Things I've been working on

Roger Tulk

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St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Here are the candlesticks I've been turning for spindle gouge and skew practise:

candlestick01.jpgcandlestick02.jpgcandlestick03.jpg

The first and second photo is my most recent. I have to put finish on the tops of the two dark-stained ones, and fix the stain around the bottom of the one. The two dark ones are cherry, and the other is butternut, which was sweet to turn. The third is one I turned early in this learning process, and the one that came out best. Theone lying down is curly maple. The maple was a, um, er, bad thing to turn, very hard. I have to take the doetail off the bottom and finish it.

Here is my magnetic tool rack, apres Ikea:

mag tool rack.jpg

And lastly my roughing and spindle gouge jig. I will be attempting a bowl gouge jig for it soon:

jigisup.jpg

Thanks for looking! I have had a little trouble getting the holes for the candle centred, and I don't know whether it is the lathe or me. Maybe I should drill a 1/8" hole in the centre, rather than relying on the dimple made by putting pressure on the forstner bit? :huh:
 
Those are cool Roger! I need to work on candle sticks. As a suggestion, there are other ways to do this, drill the hole for the candle, chuck based on that so it's done, then you can turn whatever shape to your hearts content and not worry about centering.
 
Looks like your getting the hang of it alrighty. I hadn't ever seen that lathe in person until a couple of months ago at an estate sale and I gotta say if you can turn anything on that wow my hats off to you! How much easier a cast iron lathe would be is almost indescribable.

It sounds like you're pretty drilling the holes which is what I would do as well. Not sure on the centering issue shouldn't be that hard :huh: but I can sure see it's a bit off alrighty. Is it was walking off as you turn or does it start that way? You can check initial centering by holding a small rod/pencil to the edge of the hole and slowly turning the piece by hand. Could be you're over tightening the tailstock and crushing the wood or plausible the tailstock is moving on you? Dunno. Usually I blame the user not the tool (especially if I'm the wielder) but in this case I reckon its more likely the other way.
 
It sounds like you're pretty drilling the holes which is what I would do as well. Not sure on the centering issue shouldn't be that hard :huh: but I can sure see it's a bit off alrighty. Is it was walking off as you turn or does it start that way? You can check initial centering by holding a small rod/pencil to the edge of the hole and slowly turning the piece by hand. Could be you're over tightening the tailstock and crushing the wood or plausible the tailstock is moving on you? Dunno. Usually I blame the user not the tool (especially if I'm the wielder) but in this case I reckon its more likely the other way.

I centred the forstner bit in the centre of the little divot left when the candle parted off. Then I applied pressure to sink the centre of the bit into the wood, and turned it slowly, eyeballing the distance from the bit to the edge. It was quite well centred, but I shall try some of the ideas I've heard here. thanks for your help!
 
Those are cool Roger! I need to work on candle sticks. As a suggestion, there are other ways to do this, drill the hole for the candle, chuck based on that so it's done, then you can turn whatever shape to your hearts content and not worry about centering.

Thank you! They are great fun to turn. I have had a little more trouble with the skew on the taper than on cylinders. I assume I should be going down the taper with the skew, not up?
 
Ah OK misunderstood. Yep I would personally predrill it before turning while still square in this case. The forstener is somewhat apt to walk in end grain, its definitely possible but if The lathe flexes or it isn't 100% solid for whatever reason ... Yep. With predrilling you know its centered up front.

Edit: with the skew you definitely want to cut down grain and thus (almost always) down taper. I have the most problems at the transition between two tapers/down cuts, always seem to get a little tear out there :dunno:
 
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Edit: with the skew you definitely want to cut down grain and thus (almost always) down taper. I have the most problems at the transition between two tapers/down cuts, always seem to get a little tear out there :dunno:

Yeah, I got that tearout at the transition, but I smoothed it with my round ended scraper. I got a few clunks and nicks on the way down though.

Practise, practise, practise...
 
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