Thread: Baby's first lathe

Well done mate. Great pastime eh?

It's a slippery slope downwards from here! Watch out, or folks on here will have you making pens in no time at all!

BTW, looks like a 'tube-bed' lathe to me, not a pole lathe.

AFAIK, a pole lathe has a bendy bit of tree attached to a cord which wraps around the workpiece, then goes down to a footpiece which is pumped up and down to provide the motive power to the lathe.

Lots of lathes have flat beds with a slot down the middle, and some (like yours) have a single tube for the bed. The tube makes it a bit more interesting to line things up.

Cheers,
Andrew

Have a look at this for a real pole lathe:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIgElQwMJpY"]YouTube - George Lailey commemorative bowls[/ame]</EMBED>

or this:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgIGzw4VtA&feature=related"]YouTube - battle of the bowlturners[/ame]

I suspect this would be have been easier with a chuck, but all I've got for now is a spur drive and a faceplate or two.

...hope you've got a big bank account 'cause that's going to change lessee, 2 chucks, deep hollowing tools, P&N gouges, all kinds of other accessories, wood, and, oh yes, an upgrade to a Stubby....gee, seems that someone on the forum just happens to have one up for sale

Good luck with the new found hobby, Juffy.

Originally Posted by Ed Reiss

Good luck with the new found hobby, Juffy.

This is more to support my real hobby of making furniture and toys...for now, at least. Not being able to make round things is a real limitation.

It seems to do spindles pretty well....well, better than I do spindles anyway. I'm currently reading Richard Raffan's book and eyeing off my skew chisel...if you hear a loud bang from this side of the country, you'll know what it was.

Originally Posted by arose62

BTW, looks like a 'tube-bed' lathe to me, not a pole lathe.

Argh. Yep, my bad. It's got a pole, so I call it a pole lathe.

The guy who sold me the above lathe bought a Sherwood MC1100 because he couldn't afford the lathe he wanted. Then, of course, the lathe he wanted (some monster Symtek lathe) came up for a good price and he bought that....so I bought the MC1100.

'tis very purty, and much nicer than the old one - twice as much power, four times as solid.

BUT, inevitably, I have a newbie question.

I threw a piece of old jarrah roofing beam in to have another play at spindle turning, and I can't easily get a smooth cylinder out of it. Particularly in the middle, the wood bounces off the roughing gouge a lot and I get a strange beaten-copper kind of surface. (see attachments) If I watch the far surface as the tool meets it, I can see the wood actually flexing away from the tool and presumably bouncing along as it spins.

What's likely to be the cause?
Is it just a limitation of turning a 1m spindle, 30mm across made of old, very dry jarrah?
Are my tools ridiculously blunt? They don't seem it, but I'm not that good a judge - they still cut quite well.
Does my technique suck? (duh, of course) It doesn't seem to matter what angle I present the gouge at, it still bounces merrily along.

Cheers for any help!

A pic of the gouge might give a clue as to what is happening
I think you may have to use a steady to support over that length at such a small Dia
bowl basher

It's a very rough roughing gouge, but the same thing happens with a smaller roughing gouge and to a lesser extent with two different skews - the skews still bounce a bit, but I can at least get a smooth surface.

G'day Juffy

To turn a spindle that long and thin you will to support it in the middle.Probably the most common method is using a 3 point steady. These can be purchased at all the regular turner suppliers or you can make your own. Not too hard to do. Do a search on the forum. Plenty of info on them.

Cheers
Shorty

Thanks - I thought that might be the case once I noticed the thing flexing on me.

I'm tempted to let it ride for this particular piece - it's an interesting effect, and looks better in person than in the pics - but I wanted to know why so I can stop it happening next time. It's important to discover just what you can do with your new toys - it was inevitable that the first thing I'd put in an 1100mm-bed lathe is an 1100mm piece of wood.

Originally Posted by Juffy

It's a very rough roughing gouge, but the same thing happens with a smaller roughing gouge and to a lesser extent with two different skews - the skews still bounce a bit, but I can at least get a smooth surface.

The business end of your roughing gouge should look more like this. Have you got a bench grinder yet? If not then I would make that the very next thing you get. You cant turn timber with blunt tools.

Cheers
Shorty

Originally Posted by thefixer

The business end of your roughing gouge should look more like this. Have you got a bench grinder yet? If not then I would make that the very next thing you get. You cant turn timber with blunt tools.

That roughing gouge is by far the worst of my chisels - the rest look a bit more like yours. I figured it wasn't too critical to have it razor sharp given what it was roughing out - this piece of jarrah is very rough itself - and it was still cutting quite well.

I do have a grinder, like the lathe I'm slowly learning how to use it properly.

Originally Posted by Juffy

That roughing gouge is by far the worst of my chisels - the rest look a bit more like yours. I figured it wasn't too critical to have it razor sharp given what it was roughing out - this piece of jarrah is very rough itself - and it was still cutting quite well.

I do have a grinder, like the lathe I'm slowly learning how to use it properly.

Ok Juffy.Have fun learning and remember that there are plenty of very experienced turners on the forum who are more than willing to help and part with their knowledge. So never be afraid to ask what may seem like stupid question. We all have to start somewhere.


Cheers
Shorty