Long thin turning

Re: Long thin turning

Richard Allen

>It sounds like you have a good handle on the process.

With a 3 jaw chuck you would need to turn the stock round first. I would make the talistock end a blunt dome. A cup live center with a very light pressure would help support the slender stock as you advanced the thin turning out of the chuck.

The cross slide may be a bit to aggressive for such a spindle as slender as a knitting needle. A bevel rubbing tool such as a roughing gouge or spindle gouge or skew would work better.

Don't worry much about the finish off the tool, the wood will sand well and it will all be evened out.

Leave the tailstock end blunt so that it is easily supported by the gently engaged live cup center.

Good luck

Re: Long thin turning

R.J. "Sam" Simpson

>Hi Y'all,

Paul, I wouldn't use a lathe for the shaping of the needles. I would use a router. Using a quarter round bit of the correct size, and leaving a small square section at each end, to stabilize the material while in machining, I would rout all four sides. Then take them to the lathe for final sanding and finishing.

Regards Sam Simpson.

Re: Long thin turning

Don Henthorn Smithville, Texas

>Larry Hancock had a page on his site about turning crochet hooks. Maybe someone has a link to that.

Re: Long thin turning

Bert

>I've turned a few crochet hooks and they work quite nicely on the lathe. However, a knitting needle is going to be quite a bit longer - a deffinite challenge. I for one would really like to know how they turn out.

Router+crosslide=success

Bob Hackett

>A member of our turning club makes pool cues for a living(he`s one of a few recognized pro cue makers) and he uses a metal lathe and a router.I would think that a small router like a laminate trimmer or a Dremel could easily be attached to the compound on your metal lathe and you could then use the power feed to move it down the blank in a very precise manner taking cuts as little as afew thousands at a time.I know his technique requires little sanding to finish up and he holds to very close tolerances.If I remember correctly,the only problem he had was that the router had a tendency to pull the work in if fed in the wrong direction under heavy cuts.I seem to remember him mentioning holding the blank in tension to in an attempt to avoid this.The beauty of his process was his ability to machine a long thin blank to tight tolerances without a steady rest,something he couldn`t do with conventional turning techniques.

Mainely,Bob

Re: Long thin turning

John Trant (aka Boxes-n-Bowls)

>Use the lathe to turn things round; that is what it excells at. As stated earlier, use a skew to round up a couple of inches at a time. Start at the tail stock end and work toward the head stock. Use your fingers of your guide hand to act as a steady rest on the backside of the spindle. Remember, you should not be pushing into the spindle but shaving off slices. Your fingers are simply providing just enough pressure to counter the "shaving action" of the skew chisel. Granted, you may wish to practice on a piece of scrap before you tackle the real thing but it is easy. Just take your time and enjoy.

John

Re: Long thin turning

John Lucas

>When I turned a conductor's baton I did what John suggests. I turned the wood to a diameter that would go through my headstock. Then I stuck about 2-3" out of the chuck and turned that part. Then I would move another few inches out do the same. I would sand each part blending the areas where the turning overlapped.

when I had about 8" turned the small end sticking out was starting to whip. I mounted a piece of wood in my tailstock with a very small hole in the center. I put the tip of the spindle in this hole without letting it touch anything. The hole contained the tip to reduce the whipping.

I guess I could have made one of the string stabilizers like they use to turn tremblers but this was quicker and I only had a few more inches to turn. As John said you don't want to put any pressure on the bevel of the skew. Try to let it slice the wood and support the back with your fingers.

Many thanks!

Paul Vander Woude

>Lots of good ideas to try! I'm a little confused as to how I could hold the workpiece in tension rather than in compression, as with a live center. Any further explanation would be appreciated, as it seems that whipping will be the big obstacle to overcome. I like the idea of mounting a dremel or laminate trimmer, because then I could turn the workpiece much more slowly, and reduce whipping. As to rounding the needle with a router, that will be good for initial shaping, but with the variety of diameter sizes needed for knitting needles (about 20 different diameters)the final diameter, at least, will have to be turned. I'll play around with this, starting with some shorter needles, and post my results (and probably a few more questions!)I found Larry Hancock's site at http://www.woodcentral.com/newforum/msgset.shtml, but the article on crochet hooks is not available. He did have one on chopsticks, but not a lot of technique discussed.

Many thanks!

Paul