Fun Project

jim king · January 15, 2010, 04:35:47 PM

This wine barrel out of Blood Wood actually worked. It was about 18" front to back as I remember it.
With a little beer it is easy to waste a couple of weekends on one of these. A lot of peices.

Burlkraft · January 15, 2010, 04:56:18 PM

Wow...That's really nice Jim

Wudda ya have for a finish on there?

jim king · January 15, 2010, 05:23:32 PM

BurlKraft:

We have a choice of laquer and floor grade polyurethane. I go with the polyurethane. In this humidity it can sometimes take a few days to get really hard.

Once it it as hard as it can be I wet sand with soap and water and then buff with car buffing compound. After that a couple coats of paste wax and this is what you get.

The shine is directly related to the dryness of the wood. Very dry is everything.

Lud · January 15, 2010, 05:27:27 PM

That's sharp lookin', Jim. I assume the cask was two pieces married on a seam?

jim king · January 15, 2010, 05:48:33 PM

Lud:

After the barrel is hollowed the front face is turned separatly and it fits into the barrel and glued.

woodsteach · January 19, 2010, 08:48:30 AM

WOW!

And all of that was completed on your home built lathe and homemade tools???

By the way Jim, I have a student who is strongly considering making his lathe like yours, do you have anything you'd change about yours or tips on constructing one?

Woodsteach

p.s. My, wife said she wanted to take a family vacation this year, I said lets go to visit this Jim King guy in S.A. she said show me the money. Looks like we will take a instate vacation this year. ;D ;D

jim king · January 19, 2010, 09:58:10 AM

Woodsteach:

I don´t know what I would change as I have had a total of about half an hour working on a lathe as you know them in the States and cannot make a good comparison. We have maybe 20 homemade lathes in town and everyone made them similar with the exception of the wooden ones that are dangerous.

The wine barrel style in the photo is one of the better products made here by the arts and crafts people for sale to tourists. They sell for about $100 depending on how long the tourist argues. I just copied what the others had already done.

The local trade school lets the students make thier lathe and tools in the machine shop and it is a very important part of the schooling.

As far as I know the only thing I would make different is maybe I would make it with a few hundred pounds of cement in the base. When turning a big crooked burl it does a lot of dancing until you get it rounded.

As for the tools I would never use store bought tools unless I was going to make little turnings like insideout Christmas ornaments , pens or something like that. The little tools scare me. I like something that has some heft to it.

I worked for General Mills when I was young in a design team that made special machinery for snack foods. After the ideas and paper designs came the reality of actually making it and then making it work. After a line was installed and working it was a good feeling. Your kids would feel the same about making thier own lathe and tools and understand a lot more.

The nice thing about wood turning is that it is simple and anyone can learn it. The only problems I have had is when that peice that is turning at some crazy speed decides to come off and you are in the way. It doesnt hurt much when it hits you but when you can stand up it is painful.