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.