artful bodger
16th August 2013, 08:06 PM
Can't honestly say that turning balusters is the most enjoyable job. The previous lot of 50 I'd done a while ago went particularly sour as the joinery I did them for went bust before they paid me, then they miraculously started up business shortly afterwards under a different name with the same people working there! Gotta hate that!
Anyway this lot of 30 is for someone else. A builder who had a brochure of turnings available from a renovation shop here in Hobart. He had the design picked out from the brochure. I told him I could not match that price per unit (see pic) so why don't you buy them from the shop? Because I want them in baltic pine was the answer and they don't supply them in that timber.
I guess the best part of turning these is doing the last one...end of job, although I guess there is a bit of a challenge along the way trying to keep them all as uniform as possible.
Sometimes its a battle to get the balusters to fit between centers on my trusty old woodfast lathe so I have to use a dead centre on the tailstock to steal a few more cms. Note the burning on the end of the knotty bits, its amazing these ones dont catch on fire!
Anyway this lot of 30 is for someone else. A builder who had a brochure of turnings available from a renovation shop here in Hobart. He had the design picked out from the brochure. I told him I could not match that price per unit (see pic) so why don't you buy them from the shop? Because I want them in baltic pine was the answer and they don't supply them in that timber.
I guess the best part of turning these is doing the last one...end of job, although I guess there is a bit of a challenge along the way trying to keep them all as uniform as possible.
Sometimes its a battle to get the balusters to fit between centers on my trusty old woodfast lathe so I have to use a dead centre on the tailstock to steal a few more cms. Note the burning on the end of the knotty bits, its amazing these ones dont catch on fire!