I turned something!

[atgcpaul]

OK, it's just a big dowel, but it's my first big dowel. I got tired of watching video after video online trying to learn how to turn but not doing anything about it.

So now I've got questions. First, here's my setup. Is the tool rest height set correctly--just below center? I used a 3/4" roughing gouge and with it on the rest, the cutting edge was higher than center. I had to hold the gouge level to get cutting. Is that OK or should the handle be tipped down?

I turned at the slowest speed. I really had to hammer in the spur drive or the wood would just stop on light touches while the spur continued to turn. I'm also not sure how far I need to screw in the tail stock. It seemed like a lot because it seemed to require more effort to manually turn the stock to check clearance of the tool rest.

Finally, this is my Uncle's lathe. I inherited it when he died. What's the other dead center for? I'm not sure how to remove the black center that is on the tail stock now. When I use the knockout tool, it pushes out the little point, but not the rest of it.



Thanks,
Paul

[leehljp]

Paul,
Small diameter items like dowels and pens, I turn them fast. The larger the item the slower I turn. Turning is generally proportional - small diameter > fast speed; large diameter - slower speed.

The reason is: (This is not correct in specs but the principle is the same):The movement speed of the outer portion of a bowl/plate of 12 inches at 500 rpm is about the same speed of a 1 in diameter at 3000 rpm. The problem with speed comes in with larger diameters, one catch and the out of balance result becomes dangerous.

By speeding up the lathe on small diameters, there will be less catches and smoother turnings.

I keep a sharpener by my lathe and about every minute or so, I take two or three swipes on the sharpener to keep the blade with an edge. A very slightly dulled or lost edge can cause catches and require tightening of the spur as you noted. One of the best practices a turner can get into is to keep the tools at their sharpest at every minute of turning, especially when learning to turn. SHARP tools are your friend!

[Bill in Buena Park]

Congratulations on your first foray into turning!

+1 on Hank's comments.

Also, looks like you have 2 "live" centers. A dead center has no bearing, and for most applications on a wood lathe, would be used as a drive center. I don't recognize brands on those, but they appear similar in design, except the one in the tailstock, if it has removable points, may be part of a system that has other points available (e.g., cone center). Neither of these would be useful for pens, you'd want to get a 60 dg live center to either fit a pen mandrel or for turning between centers (this is where a dead center would be used in the headstock as a drive center.)

As to removing the current live center from your tailstock, check to see if retracting the spindle into the tailstock causes it to eject (many lathes have this feature.) If not, you may have to position (angle) your knock-out tool to catch the back of the drive's morse taper

Tool rest height will vary with the type of tool and type of cut with the tool. Bowl gouges, for example, can be used in a variety of presentations (push cuts, pull cuts, scrapes), and require slightly different tool rest heights. For roughing gouges, a tool height that allows a cut using the bevel will be positioned so the tool is slightly above center; for scraping cuts with the roughing gouge, scraping on center is best. I understand that scraping cuts with carbide tools should be done with the cutter at center.

[gerti]

Cutting edge should always be a little above center. If it is below you get catches. Depending on the thickness of the tool that might mean the tool rest might need to be a little lower than center.

The back of the handle usually is tipped down a bit.

To get the center out of the tail stock, with some models you can just keep retracting it past the point where it makes contact, that forces it out.

Lastly, learning turning from books and videos is hard and often very frustrating. Nothing beats a more experienced turner helping you out. Luckily for you woodturners tend to be very social and like to share with other woodturners. So I highly recommend to find a local AAW chapter at this page:

http://www.woodturner.org/?page=Chapters

Go to a chapters meeting, find turners that live close by and are willing to help out. Also many chapters have hands-on sessions at little or no cost. And because chapter membership tends to be cheap and often gets you a rebate at some stores, it may pay for itself.

Most things in woodworking are easy to figure out by yourself or after reading up. Woodturning is NOT one of those, technique is so important for both success AND SAFETY.

Good luck! And remember: woodturning is a slippery slope!

Gerd

[atgcpaul]

Thanks for the input. For the moment, I really have no desire to turn pens. I do want to turn bowls, but the first thing I want to tackle is making spindles for a Windsor style bench. My Uncle was using this lathe to make golf putter shafts. He and another Uncle were trying to get a custom putter company off the ground. The lathe even came with a nice Vega lathe duplicator which is off the lathe while I try to learn.

I did buy a slow speed grinder to sharpen the chisels and someone gave me a Wolverine style sharpening jig which I still need to setup. I have a face shield which I was wearing.

I can definitely see how turning can be addictive. You're using a fairly quiet power tool to shape wood fast! I'm already thinking I should look into getting a steb center drive.

I did attend one meeting of my local AAW chapter hosted at Woodcraft. Lots of people but none I would consider the "ambassador" type--neither am I. Anyway, I think I need to attend meetings more regularly so at least they know I'm not just a lurker. The demo they had was definitely not for newbies. My WC also offers lathe classes but $200 for 2 3hr classes seems steep, but maybe not. I was spoiled in CA where I could get a whole semester turning class for $200.

[lrr]

I've watched a number of videos to learn how to turn. With pens, it was pretty easy. As I got into bigger spindles like tool handles, and pepper mills, it was more difficult, and I found YouTube videos quite helpful.

Check out Capt. Eddie (also called Capn Eddie). Eddie Castelin has a funny, folksy approach, and has some great suggestions for turning. I also like his videos because his shop is a mess and makes mine look pristine ...

I guarantee you that you will struggle with the skew. It is definitely a wild beast for most. But there is nothing like a sharp skew, applied correctly to the spindle, to stream out long, paper-thin curls of wood. And the finish can be unbelievably smooth. Many turnings of mine ave ended up so smooth that I just hit them with 220 or 320 grit sandpaper and they are ready to finish.

The video for me that made the skew seem manageable is by Brenden Stemp, "The Skew Made Easy". But play with roughing gouges, scrapers, and other less aggressive tools first before diving in to a piece of wood with a skew.

Finally, carbide tools have their place, and I use one pretty often on pens, but if you really want to progress, you are going to want to master HSS tools, and know how to sharpen them.

I only took up turning 4-5 years ago, and I've been a woodworker for almost 50 years. It is by far the most rewarding (and addicting) type of woodworking I've ever done.

[atgcpaul]

Check out Capt. Eddie (also called Capn Eddie). Eddie Castelin has a funny, folksy approach, and has some great suggestions for turning. I also like his videos because his shop is a mess and makes mine look pristine ...

Yes, he has been my main source of instruction so far. I need to look for his spindle turning videos. More recently he seems to do more bowl-type work. I also watched Norm's Lathe 101 episode last week which focused on spindle turning.

Yes, I've read that about the skew. I'm definitely not there yet. I'm going to stick with just making square blocks round with the gouge for now and practice sharpening, too.

The biggest problem right now is the lathe is in the opposite corner of the shop from my DC. It is on a mobile base, but now I've got to think about running a pipe over to this corner. It was always in the back of my mind because the CMS is right next to the lathe and that has always lacked dust collection.

[leehljp]

Below is a lesson from an online acquaintance (Russ Fairfield) that I (and many others) found helpful. Some may disagree with his findings at some points, but it was something that I had learned from experience. Due to my inability to master the skew despite hours and hours of intentional practice of using the skew for no other purpose than trying to learn it, I had come to the conclusion that a good sharp scraper could make very smooth cuts in "some" cases.

BTW, Russ passed away a two or three of years ago.

"What is always left out of any comparison of tool finishes is the wood. All things being equal, shear scraping can leave a better surface finish than a skew chisel on the very hard dense and close grained species, but it can't come anywhere close on everything else.

If you really want to see the extreme differences, try using a both scraper and skew on Cocobolo, Blackwood, or Desert Ironwood. You will find that the scraper might be the better tool for these very hard species. At the opposite extreme, the scraper will be a disaster on a soft wood like Douglas Fir or Pine, while a sharp skew can leave a smooth clean cut and polished surface that doesn't need sanding."