Wood Turning Lathe

[singlepentode69]

Hi have any members made themselves a wood turning work .i am about to embark on a bit of wood turning after a few years off .

[Joe]

Yorkie is our resident expert on wood-turning. Retired has done a lot too. I've done some but on an engineering lathe.

- Joe

[Retired]

Hi,

What do you have in mind regarding woodturning singlepentode69?

Woodturning is a big subject ranging from decorative to utility items. What lathe and tooling do you have if any; what timbers do you intend to turn etc?

As Joe kindly says both David and I do woodturning; Joe has just acquired a metal lathe but is currently turning delightful pens on it. David is well into decorative items and has generously given a number to Bron and me these being on show in our front room. David is also very heavily involved in his local woodturning group.

I've tended to turn wood on a need to have basis mostly for use in items around the bungalow; tables/lamps and similar items although occasionally I've turned sets of radio knobs and many tool handles.

I recently bought a Union Jubilee woodturning lathe and am now upgrading it in fact I've just spent the full morning in the garage in spite of the frost. I'm attempting to fit an electro-magnetic clutch to the Jubilee to save switching the motor on and off all the time; additional to the clutch I'm installing a much bigger 3 phase motor hooking it up to new VFD so whatever your interest in woodturning I'm pretty sure a forum member will respond.

Lathe ownership among the forum members is increasing which is good news as lathes are not only interesting to own and use they are very useful. I've now got three metal lathes and two wood lathes but I'm a lost cause.

Good luck in your endeavours and kind regards, Col.

[singlepentode69]

I used to have an old dalton metal turning lave which I lost when I got divorced.Ido not have a lathe at the moment I did look at buying a wolf drill type driven by a drill but I have thought about making my own out of materials out of the scrap box until I have funds to buy a new lathe . I only have a small shed to work in so space is at a premian .I intend only to make chisel and file handles an the occasional wooden knobs for drawers and cupboards and maybe some newal spindals as I occasional do of repair jobs to keep myself busy.
Regards
Robin

[Yorkie]

If you look in the forum section on woodwork/metalwork/lathes Robin, you'll see more than 700 posts on almost 60 topics, with examples of forum member's efforts, and tips on such things as how to work out the optimum lathe speeds relative to the size of a woodturning blank.

Do you have a lathe at present Robin, and if so, what sort of things do you have in mind to make?

Well worth considering joining a woodturning club if you have one not too far away. Most clubs have a programme of professional demonstrators who explain the use of tools and techniques, pitfalls to avoid, and ideas for things to turn. I'm secretary of East Yorkshire Woodturners, and our monthly meetings consist of a demonstration by demonstrators who are on the Register of Professional Turners, a themed competition for members to enter, and we have a library of DVDs and books for loan to members. You can see examples of member's work in the 'gallery' here:

www.eastyorkshirewoodturners.org.uk

[singlepentode69]

No I do not have the lathe any more which is a pity it was an American lease lend one used during the war to make nuts and bolts for spitfires. I got it from a farmer who bought it as a wd sale in the 1950s .i am looking to make some wooden cupboard knobs,and handles on it and the occasional spindles for stairs. I thought I would have a go at making a basic lathe for wood turning .i get bits of wood from skip like deal and oak and sometimes fruit wood as some of the early builders used anything to hand and the new age builders throw away anything these days. I did see a lathe attachment on e-bay which fitted on a drill but I was outbid so I thought I would have a go at making one
Robin

[Retired]

Hi,

The gallery in your woodworking club website has some beautiful exhibits David. I like the nut/set screw/washer made by Ivor Nicholson; the spalted beech bowl in the opening picture and the two goblets are outstanding by Derrick Watson and the meticulous segmental work by Eddie Allison are all to aspire to. The turned items you kindly gave to Bron and me are also finished to perfection and we show them to our visitors who are always as impressed as us. Joe is also producing excellent laminated pens whilst using a metal lathe which at the best is difficult; well done to everyone.

Drill lathe attachments used to be very popular Robin as they were cheap and plenty are still around in fact they pop up at Rufforth Auto Jumble that David and I frequent. Such a set up is fine for the odd turning job but I think after a while the noise from the drill will become a nuisance and eventually the drill might object.

I built my own first woodturning lathe over 30 years ago and building it was most enjoyable; money wasn't so much tight more that I didn't have any so I raided the scrap bins at work and in those days there were many old 1/4HP single phase motors being thrown away. Additionally you could buy a decent spindle with the bearings already fitted (Picador) which helped a great deal and these spindles would accept a Jacobs chuck just leaving the bed; tailstock and tool rest to sort out. I could not afford one of these spindles so pestered workmates into making the bits I needed. The bed can be made from timber; If my memory is correct I believe Conover or some similar name used to make substantial cast iron headstock; tailstock and tool rests and these were meant to be used on a heavy wooden bed the length of the bed to suit the customer.

Out of curiosity I've just had a quick look on the web;

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=conover+lathe&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=o_iwUNyVLsio4gTj84HYBg&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=677

Making a lathe is quite easy Robin but the problem comes in mounting the timber and driving it; a single speed 1425rpm 1/4" single phase motor if set up for direct drive (used as headstock) will turn lots of small diameter items but will prove too fast for things like bowls especially whilst in the rough. It will turn spindles though. You mention stair spindles; these are quite difficult to turn due to "whipping" as is any long slender work mounted between centers unless a steady is employed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqwQMeJMUY

The above is a sample video from "You Tube" to give you an idea on how to use a direct drive motor but the guy in the video is taking quite a few risks; he could have ended up with a broken thumb whilst drilling the larger diameter hole in the wood block and also I'm amazed by how well he actually reduced the block to round whilst under power using nothing more than a common wood chisel (bring back any memories Joe?). There are lots of such videos on You Tube; the trick is to cherry pick the best ideas to suit you Robin.

If you had lived nearer Robin then I could have helped out with some metal turning to get you up and running but I'm sure you will enjoy the challenge in making your own lathe. please keep us posted of your progress.

Kind regards, Col.

[Yorkie]

I guess you mean this type of thing Robin. They’re very limited in what you can do with them, and using a power drill as a motor makes it very noisy:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Drill-Powered-...erTools_SM&hash=item3f1f156ff5

You couldn't turn stair spindles on it as it's ony 23" between centres, and the 'swing over the bed' is just 3", so the maximum diameter you could turn would be 6 inches.

For not a great deal more you could get a half decent entry level budget lathe such as this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SIP-01488-40-I...erTools_SM&hash=item2ec3b9f8de

It has a common headstock mandrel thread - 3/4" x 16 TPI, which is fairly standard in the UK, so later on you could buy a chuck that would fit.

It had 4 speeds: 850, 1400, 2000 & 2510rpm, so would be good for turning larger diameter objects (larger the object, the slower the speed needs to be), or for turning spindle work, which needs higher speeds to get a good finish ‘off the tool’.
The distance between centres is 40 inches, so could accommodate stair spindles, which are typically 27 inches or so, or for smaller things such as pens.
For faceplate turning (bowls etc) it has a capacity of 14” (350mm), more than enough for most needs.
It has a 0.5HP motor, and twin bed bars.

I’m not recommending this lathe or supplier – it's just one of many similar entry level lathes, which - despite its limitations - would suffice for most things an occasional hobbyist would want to turn.

[Joe]

Looks very nice, David. I'm half tempted myself.

- Joe

[pwdrive]

I had a Record CL2, quite a good machine.

Lawrence.