New contest!

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Bear Republic

Steve
Corporate Member
I'd like to celebrate my hitting 500 posts with a little fun. To participate all you have to do is leave a reply with a tip or something you find useful dealing with woodworking. Since I just received the goodwill lathe I'd like lathe tips, but it can be anything you feel is worth sharing. Your reward... Should you accept the challenge will be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to Klingspors, one of our great supporters. Second and third draw will get a years subscription to Wood Magazine.

Deadline is this Friday at noon. I'll put everyone's name in a spreadsheet and use a random number generator. You can put in more than one tip but your name only goes into the list once.

Let the tips roll in!!!!!!!

Coleman and anyone who works for Klingspors, you can still enter! We can work out different gift certificate if you wish.
 

bowman

Board of Directors, Webmaster
Neal
Staff member
Corporate Member
When you put a bowl blank on the lathe, if you think it is tight, tighten some more, and make sure the speed is set to low before you turn it on. There's nothing like watching the lathe bounce/walk/run away from you and then throw the blank at some random spot in the shop.
 

beloitdavisja

James
Corporate Member
When you have a catch (and you WILL have a catch), and after your heartbeat returns to normal, stop and analyze how the catch happened and what you should do differently to prevent it the next time.

And always wear your PPE!
 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
Many people learn to turn spindles first - so they do a lot of scraping...
(The skew is a scary thing or they tried it and got their first catch and it will be a long time before they try another "Brown shorts" moment on the lathe!)

so take a hint from some flat work - sharpen your scraper upside down to effectively "pull a little burr" on the leading edge.
It will break quickly so it needs to be a final pass...
 

Stuart Kent

Stuart
Senior User
one of my favorite skill builders, I thought this one up in grad school and have been assigning it to students ever since:

The Egg.

eggs are challenging to make. They have constant compound parabolic curves diminishing at multiple rates of slope from a superior off-center diameter. Making them accurately, repeatedly, and consistently is one of the most efficient ways to build your spindle turning skills. This exercise should be treated like a musician playing scales to warm up before a performance; not something labored over for long periods of time.

Choose only one tool. Be bold and choose the one you struggle with the most - for me it is the skew, but you can do this with a roughing gouge, various spindle gouges, or carbide. Do not sand or finish these - it defeats the point of the exercise. Do not part these off, cut them down to 3/8" between so comparison is easy and consistent - I use a open end wrench as a quick caliper.

Boil an egg. Place it somewhere in a direct line of sight on or around your lathe in a horizontal orientation (make a simple stand if you need to keep it stable). Install a ~2" x 2" x 10" piece of wood between centers. I prefer maple, cherry, or other smooth textured close-grained hardwood (I typically use green wood for this because it's free and cuts fast). Starting at the center of the spindle, working toward each end, mark off the length of your egg three times with a half inch in between. Set a stop watch, I use a stock app on my phone. Turn the lathe up as fast as you feel safe spindle turning and cut the first egg. Stop and see how long it took you. Compare your egg to the real egg and be strictly critical of your similarities and differences. Now do it again to the right of the first egg, but try to do it in half the time. Stop and compare again. Now cut a third egg to the left of the first egg, and try to cut your time in half again.

The shapes should get increasingly better and you should gain confidence with the tool as you go. Move from center to right and then left to avoid muscle memory mistakes or the development of bad habits like relying on a posture, etc. When I have catches or poor cuts I stop and examine what I did wrong. I think keenly about tool presentation, tool rest height, direction of cut, etc.

cheers,
 

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
As easy as it may be to pickup the carbide tools, don't do it! You won't learn the techniques needed, not to mention muscle memory, to be able to use each of the traditional tools and what a fine finish you can get with each tool. +1 on Stuart's idea of the egg! You can take each tool and make the egg. Then see which one works the best for what the desired shape and finish is.
 

Dee2

Board of Directors, Vice President
Gene
Staff member
Corporate Member
Always, let the lathe come to full speed before presenting the tool.
 

mpholway

Board of Directors, Events Director
Matt
Staff member
Corporate Member
Simple simple tip for beginners. When hand planing be sure to plane in the correct direction so that the grain won't try to cause the plane to dig in.
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Here are two easy ones:
- Use sand paper like someone else is buying it for you.
- Never skip grits.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
Try not to use sandpaper.

Start with this in mind, try to make as smooth a finish as possible, then if you need a little 400 grit so be it.
 

allisnut

New User
Adam
I thought I needed carbide tools until I got my first one. Spend the money on cheap (HF sells a nice 8 piece set) of turning tools and a nice sharpening set up, like the wolverine and a slow speed grinder. Touching up a HSS tool takes seconds, finish quality off the tool is much better than carbide. Once you get the hang of shaping and sharpening, start buying better quality tools.
 
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sawman101

Bruce Swanson
Corporate Member
I love using my skews! But when I sharpen them, I put a slight arc in them, in other words the flat edge is not quite flat. This helps tremedously to prevent a catch. Flat edge looks like /, my edge is more like this ) but not as pronounced as the symbol.
 

Roy G

Roy
Senior User
For turning you need a parting tool, a roughing gouge, a spindle gouge, a skew, a scraper (round or square nose) and a bowl gouge. Get good quality tools as you need them, sets tend to have tools you will never use. Use your grinder regularly, don't let your tools get dull. Get a sharpening guide system like the Wolverine so you get consistent bevels on your tools. Prepare to spend money.

Roy G
 

frankc4113

Frank C
Corporate Member
Be sure to plug the motor in to an electrical supply before turning the lathe switch on!!!:gar-La;
 

JonB

Jon
User
Learn good form and shape, nothing will ruin a beautiful piece of wood quicker than poor form or shape, it will always look "funny". Imagine the piece if you were to paint it black, does it still look good? Classic shapes are classic for a reason.
 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
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sharpen your drive center

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Organize accessories and keep them both visible and handy.

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More organization possibilities

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A special rack for the #2 Morse taper accessories

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Make comfortable wooden sleeves for thin things that hurt to grab with old hands.
 

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Grimmy2016

Administrator
Scott
Running new electrical lines in an existing home/building

When running new electrical lines I added a colored piece of electrical tape to both ends and in multiple spots along the run so I can easy see which line goes to which outlet/socket etc. I have also started to create a map of my house to keep in my electrical box that shows all of the switches/outlets/sockets that are on a circuit. Like a mini book of my home layout and its different circuits.

If there is a split (hot line in splits to a dual switch box that controls two different lights) I will put a RED tape for the Hot coming in, and then a different color for the line from the box back out to the switch/outlet for each outgoing line.

This way, where the hot splits I can tell which line is which that goes into the switch box.
 

Bear Republic

Steve
Corporate Member
Sorry for the delay been a crazy week.....

So now with no further delays......

Let's hear it for our contestants..... Thank you all for your great helpful tips.
1 - bowman
2 - beloitdavisja
3 - Hmerkle
4 - Stuart Kent
5 - Michael Mathews
6 - Dee2
7 - mpholway
8 - Scott M
9 - mike Davis
10 - Allisnut
11 - Sawman101
12 - Roy G
13 - frankc4113
14 - FredP
15 - JonB
16 - bob vaughan
17 - Grimmy2016


I used the following number generator.
https://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom
I'll be reaching out to the winners via PM


Drum roll please \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/


Winner of the $25 Klingspors Gift Certificate.....
Stuart Kent
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Winners of the Wood Magazine subscriptions are
RoyG and Grimmy2016
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Thanks for playing and I'll reach out to you
 

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