Thread: Flag pole WIP.

Originally Posted by Allan at Wallan

Nothing to it !

I adapt the same methods when I want to turn a pen.

Allan

Wow so much to reply on this comment. Here's one,

You start with this size and end up with a little pen?

i'd love to have a go at that.

I had to take a walk over to 's to see this project for myself. Quite impressive, it's certainly one way to keep warm on these cold days. It looks like a bugger to turn as the timber is quite dry and it splinters quite badly.

That's in the distance.
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The wood is reall dry, no curlies just splinters and chips.
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I wonder if delivery is free also?
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The small lathe.
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hi ,
WOW!!!!!that is very interesting ,great WIP
can't wait for the next episode
cheers smiife

Over night while it is only suspended on centres at each end we put a jack under it to support it so that it doesn't sag under its own weight.

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Now that the drive is in and secure we centre the post at where the turning actually starts. In this case it is 4 metres from the base.

We square a line around the whole post and then using a skew chisel make sure that all 4 corners hit.
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Before starting the lathe we fit the reduction gears in to reduce the speed down to 59 RPM for starters.
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This is the view from the headstock end. I am going to get a little exercise over the next day or two.
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Starting at 59 RPM we start it rotating with one hand on the switch. No scary bits. Up to the next speed, 76 Rpm, still no character building moments, so up 1 more, 83 Rpm. Slight vibration so back 1 to 76RPM.

We start turning at the headstock and reduce it to round about 700mm out and fit the steady.
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On smaller posts we make a round carrier with a square hole in it to fit the post we are turning.
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The steady then runs on this until we get a round section on the post itself.

In this case we did not have enough clearance between the post and the steady to be able to do it.

The post although strong was too flexible to start turning at the centre so we start from one end and move along the post fitting the steady as we go.
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At about 1600 mm from the headstock the steady is fitted and the post is now rigid enough to turn where the taper meets the round.

To calculate roughly where this will be, we use the good old chalk line.

We put nails in the headstock approx 90mm apart, this is the finished size.
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We then take a chalk line from the nail to the start of the taper and "ping the string". This honour went to Anne-Marias son.

This left us with a rough idea of what the post should look like.
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I know that some of you will say, "But you have a reducing diameter so that is not real accurate." You will notice that I said roughly, the rest is up to eyesight and experience.

With that done I start to turn the centre out to round. This is pure rough out and anything that is not a shape is waste.

Because of the type of timber (Vic Ash), so dry and laminated with grain going every direction and the slow speed at which you have to turn it, it tends to splinter rather badly.
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In order to overcome this problem, we don't want it to happen at the transition from square to taper, we use an electric plane to chamfer the edges.
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With the centre round, we install the steady and bump the speed up to about 100 RPM.
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I rough down the previously chamfered taper.
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I switch off the lathe and Grumpy John turns up so we have a well deserved cuppa.

To be continued. The easy bit tomorrow, Time spent today 4.5 hours and a lot of nervous tension.

, if you get into trouble, Ken Wraight is not bad at spindle turning. Might pay to ring him for some advice? A bit out of my league... What do you reckon?
Jim

Originally Posted by powderpost

, if you get into trouble, Ken Wraight is not bad at spindle turning. Might pay to ring him for some advice? A bit out of my league... What do you reckon?
Jim

Nah, he would spend all his time picking up the splinters to supply himself with blanks for the next 10 years.

Besides would take too long with those Dinky little tools.

I was thinking of getting you down to segment the post.

Originally Posted by

This is the view from the headstock end. I am going to get a little exercise over the next day or two.

I hope you keep count of the number of times you trip over that pallet

Well we all know that the chipping mill in Tassie wants some. Just bag it and send it of. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the WIP

Originally Posted by sjm

I hope you keep count of the number of times you trip over that pallet

Haven't yet but now that you mentioned it I probably will.

It goes out tomorrow any way.

, I wouldn't mind getting a bit of the Vic ash mulch but just wondering if the glue is biodegradable, poisonous or carcinogenic or something of that nature?I'm wondering how many footy fields there are in Australia and suppose once upon a time the goal posts and flag poles were all made of wood, spose also there would've been a few set-ups around for that demand and if laminated wood was the go back then?

The glue is resorcinol not that there is much of it.

9M?

Glad I'm not putting that one up!

Originally Posted by

The glue is resorcinol not that there is much of it.

hmmm, might not be best to put on the vegies then