lithro
24th November 2016, 04:42 PM
Hey guys,
A couple of months ago i posted a thread about getting a first lathe and those come up a lot. One of the consistent points of advice was that i should go to a club to learn to do it safely and get hints in person. Now im not a clever man, so i ignored this advice after realising that Lalore park is a hell of a hike from me for a saturday morning. But i did watch a number of safety videos and endeavored to read as much as i could before i did anything. There has only be one incident. That was the dovetail on a Western Red Cedar blank splitting the edge out and getting hurled at the wall. A bit of a fright but i was working out of its flight path. I attribute this one to the timber being so soft, and the torque of the motor vs the friction of the tool being to much. A second softwood blank was damaged by overtightening the chuck and that split before i put it on the lathe, i do not have a photo of this.
400409
These so far have been my only failures.
Onto the successful ones, i will try to post the order in which they have been made.
The first was a piece of Yakka that i got from the rack at Carbatec while getting the lathe. First thing that i turned and im angry that i wasted such nice timber on it now. The shape is unclear from the photo but i did like how something so simple as beeswax just made it shine.
400410
So keep in mind that was the first thing i had turned over the rounding some spindles.
The next 2 were similar in the amount of skill they displayed but i learnt 2 useful things. The first is the sharpen (and by default australian timbers are a pain in the ass) and the second is as someone said in a thread the 40g gouge.
400411400412
So the sharpening technique i am using is a ozito bench grinder with i think a 120g wheel. I use a marker pen to shade the bevel and grind it off in one pass. This seems to be as good as the factory edge for my technique, or thats how it feels.
The next thing i turned is the first that i thought had any elegance. Its a rock maple bowl. After the blackwood and jarrah, well i was amazed they could call it rock. It cut beautifully, it was literally a pleasure to turn. The tactile feeling of that bevel i dont know, i got a little hooked. A couple of things stood out to me, firstly that its a shame that it starts to go the honey colour so quickly and i couldnt preserve the almost white of it being freshly cut. And secondly that the yanks will complain about almost anything.
400413400414
The next project was a Walnut bowl (bit of a bowl theme going on here). I got inpatient and lazy here. I didnt thin the walls out as i wanted to, nor did i go through the sanding cycle to get it as smooth as the maple. But i was very happy with the grain and how it looked as a finished bowl.
400416
400415
Now at this point a couple of things happened. I started looking for a bigger lathe on gumtree and i found one for the right price. Its a carbatec MC900, which the variable speed lathe with the swivel head. I like it, the variable speed makes balancing blanks seem a little safer and it has a bit more grunt. Still not enough that someone like with bad tool usage wont stall the lathe but still enough from the economy mini 0.5 hp that i started with that its a better cut. With this last weekend i turned some of the timber i got from Brett (fencefurniture) and had a lot of fun with it.
400417
So that is show and tell done, im hoping i can get some questions answered from the brains trust.
First off. Getting larger blanks, where, what and how much? Im in sydney and i have had a look at trend timbers, they seem to tap out at a certain 12 inch size or so. Should i be looking towards very large boards and rounding them on a bandsaw or is it green from here on out?
Secondly, the chuck jaws, once i am over 300mm of diameter will the standard jaws on the Nova G3 become a danger.
Thirdly does Ubeaut have a foodsafe polish or oil for turning?
Last of all, getting better grinding wheels, is it worth it?
Thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions or want to call me a moron go ahead.
Lithro
A couple of months ago i posted a thread about getting a first lathe and those come up a lot. One of the consistent points of advice was that i should go to a club to learn to do it safely and get hints in person. Now im not a clever man, so i ignored this advice after realising that Lalore park is a hell of a hike from me for a saturday morning. But i did watch a number of safety videos and endeavored to read as much as i could before i did anything. There has only be one incident. That was the dovetail on a Western Red Cedar blank splitting the edge out and getting hurled at the wall. A bit of a fright but i was working out of its flight path. I attribute this one to the timber being so soft, and the torque of the motor vs the friction of the tool being to much. A second softwood blank was damaged by overtightening the chuck and that split before i put it on the lathe, i do not have a photo of this.
400409
These so far have been my only failures.
Onto the successful ones, i will try to post the order in which they have been made.
The first was a piece of Yakka that i got from the rack at Carbatec while getting the lathe. First thing that i turned and im angry that i wasted such nice timber on it now. The shape is unclear from the photo but i did like how something so simple as beeswax just made it shine.
400410
So keep in mind that was the first thing i had turned over the rounding some spindles.
The next 2 were similar in the amount of skill they displayed but i learnt 2 useful things. The first is the sharpen (and by default australian timbers are a pain in the ass) and the second is as someone said in a thread the 40g gouge.
400411400412
So the sharpening technique i am using is a ozito bench grinder with i think a 120g wheel. I use a marker pen to shade the bevel and grind it off in one pass. This seems to be as good as the factory edge for my technique, or thats how it feels.
The next thing i turned is the first that i thought had any elegance. Its a rock maple bowl. After the blackwood and jarrah, well i was amazed they could call it rock. It cut beautifully, it was literally a pleasure to turn. The tactile feeling of that bevel i dont know, i got a little hooked. A couple of things stood out to me, firstly that its a shame that it starts to go the honey colour so quickly and i couldnt preserve the almost white of it being freshly cut. And secondly that the yanks will complain about almost anything.
400413400414
The next project was a Walnut bowl (bit of a bowl theme going on here). I got inpatient and lazy here. I didnt thin the walls out as i wanted to, nor did i go through the sanding cycle to get it as smooth as the maple. But i was very happy with the grain and how it looked as a finished bowl.
400416
400415
Now at this point a couple of things happened. I started looking for a bigger lathe on gumtree and i found one for the right price. Its a carbatec MC900, which the variable speed lathe with the swivel head. I like it, the variable speed makes balancing blanks seem a little safer and it has a bit more grunt. Still not enough that someone like with bad tool usage wont stall the lathe but still enough from the economy mini 0.5 hp that i started with that its a better cut. With this last weekend i turned some of the timber i got from Brett (fencefurniture) and had a lot of fun with it.
400417
So that is show and tell done, im hoping i can get some questions answered from the brains trust.
First off. Getting larger blanks, where, what and how much? Im in sydney and i have had a look at trend timbers, they seem to tap out at a certain 12 inch size or so. Should i be looking towards very large boards and rounding them on a bandsaw or is it green from here on out?
Secondly, the chuck jaws, once i am over 300mm of diameter will the standard jaws on the Nova G3 become a danger.
Thirdly does Ubeaut have a foodsafe polish or oil for turning?
Last of all, getting better grinding wheels, is it worth it?
Thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions or want to call me a moron go ahead.
Lithro