I just came across a turning posted by a brand new turner on the “Woodturning” facebook site. A commenter pointed out how helpful a beginning class was and suggested he take one. The response was “Been doing Youtube. No classes in my country”. I started to recommend a particular YouTube set and realized that I have no idea which one (or several) is best. AAW membership recommendation is clear, but beyond that I’m unsure.
So, the question is which YouTube series do you consider the best for beginning woodturners? Feel free to name more than one.
So many channels with different styles and focus and number of videos available. And quality can vary based on the topic and when the YT was created. Like woodturning, we YT creators tend to get better the more videos we create. Each YT channel has a community of subscribers who subscribe because that particular YT creator delivers a content with a style that resonates with his/her audience. I think this needs to be a kind of a trial and error effort by getting on YT and searching for a particular topic and explore. Some folks will only watch short videos whereas others are more concerned about the detail. Some YT creators engage by responding to all comments and others seem to never comment back or answer questions.
That said, Stuart Batty has an outstanding set of I think about 30 videos on Vimeo that cover all aspects of basic woodturning. https://vimeo.com/woodturning
I think it somewhat depends on what the new turner is interested. I strongly recommend starting with spindles but unfortunately some people are initially set against that with goals centered around big bowls.
I and others recommend attending a club, even before taking beginning lessons. This gives a chance to see turnings, demos, and talk to turners to help decide which things (if any) are interesting to them.
I also talked to a guy who said there were no classes or clubs near him. A quick search found several withing an hour or so drive. Many turners, myself included, regularly drive further than that. Convincing a new turner to drive that far might mostly be a matter of more education on the value of clubs.
Many clubs have excellent mentors. There is NOTHING better than one-on-one with an experienced person, better than a class I think. It may be worth a long drive for a day of free beginner lessons with a mentor. (Where does he live? Send him my way. I had a beginner here all day just yesterday.)
I watch very few youtube videos. Many I've seen are worse than useless. The list on the AAW site is probably the best place to start. I don't know if a non-member can access it, picking a few from there might be useful since most are also on youtube or vimeo.
Every community around the world has a local wood turner, a quick posting on Facebook or Craigslist will usually locate someone in your neighborhood that has been turning wood for some time. A club will usually represent the dedicated and more advanced turners in your area.
The "Woodturner's Resource" forum has a videos section and, unlike Youtube, they have all been screened before being posted so the viewer won't be seeing poor mechanics, unsafe practice, and other undesirables.
In my opinion the best videos are by Richard Raffan, but they would have to be purchased. I would suggest buying the books as well. I've had them for many years and always pick up a new detail when I watch them again.
Anyone care to guess how many wood lathes reside within the country knowing that wood lathes have been in use some where beginning around the time the Egyptians were building the pyramids? Wood lathes are getting to be about as common as a table saw in most wood working shops these days. When the middle and high schools had shop classes plenty of people were exposed to these machines and their operation for a number of decades before they started eliminating these programs from the schools a decade or two ago. A large number of people that are of retirement age are now taking up hobbies that they never had time for when working.
If only these people that have all of these lathes knew how to sharpen a lathe tool. :-)
>>>There may be a club near him, but I cannot find one. He is in Zimbabwe.
Yes, that explains things. I missed where you wrote about no classes in his "country."
I suspect there are a lot of places in the world with no turners nearby. When taking woodturings to friends in an area of northern Italy no one had seen anything like that or knew anyone who turned wood. We found a woodworker who used a lathe and threading jig to make pins to hold furniture together - his tools and methods were crude. A wonderful craftsman in Venice showed me his lathe - a Dewalt electric drill clamped to the workbench. Further south I saw a lot of turned alabaster and some wood rolling pins, nothing else. Zillions of hand crafted things were available for sale everywhere but almost nothing from the lathe. I found a store in Greece full of things made from olive wood but all flatwood and carved - the store owner/craftsman was amazed by photos on my phone.
Quite a contrast to areas with clubs, symposiums, and classes everywhere. I suspect there are woodturners in all the places I mentioned and even in Zimbabwe but working in isolation and no good way to communicate. Those speaking English (and with internet access) might find a forum like this but what of the rest?
Perhaps he will start posting here or on another forum.
RJB Wood Turner - has a lot of information on turning pens
https://www.youtube.com/user/RJBWoodTurner/videos
I have noticed that some channels start out being mostly instructive but as the person likes to present new things (not duplicate previous videos) the videos are not as helpful to beginners as the beginner does not have enough experience to duplicate what the person is now doing. A beginner would want to go back and look at earlier videos by the individuals. Most have a play list where they identify their how to, basics, or instructional videos.
Great advice, John. The problem with YouTube is that a beginner will not know what is safe vs unsafe, efficient vs slow, clean cuts vs sanding galore, etc. The AAW fundamentals are vetted. Stuart's videos are excellent. Mike Peace, Tim Souter, Carl Jacobson, Sam Angelo, and John Lucas are some of the good YouTubers. The difficulty with jumping into the good YouTube videos is that they are not usually set up as a teaching sequence from rank newbie going forward. Lots of great projects, but not a clear arrow to "Start Here".
