My Biggest Turning !

Don Orr

Member
Messages
912
Location
Schenectady, NY
This is the biggest thing I have ever or probably will ever turn on my lathe. It will become the mainsail winch for the Onrust which I am helping build locally ( www.theonrust.com ) This thing totally maxed out my Jet 1642, which is the 1.5 HP vesion. Obviously 1642 means you should be able turn a piece of wood 16” diamater and 42” long. However you have to figure in the drive spur and the revolving center in the tailstock and the height of the banjo. So in reality the actual capacity ends up at just under 12” diameter and about 38” long. Guess how big the piece of wood is ? 12” x 38” ! It took 2 of us to lift it onto the lathe. It started out at 12” x 12” x 54” and I knocked off the corners and trimmed it to length (only hit 1 nail !) It took 2 hours just to rought it down to a cylinder with lots of sharpening. Two friends from my turning club came to help as well as the 2 people in charge of the Onrust project who came to video and photograph the process. We had a lot of fun and it took a total of 3 hours. It ended up at just under 11.5” and 36” long including the tennons.

The photos are of me and Mike roughing and me finishing up the tennons and checking the final piece. I was very pleased how my lathe performed. It never hesitated and the whole process went very smoothly. The Onrust folks vere very pleased with the results.
 

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You just KNOW it's large scale when the turner is wearing a tape measure clipped to his pocket. Calipers are apparently too small. :D

Looks like a fun project to be involved with, Don. :thumb:
 
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