Turning information

Re: Turning information

Mike Schwing from Md.

>I'll try to answer your questions. This is from the perspective of a relatively new turner.

Glue ups are not uncommon - they're generally referred to as segmented turnings. One frequent method is cutting repeatable, exact shapes and gluing them in the rough shape of a bowl, then turning them to final shape on the lathe. It sounds to me like you're making something that would be referred more to as a spindle shape.

Exact shapes are, believe it or not, obtained by hand and eye with experienced turners, but other methods are available to folks like you and me. They'll typically define the major elements of the piece with a pencil mark, then go from there with various cutting/shaping tools.

There are expensive lathe duplicators, where an original is used, like a key duplicator. Others rely on a cut out template.

I turned a few table legs with a router before I had a lathe. The system consisted of a template, and a pin placed inline with the center of the router bit. The workpiece was centered over the template and the router moved along the template. Hand rotation of the workpiece was necessary. It worked fine, but was time consuming. Very accurately repeatable though. This is commonly referred to as a "pin router". It can be done on the router table or with a hand held router.

Hope that helps some. Ask away. There are very very experienced tuners here. I've learned immensely from them and they're very gracious with their knowledge.

Re: Turning information

JManuel

>How to make many of the same shape? I start with a drawing...and calipers to transfer important diameters.........once your wood is turned into a cylinder, take the drawing and mark a line on the wood wherever there is a shape change....set the calipers to the diameters you've marked...use a parting tool and calipers to cut diameters and connect them with skew, gouge or whatever chisel gets the shape cut.

There are many tricks and tips to making "same-shape" spindles. Mostly, it's a matter of practice.

Help May Be Right Around The Corner

Clem Wixted Jonesboro, AR

>Hi Simon,

One way to solve this situation is to find a woodturning club somewhere near you. The folks in the club coud show you exatly how to turn your piece and may even let you use their lathe and tools to do it. Or one of them could do it for you while you supervise.

There is one big problem with this. After you see how it is done you will likely be bitten by the "bug" (pun intended) and will want all of the lathe and turning goodies for your own.

Clem

P.S. You might find the location of woodturning clubs near you from shops that sell woodworking tools and supplies.

Re: Turning information

Andy in Raleigh

>For the stripes, yes, you will want to glue up and then turn or you will never get them meeting up right with a taper (I suspect you will have tapers to make the bug body look right). You could turn both blanks round, then slice them up and glue them, but I would slice up the square blanks and glue them before turning round. It's far easier to align squares for glue up. Be sure to retain the grain orientation so it's spindle work.

-Andy

Re: Thanks

Simon Watson (U.K.)

>Dear Friends

Thanks so much for this. Your information is very useful and encouraging. Hopefully I'll post a picture of the results here.

Simon