One for Caveman

[funkychicken]

What tools do you guys use for big stuff?

[hughie]

big ones :U

[rsser]

Chainsaws, arbortech carvers, 3/4" gouges on metre long shafts, lathes with a half metre swing, blocks and tackle to mount blanks, 30 cm faceplates, finger-long screws, Titan chucks.

[artme]

and low revs!!!:p:p:p

[DavidG]

25mm PN super gouge:U

[funkychicken]

Chainsaws, arbortech carvers, 3/4" gouges on metre long shafts, lathes with a half metre swing, blocks and tackle to mount blanks, 30 cm faceplates, finger-long screws, Titan chucks.


I like the sound of them:D

[Caveman]

Chainsaws, arbortech carvers, 3/4" gouges on metre long shafts, lathes with a half metre swing, blocks and tackle to mount blanks, 30 cm faceplates, finger-long screws, Titan chucks.


and low revs!!!:p:p:p


25mm PN super gouge:U

Yep - that's about it!

Oh . . . . . and a bit of courage first time round - quite daunting facing an 80kg gnarly, angry looking lump of wood spinning round and only armed with a face shield and a 19mm or 25mm bowl gouge.

Slowly does it at the start - at least till the thing is balanced.

[funkychicken]

Yep - that's about it!

Oh . . . . . and a bit of courage first time round - quite daunting facing an 80kg gnarly, angry looking lump of wood spinning round and only armed with a face shield and a 19mm or 25mm bowl gouge.

Slowly does it at the start - at least till the thing is balanced.


Helps when you have a Stubby, eh Andy?:D (Lucky Sod)

[DavidG]

Should have added.

HEAVY lathe (vl300) with slow speeds (10 rpm up to 1,000).

[rsser]

... and endless amounts of time and patience.

Listening to a ker-chunk only once in a while bores you witless.

[Toasty]

Slowly does it at the start - at least till the thing is balanced.

Was working on a bit of yellow box burl, bit out of round, probbly about 18kg. 250rpm was just fine, lathe was rock steady. Man this is taking a while to knock the edges off so I can swing it back over the bed, I'll just up it to 350rpm.

:oo: HOLY ????? :oo:

I swear if the DVR3000 hadn't been dynabolted to the floor it would have walked out of my garage, whole thing was whipping and shaking. No possibility of getting to the headstock without it maybe breaking my arm so had to leap for the powerpoint.

That got the old heart started I can tell you!

[OGYT]

I agree with all the above!
Al

[DJ’s Timber]

Was working on a bit of yellow box burl, bit out of round, probbly about 18kg. 250rpm was just fine, lathe was rock steady. Man this is taking a while to knock the edges off so I can swing it back over the bed, I'll just up it to 350rpm.

:oo: HOLY ????? :oo:

I swear if the DVR3000 hadn't been dynabolted to the floor it would have walked out of my garage, whole thing was whipping and shaking. No possibility of getting to the headstock without it maybe breaking my arm so had to leap for the powerpoint.

That got the old heart started I can tell you!

If you thought that was scarey :yikes:, wait till you see one of these walking around 68894

Imagine a piece of Redgum that looks exactly like that bit of Yellowbox but twice the size in diameter and mounted outboard. Unbeknown to me whilst I was taking a toilet break, a mate of mine bumped the speed control and when I fired it back up lets just say that thank god for the remote switch as I wasn't going any where near it and because of the electric ramp down it cause the piece to unwind itself off the spindle and plonk down onto the floor.

[Calm]

Unbeknown to me whilst I was taking a toilet break, a mate of mine bumped the speed control and when I fired it back up lets just say that thank god for the remote switch as I wasn't going any where near it and because of the electric ramp down it cause the piece to unwind itself off the spindle and plonk down onto the floor.

Lesson 1 by at your xmas DJfest ALWAYS check the speed control before each start.

I guess you never forget that one now DJ.

[Barry_White]

That reminds me of the time when serving my apprenticeship as a Pattermaker the old tradesman, he was about 65 at the time, had glued up a segmented pattern about 450mm in dia. This was when we were using animal glue and it was in warm humid weather and the glue was about 3 or 4 days old and had been heated up and let cool down overnight over that time.

The glue hadn't really set and he mounted the pattern to the face plate on an old flat belt drive lathe. He hadn't checked the lathe speed from the previous person who had just finished a pattern turned between centres and had left it on high speed.

Because you had to turn the lathe on by pushing a steel rod that moved a flat belt from an idling pulley to the fixed pulley on an overhead shaft that drove two other lathes fortunately he really had to step away from the path of the rotation of the patten.

He pushed the steel rod as he realised too late that it was on high speed as the flat belt started the pattern spinning and before he could react the patten disintegrated into individual segments and flew around the patternshop. One ripped a light fitting out, one tore the clock off the wall, another one smashed a window that the boss had just replaced and one just missed another tradesman working at his bench opposite the lathe and the old tradesman just stood there with a shocked look on his face and the boss came in the back door raging because he just got showered with glass as he climbed down off the ladder from the window he had just repaired.

[DavidG]

...boss came in the back door raging because he just got showered with glass as he climbed down off the ladder from the window he had just repaired.
:roflmao2::rotfl:
That brings back memories. :o:U

[rsser]

Lol.

...

Bit OT but a few years back we had an exhib. of old trades in Melb. Think it was at Scienceworks. Anyway, patternmaker was one of them and I was gobsmacked at the size and intricacies of some of the stuff those guys did (and maybe still do?).

[Barry_White]

Lol.

...

Bit OT but a few years back we had an exhib. of old trades in Melb. Think it was at Scienceworks. Anyway, patternmaker was one of them and I was gobsmacked at the size and intricacies of some of the stuff those guys did (and maybe still do?).

Rsser

I have posted on here before about 8 foot rings of patterns that we used to make built up in segments for the socket and spigot ends for the molds of spun concrete pipes that were turned on a cross arms of timber.

The cross arms were made up of 8" x 2" screwed to 24" Dia x 1/2" thick face plate. The pattern was then screwed to the cross arms with 6" wood screws and turned in a three phase head stock only lathe bolted to a 4 foot cube of concrete buried in the ground.

The ring actually spun around in a recessed pit in the floor and turned with a stand alone tool rest just using a normal gouge to rough them down and finished off with a scraper.

You can imagine the fear and trepidation of a 17 year old apprentice when you felt the vibration set up as it was being roughed down and the scare that the tradesman got when the vibration caused the tool rest to jump around and one leg of the three legged stand dropped into the pit and fell over into the cross arms and brought the lathe to a sudden stop and bent the screws holding the pattern onto the cross arms into a figure "S".

These had to be made all with a tolerance of 1/64"

The interesting part is that your probably the only one that was even remotely impressed by some of these things we did over 50 years ago with no OHS in place.

Patternmaking these days is a dying trade because of computers, Cad Drawings and CNC Machines.

[rsser]

Bazza, yep, recall that post.

Wonderful work, as well as scary.

You clearly (!) remember it well.

Hate to think how much skill has been lost with the advent of CNC etc.

[Barry_White]

Bazza, yep, recall that post.

Wonderful work, as well as scary.

You clearly (!) remember it well.

Hate to think how much skill has been lost with the advent of CNC etc.

Yes I was the scared apprentice.

[wheelinround]

This is big FC http://www.proserpinewoodturners.com/The_Big_Bowl.html

[funkychicken]

Since we're stelling tories... A teacher told me about a time when he was doing his apprenticeship. His teacher had a huge (over 2' diameter) segmented vase mounted on the lathe. Turned it on, it flew right over his head and landed behind him. The Vase was undamaged but the teacher was shaken:D

[OGYT]

Good stories, Bazza!! :D :D

[docusk]

You guys have me in stitches. I was apprenticed, 60 plus years back, as a toolmaker. Left the chuck key in the chuck of a big Cincinnati lathe, the weight of it slowly turned itself down out of view and when I started it up, Wham bang crash and the key ended up in the Toolroom Foreman's cubby hole, now without any glass. I ended up out in a little tin-roofed 'Car port' type of shack, outside in November, cutting 3" X 2' billets of Bright Mild Steel for a week.
Never did it again. Poor old Horace, he never trusted me again.
Keep on with the experiences chaps. We Brits love 'em.
docusk