Thread: accurate wood turning

Drum shells are usually made by laminating several sheets around a circular form. I don't think a lathe is usually involved in the process, unless they use one to true it up after assembly.

Someone on here posted once about how they had made a wheeled platform for their cross slide vice which they attached to the ways. He could clamp a tool in the vice and use it a bit like a metal lathe. I had a quick search but couldn't find it. It's here somewhere (or did I dream it )

symtec? it sounds like the plastic explosive the SAS use? :eek:

thanks silentc i was just down at carbatec and that was one of the things that they suggested

cheers
tom

Er, isnt that Semtex???

thats the one
give us a break its sounds close

cya tom

Well yes, you can make drums on the lathe. Here`s a photo of a piccalo snare drum I made a couple of years ago. The shell is made up from staves planed to the appropriate angle on the jointer. I turned this one by hand, but as I want to make some more deeper ones, I have been toying around in my mind a machanical way of doing this. I`m busy on another project at the moment but I will come back to this when it`s finished. Another important thing when making this drum is having a lathe with variable speed. When I made this drum I only had fixed speeds on the lathe in the photo, but I have now uprated ths machine to variable speed. I felt that the bottom speed of my lathe at the time, (450 revs) was a little too fast for this diameter of work. I also had to spin the work on the lathe by hand just before I switched the lathe on because the sudden start on this diameter of work makes the belt slip on the pulleys.

Hi Redmond

I was interested in your dilemma in turning your drums out of timber.

Why not build them up out of segments. You could build the on a base and fix it to your base plate for turning. When you have tured it up you could then just cut the base off and then you would have your drum carcase. To show you what I mean go to the thread below and have a look at the principle of what I mean and turning 14 inch diameter is not a problem.

BTW if you wanted them to be fairly deep you could make two or three of them and glue them together.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...7790#post57790

that looks good bob how does it sound compared to ply drums?

barry i am really looking to make the drum out of a single pice of wood as i have the trees that could be put to this purpose and i have heard that drums made this way sound amazing. what im really after is a way to accuratly trun straight lines. a metal late would be nice excpt they cost a fourtune so what im looking for is a way to adapt a wood lathe to hold a tool post.

thanks
tom

Redmond,
What are the approx dimensions of the drum\s

well to start with about 14" diameter snare but id realy like to be able to turn kick drum swhich are 20" to 24" diameter. now i know this is big but it must be possible, and im starting to think im gona have to get a custom built lathe that has no bed made up by an engineering company

cya
tom

Originally Posted by redmond

well to start with about 14" diameter snare but id realy like to be able to turn kick drum swhich are 20" to 24" diameter.

Tom,

I'm not a turner myself, but I can imagine the forces associated with a two foot drum sized hunk of tree spinning around. You are talking some serious industrial size behemoth of a lathe here.

Not wanting to discourage that entrepreneurial spirit of yours, take a good look at the market you would be competing in ... Would it pay??

If you have some trees on that place of yours that you are itching to fell, why not just get them milled and value add that way. Buy a second hand mill and mill your neighbours as well . There is a ready market for some of the WA timbers here in the east coast!

well ill get a custom athe costed and see if i can afford the start up cost. im still looking for a second hand mill to saw up the bulk of the trees but drums could be a little niche market.

thanks
tom

Tom
I made a faceplate lathe twenty plus years ago that theoretically would turn over a six foot diameter piece of timber. The largest piece I turned was about 30 inches and six inches thick. The lathe was made out of 8 by 3 channel and the spindle was two inches and mounted on pillar blocks. The faceplate itself was 12 inches and through a triple reduction pulley system it ran at about 50 rpm on the slowest speed. It was real heavy duty and weighed a ton - figuratively speaking. I bolted it to the concrete floor of my shed with eight loxons spread over a fair length of 3 inch angle iron. Fairly easy to make as you don’t have too much to line up like a tailstock but things like tool rests have to be fairly long or floor mounted.
It took a while to find a large enough piece of timber to test this beast so I had plenty of practice on about 12 inch diameter bowls and platters. Eventually the perfect blank turned up - a piece of Jarrah burl (we called it niggerhead then) about 30 inches in diameter and six inches thick and well seasoned.
Lesson 1
Mounting the piece was difficult as it was hard to support the weight of the timber, faceplate and square it to the shaft to start the thread. If you are thinking about turning heavy timber then get some help to mount your job or install a chain block over your lathe.
Lesson 2
Turned on the lathe and the experience is best described as fantastically frightening. The concrete slab that the lathe was mounted on and which I was standing on started to move up and down with the out of balance timber. Although the movement felt more severe than it actually was it did worry me that the lathe would break free and cause some damage. If you are contemplating making a lathe this size then make sure you have an adequate depth of footings preferably with lathe mounting bolts set in the concrete.
Lesson 3
A hefty piece of timber attached to a rotating shaft becomes a very effective flywheel and doesn’t stop easily. A standard set of woodturning chisels are just not long enough to give the operator enough leverage to control the cut. I won’t embarrass myself any further here other than to say get long strong chisels and until the blank is perfectly round go real steady. There wasn’t the choice of chisels available then so I took up blacksmithing in pursuit of the perfect chisel so be careful where your hobby leads you.

The experience was fantastic and it gave me an opportunity to do something a bit different to the other turners. The lathe along with all my blacksmithing gear was sold years ago to a person that was into vintage wagons and cars. He wanted the lathe to true up the outer rim of the wooden wheels. My neighbors were objecting loudly to the percussions in tune with CCR so the decision to stop blacksmithing was really forced on me. I would hate to think what a 350lb anvil and a large swage block would be worth today.
Thanks for giving me the chance to revisit this experience and I hope I have been able to pass on some tips for you to consider. By the way I have just recently returned to woodturning after promising that I would never do that filthy hobby again. I now have a Delta Midi that will turn a massive 8 inch bowl so perhaps the itch never leaves you after all.

Guys think out side the square.

Make a capstan lathe, then the log is sitting up in the air, less sideway force on the chuck as all the weight in going down.
It would be easier to make than a conventional lathe.


Al

sorry al your going to have to elaborate. whats a capstan lathe :confused:


tom