>I hope some of you guys can talk me through a tiny project without hurting myself, and with acceptable results in one night!
I am finishing a small table for a Christmas gift and need to turn a single small drawer pull. The table is black walnut, and I have plenty of 4/4 stock and some offcuts glued up for 8/4 (all dry).
Can I simply screw a section of the 8/4 to a faceplate (I don't have a chuck), and begin shaping? Once completed, should I attempt to part the knob from the blank, or would I be better off going to the bandsaw? Other than avoiding the screws with my tools, what other pitfalls should I watch for?
Sorry for such a newbie post, but I have to start somewhere, and I don't have much time to learn the hard way right now. . .
I have sharpened the tools that came with the used Powermatic 45 lathe, but my total turning experience is a simple gauge for work. The drawer pull is much smaller work.
I have 3 gouges, a 3/4" scraper, a parting tool, a beading tool, and two skew chisels.
I have read some of the archive material and have printed and read through some introductory turning tutorials. I am aware of the injury potential, but am possibly not totally up to speed on how to minimize the risk.. I have eye protection and drop down shields mounted to the lathe (they are a pain to use).
Thanks in advance for help with such a desperate question.
Turning between centers, how do I control the knob as the stock gets thin? I don't know how to finish the knob between centers without it flying out of the lathe. . .
>Don't you love it when you ask a question and insted of an answer you get a chalange as to why you want to do the project in the first place.
Mount a piece 1/2 or 3/8 scrap stock to the face plate. True the face and with the point of the skew find the center and make a small indent. Select a drill bit just smaller than the screw size you plan to use to mount the knob. With the lathe on drill a whole at center that will accept the screw. Remove the faceplate and insert the screw from the inside using a washer. It should make its own threads in the undersize hole. Glue it in place if you like. Drill a corresponding hole in the stock to be turned and screw on to the face plate screw. Bring up the tailstock and keep it in place until you must remove it to do the face or point of the knob. I think you can handle it from here!!
I use this method to do multiple knobs and kitchen pulls. I have a "jig" that fits in a scroll chuck but the result is the same
I hope you no longer need this, but just in case you're still confused...
Turning a knob between centers would not be my first choice, since you have to part off at two points, and then would have to sand away the nub right at the center of the pull. Its also a little tricky to do well.
3 Good methods to attach the wood to the faceplate:
1. Making a screw chuck from a waste piece of wood, as Bob suggests, will work for small blocks of wood -- since you have glued up some 8/4 wood, simply cut that a little larger than the size knob desired, and screw it onto the home-made screw chuck.
2. You can also make a "glue chuck" by attaching a piece of scrap wood to your face plate, making sure the screws are well away from the face, then turn the piece round and flat. Assuming you are using a piece uf flat board stock, (you'll see end grain at the sawn edges, but face grain on the flat surface), you'll get smoother, less scary cuts by putting the tool rest across the face of the spinning piece, and gently cutting into the flat face, at a slight angle, to remove any rough edges, or even male a square piece round. Flatten the face, if needed, by very gently scraping, or by using some coarse sandpaper mounted to a flat block.
You can glue small squares of your knob wood to this, with the grain parallel to the lathe bed, and turn the knob as soon as the glue is dry. You'll be able to use this waste block many times as a glue chuck. Many turners use thick CA glue, which cures very quickly with a little spritz of mild accelerator.
3. Another way is to turn your knob blank between centers to create a cylinder a little larger than the desired knob size, with a very slight taper at one end. Removing this from the lathe, mount a block on your faceplate, and drill or turn a hole that the tapered cylinder will just barely fit in, and this, too, can be tapered a tiny bit with sandpaper, or careful turning (a sharp flat-nozed scraper will true up a cylindrical hole very well -- cut at or slightly above center). Now you can gently pound your tapered knob blank into the hole, and turn the desired shape.
The turning:
With your knob blank mounted in spindle orientation (grain/wood fibers parallel to bed), you'll get the best cuts by always cutting from larger diameter to smaller -- like sharpening a pencil. The big mistakes common to all newbies, is trying to cut "uphill", or against the grain, from smaller diameter to larger (which can and should be done on some bowls), and cutting into a "wall" of wood. By this I mean you are cutting a small diameter of the knob base, and you run into the glue block with the unsupported edge of the gouge, and WHAM ! a bad catch. This will go away in no time at all, as bad catches are pretty good teachers.
I'd use a small spindle gouge, and experiment with the angles of the tool -- you'll probably get the best quality cuts by rotating the tool over on its side somewhat. My preference is for the toolrest to be a little below center, with the tools angled upward -- this helps keep you cutting along the side of the tool (more of a shearing cut), and by keeping the tip of the tools above center, you're less likely to get a bad dig-in as the tool tip catches the wood and is forced down. Sand and finish right on the lathe with tool rest removed -- much easier than all that flat work you did on the desk !
Part off carefully, cutting almost all the way through -- then stop the lathe and finish the job with a small fine tooth hand saw. If your parting tool is sharp both on the cutting edge and the sides, you should get a pretty smooth finish on the parted surface.
Now tell whoever is getting that lovely desk that a few turning videos and books in your stocking will increase the chances of ever getting another hand turned gift !
After resorting to an 8# hammer at the end of a cold rolled rod, I finally managed to get my spur drive out of my spindle. It was mounted when I bought the lathe, and apparently had not been out in years. I cleaned up the surfaces and remounted it and turned a couple of knobs between centers as suggested in the first post. The grain ran lengthwise along the bed, and I got tearout as I tried to produce a delicate lip for the knob. I think perhaps my gouge angle needs to be steeper (my thought process comes from hand plane cutting angles)?? Parting the knob away worked better than I thought and the teat left was easily trimmed.
Between playing I mounted my face plate and worked on the approach for tonight. Is it normal to have considerable runout in the face of the plate? I'd guess it is 1/16" out or more. I realize that the turning will compensate, but it seems like a pain to start out off kilter.
I glued up some stock to a small wooden face plate, and it will be ready to turn tonight (yellow glue). I will definitely keep the screw trick in mind. That will save some time and effort on future knobs!
Again, thanks a lot for taking the time to give detailed and thoughtful responses. I'll see if I can figure out how to post a pic of the finished project.
If you measure that Morse taper at each end (prob. #2), you could also turn a number of small blanks between centers with a similar taper turned into them (slightly hollow the tapered surface). These can be pounded right into the tapered opening w/out any chuck at all.
Also, try using some CA glue -- if the faces are flat and fairly smooth, it holds very well, and there is almost no waiting.
