Getting a "Handle" on things.....

Well, I got a couple of new tools, unhanded, so I had to make some handles for them.


I have two tools to make, one an EVIL skew and the other a roughing gouge. I've never had a good version of either, so I'm quite excited to get these done and use them!


The first thing I do is true up the edges of the tube I'm using as a ferrule. This ferrule is some off cuts from a towel rack I made for SWMBO, it is stainless and works well for this. You can see the burr left on the inside of the tube by the pipe cutter thing I use to cut this stuff.


When I get done, the burr is gone, and in fact I try to put a slight taper on the inside, to ease installing it on the handle.


I have a nice chunk of Sakura on the lathe ready to make a handle, this stuff is HARD but it turns nice, as it has a VERY tight grain, and it will polish up real nice too!


I stuck the roughing gouge into the pipe handle I have, and used it to rough this blank round, boy does this work! man do I like this whole roughing gouge thing!!!


Now I'm going to turn a tenon to put the ferrule on, I leave it a little long and then trim it later.


I use a veneer caliper to check the size (that one is plastic, I need to get a steel one!) and when I get close, I check by taking the blank off the lathe and test it.


it is a tight fit, but that is good!


I then bash the ferrule on with a mallet.....


....and finish it with the rest of the cut off of the pipe, back on the lathe it goes.

Cont below........

..........OK back to the lathe, time for some shaping of the handle.


I try to make each one a touch different, so when I reach for them I can see and or feel the difference in the tool handles.


The end of the tool, it is real important to have a taper on the end, as this will help with drilling the hole the tool steel goes into.


Now I have the handle parted off, the tail stock removed, and a drill chuck, with a properly sized drill bit installed.


Now I hold the bottom of the handle against the tail of the lathe, with out any tailstock in there (the pointy spinny bit) and here the taper on the bottom of the handle sits in the hole of the tail, centering it. I hold this with my hand, and I turn the tail stock handle slowly forward to push the handle into the drill bit. I have the lathe turned way down to around 250 rpms.


I then use a block of wood and a mallet to bash the tool into the handle, and now I have a nicely handed (if I say so myself!) roughing gouge.


This blank had some inclusions and cracks in it (nothing major) that I filled with CA and sanded. To finish these I sand to #400, then I put on the sanding sealer, let it dry, sand to #400 again, then to #600. Once I sand to #600, I then put some stick wax on it and buff, this leaves a nice looking handle.

I've done three of these now, the Supa gouge (a bowl gouge on steroids) the roughing gouge and evil Skew, next will be a Bedan tool.

I sure enjoy this aspect of turning, making your own tools, and they are a LOT cheaper (here in Japan) this way, especially as I had a buddy who was in Canada pick these up for me and bring them back, so I paid no shipping either

This Sakura is sure nice for this stuff, looks good too.

Cheers!

Very nice, Stu.

Thanks for the "Tutorial" too! Looks like a great way to have some fun, and make something you will use each time you get down to the Dungeon!

Ahhh vintage Stu, I need it....I'll make it. Good job, in fact Stu-pendous.

The Stu Ablett Signature Series!! Get out the woodburner and sign those things!

John Hart said:

The Stu Ablett Signature Series!! Get out the woodburner and sign those things!

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Already done that!

Good looking handles. Just curious though whenever I drill I put the drill chuck in the tailstock and use the chuck on the headstock to turn the piece. Is there any advantage to to doing it the way you did with the chuck.

Great write up Stu,
What are the ferrule choices when doing this? I have seen others use brass nuts that they have turned round and others have used pre rounded various metal. What is the better choice?

Don Baer said:

Good looking handles. Just curious though whenever I drill I put the drill chuck in the tailstock and use the chuck on the headstock to turn the piece. Is there any advantage to to doing it the way you did with the chuck.

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Just the way I saw it done or read about it, and it is fast and simple, both of which I like!

if you gripped the end with the scroll chuck, it might leave a mark.......?

Cheers!

Doug Jones said:

Great write up Stu,
What are the ferrule choices when doing this? I have seen others use brass nuts that they have turned round and others have used pre rounded various metal. What is the better choice?

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Just about any metal pipe will do, lots of guys use copper pipe, but here finding any copper pipe that is large than the normal stuff is hard to do, and you have to by a 20' length, which is NOT cheap!!!

I guess a straight connector would do as well, cut in half as it would be too long, but really any metal that is softer than the HSS tools we use would work fine.

The HSS tools do but the metal, but they also dull fairly quickly.

Cheers!

Nice job Stu. They look great. I need to make a new handle for one a new PSI gouge I got that is loose in it's handle. Do you drill the hole a little undersized or just the right size?

Again, great looking new handle!

Corey

The shafts were 12mm, so I drilled 11.8mm, I tried 11.5, but they were too tight. At 11.8mm I had to bang them on quite enthusiastically

BTW, here are the three I've done so far, I need to do one more, a Bedan, but I have an OK handle for it now, so I've got other things to do.



The top one is the P&N Supa gouge, I did a while back, you can see it is no longer nice and shinny like the new ones. It had worn in from use, and it just about perfect in the hand now.

Cheers!

Very nice Stu. They turned out great!

Corey

Hi, Stu.

That was one awesome tutorial! Thanks for sharing

I found my ferrules on ebay.

Thanks George, you can see I'm putting the DVR to good use

Your ferrules can be any old pipe, copper works good, or find some old brass thick walled stuff at the junk dealer, don't matter what it looks like, you tools are all HSS, so they turn brass, copper, aluminum or stainless fairly easily.

Cheers!