A year ago, a limb of a maple tree fell on a friend’s home in a storm. He gave me some of the wood for woodturning. From the wood, I turned two natural edge bowls. The first bowl I turned all at once, finished it, then let it dry. I posted its video then. […]
Read More...I had some fun at the 2013 Desert Woodturning Roundup in Mesa, Arizona. While at a break between exhibits, a man came by offering some time to woodturn at a lathe. I said ok. Later I learned that it was a timed competition including many of the professional presenters including Richard Raffan, Michael Hosaluk, and […]
Read More...The tailstock on my full-sized Powermatic 3520A is heavy. I have to remove it from the lathe to hollow a bowl or a hollow form. It’s so heavy that I worry about dropping in on my toes or straining my back. If I leave it on the lathe, I risk banging an elbow. Ouch!. It […]
Read More...Several years ago I rough turned a beautiful 13 by 6 inch bowl from a green or wet piece of ash. I promptly waxed the rough bowl, put it in a paper bag, and placed it on a shelf to dry. I intended to leave it for about a year. More than the allotted time […]
Read More...I pruned a branch off my apple tree last winter and rough turned a small goblet. I had to dodge a lot of rotten wood to form the goblet. Then I waxed it, put it in a paper bag, and put it away to dry. In the mean time, it has lost 34% of its […]
Read More...I’ve been using wood faceplates instead of metal faceplates with wood scrap blocks. A wood faceplate eliminates the risk of hitting a screw while turning. I can have as many wood faceplates as I want and keep it on the project until the project is complete. I can make any size faceplate that may be […]
Read More...In my last video I turned a segmented bracelet using my new home made bracelet chuck. It is an expansion chuck using basic engineering principles with lathe components. It uses 2 tapered end plugs, 8 tapered side slats, 2 automotive band clamps, 4 latex tubing rings, and a little duct tape. One end plug is […]
Read More...Last summer, I turned some wood bracelets for my granddaughters. Afterwards, a viewer send in a question about how to turn the outside of the bracelet without flipping the workpiece over. With that in mind, I designed an expansion chuck on which to turn bracelets. With the chuck, I can now turn bracelets more easily. […]
Read More...Recently Steve Ramsey on his YouTube channel made a wooden train whistle out of square pine. Immediately, it occurred to me that a train whistle must be round. So I made this whistle out of poplar with walnut end caps. It is about six inches long with a diameter of about two inches. There are […]
Read More...A DIY project to provide LED light to my wood lathe. The LED’s were purchased from Ikea; The magnet was purchased from Harbor Freight. I woodturned small bases to hold the light and the magnet. Both were turned from scrap offcuts: one is russian olive, the other is aspen. Before turning, I drilled holes to […]
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