Turning non ferrous metals on the lathe
john lucas
the making your own Ferrules post below got me thinking that we haven't talked about turning metals on a wood lathe in a while. YOu pretty much have to stay with the non Ferrous metals such as Aluminum, Brass, and Copper.
First of all you need High Speed Steel tools or Particle metal tools. Older carbon steel tools simply won't hold an edge long enough. You can scrape or cut with bevel rubbing cuts. I think scraping works better with a sharp tool and no burr. I prefer the bevel rubbing cuts but you have to slow down your feed rate a great deal and let the tool do the work. If you force the cut you get lots of what looks like tearout. a bevel rubbing cut will produce beautiful curls and a great finish. And yes if you come off the bevel you get a kick back just like in wood.
I use a lot of metals parts and pieces for most of my metal turning but you can simply go out and buy the raw material. I had to turn some 8" by 1" aluminum discs for a glass artist once. That's when I learned how much longer the Thompson particle metal tools will hold an edge over HSS. I could barely make one pass across the 1" piece before having to sharpen because the HSS tool would simply stop cutting. I could make 3 or 4 or 5 passes with the Thompson tool before it became that dull. It's hard to tell the difference in wood simply because they dull so much slower.
for Ferrules I like to use Brass and copper plumbing fittings as my starting point. The only problem I've had is some of the fittings are hard and difficult to turn. I think they have become work hardened in the process of making them. If you find them really hard to turn just heat them to red hot and quench them in water. This will anneal them and make them soft enough to turn. Yes I know that's backwards from annealing steel but it works.
Copper pipe makes great Ferrules. I cut off a 1" section. Then I make a wooden mandrel to push it on so I can true up at least one end. I'll usually make several in one setting so the mandrel isn't a waste. Then you can put this good end on your tool handle first and true up the other end with the handle on the lathe. Most copper pipe isn't perfectly round so you end up taking a few passes across the metal to clean it up and make it round and ready for sanding and polishing.
My favorite Ferrule material is Brass couplers. I like the thread to solder pipe fittings because they already have a taper and look really cool when done. I turn the wood down to a hair larger than the threads. Thread it on to the wood. Pull it back off, put on some epoxy and thread it back on and your ready to turn it.
I find that sometimes you still get little tool marks or tearout on the metal when using a bevel rubbing cut. Go back over it with very light scraping or even shear scraping cuts and you can clean it up.
You will have to sand to a much finer grit to get a metal looking polish if that's what you want. I typically sand to 600 grit and go to 4/0 steel wool but you could simply sand to finer grits.
You'll need to put some sort of finish on it to keep it from tarnishing.
Don't rule out string for Ferrules. You can't turn it of course. Lash in on and then cover it with thin CA. I did this one time because i needed a homemade tool in a hurry and it lasted for about 5 years before it came off.
Below are some photos. 
