Did my first turning
Jeremy Osner
>Well I put my new lathe to work today and turned a candlestick. It came out pretty well. I jerry-rigged a drive center by putting a 1" spade bit in the chuck -- this did not work very well at first because the bit (of course) would cut the wood when there was much resistance -- after playing around at that for a half hour or so I figured out how to keep that from happening -- I put a nail in the end grain of the work piece about 3/16" off center and rested that against the "spade center". It still was not perfect because the bit could slip in the chuck, but it did the trick well enough for today.
The candlestick came out okay (for a improvised first try) -- the profile is nicely proportioned and the curves look about right to me. I did not finish it. Next thing I turn, I will not use oak; there is some visible tear-out that I was not able to sand away. (How about walnut -- does that turn well? I have a couple of pieces of walnut that are a good size and shape for turning.) Also it would have been a good idea when I finished, to cut the bottom off on the lathe -- instead I made a mark while it was spinning, and then took it off the lathe and sawed it off. It was difficult to get the cut precisely even with the mark. I need a good roughing-out gouge -- it took a long time to get the sawed blank round using the little gouge I had.