Woodturners In Darwin Chipped edges and rough wood surface??

[tomsg]

Hi All, Ive got a Carbatec mini lathe and have just started out. Ive tried turning a few honey pot stirers from a piece of ~1" dowell. Ive used the parting tool to first make the grooves at the end of the honey stirrer. When shaping the end im finding im chipping the wood around the wooden 'discs'. Im using new sharp chisels but cant get a clean edge.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get a clean cut without chipping the wood?

Also, when shaping the main shaft im finding that it splinters a lot and has a very rough finish. maybe this has something to do with it. Im thinking speed of the lathe or how im holding the tool?

Any help would be great. Ive made 4 so far and each one has chips out of the end!!

Cheers

[munruben]

Congratulations on your new toy, very nice. The chipping could be the timber you are using.
Some timbers are prone to chipping. Pine if very prone to do this. have you tried other timbers? is so, did they still chip. if you are using a softwood, I would try using a harder timber and see how that goes. BTW, welcome to the forum.

[tomsg]

Thanks for that. yes im using a piece of tasmanian pine dowell. so quite soft i suppose. I did try my first with a very dry piece of (dead) wood and it did the same thing, however it was my first.

Il try with something a bit harder and see how i go.

Any hints on a cheap/common piece of wood to turn with? I thought pine was supposed to be good for lathes?

[tea lady]

Maybe you are presenting the tools too much like a scraper. (ie flat on the rest.) Not many woods that won't chip or tear out with scraping! Are you having lessons anywhere, or are you just reading books? Its hard to learn from just reading. Being able to watch someone in real life is priceless.

Nothing wrong with pine for turning stuff, especially when starting out. And if you can turn pine you can turn anything! :cool:

Also "new sharp tools" paradoxically isn't ideal. Very often the bevels are wrong and for some reason edges dull just by sitting there! :rolleyes: And even if they start sharp it only takes a few minutes to blunt. And sharpening is a whole 'nother thing to tackle. :C

Good luck with your new toy! :2tsup:

[dr4g0nfly]

Honey Dipper and other food related items are normally made from Beech or sycamore (maple).

Maple is normally redily available in most places.

[NeilS]

Honey Dipper and other food related items are normally made from Beech or sycamore (maple).

Maple is normally readily available in most places.

Not readily in Darwin, Australia.

But, being close to the rainforests of SE Asia there could be some other very nice woods available there.

Tomsg - Start a new thread with the title, 'Woodturners in Darwin?' and see if you can find and team up with a local tuner who can get you under way with some lessons.

[hughie]

Welcome aboard, hmm, dowelling probably not the best selection for what your doing. As far timber goes dowelling it wont be anything fancy, but I guess you found that out already.
But as stated if you master pine, you've mastered allot :). Starting a thread 'woodturners in Darwin' is a good idea as we have several on this forum.

[Jim Carroll]

Have made changes to the title to get the Northerners involved.

[WOODbTURNER]

Get in touch with Ian McRaild in Darwin for woodturning inquiries. He's in the phone book.

[dr4g0nfly]

Maple is normally readily available in most places.

Not readily in Darwin, Australia.

Strange, I regularly read about people turning QLD (Queensland) Maple and another one that sounds like it comes from further towards the west coast - am I wrong?

[NeilS]

Strange, I regularly read about people turning QLD (Queensland) Maple and another one that sounds like it comes from further towards the west coast - am I wrong?

No, not wrong in that they have the same common name, but they are different species. Qld Maple is Flindersia brayleyana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flindersia_brayleyana)

When the Europeans arrived here they named everything after the nearest thing they knew in the Nth hemisphere. Qld Maple can have some very nice figure (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Queensland%29+Maple&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=EPV&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uBM7T_6fHImjiQf_moiZCg&ved=0CFkQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=619) like the Acer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple#Timber) genus and is probably the reason for the common name confusion.

It would be a crying shame for a novice turner to practice on Qld Maple. Too much tear-out, besides the cost... it's expensive...:o

[dr4g0nfly]

Neil,

thanks you for that - I fell into the old trap of assuming!:B

That is what I love about this site, the ability to always have something new learn and the willingness of it's members to spread their knowledge.

Wonderful :2tsup:

Bryan