How many tool handles from one board

[IanW]

Jk - I imagine you turned that branch just to see what it's like and not with any finished object in mind, but I feel obliged to point out it is extremely unlikely to dry without major splitting - casuarinas are not a good choice for whole stem turning (jacaranda is, it's one of the few woods round here that will stay sound if turned like your piece above). But there is too much differential shrinkage between inner & outer wood with casuarinas. It would be a convincing exercise to leave it like that and see what happens over the next week or so.

It really depends what your interests are, of course, but that's the sort of young river oak I was talking about, & great for chair parts, so I'd be conscripting a mate & salvaging as much of that tree as I could. Or if my friends were suddenly all too busy, I'd take a hammer & a couple of wedges & reduce the bigger bits to a one (old) man lift (it's very easy to split, fortunately). However, you may have limited use for it, and there's a bit of fuss & bother preparing & storing wood 'til it's ready for use. It's a road you might hesitate to tread because it can become something of an obsession in itself, & significant others tend to look on a pile of gold like that casuarina with a very different eye (damhik, as they say. )

But if you do want it, get onto it quickly before it starts to self-destruct, would be my advice....

Cheers,
Ian

[johknee]

Yes, curiosity got the better of me, so I turned the small piece to see what lay beneath the bark!
Thank you for the advice. I'm devising a plan to salvage as much as I can carry.

Apologies to Cklett for hijacking your thread!

[Cklett]

I finally got back to continue the story. This chapter is a set of screwdriver. Thanks to Pac Man's generosity, I could make three in different sizes.



I turned the handle on my bungee lathe.




For the bungee lathe, I like to have my stock longer than needed. That way, I can turn a groove on the waste end and drive the piece from there without risking cutting the cord with the chisel. But I also did not want to waste any of the precious timber. So I glued it in a matrix of pine and turned as far as I could without breaking go fly.

Note: I would only do that on a pole or bugee lathe. The forces and power are not so big as a power lathe, and the lathe stops in a split second if something goes wrong. Then again, on a power lathe you probably can put the wood straight in a chuck without that effort.

The rest I then shaped by hand in a vice and then popped off the rest of the pine. I forgot to mention that I glued it in with some paper in between.




After that, I made a little fixture so I could cut a slot for the blade to sit in.




The rest is then the same as fitting a chisel with a tang.

Finally, they just needed to sand and polished the blades, shape the bavel on the business and and give the tip a heat treatment.


Now the dedicated drawer is getting full. With the next chapter, I probably need to start a new drawer ;-)



Hope you are still not getting 'board' with my story. [emoji6]


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[Andy_B]

Beautiful work, CK. It's enjoyable to see your journey on this project over the years. I guess you've got the answer to your original questions: more handles than the drawer can handle.

Cheers,
Andy

[IanW]

Well, I never thought that miserable little bit of she-oak would re-handle an entire shed-full of tools, but it looks like it's making a pretty good attempt!

And an extra bonus for your method of turning the oval handle - that's thinking outside my box. I just put the flat blank in the lathe & turned the profile, then hand-worked the oval tops to shape.
Philips drivers.jpg

I'm guessing that would not have been so easy with a pole lathe, the slower speed would probably catch your tools & cause dig-ins & splintering, but you avoided that very cleverly.

Well done (again!)

[Mountain Ash]

Great stuff CK and a dad joke as well!! Very clever trick for maintaining the flats on the handle, but that must have been a bit of work setting out initially? I have some turnscrews and prefer them over screwdrivers.

[Cklett]

I'm guessing that would not have been so easy with a pole lathe, the slower speed would probably catch your tools & cause dig-ins & splintering, but you avoided that very cleverly.

That was exactly my worry. Hence, I chose this route. Even rounding a square piece off on the pole lathe is hard. I always roughly round the workplace on the bench with the hand plane before taking it to the lathe.

Great stuff CK and a dad joke as well!! Very clever trick for maintaining the flats on the handle, but that must have been a bit of work setting out initially? I have some turnscrews and prefer them over screwdrivers.

It worked very well to maintain the flats. The glue up needed several steps with constant checking and transferring of center lines. I had to make sure that the center line of the final piece falls exactly on the line between the centers of the lathe.

I did not take pictures of that step. I was too focused on getting right. I am very glad it worked out for all three of them. I was sure I would stuff at least one up, but I didn't. This time [emoji3]

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[Bushmiller]

CK

The sacrificial pine addition is a very neat trick. Thank you. I will file that one away for future reference.

Regards
Paul

[IanW]

......The sacrificial pine addition is a very neat trick. Thank you. I will file that one away for future reference..... l

Paul, using paper between the temporary add-ons & the workpiece was also a neat touch. It's an old turners trick for doing "split" turnings & usually holds well enough to complete the turning, but makes separation of the bits afterwards very easy & prevents any splintering of the "good' wood. Usually, that is. It pays to let the glue cure overnight or even a bit longer before commencing the turning or it may fly apart prematurely. Oh, & best to use a cup centre in the tailstock, not a simple point which can force the halves apart on a symmetrical split turning.

(damhik!)

[Bushmiller]

What sort of paper do we use for this gluing technique? Something relatively porous I imagine.

Regards
Paul

[Cklett]

What sort of paper do we use for this gluing technique? Something relatively porous I imagine.

Regards
Paul

I just used ordinary printing paper from our scrap paper pile.

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[IanW]

Printer paper works fine. It's quite surprising how it splits entirely through the paper when you separate them. I would think the paper should be not too porous or the glue will soak right through & possibly not separate as well...

[Cklett]

Inspired by this post I also bought an Accu- Burr

Accu-Burr Carbide Burnisher

It thought it would fit well into this story and while I am still improving on plane blade, chisel and saw sharpening at least I have it easier with card scraper [emoji6]

I still had a small piece which gave me enough for the two handles. Now there is only a quarter of the board left.



It was also a good test for a tiny vintage lathe I picked up recently.



I made a little tool rest as well so I could use it more like a watchmaker lathe for more organic shapes.





The ferrules came out quite nice I think.

Let's what is coming next. I have one other idea, but then I am open for suggestions.





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[Mountain Ash]

Hi CK. Did you turn the ferrules? And thread them? What do you think of the accu burr? Love the lathe, hope your other one isn't getting jealous!!

[IanW]

I like that lathe too! It looks like a very solid thing, with a hefty cross-slide that won't deflect on a heavy cut. Not having a driven lead-screw means no powered thread-cutting, but I do most threading with dies anyway. One of my first projects when I got my lathe was to make a die holder: Die holder.jpg
It works very well, but as you can see, my first attempt at knurling was pretty amateurish - I've since re-done that to a much more 'professional' level...

We look forward to seeing some pretty interesting projects in the near future.....

Cheers,