Woodworking - The Other Hobby

[SideArmed]

So I am in a sharing mood, and it's been awhile since I got to turn anything on the wood lathe. I haven't even turned it on in probably over two years. I went out and bought a lathe with the intent to start making tap handles for a kegerator I had awhile back and then life got in the way, and I stopped using it. I never got super good at turning on it, and would like to find a wood lathe club or just someone willing to teach me how to do it properly, one of these days.

Anyway, I built a stand for it (finally ), and found some old ash laying around the shop that I had used years ago for some handles and fired it up tonight. Here's pics, feel free to criticize my work, just give me a break on the messy shop I just moved in this house a month ago and nothing is organized yet.

The lathe stand, nothing fancy but does the trick:

What an ugly piece of wood, but somewhere inside that block is a beautiful bat, I just need to find it:

Yay!! It's LOG!!:

Hey there's the bat, I found it! Still have some carving out to do and a lot of bulk to remove, but it's getting there. It's also late so I will have to update when I get further along. This one is going to be a baseball bat tap handle (if I can find the inserts for it):

 

[Grizhicks]

I don't know where you are located, but I'm pretty sure there is a lathe group in Indianapolis..... Grizhicks

 

[lovemachine]

This is my lathe.

 

[SideArmed]

Thanks Grizhicks, I will have to look into that, it's only a short drive up the road to the Indy area.

That is a nice set up there Lovemachine, looks a lot nicer than my lathe. I know I am going to need to upgrade eventually, but this one does the trick for now. What are you turning out there, looks like a bowl? I am getting ready to order some woodblanks so I can practice doing some bowls/plates. Also is that hooked up to a whole shop vac system, or just up to a shop vac? I have aspirations of putting in a Vac system in my shop one of these days.

Anyone have any good sources for wood blanks? I found a few online stores but like to shop local when I can.

 

[lovemachine]

I turned those a couple weeks ago. My first bowls, maple and pink ivory.

I have been getting my blanks from Rocklers, Woodcraft and this site: Got Wood? Domestic Wood Turning Blanks

 

[lovemachine]

This is my dust collector system. It's a Dust Right Wall mount from Rockler.
It works great for the dust, way better than a shop-vac, and the price wasn't bad either.
For chunks, it doesn't work the best, but I was mainly worried about the dust.

 

[lovemachine]

I turned this last night. The wood is Bubinga. Made me mad because the brim chipped off on me. So I wasn't able to finish it, but I'm still "somewhat" happy with it.

 

[SideArmed]

This is my dust collector system. It's a Dust Right Wall mount from Rockler.
It works great for the dust, way better than a shop-vac, and the price wasn't bad either.
For chunks, it doesn't work the best, but I was mainly worried about the dust.

Those bowls are pretty nice man.

I will have to look into the dust collector. As my shop sits now it is my woodworking/reloading room, so I am more worried about the dust than the larger chunks as well. I have a sheet that covers my reloading bench for the time being. How loud is the motor on that Dust-right? My set up is in the unfinished portion of the walk-out basement so I try not to be too loud down there, as most of my turning happens after my son goes to bed.

I have one of those whole house vacuums, and the pipe for it runs along the basement ceiling, I had thought about trying to tap into it and use that for dust collection. The canister and motor is out in the garage, so it is very quite throughout the house when it is on. I will probably end up having to empty the canister a lot more often and buy filters more often but if it works well enough to capture the dust I may go that route.

 

[lovemachine]

The Dust Right is quieter than a shop-vac.

I don't have a whole lot of room in my shop/garage, so I went with the wall mount. And since I only plan on doing turning on my lathe, and I also do scroll saw work as well, the dust right is perfect for me.

If I did more, I would go with a more expensive floor system. Like the JET models. But those run $1000.

My $250 Dust Right fits me

 

[Collector1911]

wood working is a dying art so keep it going

 

[gunworks321]

I turned those a couple weeks ago. My first bowls, maple and pink ivory.

I have been getting my blanks from Rocklers, Woodcraft and this site: Got Wood? Domestic Wood Turning Blanks

Nice! But at the price of pink ivory, how much waste is there?

 

[lovemachine]

Nice! But at the price of pink ivory, how much waste is there?

Cost was $10 for the blank.

If you know where to look, wood blanks are cheap.

I bought a 6ft length of Cherry that was 5x5, for only $35.
Normally that would be $65-$70.

 

[Bailey06]

I do woodworking also.
Don't have a lathe though. Looks like you do some good work.