Any wood turners out there?

[maplewoman]

Hi everyone 8), Maplewoman here, I am wondering who amongst you do fine woodturning. And if you do what is your favourite timber to turn and why?
I will start this post by saying I love conkerberry (carissa lanceolata) from Australia, it is bright orange, very heavy, rare, and turns a treat. A bit hard on the tools but well worth it!

[RSteiner]

Just getting started.

I liked working with cherry and hard maple turned up nice also.

Randy

[Woodwalker]

Can't say I do "fine turning", I try to. Haven't had time to get in my shop in the last several months.

[Texas Ranger]

Woodwalker and I are in the same boat, but, I like turning walnut and holly, a little mesquite when I can find it.

[Radar67]

I turn a little, mostly bowls and pens. I wouldn't consider it "fine" yet. So far, my favorite wood to turn is beech.

Stew

[Burlkraft]

I also do some turnin'..... ;D  ;D  ;D

[Patty]

I am a newbie turner myself.  8)

I don't have enough experience to have a favorite wood. They are all still a mystery to me!

[SwampDonkey]

I turn mostly for my furniture projects, although I have turned bowls and trinkets some time ago, out of cherry, elm, and butternut. Not what you'de call fine turning, although not bad either. ;) I prefer, hard maple, yellow birch, and cherry. Ash and butternut are best for a reversible lathe, red oak isn't too bad.

[Burlkraft]

I am a newbie turner myself.  8)

I don't have enough experience to have a favorite wood. They are all still a mystery to me!

Have we seen any pictures of you WORKING with that big new machine.... ???   ???   ;D   ;D

[Ron Wenrich]

Fairly new to turning and like the others I wouldn't call it fine.  Maybe I should be fined for calling it woodworking.   :D

Woods I've tried is walnut, cherry, spalted beech, ambrosia maple, hickory, black birch, sumac, tulip poplar and honey locust.  Mainly pens and I'm still learning.

[Part_Timer]

I like to turn Osage and sasafrass.    I'm good a making a pile of shavings on the floor, but the wife is good at making useful stuff like pens and vases.

[TexasTimbers]

I am a turner wanna-be. I am also a turner gonna-be ;) Lord willin and the creeks don't rise.

[Patty]

Nope, Steve, no pictures just yet. I attempted a turn on it last weekend, and it darn near ripped the tool right out of my hands.     Scared the peewad right out of me.  :D    When Norm finishes his hard maple project that is on it now, I plan to attempt again, only with a softer wood.     I will win this one, it is just going to take some time. 

[SwampDonkey]

Let me see them dang tools your using. And make sure your tool rest is up close to the wood. How fast did you have it spinning, it doesn't have to be on the fastest setting to shave wood. ;)

[Patty]

Hey Donk, my tools are all HSS Sorby tools, and I think 1 is a different brand. I just sharpened them. My problem last weekend was:
1) Hard spalted maple that was very dry, and oddly shaped. Too big to fit on my band saw to trim off the edges.
2) I am a weenie.  ;D


Ok, now I have a question. How many mm's is 31/64's ? I want to replace my 31/64's bit, because mine sucks. I can't seem to easily find sharp drill bits for wood this large. The stupid one I now use doesn't have a sharp tip, and I have to predrill my piece with a smaller bit, and gradually work up to the 31/64's. Like sneaking up on the poor piece of wood.  :  :D

[Snag]

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe 12mm is closest to 31/64".  31/64" is approx. 12.3mm. 

[Radar67]

31/64 is 1/64 shy of 1/2 inch.

Stew

[SwampDonkey]

Patty, slow her down some for that big hard stuff. Use faster speeds for more open grained woods like red oak and walnut. You don't have to run that stuff so fast it vibrates the whole house. :D :D With that heavy duty lathe, get some big handled tools with some meat so you can hang on, but not with such a grip that your going to have hand cramps at the end of the day. I find small handled gouges feel like they are going to fly apart and i have to hang on tighter. ;D


31/64" = 12.3 mm as Snag says.

[Sprucegum]

I confess    I have turned a little wood - birch, white oak, lilac, apple. Looke pretty fine to me but I am prejudiced.

Patty; sounds like you are using a high speed steel bit , you might want to find a brad or forstner bit. Even if you have to mail order it would be worth it.

[Patty]

12.3mm hmmm, I think that will work. Thanks Snag.   I knew someone on here would have been paying attention the day the math teacher converted fractions to metric. I knew also that it wasn't me  :D    I was too busy staring out the window. :D

Sprucegum, everything I buy is mail order! We pretty much live in the boonies. The closest woodcraft store is about 70 miles away. No store within 30 miles of me carries wood bits for some reason.  : 

[Striker]

Well, I have a large pile of shavings around a wood lathe. Does that make me a woodturner?

Oh, the shavings did come from pieces of wood chucked up in the lathe. Sometimes the wood goes flying with the shavings . ??? :(  I'll just keep trying. ;)

[pigman]

I do a little turning, mostly spindles for furniture. I have turned a few bowls, but I am not very good at that yet. Now if I had a big Powermatic like Patty, I would be an excellent bowl turner.  ;)

Bob

[Furby]

Sounds like Patty will be getting a bigger bandsaw. ;)

[metalspinner]

I turn lots of stuff for the house.  Mosty gifts used by the family throughout the year for teachers and stuff.  Vases are fun for Valentine's day and Mother's day.  Of course, ornaments at Christmas.  My wife wants a set of ten ladder back chairs for the table I made last year.

I teach a few turning classes at the local Woodcraft store.  My occupation is metal spinning so lots of time is spent on a machine lathe.   The woodturning is a refreshing creative change of pace from the production metal spinning.

[Patty]

I like the way you think Furby!  8)

[katie-did]

Well I would have to say that my favorite to turn is maple and apple. Apple is my favorite when it is done. I love the warmth of the colors of apple. Walnut is nice to turn but I HATE sanding it the dust goes everywhere. I am not that great at turning yet but I love to do it when I have time.

I also do some turnin'..... ;D  ;D  ;D

Burlkraft, You act so innocent  there we all know that you can turn so don't try and hide  smiley_heh_heh and you did not say what you favorite was? ???
Happy turning everyone.

[Burlkraft]

I gotta agree with you katie...My favorite is green maple for sure. Nuthin' like big curls of green maple flyin' in the air..... ;D ;D ;D

[maplewoman]

The Maple you are turning, is that acer sp. because we have Maple over here in Australia too! I like the tigermaple and quilted maple you get in Acer sp. but I still think Queensland Maple beats it hands down.  I have bought a beautiful Osage bowl before and I think it is a realy interesting timber, is it easy to turn? and where is it grown? I love that you guys love making usefull stuff out of different timbers it can give a real appreciation to the wood. I just hope you are all wearing dustmasks coz who wants lumberlung. :D

[SwampDonkey]

Just lumbering along.  ;D

[Quartlow]

I've turned oh a couple hundred or so bowls and I still don't do fine turnings :D  :D

My favorites, probably walnut , butternut and cherry. I love the look of apple too.

[CHARLIE]

I do a little turning here and there. In fact, since I started turning wood my other woodworking suffered. ;D  My favorite wood is whatever is on the lathe.....especially those that are free and don't give me an allergic reaction. I turn mostly woods from around the area I live, but also whatever I can get my hands on....especially freewood:  oak, maple, cherry, hickory, butternut, ash, box elder, buckthorn, birch, walnut, apple, elm, cypress, magnolia, sweetgum, etc.......and sometimes dunawood (duna what it is :D ). 

[Gary_C]

All these woodturners and not one picture?   ???

[SwampDonkey]

Gary, I think they might be looking for brag'n rights or sumthin. Timid bunch eh? ;)

[Radar67]

Gary C and SD, here's a couple just for you....

A Spalted Red Oak bowl.


A Red Cedar pen


Stew

[metalspinner]

Vase of Red Oak burl and spun copper...

[Gary_C]

Very nice!!   ;D

Thats a lot better, I thought you guys had forgot forum rules  -- PICTURES REQUIRED!   8)

[4woody]

hey i like it to i tryed to get my wife to get me a truning tool but no luck

[Part_Timer]

Some of Katie-did's handy work.

Maplewoman

Osage is a very very hard wood.  It turns well when green but is a pain when dry.  It dulls tools fast.  I'm not exactly sure of the range of Osage but I do know that it grows from Texas to as far east a Virginia.  We have a lot of it here in Indiana but it is disapearing fast.  They are removing most of the fencerows so the river bottom is where I'm finding most of it now.  It makes a very nice accent on projects.

[turningfool]

box elder..my gallery is full of pics of it..also quilted maple and birdseye when its available

[SwampDonkey]

Great stuff tf.  8) Do you take any to market, farmer's markets, craftsmen markets. That Texas bowl is very interesting.  ;)

[leweee]

Tom ....had to bring that creation to light....made your photo bigger so I could see it, & it looks MARVELOUS 8) 8) 8)

[old_hb]

I'm a turner as well, doing almost exclusively bowls. I've gone from horrendous to bad to where I am now which is fair. I've tried the exotics-love ivorywood, mesquite and a few others but swear at lapacho/ipe which had me sneezing, coughing and spitting for weeks. In terms of what I cut down or get easily, my favorites are cedar, cherry, maple, poplar and walnut. Cedar is great as the chips are wonderful for my dogs' houses and a little sanding covers a whole lot of mistakes. Cherry and Walnut are beautiful but crack easily. As for tools, you name them, I've got them. Sorby is good-in the middle- but Hamlet and the better Crown chisels are-I think-better. As a profligate consumer who has about 70 chisels, 11 chucks and four lathes (I have a shop in SC and one in the mountains of VA), I'll be happy to share with you in a PM my experiences with sellers of these goodies. I'm on a credit card diet at the moment, but my next turner related purchases will be a vacuum chuck and a bandsaw which can accomodate large logs. Lot of luck, HB

[turningfool]

ty leweee wondered how i had to do that.. ;Dplease..clue me in

[leweee]

turningfool....I downloaded the "jpeg. optimizer" from xat.com(free trial)
                 LINK

                   You can brighten ,crop,resize & compress jpeg photos with this program.
                    Enjoy.

[turningfool]

thats just a rough out of a platter i'm making for kevjay..should look fantastic shortly ..its just about dry and ready to be finished

[SwampDonkey]

It's going to be real nice Tom. Don't know how to express it any better than that.  ;D 8)

[turningfool]

furby told me in an email that you two are going down to see kevin..dang!!! i have to work or i'd be taggin along..any idea as to when you're going?

[turningfool]

scratch that sd,its stumpjumpers hes going with :D

[SwampDonkey]

It would be a long trip for me Tom, wayyyy up here in the tundra. ;)

[turningfool]

kevins wood is dry..should be done shortly will post pics as soon as i can

[SwampDonkey]

Your up early enough ain't ya son?  ;)

I will be looking forward to the piece.  ;D