Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

Re: Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

John Lucas

>Tim

How oval is it. Wood will never be truly round but should be pretty close when first turned. Wood movement will cause it to go out of round as well as the tool bouncing off summer and winter wood.

Re: Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

Tim Grenville-Cleave

>John,

1/4" in an 8" seasoned bowl, 1/16" pen

Tim

Re: Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

Doug Leite

>When you re-installed the spindle,

1)were the bearings tight on the shaft

2)were the bearings tight into their respective bores in the housing?

3) if the headstock bolts to the bed, are the bolts tight?

What make/model is your lathe?

Aloha,

Doug

Re: Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

Richard Allen

>1/4" on an 8" seasoned wood bowl seams like a lot. 1/16" on a pen seams HUGE to me.

I would sugest that you ask a fellow woodturner to visit and turn a bowl.

Lacking a fellow woodturer visiting you then perhaps you could visit them and turn a bowl on their lathe.

Wood, Lathe, Technique, Sharpness of tools or Selection of tools). One or a combination of the five. I guess I should count out a sixth posiblity. Someone or some greater power is playing a crule crule joke on you.

I remember a movie which took place in the 60s. The neighbor was always bragging about what great gas mileage he was getting with his VW Bug. The main character took to adding gas to the tank of the VW owner and natural the VW owner became more of a bragger that his car was getting 60 miles to the gallon. After a while the main character started siphoning gas out of the VW. The neighbor couldn't understand why his car was now getting 6 miles to the gallon. He had the car checked over by the dealer and such. The main character would ask him how his little car was doing. The WV owner would just grumble. Naturally this wasn't the main theme of the movie. ANd I don't know who or what might be making your turnings oval. Mostly it was just an excuse for me to tell that story as I always smile when I think of that part of that movie.

Good Luck

Richard

Is the headstock in line with the bed?

Phil Joines, Krum, Tx

>

Re: Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

Brad Homman

>I think that movie is "Pete and Tillie" staring Walter Matthau and Carole Burnett. A great movie. I don't know what is making those turnings oval either, but if you can't get your lathe working this weekend you know a good movie to rent. Best of luck!

Quick check

Fred in NC

>If you have a dowel, say 1" or more in diameter, and you know it is round, chuck it up, set the lathe at the lowest speed, and your tool rest about 1/4" from the dowel.

Now take a pencil (carpenter's preferred) and move it along the tool rest. It should make a spiral around the dowel.

Stop the lathe, and turn it around by hand, and look at the pencil mark. It should go completely around the dowel. Especially check the ends. See if the effect is more pronounced near the tailstock.

I suspect something is off center.

By the way, what kind of lathe is it?

Re: Help!! Oval Turnings (Long)

Tim Grenville-Cleave

>Sorry about the delay folks, family got in the way of turning more oval thingamedodas and reading posts.

The Lathe is a Hegner HDB 200 XL with Motor upgrade and all bells and whistles

The headstock was reassembled by Hegner UK (so I assume correctly)

Headstock fitted to main body by me, It swivels so there is only one shaft with locking cam to assemble.

Nothing loose, lathe and stand secure and non-moving.

Fred, I have carried out Kiss test but will do the Dowel test tomorrow. Results to follow.

I am also arranging a local turner with a Hegner to come and try this lump of German engineering with me.

Thanks all for your input,

Tim