turn in reverse

Re: turn in reverse

Wally Dickerman in Az.

>Sanding in reverse can be very effective on a piece that's proving difficult to sand. Just be sure that your faceplate or chuck is seated well on the spindle, and start the lathe at slow speed. Flying bowls can be bad for your health.

Wally

Re: turn in reverse

John Lucas

>When you get really bored with turning one direction change and turn the other. Just kidding. Many people use it when sanding. I tried but it didn't seem to make a difference to me.

I just took a one day class with Micheal Hosaluk and he hollows in reverse. It allows you to stand in your normal position and hollow, not bent over the lathe or sitting on the bed like some people do. You need to have some way to lock the faceplate or chuck onto the spindle to do this. My Powermatic has that capability with the faceplate but not my chuck.

Re: turn in reverse

Ron in Drums PA

>Its for putting the wood back on to the bowl, kind of like running a movie backwards.

No really, mostly it's for sanding.

Re: turn in reverse

Mike Schwing from Md.

>I use it all of the time for backing chucks and faceplates off of the lathe. And as others said, it helps eliminate sanding scratches to sand in both directions.

I also, quite frequently, run the lathe in reverse when working the bottom details on bowls, usually with the vac chuck. It allows me to work the tool on the far side of the bowl bottom where I can much more easily create concave details with better definition and less sanding required than I can do by scraping them into shape on the left side.

Re: turn in reverse

John K Jordan

>I use the reverse direction for some sanding, some finishing AND some turning.

I sometimes find it helpful to turn the inside of a bowl by turning in reverse, especially when the form is slightly "closed". This makes it a lot easier to see what is going on without having to stretch my head over the lathe bed. I haven't seen anyone else do this. The only disadvantage I can see is you have to work at it a while to get the "feel" of cutting on the opposite side.

If you do use reverse, be sure to lock down any faceplates or chucks with set screws or the attachment can work loose and your bowl will end up on the floor (or bouncing around the walls). I have drilled and tapped a face plate to add set screws.

Some chucks, such as the Supernova, come with replaceable inserts to fit specific lathes. Some of these inserts are drilled and tapped for a set screw and some are not. I have five Supernova chucks and I always insisted on inserts with set screws. Once I had to wait a few weeks until the store got the proper inserts.

If you have to run in reverse with an attachment without set screws, just turn down the speed before turning it on and bring the speed up gradually to avoid the initial spin-up shock. And don't cause a big catch!

JKJ in East TN

Outboard Work

Barbara Gill, Remlik VA

>I use reverse when I turn large pieces outboard.

Re: turn in reverse

Richard Allen

>Left handed people can work on the back side of the lathe so that the headstock is farthest away from their dominate hand.

As well as the other stuff said.

Re: turn in reverse

Barry Irby

>I tried to turn a blank that was just beyond the limit of my lathe. (16" in diameter) Even if you are really careful, you end up with a bowl that is about fifteen inches after you knock off all the corners and mount it. I pivoted the head and then realized I did not have an outboard attachment of the tool rest. I tightened the set screw, ran the lathe backward and turned the blank round from the wrong side, but it allowed me to use the rest that came with the lathe. Once the blank was under sixteen inches, I pivoted it back over the ways and finished it in the usual fashion.

I also reverse direction between sanding grits. Seems to help a little.