What Not To Do on a Lathe

Vaughn McMillan

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
36,054
Location
ABQ NM
This guy is in severe need of some mentoring. I don't want to sound too critical, but if you or someone you know has this kind of "success" with woodturning, please disconnect the power to the lathe and don't touch it until you get someone to show you a few basic techniques. On the grand checklist of "What Not To Do on a Lathe", this guys hits all the boxes. The sad part is that he doesn't seem to learn. After the 900th catch, you'd think he'd try something different in his tool presentation.

https://youtu.be/lHHyCq-nBRc
 
Is this for real? I've been thinking of doing some turning but this sure turned me off. Would have to get some serious mentoring before I go down that road.
David
 
I couldn't watch it to the end. I've turned on my lathe twice and briefly toyed with some ideas but I've watched tons of YouTube videos and plan to take a turning class before I go again. This guy could learn a lot about speeds, rest position, and tool presentation in 45 minutes on YouTube to save a load of grief and danger!
 
Agree, Robert. I couldn't watch to end either. At least he was wearing safety gear. I don't wear gloves when i turn but may get some amour plated ones now.:eek: I used to catch a lot with the bowl gouge but seem to have finally caught on to the angle of the wangle needed make a bowl. Amazing he put that on YouTube for anyone/everyone to see.
 
I groaned out loud at one point, and my wife came running to ask what was wrong. I took a course, only eight hours, and watched a lot of youtube, and I've never done anything remotely as stupid as most of the stuff he did. When I saw he was using a spindle roughing gouge at the start, I cringed, but then realized that because he was in effect turning between spindles, he could probably get away with it. I wonder if he realized that. He'd have done better to hollow out that bowl with scrapers and a agentle touch. And then not distribute the video.
 
i watched most of that video, and skipped ahead at times, and all i can say, is that it is a good thing the only thing he broke was his tool rest. he was doing a lot of things wrong, and as bearclaw grislap said, saw it right off. too fast for the size and weight of the blank, wrong sized tools, wrong tools, all kinds of stuff like that. not that i'm an expert, not even close, but, when i first started, i had my fair share of catches (none as bad as these, but enough to wake you up in the morning), and an item or two come loose, until i learned better. but, learned i did, and while no physical scars, or t-shirts, the old ego took a few dents. this guy, and his video, should be a prime example of what not to do, and how not to do it. not saying that catches will go away entirely, even richard raffan gets a catch every now and then (caught on tape), and had a piece fly apart (spalted wood, also on tape), but that is all part and parcel of turning.
 
I don't wear gloves when i turn but may get some amour plated ones now.:eek:

I know that was in jest, but for the rest.. no gloves on the lathe if you like your digits. Its a quick way to have a small abrasion turn into a seriously wrapped up situation. Also no rings or other similar jewelry.

The really sad thing is that after all that his "bowl" likely has an expected lifespan of a few months with the pith in the center of it like that (yes you can do pith centered bowls, yes they pretty much all crack at least some, no I don't think that one will make it for a number of reasons).

I knew it was going to be good when he said "this wood is way to wet.." man that's my favorite kind of wood so juicy it leaves you looking like you took a shower. That wood wasn't it.

If y'all "enjoy" this sort of gut wrenching terror watching someone else do something incredibly wrong inches away from killing or permanently maiming them try hanging out on some of the permies or homesteading forums sometime. A few grains of good information here and there but lots of "and how are y'all still alive much less have all your digits intact" moments. I've mostly quit looking as its to much for my delicate constitution to take (and you get very little appreciation for posting "6 ways you almost had a really bad moment in your 3 minute video") .
 
Before I got a lathe, and did some research, I thought that it was natural to put a chunk of wood on the lathe the way this jackass did. I know you do this with goblets, and I've made one or two of those, but the only course I took I learned how to mount a piece of natural wood on the lathe. It surprised me a little, but I learn quickly. There is a chap who goes by SG Art Turning on Youtube who turns the odd lampshade this way, but he appears to know what he's doing.
 
OK. Not sure just what the word is for that guy but does he ever need to get it together. Either by tutoring or something. AWK!!!!!!! When I started out I had already watched some for real tutorials on You Tube. So, I kinda had an idea of what was going on. But, still a lot of trial and error. But nothing like that. Wow.
 
As a guy who has taken a bowl to the face, not sure I should comment, but ....

In my opinion he's turning too fast, with the wrong tool and being too aggressive... I didn't watch the whole video, just skipped forward as it loaded... I do wear gloves when I turn, but they are tight fitting, fingerless gloves like the weight lifters use... they protect the side of my hand, but leave the fingers free to feel what I'm doing.
 
All Chuck said is right to me. I wear gloves as well. I use Gold's Gym weight lifting gloves that have the wrist support. Seems to work alright. Has a pad in the palm but not too big for keeping a good grip on handles. Fingertips are gone. Not bad for $14-15 gloves. I get 'em at Wally World.
 
Well, lets start with the fact that the gloves won't save you in any way shape or form if things go south. The best they'll do is take some of the abrasion off when doing a long turning session or if the wood is real dry you can get some shotblasting effect on the forward hand. Personally I've found it not excessively hard to adjust my attack angle most of the time to avoid the stream of chips being aimed right at my hand.

The tight fitting fingerless are admittedly less dangerous than most, but even there please do be careful folks. If they get hung up you're going from a small wreck to a big one in a hurry. Skin can catch and tear which is painful but not as generally life changing, if the gloves get hung up you're getting pulled in and that's really really bad. Even the thin "easy to break" nitrile or latex gloves add a lot of friction and make easier for you to get pulled in.

I know I sound like a nervous nanny here but this is really increasing the risk a lot for imho minimal gains. Please don't search for "gloves lathe" unless you have a really strong stomach (and yes most of the really bad accidents were high HP metal lathes which have a lot higher risk for a half dozen reasons).
 
All points you make Ryan are true. I wear the gloves mainly while roughing but not for safety but because of my arthritis. When doing finer turning I don't wear them. No need. But the vibration from roughing can be hard on it. But, gotta do what I gotta do.
 
No argument Dave, what gets the job done is sometimes what you have to do. The arthritis can be a real pain, not bad yet myself but when it's cold out sure know it's pending. I have a friend with some hand problems I was helping learn to turn, but I couldn't ever get her to relax the death grip and it hurt to much. Once I'm in the groove I don't really have to hold that tight which helps a lot (but then I take a few months off and bad habits return.. sigh).. bigger handles helped some as well.

Just be careful my friend :)
 
I don't think I hold the gouges all that particularly tight, just somewhat firmly. I've had that carpal tunnel surgery on both hands and am not interested in having more. I'm already looking most likely at back surgery on three levels due to severe degenerative disk disease. Not quite bone on bone like one of my knees but close. So, I try and keep everything damaging to my present conditions at bay as much as possible. Don't always work, but I do try. The gloves I use don't have much in the way of fingers on them at all. Barely reach the first knuckle. But, they do dampen the vibration while roughing and that's good enough.
 
Have you tried the larger padded handles? Sometimes they feel a bit better to me.. other times not so much... I did notice that the more relaxed I was the less it bothered me anyway, but can't really quantify it better than that (the gal I was helping was really white knuckling though.. which is definitely bad).

I had to replace all of the door handles in the house with the lever ones because otherwise LOML couldn't open them all the time, accommodations must sometimes be made :)

Most of the time I've got the carpal tunnel under control (there's a story about the facilities people telling me that "you can't modify these desks to add a keyboard tray" and and me saying "looks like I just did".. :D) but its not fun when it flairs up. Worse when I'm sitting at home playing around on the laptop... I really need to move to a desktop here as well.
 
Top