools if anyone interested send me a message with a contact and I will pass along to him. I think he has one of everything up till the last 3 years.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Gerald

[AndrewB]

Not only that I went ahead and ordered a couple blanks from Rockler 2 6x6x3 bowl blanks one is a Padauk Bowl Blank and one is a Purpleheart Bowl blank.  I know for a fact the purpleheart is probably going to be rough for me to turn.  Should be fun to try though.

[FlGatorwood]

Thank you, Lew.  I have watched all and I always love watching Cindy Drozda.  I want to make finials like she does.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

 

I love those templates from EWT.  I may have to get a set of those.  

 

Also, I love that turning you made from the wild cherry.  I saw that crack at the face plate and it raised concerns, however, you did it very well.  I am looking forward to the follow up after the soap bath.  I enjoyed the Rick Turns, the Longworth chuck and now I can't remember the rest.  I don't suppose that I'll ever use a Longworth chuck.  

 

All of this is well worth my time.  I greatly appreciate it.  

[Gunny]

3 hours ago, AndrewB said:

I know for a fact the purpleheart is probably going to be rough for me to turn.

 

Love the stuff.  Go SLOW, take your time and take it easy.  Sharpen your chisels before use.  Use a regular HSS rouging gouge to get your shape then come down to true size with the carbide tips.  

[HandyDan]

Quite amazing how there is always something new in our hobby.  Thanks Lew for posting these items each week.

 

[Larry Buskirk]

Great post Lew! 

 

Still sorting through things so i can get everything set up.

Machine bench is at a standstill until next month. 

Working on doing something with what will be the fifth machine that will go on the bench.

I reported getting it quite a while back.

Since the other four machines will be set up for both wood, and metal work this one will also be.

I had to slightly turn the shaft ends down so I could thread them to 1/2"-20 TPI. I used my Milwaukee electric drill to turn the shaft in the arbor head. The left side was originally left hand thread, but I threaded it right hand and will be using lock nuts. 

While we were out "Curb Shopping" we found a NIB belt grinder attachment that I forgot to grab when we unloaded at the storage. I hope it isn't buried to far in.

It looks like this.

https://multitoolgrinders.com/2-x-36-belt-7-disc-grinder-attachment/

[AndrewB]

Just got done watching the videos @lew very informational.  It takes me a bit of time usually to catch up on videos, I've got a large assortment of youtubes I watch and catch up on so that can be quite time consuming.

[lew]

@Gunny Thanks! And, thank you for providing ideas to @AndrewB

 

@AndrewB Thanks for continuing to post your progress, we all appreciate seeing what you are doing.

 

@Gerald Thanks! I'll post about your friends tool sale in next Wednesday's...

 

@FlGatorwood Thank You! Going to pull the blanks from the solution today. Fingers crossed that the split didn't get worse.

 

@HandyDan Thanks! New stuff is the reason I never have any lunch money.

 

@Larry Buskirk Thank You! Around here, everyone has yard sales. I'm not a morning person so I don't get to see the good stuff.

 

 

[Larry Buskirk]

1 hour ago, lew said:

Thank You! Around here, everyone has yard sales. I'm not a morning person so I don't get to see the good stuff.

Lew,

I'm usually up before 5:00 AM. Why? I don't know.

I haven't been to a yard sale in quite a while. Very few of my tools are new, I simply can't afford to buy everything new. Besides that I enjoy redoing the old machines I come across. No plastic parts to break the first time you use them. My old early 40's Delta lathe will serve both my metal, and woodworking needs.

I wish the manufacturers would return to making attachments that allow you to use the machines for more than one specific purpose. An example being my old drill press had eight different spindles available for doing different operations. I've got seven out of the eight that were available. Ever see a drill press set up as a shaper? 

 

[lew]

1 minute ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Ever see a drill press set up as a shaper? 

I've seen the attachment in photographs but never saw one in action.

[Larry Buskirk]

14 minutes ago, lew said:

I've seen the attachment in photographs but never saw one in action.

I'll have to show the setup when I get everything mounted. I'll be good to go as an over-arm router/shaper with the one that will be mounted to the multi-tool bench but will probably have to change out motor mounts when using it like a standard router/shaper. If not it will require a shorter belt. I'll find out once everything gets mounted.

I'll be running five machines on the same bench, using only two motors. I was trying to figure out how to get away with only one motor but the layout just won't let me.

BTW that's five machines on a 30" x 72" bench.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Larry Buskirk

[lew]

16 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

I'll be running five machines on the same bench, using only two motors

 

[Larry Buskirk]

@lew

Now that's cool!

There were still remnants of the old line-shaft in the older parts of the plant I worked at.

 

I was born too late! 

[JimM]

16 hours ago, lew said:

 

I remember being in a smaller version of a shop like this as a kid in central NY.  All the belts and levers for engaging the machines were fascinating!  IIRC, it was part of a lumber mill that burned one night.