What did we do 30 years ago

[nivlek]

This is not a whinge or a pat on the back.

What did we do 30 years ago ?
I used to finish work and wander out intothe shed and start turning a piece of wood on the lathe. I did this because Ienjoyed been creative and it was a way to unwind. I had so much fun creatingthings, just to give them away to friends or family.
Today, I have time to get back into woodturning and things have changed so much now.
Basically the lathe shape is still therebut now they have variable speed in the motor, not with belts
They have tipped tools rather than the HSStype.

They have chucks rather than face platesand between centres.
They have beautiful polishers from aroundthe world, for different finishes
Sand paper that spins on a handle, ratherthan holding it in your hand.
Never thought of turning resins, 30 yearsago
YouTube is a wonderful tool as people fromaround the world can share their experiences and designs.
We are so lucky these days with technologyand the internet. I think we are spoiled.
Just my thoughts
Kel

[Rod Gilbert]

Hi Kel,
You are correct things have changed as they do but you can still do great work with the basics chucks and the like do make things easier but a simple face plate can still do the job.
Regards Rod.

[nivlek]

Rod
You are correct
but, these days, it is so much easier to review products, ideas, concepts and get peoples feedback.

it's good to see how wood turning has evolved.
Kel

[chuck1]

Well I'm still turning sharpening old school with a few new tools thrown in, there is a few good ideas on the net and some fools making videos with bad techniques.

[truckjohn]

All the changes are to help you get out into the shed and spend more time turning rather than spending the bulk of your time getting things prepped and ready to turn.

And you now have far more choices about which sorts of things you want to do than before. I don't remember a whole lot of people doing bowl turning and fancy hollow stuff. Especially not in all sorts of fancy woods. I think many people did spindle stuff... But theres only so much of that you really want to do..

I think if you really thought long and hard about times past - you would remember all the time you spent fidddling with wood alignment on the face plate, sharpening your tools, getting the lathe speed right, fiddling with this and that so you could finally go turn some actual wood..

The available woods and tools put some pretty significant limits on what you could actually do... But there are also now a whole lot of unnecessary things that maybe help aomewhat with one thing but do cost a lot.

[nivlek]

Truckjohn
I would agree with you

Kel

[nivlek]

Following on from my first post above, Igot some terrific ideas and designs from the web and YouTube.
Referring to turning tools
To be fair to the people who show cases onthe web, what are your thoughts on taking a design / idea from YouTube or theweb and making your own tool?
The design / concept of the tool is pretty simpleto make yourself, but because you got the idea from the web, are you obliged topurchase from that web site ??
This is not about copyright, as there aremany different designs out there
I guess what I am trying to say, is howmuch should we pay for knowledge gained from the web ??

[nivlek]

I just watched Brendan Stemp's, youtube video on "Plagiarism take 2" and it gets back to my above post.

I have purchased products from Brendan but also followed his video's and used his ideas and created my own versions. We didn't have this learning ability 30 years ago....a thing called youtube

Any comments please ?

[nivlek]

PS....I do not put any of my creations onto Youtube or face book

[dogcatcher]

Today the turners don't learn about what all that can be done on a lathe. If you throw a new technique at them that doesn't use all of the modern conveniences of chucks, specialized spur drives and fancy live centers some of them because lost. I started turning on 1962, a face plate, spur drive and dead center was all that was available. We had to learn to create our own specialty stuff to do things we wanted to try. To do that, you had to know how to use the lathe to the fullest of it's capabilities. Some of the penturners think turning between centers is the biggest creation since the lathe, I learned that in 1962, drill the hole and turn between center to make sure it is center on the turning.

[Christos]

.......If you throw a new technique at them that doesn't use all of the modern conveniences of chucks, specialized spur drives and fancy live centers some of them because lost.........

I consider myself a relative new turner and I love playing on the lathe. I have loved making things out of wood and this has now transgressed to things on the lathe. What I found was that with most things in this world there is more than one way that a task can be completed. The fact that some items can be purchased for a specific task makes it easier if you are going to turn more than one. As an individual it makes it hard for me to justify certain purchases but if I were a wood turning club then members would be able to use the item to assist in their turnings.

I agree that some people can become confused when they are taken out of their comfort zone. But that being said if they were shown something different they might even get inspired to make something different.

If ever I get back onto the lathe I hope to create somethings that would look a little different.

[nivlek]

It seems that the video I referred to above, was only up on youtube for a few days, and then removed.