Well, I have taken the plunge and pulled out the $50 lathe (not even good enought to be harbor freight) that my father bought me with two complete sets of tools and turned a mallet like so many others have.
I downloaded the plans from Wood magazine, glued up my parts and got started. The first 3/4 roughing gouge I had to use was a true POS, but the second worked pretty well, and then I got the urge to buy a tool so I went and bought a crown 3/8" roughing gouge. I learned good turning tools are not cheap.
I have learned a few things, like it is fun to turn, but some bad as well. The tool rest on this lathe is dinged up pretty bad and although it wasn't noticeable with the 3/4 gouge, it was definitely noticeable with the 3/8 so I will need to do a bit of filing to smooth out the tool rest.
Sanding was a bit more tedious than I would have thought (boy does the paper get hot quick), but I believe some of that was because of the tool rest.
My copy of the mallet from Wood isn't a perfect match, but it is around a 95 percent match, and for my first real turning attempt, I consider that pretty good. I won't be doing bowls or pens like many others here do for a while I expect, but it is fun, I will say that. Now I need to find a better lathe at some point and a place to put it. Oh well.
One question/issue I still have is when I was trying to shape the end grain areas of the mallet. The instructions said to use the 3/8 gouge, but it would catch/bite when I tried to do that a lot. Are you supposed to hold the gouge at a lower angle or not hold the gouge offset or something? Any advice or suggestions?
I downloaded the plans from Wood magazine, glued up my parts and got started. The first 3/4 roughing gouge I had to use was a true POS, but the second worked pretty well, and then I got the urge to buy a tool so I went and bought a crown 3/8" roughing gouge. I learned good turning tools are not cheap.
I have learned a few things, like it is fun to turn, but some bad as well. The tool rest on this lathe is dinged up pretty bad and although it wasn't noticeable with the 3/4 gouge, it was definitely noticeable with the 3/8 so I will need to do a bit of filing to smooth out the tool rest.
Sanding was a bit more tedious than I would have thought (boy does the paper get hot quick), but I believe some of that was because of the tool rest.
My copy of the mallet from Wood isn't a perfect match, but it is around a 95 percent match, and for my first real turning attempt, I consider that pretty good. I won't be doing bowls or pens like many others here do for a while I expect, but it is fun, I will say that. Now I need to find a better lathe at some point and a place to put it. Oh well.
One question/issue I still have is when I was trying to shape the end grain areas of the mallet. The instructions said to use the 3/8 gouge, but it would catch/bite when I tried to do that a lot. Are you supposed to hold the gouge at a lower angle or not hold the gouge offset or something? Any advice or suggestions?