First Turning Attempt

[bfrikken]

Had a chance a couple weekends ago to try my hand at turning. Used my father-in-law's shopsmith lathe. He set me up for practice with a cut up 2x4. I had no idea how fast to set the motor to, so I just set it to a slow speed to get comfortable. Add the slow speed to the real dry construction lumber, I had some real fun with a lot of chipping and tearout...

anyways, thought i'd post my first creations:

[RayintheUK]

I had no idea how fast to set the motor to, so I just set it to a slow speed to get comfortable.

I'd guess that's a very common mistake, believing that the slowest speed is the safest. With turning, especially when rounding square stock, the smoothest method is to cut down the amount of "air time" that the tool has, so that, instead of going "cut, long pause, cut," it goes "cut, p. cut," if you see what I mean.

The slower the wood turns, the longer the gap between edges coming into contact with the tool, which encourages bounce and position variance at the tool-rest end. Catches and dig-ins tend to be spectacular and are likely to either stall the lathe or break the tool.

Run at a high speed and the amount of "air time" is so greatly reduced that the action becomes very smooth, very quickly. The trick, of course, is to become comfortable with a higher speed, which requires confidence. Take VERY light cuts to begin with - expect much more noise initially, both from the motor (higher speed) and the tool (more edge cutting). Obviously, you need to make sure that the piece is firmly mounted and correctly balanced, then you'll get a sweet cut with minimal sanding required.

It goes without saying that the tools need to be very sharp, otherwise your turning experience will be dull too. Get your FIL to show you how he turns a spindle at a higher speed, then you'll see with your own eyes that the piece won't fly off. A full-face mask gives that added perception of the need to wear brown pants.

Good luck with your subsequent turnings!

Ray.

[jking]

Very informative, Ray. I haven't heard lathe speed explained that way before. It's certainly something that's counter-intuitive.

[DonHo]

Very informative, Ray. I haven't heard lathe speed explained that way before. It's certainly something that's counter-intuitive.

A higher speed works well for small projects, just don't slap on a huge unbalanced bowl blank and turn up the speed

DonHo

[bfrikken]

Yeah, I found it easier to work when I turned the speed up. The tools were very sharp. They were Craftsman HSS turning and my FIL touched them up as he was sure they were sharp anyways. The wand was turned on a higher speed then the bat. I spent a lot of time stopping and moving the tool rest around, making sure it was close to the piece. I was surprised how quickly I got a feel for each tool I used.

[rja]

If you sand your work on the lathe sand at the lowest speed your lathe will go.

[Russianwolf]

Best advice I was given was to set the piece up and turn the lathe on at the lowest speed. Turn the speed up until the lathe starts walking, then back down a bit. This assumes you have variable speed.

For spindle, you'll probably be able to go as fast as the lathe is able, for large/out of balance pieces, you may have to start slowwer and turn the speed up as you get it more round/balanced.

[guycox]

The generally accepted formula is : diameter x speed in RPMs should equal somewhere between 6000 and 9000.


6000/8 = 750
9000/8 = 1125