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You folks know I'm not turner. I used to be a "wannabe turner", and anymore I'm not even sure I'm that. Anyway, I have a lathe and the basic tools which I bought to help with my flatwork projects. But after 7 years or so, I haven't even done that. So I decided it's time. I'm trying to turn legs for a William and Mary table I saw somewhere, but the article was one of those that asks you to dig out an issue from 3 years ago to get the details on turning the legs. I don't have that issue so decided to tackle it on my own. I made a drawing (actual size) and made 2 blanks out of poplar to tune my technique. At the risk of being laughed off the forum, I present the first one below; judging from my results I should have made 7-8 practice blanks. Of course there's the little matter of my measurements (on the leg) being off quite a bit...but my technique for turning a round spot on the leg most definitely needs, well, refining. Here's the leg laying on my drawing....go ahead, laugh your arse off. With my DC down I can't do much of anything else.

Well, I hope everyone is recuperating from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas holiday and that you all got at least one thing you had on Santa's List. Our Patriot Turners- @Steve Krumanaker posted a couple of bowls he recently completed. As always, Steve's design, choice of woods and finishes are impeccable . Steve's post has more images and descriptions of what he has done. Please head on over there check out the post in its' entirety- A couple of weeks ago, @hawkeye10 asked us how he could hold work pieces to make legs for a small table. He finished up the legs (and table) and it is gorgeous. There is so much great woodworking going on in his project, you just have to check it out for yourself- Here's the complete post including images of the table build- What’s Coming Up- 111 W. General Cavazos Blvd. Kingsville, Texas 78363 Click on the image for more details. For The Newbies- Big shout out to @HandyDan for the heads up on this video from Ernie Conover. It's all about drilling on the lathe. In many instances this is faster, easier and more accurate than trying to drill with a drill press. Expand Your Horizons- Back in October, @Steve Krumanaker spent a week enjoying a woodturning class from Glenn Lucas. One of the important aspects Steve mentioned was the shape of a bowl. Here's a video discussing bowl shapes. Steve stressed the importance of pleasing bowl shapes. This video is more about reading the wood and the eventual bowl shape. New Turning Items- Not exactly new but the Easy Wood Tools negative rake cutters are now available for all of the Easy Wood Tools ( @Jim from Easy Wood Tools). Craft Supplies USA has a short video demonstrating these cutters on man made materials. The finish is awesome! If your lathe doesn't have a built in indexing device, Mike Peace has a video illustrating how he built a really nice addition to his (or any) lathe. The index wheel (and a complete kit) is available from- https://www.chefwarekits.com/basket-weave-illusion-wood-burning-carving-tools/ez-index-wheel-steel-12in-dia-for-woodturning.html Everything Else- A two part video from Tim Yoder creating a hollow vessel, well sorta. Part 2 is linked from Tim's YouTube site. Safe turning

My turn to brag.. This was not on my list I always take to these garage sale thingies but I know how hard it is to build 4 of these legs and match each other plus the table they go on so 30 asking price was not okay but great but, and after I complained there was no top included I got him down to 25. A slab of granite or marble will make this table after refinishing be worth 26 or more.. Its not a true antique for it has metal brackets in the corners to bolt the legs to but hey it is real carving on everything and almost sure it is mahogany wood..Some one has put a paint and glaze on it to lighten it up but hey, no problem removing that and starting all over with a good finish... Just glad the legs would still come off for we were driving the car so it would have had to stay there for someone else to mess with....the back seats will let down but might not fit all together. Different subject, seeing the microwave in the background I just wanted to say after running all the short mesquite logs through the microwave, there is no saw dust coming out of the logs anymore...Most of the time I set the timer on 7 minutes or less... Years ago I turned the inside of some wood black by too many minutes so if you have not done this before, stay close by cause you might have to put out the fire.... And if the microwave is not in the shop, you got a problem....... I was lazy the days I was microwaving the bugs for if the log was too long I just took them to the burn pile. It would have been quicker and easier to cut the logs in half with the chain saw but hey, like I said I was lazy....

The rear legs are now glued up today. These will sit over night before the clamps are removed. While these are setting up I'll be working on the front legs and head rest today. All the strength I have is exerted on these clamps. Then I'll wait 5 minutes and wrench them down more if there is room left.

Well, took a few tries to get things done today......after fighting those brass corner plates and their tiny screws....laid the pattern rocker on it's side, clamped the pine 5/4 x4 in place to make a tracing......ooops, should have bought the 5/4 x 6 instead.. oh well, we do adapt in this shop. Adjusted things a bit. There is a way to prevent one from over-rocking. You add a recurve to the end of the rocker.. Oh, and meet my new beltsander that replaced the old B&D Dragster. Soo, I made one of these, took a break for awhile. Came back, traced a second one out, and bandsawed it to shape... not too bad. Well, according to the floor.. Twould appear that the HMS Pegleg has launched. Fit for John Silver himself......but, I needed to keep flipping this around, until.. Short leg #2 appeared. Both of the long posts, and the front short posts are now done. There is still enough of that 5/4 pine to make a crest or back rail. That sould finish up the drawknife work, Mortise and tenon jobs for a few days/weeks? Intend to cut a slot on the end of the posts, to fit over those rockers, And then add a pin through both. might work?

Part 3: The work space in my shop is so small that I needed to build this project in stages. With the top finished, it was time to move on to the legs of the base. The entire base frame is made from poplar and the minister is going to paint it white. His specs were for full 4” x 4” legs. I suppose I could have gotten 16/4 poplar boards but those pieces would have been so large and heavy that I don’t think I could have manhandled them through the milling processes. I started with 5/4 boards and milled enough stock for a 4 x 4 glue up. I finished out the planing/ripping the boards a little over sized in thickness and width to allow for shifts in the glue up process. Gluing up the blanks was straight forward Space and number of clamps dictated gluing one leg assembly at a time. Once all of the legs dried, the jointer and planer brought the blanks square and to the correct dimensions. Cutting the legs to length was up next. I opted to use the table saw for this operation. I have a chop saw but it is one of the very early models with a 7.5” blade- it wasn’t going to make the cut in one pass. The table saw wouldn’t make the cut in one pass either but I felt I’d have a little more control using it. I set up my cross cut sled and squared one end of each leg. Next, I added an extend stop block set for the leg length. One pass, roll the blank over, second pass- done. At this point, it was time to layout and cut the mortices in the legs. To make certain the mortices were properly oriented, I labeled everything. Some practice slots with the hollow chisel morticer. Twenty-four mortices later. The minister added the chamfer detail around the top so I thought it would look OK to continue that detail throughout the build. I would have added the chamfer around the leg feet anyway to prevent tear out if the table was slid across the floor. Some sanding left but the legs are finished.

Most of the glue ups are now done This mess will exit the clamps tomorrow, after a trip to the Doctor's office. Made some use out of the NEW Scrollsaw. I was a bit too tired to hand cut the corner blocks, so the scrollsaw did the dirty work. Was a bit hard to cut a straightline in 5/8" thick Poplar, but I got it close enough yeah, four of them.Two screws and a bit of glue. I'll come back later, and add a slot to attach the top with. Laid one piece of pine down to get a measurement for the bottom shelf Still have to cut and clean up the other half.Then add them to the bottom cleats/stretchers. Maybe then, I can start to work over that Pine top.Stay tuned for further updates...