Thread: The best 100 turning "tips"

Originally Posted by TTIT

TIP: If you have to leave an unfinished piece on the lathe overnight or longer, slip a plastic bag over it so it's still the same shape when you get back to it!

... TTIT

And, if green, try to leave the chuck out of the plastic bag to avoid rusting. A piece of gladwrap between the chuck jaws and blank also minimises rust on the jaws and stain on the wood.

And, if large and green and is going to be left for any length of time, leave with the grain horizontal: otherwise it will be be out of balance when you spin up again.

.....

1. You can always make it smaller.
2. It’s only wood, and you can burn it at any stage.
3. Catches are not problems, but rather artistic opportunities.
4. The longer it has been since you had a catch, the closer you are to having one. Nobody gets it right all the time.
5. Practice may not make you perfect, but it certainly produces a lot of shavings.
6. If you’re not having fun, you’re probably doing something wrong.
7. When things happen on the lathe, they happen FAST.

There was a thread on sanding a while ago that I don't have the bandwidth to find. Later edited and posted here. And a subsequent one on how to minimise sanding that didn't get very far.

A few tips to add:

1. Often it's easier to see progress turning large bits between centres to look at the top of the piece.

2. If you can, occasionally take the piece out and view it vertically.

Alright,

I promised to bring all the "tips" together some time back. I forgot about it.

I'm off to Prossie mid next week, so any and all "late" entries will be accepted for a while yet.

Remember too that the audience is for newbies. If the "powers at be" like it enough. They can do a search anyway.

And remember all you guys/gals seem to forget or take so much for granted that what IS important to new turners is just "common" to experienced turners.

Example:

When roughing out a blank (any blank), I used to dial the speed back as soon as the lathe vibrated. I didn't know that faster was better then. No-one told me either to crank the speed up some more to find the "sweet" spot at a faster speed.

Frank & Ernest (and quite a few others I might add) are giving me lessons in keeping my messages short.

SO GET OFF YOUR BUTTS.

Short enough, Calm? (AKA, the Ballarat Speedster).

I learnt this many moons ago but it seems to be a practise that has been lost in the mist of time.
After doing the final sanding wipe the wood with metho. The metho does three things: raises the grain (nap - is that the right term Neil?) so that you can get a smoother finish, it highlights those blemishes that will be highlighted when a finish is applied and it will evaporate quickly (unlike water). I think Vic Wood introduced me to this and we used to light the metho for extra effect (and to dry the metho off quicker) but we made sure we rotated the wood so it didn't burn any section.

A coarse cotton weave rag makes for very good polishing rags (think the old Bonds singlet material).

Colour coded sandpaper is wonderful stuff making it soooooo easy to identify your grits.

Brendan - thanks for that one. I will try it.

We have maybe 70 odd "tips" so I need more......

Keep them coming, please. The next "newbie" needs a "first point of call.

Originally Posted by NeilS

Can't remember who I learnt this one from, as it was a long time ago. Probably some old production turner, and perhaps everyone knows about it, but here it is anyways.

To test if a blank has been roughed down to round, place the back of the roughing gouge on top of the blank while it is still spinning. The sound will tell you quickly if it is round yet or if there are still some flats left. Works for both spindle and half-log bowl blanks. Saves time turning the lathe off to visually check or applying the hand to the spindle before it's round.

....

That one from me was a bit long winded to meet the one or two lines stipulation by Jeff, so here is the same idea in less words:

A quick way to test if a blank has been roughed down to round is place the back of the roughing gouge on top of the blank while it is still spinning. If it rattles it's not there yet.

And, just in case it hasn't been covered already.

Stand out of the firing line of a new bowl blank until you can 'feel' that it is running at a safe speed.

Bleeding obvious, I know, but better said than assumed.

And, another related one.

A hand on the headstock makes a good 'safe speed' tachometer.

.....

Thanks, Neil, the last couple are good ones.

Add another:

"When hot-gluing a bowl or platter blank to waste on a face-plate, ensure that you flatten (by plane or otherwise) your block of wood.

If you don't, it may go west in the event of mishap i.e. an over-aggressive cut with a scraper."

If you want to know......

I ignored Tip No 82 and thought the hot melt would stick. All was going fine, even after I turned the "tit" off the redgum platter with the tail-stock up. Until I presented too much of the scraper to the wood.....

Scared the you know what out of me, but no damage done.

I thought about calling someone who knows better, but this is what I did:

- face-off the sacrificial ply and removed all the glue (which was only really attached on the outside of the ply)

- mount the 370mm platter in the bowl jaws, trued up a face

- re-mounted the face block in the tail stock after applying glue

- with those big S & P live centres, got the face block almost perfectly on the wood, still attached in the bowl jaws, with some pressure

- waited for the hot-melt to cool, took the platter out of the jaws and turned it around to start over again

I got tired in the finish. The redgum kept moving and moving all day. Super-glued cracks/ voids maybe 6 / 7 times.....

Anyway, I'll get there. Maybe.

Tip for use of a scroll chuck: mark jaw no.1; I use some electrical tape on the outside rim of the chuck adjacent to jaw 1. Before taking a piece of wood off the lathe/out of chuck mark, on the timber, where jaw no.1 has been so that if you need to remount the wood into the chuck you will always remount it in the same position (using the same jaw indentations in the wood) and the wood will run true.

Timber movement isn't always a product of the drying process. When timber is taken off timber stresses are relieved and the timber will move, even if timber is dry. So, when turning a lidded container, for instance, rough turn it first (taking as much timber away as you can) and then give the timber time to move before doing the final turning and fitting of lid to body.

Hmm, a common difficulty I find with some when they first set out to turn a bowl etc.
Is that when the finally shaping is occurring they watch the tool.

Never watch the tool tip when shaping, always watch the horizon or the opposite side of the object being turned.

Treat all your work as potential masterpieces .
Because sometimes a firewood practice bit turns out to be the best thing you have done for ages

Glue a small washer to the end of pencil (not the lead end) and place a small rare earth magnet on the banjo of your lathe. Now, you will never lose your pencil again as it will always be attached to the magnet on your banjo when not in use.

This idea comes c/o Terry Scott

That trick works with clutch pencil too, the metal clip stick to the magnet.