Recent Turnings

Here is a few photographs of my latest wood turnings I have produced since warm weather has allowed me back into my workshop.  These diminutive spindles are pipe tampers.  A tamper is a smoking accessory that allows the ash and unburnt tobacco that clings to the walls of a pipe bowl to be gently compressed and pushed into the ember keeping it lit and smoking.

This tamp made from an unknown species of tropical wood is a shape I call the "Classic" based on the tradition beads and coves cut into the wood.  I like to use one of my wooden tampers when I smoke my meerschaum pipe instead of a regular metal pipe nail just to be certain that the tool won't scratch the delicate surface of the white mineral my pipe is made of.

Because wood is a natural material and trees come in many different species the characteristics of grain, color and hardness can vary greatly.  To me one of the most rewarding aspects of woodworking is experimenting and learning about the various kinds of wood available.  On the lathe I've found that generally the more dense and hard a wood is the better it turns. 

In continuation from my last post this is the piece of African Blackwood that I had just begun to work as it nears completion. While it is considered one of the hardest woods in the world with care and patience it yields a beautiful turning with crisp sharp edges and a deep ebony-like hue.  

This is an interesting note from my favorite online resource about wood: www.wood-database

 "To be considered the original ebony, African Blackwood was imported and used in Ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. Even the name “ebony” has an Egyptian derivation as “hbny”—which has been shown to refer to primarily toDalbergia melanoxylon, rather than the species which are considered to be ebony today: such as those in the Diospyros genus."

The wood lathe is unique because often work piece is cut not only along the grain but often transitional cuts expose the end grain and by nature because the stock is spinning and becomes round the growth rings or layers will appear concentric and interesting.  

Another wood which I do have a little experience with is Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera), also known by it's aliases Hedge Apple and Bois d' arc.  The French term Bois d' arc translates to "bow wood" and I can testify that it does indeed make a good bow.

Although I've used Osage before this is the first time I've spun a piece on the lathe. It works as well for turning as it does on the archery range.  Over time and with exposure to UV light the lemon yellow will give way to deeper oranges and honey browns.

New Spur Drive And Live Center

Last Friday I received a package containing a new spur drive and live center for my vintage Craftsman wood lathe.  These two precision components are responsible for holding a blank of wood securely while transferring the torque from the motor and allowing the piece to spin freely. 

Sears quit manufacturing my specific model many years ago but luckily all lathe shafts are set up using Morse Tapers.  Morse Taper invented by Stephen A. Morse in the mid-1860's is one of several styles of machine taper that are used to connect bits, cutters and chucks to machine tools.

I wasn't quite sure which size taper my machine uses so with a quick online search I learned that the seven sizes of Morse Tapers are easily distinguishable by the diameter of the taper at the widest point. After knocking out my old centers I measured their diameters with a caliper and consulting the chart I easily determined my lathe uses a #1 MT at both the head stock and tail stock shafts.  I located the parts at my favorite woodworking online vendor. While the parts were inexpensive at around $20 each they appear well made and will work fine for the small scale work I like to do.

The spur drive (above) has a pointed pin in the very center that is spring loaded.  The cone of the pin bottoms out on a pilot hole drilled in the end of the workpiece and then retracts under spring tension to allow the four spurs to dig into the wood allowing transfer of torque.  

The live center (above) spins smooth on bearings and supports the turning blank at the tail stock.

Along with the components I also ordered some blanks of various exotic hardwoods that I've never used before.  In this series of photographs is a super dense and heavy specimen called African Blackwood.  This Ebony like species is known to be one of the hardest and densest woods in the world and I can say without a doubt it is some of the toughest stuff I've ever put a gouge to.

The surface of the wood appears shiny even after just being roughed out by the gouge.  I can tell already that the African Blackwood will take on a beautiful luster once I get to the final polishing stages.

Wood Lathe -- Bowl Turning

So far in my wood lathe posts I have only described spindle turning. I do enjoy turning intricate shapes and designs into a long piece of wood chucked up between the spur drive and live center but that's not all that can be done with a wood lathe.  Here is a fine recessed rim bowl I turned from a solid slab of Mahogany.

To turn bowls requires a method called faceplate turning.  The stock can't be simply chucked up between two points like a spindle because one surface must be clear to allow access for the hollowing cuts.  In order to turn a bowl I use a device called a faceplate that supports the work piece fully from one side.  The face plate is attached to the wood blank by short wood screws and then the whole assembly is fixed to the threaded shaft of the headstock.
  

Here is the bowl and faceplate in position on the headstock.  I first prepare the workpiece by cutting it into a rough circle shape using a band saw.  Then I turn it round with gouges as if it were a giant spindle.  The majority of the hollowing out of the cavity is also done with regular gouges.  Simple salad bowl type turnings can be finished up completely with gouges and scrapers but the decorative recessed rim that I like requires a special tool to finish called a bowl scraper.

  

Because a standard gouge is shaped rather like a fingernail with the cutting edge out on the end the tool will only cut up to a certain point.  Eventually the angle of attack becomes too great and the side of the gouge will run into the top of the bowl rim.  The bowl scraper has a rounded button ground onto the end that greatly increases the radius of the tool's cutting edge allowing material to be removed from the underside of the rim.  This type of turning is the most challenging and is my favorite work on the lathe.  You can't see and are in essence cutting completely blind.  Feel for what's happening comes only with experience and feedback through the tool handle is all you have to go by. 

  

This piece is not finished yet. I have rubbed on a couple coats of tung oil but I still want to do some more sanding and additional coats of oil.  Once I'm satisfied I'll remove the bowl from the faceplate and fill the screw holes with a mixture of finely ground mahogany dust and wood glue.  When dried I'll use a palm sander and various grits of paper to make the bottom perfectly smooth and flat and then finish that surface with more oil.



Lathe Turning for a Friend

The other day my good friend Kevin called me up to ask if I still had my wood lathe set up.  As luck would have it I told him that I did set up my machine this summer out in the garage and was ready for business.  Kevin and I have been friends for 36 years ever since our first year of school when we were classmates.  Kevin followed in his old man's footsteps and earned his fortune in real estate by buying up old homes restoring and refurbishing as required and either renting them out or putting them back on the market for a profit.

Kevin's personal residence is a beautiful century old home that he painstakingly restored for himself and his girlfriend.  From the plumbing, electrical, drywall and complete with floor to ceiling old school wood paneling in the front room the place is amazing.  After installing custom cabinetry in the kitchen he is now putting on the finishing touches so he can host his family gathering this year for the first time.

  

Kevin does have a industrial sized woodworking shop but he doesn't have a lathe and never learned how to run one.  Needing some 1 5/8" quarter round he knew I would be able to whip the pieces out in short order.  In his shop he cut four equal and square pieces of poplar and screwed them together creating a 4" blank and knocked the corners off to make the piece ready for the lathe.  I chucked up the blank and worked it down with a gouge followed by a few quick passes with the skew chisle and  finished up the work with 100 then 220 grit paper. I offered him the gouge at the start but he said he wanted me to do it.  Good enough I love making sawdust! 

Back in his shop when Kevin cuts the spindle crosswise the four individual pieces will separate into perfect sized quarter round which will become the corner pieces of the kick plate around the base of his kitchen island.

This reminds me that I have to get busy and post up some of my past projects of one of my favorite hobbies.  Click on the "woodworking" label at the bottom to see what I've got up so far.



Shop Notes - Woodworking

I'm not a big garage saler but when I'm out riding my bike I always slow down a bit and give the yard sales I pass a quick scan for anything that might be valuable or useful.  On a recent road bike ride as I was heading through town I spotted this little bandsaw.  I pulled over to take a closer look and also noted a Dremel rotary tool with it's assortment of bits, burrs, sanding drums and cutoff wheels for ten dollars!  It was late Friday afternoon so I asked the women who were setting up the sale if they would be up and running the next day and if so I would return with the car to buy the two items.

The following day I drove the car over and bought the saw for $25 and the Dremel tool also. The sanding drums and cutoff wheels are worth the ten dollars by themselves so basically the rotary tool was free.  Normally I like to buy new tools to avoid the problem cases and other peoples worn out stuff but in this case I just couldn't pass up two hundred dollars worth of hardly used equipment for $35.

Besides some quick test cuts later that day to verify that the saw worked I haven't had a chance to do anything with it until now.  The extremely hot temperatures have finally eased off so I ventured out to my garage workshop to putter around.  I've wanted a band saw ever since I got into wood working many years ago but it was just one of those things I never got around to.  I have a similar saw at my business that I use occasionally or I made due using a handheld sabre saw.

The first official task for my new band saw was to prep some spindle blanks for lathe turning.  Before I used the Dremel and a cutoff wheel to cut grooves in the end of the stock.  I highlighted that process in a blog post here.

The end grooves in these spindles I cut free hand with the Dremel tool.

Cutting a precise X pattern in the end of a small stick of wood with a hand held rotary tool is tricky to say the least.  From the moment the cutter touches the wood extreme care has to be taken to keep the cutoff wheel on course and not flying off wildly from the torque of the rotating shaft.  The Dremel cutting discs are actually made of stone-like material so if you hog too much material or inadvertently tilt the tool too much once you've got a groove cut the thin wheel explodes with fragments flying everywhere.  There has got to be a better way and my new bandsaw provides it.

I thought about it for a bit and engineered a V-block that I could clamp down to the saw's bed and align squarely to the blade.  The V-block I made from a piece of hardwood birch plywood using two angled cuts on the table saw to create a V channel.  The plywood is expensive stuff imported from Scandinavia but it is very stable and is perfect for making jigs and fixtures. 



This view from behind the saw shows the dead-on alignment of the blank to the saw blade.  With my hands safely clear of the saw teeth just a slight push forward the blank slides in the V groove and into the blade.  I aligned the groove in the plywood slightly off center to the blade so I can make one cut then rotate the piece 180 degrees and cut again to end up with a wider slot in the end of the wood. 

The shot above shows the prepped blank chucked up in the wood lathe.  Notice how the flat of the spur drive closest to the camera lens lines up perfectly with the corner of the stock.  This precise alignment allows me to turn the square shape to round and end up with the largest diameter possible.  If my grooves or end holes are crooked or off center I would have to remove more material as I worked the stock down resulting in a smaller diameter spindle.

I have as much fun problem solving and engineering fixtures to facilitate my production processes as I do working on the actual project.  It must be the German in my blood.

Ready for the gouge!



More Wood Turning

The other day I cut out some blanks of a very dense tropical hardwood and have been having fun carving spindles on the wood lathe.  A little time spent carefully preparing the blank for turning makes the process of roughing the stock to a round shape as quick and pleasant as possible.  Rounding off the sharp corners of the wood  with a large gouge is at first is a violent business of vibration, splinters and tool chatter.   The blank is held securely at two places on the lathe. The spur drive at the head stock and the live center at the tail stock.  Using the drill press and swivel base vice I drill a small pilot hole as close as possible to dead center at each end of the blank.    

Into these holes the sharp steel points of the spur drive and live center insert and hold the piece steady and square.  In addition to a center point the spur drive has four short blades arranged in a cross pattern that bite into the end grain of the work piece. Torque is transferred from the shaft in the head stock and the four spurs keep the blank spinning slip free once resistance is encountered from the cutting tools.  The wood is so hard I had to use the Dremel to cut grooves to engage the spurs at the drive end.  Once prepped in this manner the blank can be chucked up in the lathe and the fun begins.  As the wood is worked down from square to round the cutting action becomes less violent and smooths out until a light but carefully controlled pressure is all that is needed.  When a perfect cylinder shape is machined the wood turner uses different shaped gouges and chisels to carve the artistic details of the piece. 

LeeAnn came out to my shop while I was turning and took a few action shots with her camera.  She captured the magic well.

Woodworking -- Lathe

Cherry wood blank chucked up and ready to turn.

This spring I've been reorganizing my garage/ workshop and brought my vintage Craftsman wood turning lathe out of storage.  My dad bought this old lathe when I was about 12 years old.  It was bolted to a rickety old wooden stand made of pine.  He used it a few times then never touched it again putting it up in storage in the barn.  About 18 years ago I salvaged it from that barn, cleaned it up and built a new solid stand for it.  I estimate the age of the tool to be 50 years old and maybe more.  A fine example of the saying: "They just don't make 'em like they used to".  The set up has the original Craftsman electric motor and all the Bakelite knobs are still attached.  I even have a set of older Craftsman gouges and chisels that most probably came with the lathe when it was new.  I will say that they are far superior steel to recently purchased tools of the same brand and really hold an edge.

The wood lathe is my favorite tool in the shop.  A lathe possesses a potter's wheel like artistic nature in that an operator starts with a plain lump of material and ends up with something symmetrical and pretty.  The machine runs quietly and I find using it so relaxing that I can waste away the hours easy!

I had a little time to kill after work yesterday so I dug out a piece of wood from my scrap bin and made some sawdust.  I've not done any turning for a few years but it does feel great to be back at it.

Roughing out the stock to round with a gouge

Sometimes I have an idea of what I want to do in my mind's eye.  In other instances I just let the shapes come from the wood.  Unlike a metal lathe which has the cutting tool solidly mounted and controlled by a geared mechanism the wood lathe puts the cutter in the artist's hands where a multitude of angles, pressures and nuances brings the piece to life.  It's a kind of magic that never gets old.

I love the look of the wood while it spins

In the picture above the tool rest is visible which has an inch scale molded into the top edge.  The spindle is only about three inches long.  While a larger piece of stock is easier to work with I like the challenge of turning a tiny piece.

I picked up a little trick from an online forum that I have never done until now.  The finishing method is simply to wet sand the piece with oil before removing it from the lathe.  I have always pulled my part and oiled it afterwords and no matter how careful I was with the sanding process I always had some machining marks become visible once the oil wets the surface of the wood.  By leaving the part chucked up and spinning while wet sanding accomplishes a couple things.  Most importantly it allows me to see any fine sanding lines or marks and smooth them out until gone.  Another effect from this method mixes fine wood dust and oil and works it into the pores of the wood creating an ultra smooth surface superior to an oil rubbed finish alone.

As can be seen in the photograph taking a piece of wood from a flat board and working it with the lathe can yield some fantastic grain patterns that you just can't find with any other type of machining.



Woodworking

Handcrafted oak music stand by author. 

Creativity runs in my family.  My great-grandfather was a German immigrant who came to America and made a living pin striping auto bodies in the car factories of Detroit.  His son my grandpa also used paintbrushes in a lifelong career as a sign painter.  The best memories I have of my grandfather are spending time in the summer watching him ply his trade in the small shop he kept behind his house.  He would hand paint beautiful script with drop shadows on wooden signs for local businesses or on the sides of delivery vans and work trucks. 

Thirty-six years ago my dad started a screen printing business printing decals for local manufacturers.  The business slowly grew over the years and is now sucessfully overseen by my sister and I.  The creative influence didn't just come from the men in my family.  My mother encouraged us artistically from the youngest age providing us with materials and mediums to explore.  I believe that some people are lucky and have inherent talents of one kind or another but I don't consider myself especially gifted.  I attribute my skills and accomplishments to the "Get off your ass and do something!" ethic instilled in me by family, teachers and later officers in the military.

By the time I reached my high school years I found I had a knack for using machine tools to make things out of wood.  I developed these skills under the guidance of my shop teacher Mr. Craig, a stern yet fair man who also coached the basketball team.  While I was in the Air Force I started slowly acquiring woodworking tools one at a time knowing that one day I would have some garage or basement space where I could set up a small workshop.   These days with job, family and all my other hobbies I don't make much sawdust but as a homeowner I keep my tools sharp and use them for various household projects.

The oak music stand pictured I made from scratch and of my own design turning the spindle on my restored 1940-50's Sears Craftsman lathe.  A planer, jig and tablesaw helped fabricate the other pieces.  I made the stand for my mom's theater group as a stage prop where it recieved rave reviews.  Eventually she gave the piece back to me (thanks mom!) and I proudly display it in my hamshack-music studio-man cave.