Question on minimum speed

New lathe! Woo-hoo! Congrats!

Carol Reed said:

OK. Next firestorm. If you want a bowl gouge worthy of your new lathe, check out Thompson lathe bowl gouges. That also will be love at first use. Caveat: I do know Doug, and have several of his tools. And except for the first small gouge, I paid for all of them. You can't go wrong with the Wolverine system either. Good choice. And a discussion on chucks will open another widely diversified discussion.

http://www.thompsonlathetools.com/

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I soundly concur with Carol on this. Thompson gouges are great tools, and there's nothing even close to them in the same price range. I also second the Wolverine system...well worth the price. As for chucks, I use a Teknatool G3 and Supernova 2. Teknatool makes good chucks for the money, as do several other manufacturers like Oneway and Vicmarc.

Update -- Got the lathe yesterday and set it up (by myself (that's a job!)). Played around with an old 2x2 and made some beads and coves. I took the advise offered above and ordered two Thompson gouges, the 1/2" bowl gouge and a 3/8" detail gouge. They arrived today so now I'm making handles. The one pictured below is for the detail gouge. I will have to get some wood for the other one. Gonna look around some to see what is available. I guess I'll make a trip to the hardware store to find something to use for ferrules.

I absolutely love this machine. Can't wait to put it to use.

Now I will attempt to attach some pics.

I'm thinking all sorts of things I cannot say here. I typed up a reply. Took some pics for you. Then lost it. I will try again.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! However, I am jealous.

I am also a Doug Thompson fan. I have four of them. One of them is a 1 1/4" (3/8" thick) scraper.

I also have a Bionic face shield and like it very much.

Ferrules:
Rigid copper or brass pipe make excellent ferrules. I use 3/4" and 1". I cut it off of the main pipe a bit longer than desired. I true up the end that is going towards the handle. I place it on the handle. Then I size and true up the tool end finishing off the ferrule and the exposed wood with a file or a metal lathe tool I have stuck in a handle.

End caps for brass and copper pipe give a classier look, are a tiny bit more work getting an exact fit (because it is closed and you cannot just trim the end of the ferrule and handle). I use the caps when I am making a gift for some woodworker who has not been exposed to the joys of turning and does not have a lathe. I use the pipe for my own tools except the one in the pic.

If you want to get real fancy you can use the brass nuts (I don't know what they call them) that fasten flex tubing to faucets, etc. It gives you a closed hex shape with a round hole for the tool itself.

Oh, one of my Doug Thompson lathe tools is in a commercial handle. It was given to me by a very special wood turning friend. I didn't think it fit into what I was saying---except for length.

Pictures: One with a closed copper end cap. Three with copper pipe. All are handles I made. From the cutting edge to the far end of the handle range from 24" to 28". The 24" one is on the Easy Wood Rougher in the pic. It was my first handle. I read, "Make your handle long. Then trim it down to the size you feel comfortable with." So I made it 30" and I actually liked it except for one reason. I was always hitting things with the butt end. I shortened it. It is too short. Some day when my to-do list gets down to only 1,000 things to do, I am going to give it a new handle. I am a small guy; however, I definitely like the 28" to end of handle setup best. Any future tools I make will be done at that length.

Enjoy,
JimB

Niiiiiice! That's a fine looking machine, I'm sure you'll be pretty dang pleased with it for a long time.

Congrats, Dave! I think you're gonna love that lathe.

Jim, those are some great-looking handles (including the ferrules).

Congrats on the lathe, you will love it. Glad you used it ASAP. That is what it is for. Nice handles.

Thanks for the ferrule ideas, Jim. You certainly raised the bar on good looking tool handles. I believe I will be spending more time on mine now. And that's not a bad thing.

Congrats on the new lathe!!

Had some shop time and finished my handle tonight. It's not much but it's my first.

Not much? It's gorgeous! Your brass coupling ferrule looks sweet, and the handle looks comfortable to use. How long is it?

The handle is 14" long and you are right. It is very comfortable to use -- way better than the handles on my old cheapy set of tools.

The ferrule started life as a 3/8" flare nut. Filed the shoulders down and it fits the tool exactly. It's holding my new Thompson 3/8" detail gouge. I gotta thank Jim for sending me to the plumbing section to get ferrules. Great idea.

That's me. The plumber's friend.

Enjoy,
JimB