Thread: Harder than I thought

Originally Posted by Jack.Tar

Well to say I am crap at using a lathe is a massive understatement. I got my Jet minilathe last night, started using it today, thought I would start of by trying a simple bowl, well so far I have dug in five times, snapped the end off a tool and almost broken my thumb not to mention the end of the tool that almost went through my neck. Good times.

Wonder if there is somewhere in Canberra where someone might teach me to use this death machine.

show us some picks of the bowl your making and the broken chisel so we can try and find out how you did it ????
and hopefully some one down there will answer the call

Not really a bowl, not even close, was trying to get it round first now it is an almost round bit of wood with some massive chunks taken out of it. As for the tool well imagine a gouge then imagine one with the end snapped off and you pretty much have it.

Hi JT, not a nice start at all but if you look at the bright side it's all uphill from here. OK question time. What timber, how round / square was it to start with, how was it mounted, what speed where you turning at and which particular gouge and how were you presenting the cutting edge to the timber. I know that's a lot of questions but the answers should help us get to the bottom of your problem.

Camphor Laurel (spelling?) pretty round, screwed to 'faceplate'? speed=max chickens 3300 or somewhere around there, Have no idea what particular gouge, between flat and on its side if that makes sense.

I've heard of people keeping their tools in some novel places, but "embedded in the ceiling" is a new one.....

JT - is there any way you can get over to the WWW show at Exhibition Park tomorrow. There are several turning demos going on, and I'm sure one of the guys would be able to take you through the steps from the roughing onwards. I saw Peter (ozartisan) there on Friday with his JET mini......anyone else come to mind??

It might just be the quickest way to sort out where you have gone wrong and get you started, then you can look around later for more tuition or a course.

As Mr Bush has said getting along to the WWW show and watching a few demo's and chatting to people will certainly help out. If you can't my first thought from what you have described is that you've got it spinning way too fast for a blank that is not yet round. I'd slow it down below 1000rpm until it's round then start to bring the speed up. If I have a particularly out of round blank I even slow down as far as 500rpm (as slow as my old beast goes). One thing that is happening is that because the blank is not round the chisel is actually cutting air for a portion of the time and then you have solid timber hitting the tool at high speed. Definitely not a good situation especially if you have forward pressure on the tool and the timber is hitting more than just the cutting edge.

Jack ,
did you try to make the piece round by going in from the side , or the face ?

Well thank you for all the advice, I think my major issue was trying to start off with something large and unstable, I have now turned my first pen and it is far from flash but the nib comes out and it writes LOL, the finish is pretty average but I was being impatient and just wanted to have something finished if you know what I mean. I guess as already mentioned it can only get better from here.

And before you all start abusing me here it is:

Nothing wrong with that JT. A good start to our little addiction . What timber and what did you use to finish with? I'm sure others will mention it but always keep your first pen. It's amazing when you look back at it in a few months time and compare how far you've come.

OK .. that's good! You got started, wanted to get something round and usable.. and get
the itchy feeling out of your system. You did that, and have a nice pen to show for it!
Now that the impatience is more manageable you can start to build up some techniques..
a couple at a time. Some good info posted here already, so you pick up a hint here and
there, pretty soon you have a whole arsenal full of tricks.

ps .. there are easier ways to shorten your tools, but maybe not faster ways..
(or more exciting..)

Wow! You have certainly got straight in there.

You need to get in touch with Peter aka Penpal, I am sure he has already offered his services and they have a fantastic club down there.

Take everything easy till you know how it all works and make sure you wear the safety gear.

I took the liberty of enhancing your pen pic for you. Nice looking pen for the first, remember to put it away as a keeper.

And my first acrylic, is it strange to like the smell of burning plastic?

They are good pens Jack.Tar......and yes it is strange to like the smell of the turned acrylic...you obviously have a latent substance abuse problem