Lathe Maintenance and Wood Turning OnLine

Good Everyone,

One area of turning that is really important is maintenance of the lathe and your turning tools. I haven't blogged about this in a while and it's time for an update. But first here is a word about one of my favorite online turning forums Wood Turning Online:

Wood Turning OnLine is a large wood turning forum that has not only messages and discussion about wood turning, it has a lot of excellent information about how to turn, projects, and a lot of instructional videos. Hey, even the advertisements are worth looking at! With wood turning being rather a niche within general wood working, it can be a little difficult at times to source out information about new tools, techniques, etc, and I find that Wood Turning Online serves this purpose well. There's always something new and the forum and website are kept up to date. You can see the site without joining but to actively participate in the discussions you have to register and I have as I think it's a worth while thing to do.

Ok, I've done my bit for the wood turning world.

Let's see a show of hands: How many of you have dressed your tool rest this week? Hmmm...I see one lone hand in Lithuania. Wood Turning Online is featuring a really great video about this on YouTube this week. Take a look:

(For my international guests: if you have trouble with spoken English, I think this is presented clearly enough that you can guess how to do this by just watching the video)

There is a lot of other information on Wood Turning Online and if you follow the link above you'll come right to it.

Have a great day turning,

VW

Turning Soft Woods-Sushi Platter out of Western Red Cedar

Hi Everyone,

Let's talk a bit about turning soft woods.

What are soft woods anyway? Soft woods come from gymnosperms which is a fancy way of saying conifers, gingkos, and cedar trees. Here in the US we are lucky to have a lot of these types of trees. They are used extensively in construction and if we didn't have these types of trees, well, we'd probably be living in mud huts.

This type of lumber is often over looked by woodturners and that's a shame because it can be successfully turned on a lathe. It is softer than harder woods but that can be a plus as it turns and sands much more quickly than hardwoods. And softwoods can be a really good way for beginners and folks without a lot of cash to lay out for harder woods, which tend to be more expensive. And softwoods can exhibit the same lovely grain patterns that hardwoods do.

Most softwoods are available as dressed lumber here in the US. At better lumber yards, its easy to find clear, straight grained lumber that works well for turning. At the d-i-y types of lumber yards, you'll find less choice wood that tends to have a lot of knots. Both can be used for turning if yourr careful (see below).

The same principles apply to softwoods that apply to hardwoods as far as turning goes:

• Careful wood selection

• Careful set up on the lathe

• Sharp turning chisels

• High turning speeds and

• And careful, thoughtful design

Wood Selection

If you are lucky enough to have a good lumber yard nearby, looking for clear, kiln dried lumber. Fir, pine, and cedar are common here and it's possible to make really interesting pieces out of all of these.  If you find yourself at a d-i-y lumberyard, look for lumber that has the fewest defects.

Knots can be turned if they are very tight and there are no gaps between the knot and the wood that surrounds it. Caution is advised here: knots can come flying our at you or shatter while they're being turning, causing injury to you and a big hole in your turning blank where the knot used to be. So be careful here.  Take your time and look for lumber that is straight and not coarse as coarse wood is just not turnable.

Lathe setup

The same steps apply to softwoods that apply to harder woods. Always be careful when attaching any block of wood to a lathe. Make absolutely certain that it is tightly and securely fixed to whatever device you use, be it a chuck or a faceplate. If you use a faceplate, make sure the screws are tight in the wood. And if possible, turn between centers. It's safer and it tends to dampen vibration, especially in wide, platter blanks. Remember, turning wood is fundamentally a dangerous thing to do-think about it: it's a big piece of wood spinning hundreds of time a minute a few inches away from your head.

Sharp turning chisels

Your equipment must be very sharp and it needs to be sharp all through the turn so stop and touch up the edges frequently on your grinding wheel. Softwoods tend to tear, especially across the end grain. Cut lightly and don't try to gouge out wood when you're hollowing out something.

Turning speeds

Softwoods require higher turning speeds. I usually start at about 700rpm. The higher the speed, the smoother the cut (I don't turn over 900 rpm).

Design

As softwoods are not as dense as hard woods are, items turned from them-and I'm speaking of platters, plates, and bowls here-need to have slightly thicker walls. This may or may not impact the design of your item. I make primarily kitchen ware and so I wouldn't use softwoods for spoons, rolling pins, kitchen mallets, etc, because they are not as durable as a harder wood is. So be careful about this.

Ok, enough said. Here are a couple of photos from a sushi platter that I just finished:

I bought a 2x12 piece of western red cedar today to use in a yarn bowl I'm planning for a friend. This is  a blank from the same plank of wood the sushi plate came from:

Since this is soft wood, this is the time to make a real big sweeping curve on it as this type of shape will work well with this type of wood. You can also see the knots in the underside of the platter. These are firmly apart of the wood and they turned very well. You can also see there is no detail to the underside as a really soft wood won't hold detail very well and often tends to produce tearing. So avoid that:

Here is a closeup. You can see how the mortise I've created for the wood chuck is kind of ragged and rough:

This is the top of the platter. It came out very smooth and the knots are just fine here. I think it needs a little more hollowing out:

And this is a photo of the large knot underneath. It's really pretty:

Now tomorrow, I'll probably hollow it out a little bit more and then sand and finish it. I'll be applying a food safe varnish to it so it can be used for serving food. I'll post finish photos then.

More later,

VW

Completed Project-Sushi platter and plates

Hi Again,

You know, when I was working on the coffee coasters earlier today, I kept thinking that they looked rather familier and then it dawned on me-I had made a sushi set earlier this summer, sanded and got it ready to finish, and promptly forgot to put the finish on.

Oh dear, here is a photo:

I don't recall blogging about this so that's probably why I forgot about it. But here it is with salad bowl varnish on it. This will get several coats and then it's ready to be sold.

I'm going to go and sit down and think about anything else that needs finishing....

More later,

VW

Scrap Wood Coffee Coasters-finish photo

Hi Everyone,

Well, I braved the gathering clouds of a head cold and went down and finished the project and here is a photo:

These will go off to church this Sunday.

VW

Yet Another Scrap Wood Project-Stacking Coffee Cup Coasters/Discussion, Plans, and Process Photos

Hi Everyone,

Well, it has certainly cooled down here in Minnesota and today and for the next several days, it's going to be raining-perfect wood turning weather. Let's go to work!

If you're like me you have a never ending pile of scrap lumber that is made up of pieces of wood that are large enough to be useful and so here is something you can make: stackable coffee cup coasters. They're easy to make and they make great presents for the holidays. Here's how I made some for our church library:

Discussion

The rector at church asked me to make some coffee cup coasters for the coffee table in our church library. Every Sunday an adult ed group meets in there and the coffee table is getting a worn and stained from all the use it gets. The rector suggested about 12 of them and since I have a nice pile of scrap left over from a recent project, this will be a good way to use it up.

Plans

I'm going to make 12 coffee coasters using some 1x6- #3 common pine. This type of pine has a lot of blue-grey staining in it and often has a lot of oranges and yellows in it too. I love this type of wood--I grew up with this wood and common pine was the first wood I ever used when I was making furniture in high school. The blue stain gives it a beautiful and unusual color. And it's very cheap for a project. It's also soft and easy to turn and you can make a ton of coasters or other stuff from it relatively quickly.

Here is  how I made mine:

Marking and cutting the wood to shape


Here is a stack of cut off 1 x 6 #3 common pine. This will work very well for the project:

First of all I've marked off two 5 1/2 inch squares on both sides of each board:

Then I found the center of each square by connecting the corners. Do this on each side of each board:

Next I drew a 5 inch diameter circle by setting my compass to 2 1/2". Do this for all the squares you have marked off on both sides of each board:

Next I drew a 4 inch diameter circle inside of the larger 5 inch diameter circle. I did this for all the circles on both sides of each board:

Next, I drilled a 1 1/4" diameter hole into one side of each board. These holes are 1/4" deep:

Lastly, I cut them into circles on the bandsaw. Hmmm...looks like a big stack of wood pancakes!:

Turning on the lathe

Since pine is a soft wood, the turning tools for this need to be very sharp to avoid tearing across the end grain so I took a minute and touched up everything on the bench grinder. I'm using my 3/8" bowl gouge, a bedan tool, a skew, and a roughing gouge for this turn:

I mounted each disc on the lathe with my Nova chuck. Next I removed the wood between the two lines in the photograph. You can use either the skew or the bedan for this:

Here it is with that section removed:

Next I turned away the center section. Now there is a depression that is 4" in diameter and 1/4 inch deep. I used the roughing gouge and the skew for this part of the turn:

And they stack together! If you are doing this project and the coasters don't stack, you can either widen the center of the coaster 1mm at a time until they do or you can narrow the tenon on the back 1mm at a time until they fit. I think it's easier to work on the center depression:

All of the coasters stack together. Unfortunately the diameters are a little off and you can clearly see this in the photo:

To counter this I beveled the rim of the coaster:

Here is the rim before beveling:

And here it is afterwards. Make sure that the bevel you create is a straight and flat-it's easy to round off when you're turning:

And here are the coasters after they've been turned:

Finishing the coasters

I put them each back on the lathe and sanded them smooth with 120 & 150 grit sand paper. Since pine is so soft this part goest quickly:

Ahhh, my favorite part: I put a coat of rub on polyurethane. I used Minwax poly for this:

And here they all are after they've had a coat of polyurethane:

And this is what they look like on a table. Hmmm...not bad:

This is a simple project. The key is to make sure you duplicate each coaster as well as you can. By doing this you will ensure that your coasters stack together neatly. You can also stain them if you want them to match a particular table's color or paint them too. If you have kids at home, get them to embellish them with paints or markers and then give them a coat of polyurethane (the coasters, not the kids!). They make a great present for grandparents. If you want to get really fancy, hardwood scrap would make really lovely coasters. I plan to give them another coat of poly on the top side and then a single coat on the bottom and they'll be ready to take to church.

Well it's raining and I'm coming down with cold so I'm going to stop for today. I'm going to have some hot soup for lunch and listen to some great Irish music by the Two Tap Trio, a local St. Paul band. That always makes me feel better!!

See you soon,

VW

Project completions-Art show box and a coffee wood bowl

Hi Everyone,

Well, I'm still recovering from the tooth extraction but I'm getting stronger everyday and today I've felt the best in a couple of weeks so I went down to the wood shop and finished two projects:

The Art Show Box

I took a long look at the entire box and decided I really didn't like the way it looked so I removed all the  wood stain and decided to just leave it natural and here it is:

 I think the box would look better with a lid made out of a red colored wood so when the art show is over, I'm going to re-make the lid. Oh well.

Coffee Wood Bowl

Earlier this summer you'll remember I made a coffee wood bowl for a friend of mine, who in turn gifted to a friend of hers. And then she asked me to make her another coffee wood bowl and I did but didn't post about it. It turned out to be quite a journey as the bowl distorted badly. Fortunately I was able to re-turn it and salvage the bowl and I finished it this morning and here it is:

This fellow is going to get several coats of salad bowl varnish and then this weekend I'll turn it over to it's new owner.

I also make a test dish this morning out of some western red cedar to see if it is turnable. It's really soft wood and while it's really pretty, it does tear easily especially on the end grain. I'll keep this one in mind. In the mean time, the cats will have a lovely new dish for their Party Mix.

I'll do a posting about the bed headboard this weekend.

More later,

VW

Iron Pour cast iron tile

Hi Everyone,

I got my iron pour casting back:

Ok, it's a frog.

Anyway, I'm going to make a wooden frame for it and display it on my coffee table.

VW