Thinking about getting into turning wood

[crazyal]

So I'm looking into getting a full size lathe for turning bowls mostly. After a decade of just burning the trees on my property I though I would try something new. Has anyone got experience in cutting blacks for turning? I watched a few videos that show how to cut out the pith and while my Dolmar has no problem making the cut the cover over the clutch gets packed with the shavings. Last weekend I had a yellow birch that was about 20" in diameter. After the second cut the shavings actually bound up the saw forcing me to shut it off and remove them. I suppose it could be done without shutting off the saw but I'm not about to go down that road. I had a little more luck with alternating between cutting across the face and the end and slowing down but it still left a lot of shavings under the cover.

For those who have never done it here's a picture I found on the internet. You can clearly see the way they cut the log and all the shavings (and how long they are) on the ground. I was just wondering if anybody has some experience doing this and some advice.

 

[crazyal]

Looks like there's not many (none) people here who turn bowls on a lathe with wood they cut. I had a cherry tree that the wind snapped last fall. It wasn't that large, 16" maybe, but it's too nice to just turn into firewood. So I practiced cutting more bowl blanks. By placing the round on top of a large flat rock with a piece of wood between them to protect the chain it worked much better. the shavings had lots of places to go so the chain wouldn't try to pull them around the clutch and split them back out on top of the bar. I made 15 blanks and had a pile of shavings about 3 feet high and 4 feet wide.

 

[4570Man]

I turn a few bowls from wood I cut. I cut the blanks with a chainsaw pretty much as described above. Then I cut a circle from that on the bandsaw.

 

[ericm979]

If you do a lot more, ripping chain will make those cuts go faster. Baileys' sells some inexpensive ripping chain (made by Carlton). I got some for ripping large Eucalyptus rounds into manageable size. For that it was about twice as fast as regular cross cut chain.

 

[4570Man]

If you do a lot more, ripping chain will make those cuts go faster. Baileys' sells some inexpensive ripping chain (made by Carlton). I got some for ripping large Eucalyptus rounds into manageable size. For that it was about twice as fast as regular cross cut chain.

I thought ripping chain was for cutting across the end grain of the wood such as a chainsaw mill. He's cutting with the grain. A practice often called noodling at least on here.

 

[crazyal]

I've got a Dolmar 7900 so it cuts with ease. It's just the actual shavings that amazed me just how quickly they add up. It also amazed me just how flammable they are. Even green they light up like crazy. I've seen people who fish using their hands call it noodling, never heard it before when it comes to sawing. However a quick search and it seams people use the term because of the shape of the shavings. Interestingly enough those who talk about it say the same thing, keep your saw up otherwise they will bind your saw up because the saw can't spit them out.

I was thinking of picking up a Harbor Freight 14" band saw and adding a riser block. I've seen people who say keep an eye on Criag's list but I'm thinking unless it's in a box it's more likely than not that it's one of the poorly built saws (anything from HF is kind of a cr^pshoot but at least if it's real bad you can return it) and the owner just gave up trying to get it to work correctly. Around here anything on Criag's list goes for near retail anyway. My neighbor is a real woodworker so I do have access to much larger band saws if needed. He doesn't have a lathe though but knows people who do so he's looking for a good deal for me. I hate to invest too much into this until I know if I'll even like doing it. I just hate it when I cut a tree that looks like it could be something much nicer than firewood. I avoid cutting cherry, beech, and sugar maples. I have had a guy come up with a band mill but I just don't have a reason to cut many so I really can't justify the cost.

 

[4570Man]

Wood turning isn't a cheap hobby. The lathe and bandsaw is the cheapest part of the operation.

 

[John_Mc]

That type of cutting is commonly referred to in forestry/logging circles as "noodling". Some saws handle it better than others. It's not a matter of power, it's a matter of how the clutch and clutch cover are laid out. You can help the situation by not cutting with the saw perfectly flat & parallel with the grain: lift the handle up a bit to create an angle with the grain (try 30˚ or so - or vary it until you find the angle that shortens the noodles enough that they don't clog your saw).

 

[GaryM]

I've turned bowls from green wood on my Jet lathe in the past. I never bothered taking off the bark and pith, just turned it off with a big gouge. You will get wet turning green wood. Lots of moisture thrown off in the process.

I liked a live edge where there was some bark and rough edges left. After the finished bowl dries out it will change shape some and get kind of oval instead of round. Then I'd sand the bottom flat so it didn't wobble.

 

[lt190b]

GaryM, don't they crack?

 

[crazyal]

You rough turn them and then let the bowl dry. Wet wood is easier to turn and it'll take a lot less time to dry.

What hobby doesn't cost a lot? The idea is to spend enough to be able to get a good feel for if I like doing it. If I can find a used lathe it'll most likely have some of the things I'll want like gouges and a 4 sided chuck. From there I'm sure that I'll have no problem finding things to spend money on if I like doing it. I'm hoping that I can learn on free wood that'll just go into the wood stove if it's a failure.

 

[deanocraft]

I use a lathe to turn banjo rims. They are generally either an 11” or 12” diameter. I bought a lathe from Grizzly that has worked well for me... but it did not go slow enough for me straight out of the box. I used it in the stock configuration for several years before I changed the motor and added a VFD to allow a fully variable speed and reversing direction. It works fantastic for me now.

My advice if you plan to turn bowls, is to get something with a fully variable speed control. That and the reversing feature make a huge difference for me.

 

[4570Man]

I've turned bowls from green wood on my Jet lathe in the past. I never bothered taking off the bark and pith, just turned it off with a big gouge. You will get wet turning green wood. Lots of moisture thrown off in the process.

I liked a live edge where there was some bark and rough edges left. After the finished bowl dries out it will change shape some and get kind of oval instead of round. Then I'd sand the bottom flat so it didn't wobble.

The shaded parts of my log in the drawings will become waste. If it's a big log I'll take it off with the chainsaw. On most pieces I just turn it off. And I don't remember that the bark either unless it's loose.

 

[crazyal]

Here's a picture of one of the smaller cherry blacks I cut. All I cut was the pith out of the center. I left the edges simply because it's just as easy to remove on the lathe.

For now I don't think I'll worry too much about keeping the live edge/ bark. I think I'll enjoy doing it so I don't mind investing some money into this. I have looked at the Grizzly lathe that sells for about $700 and it's probably what I would buy if I buy new. I think it would work just fine but if I really like turning it's limitations would start to show. The next step up new is over $1000 more. I don't mind selling what I buy to upgrade.

 

[deanocraft]

Hey CrazyAl, that is the same lathe that I have. It is a good value in a lathe, but I will warn you that the lowest speed of 600 is pretty fast to start with an unbalanced chunk of log chucked up. An unbalanced hunk of log spinning at 600rpms will get that lathe shaking a bit... When I upgraded my lathe, a friend of mine talked me into making a video of the process. it may give you a chuckle, but it turned out to be a major upgrade to that particular lathe.

If I was gonna buy a new lathe for turning bowls, I would probably look at used equipment, hoping to get a really heavy one with a slow turning speed. Unless of course I had several thousand bucks to spend on a Oneway or a Stubby...

 

[PILOON]

Turning is real fun.
One item I made that was real pretty and slightly rustic was to turn a frozen birch round into a bottle like shape into a lamp.
For the base I turned a 2" thick pine plank scrap cut off into a 8" profiled base.
Being wet and frozen the birch bark trimmed up nice and clean.

One item I made many of, again using 2 x 10 pine that I'd profile, was flower pot stands.
Round base and round tops but I'd cheat and use pine stair spindles for the uprights as I sourced them at $2.00 ea and at that price I could not bother to make wood chips.

Lots of my lathe knives are ground from files with turned grips from scraps. I used copper 'PEX' compression rings for the ferrules and drive the file handles into a predrilled centered hole.
File steel is great and holds a good edge.
LOL, they I'd go to a yard sale and find quality lathe tools for some ridiculous price that I could not pass up. Consequently I guess I probably have over 35 knives.

My first lathe was a DIY affair made from water pipes and odds and ends, crude but it gave me the 'bug'.

LOL, was doing a renovation job and kept tripping over the owner's Rockwell lathe probably 10 X/day.
Haggled a bit and it was mine, c/w base and 6 nice tools for all of $100.
He had worked for a box store and got if for a song. The 6 tools cost much more than my buy price.
He had owned it for 7-8 years and never used it.

 

[/pine]

A friend and I recently bought out a commercial wood shop and one of the items is a really nice custom made lathe...
One of the things I would like to learn to make is wooden doorknobs...especially using dogwood as it will polish to a glassy finish without any type of applied finish etc...and the small typical burls can have spectacular grains...

I just last week bought a hollow center for through drilling lamps and lamp parts...

 

[Threepoint]

Crazyal, I've turned a lot of bowls, 20" diameter on down, from wood I've cut. Cherry, black walnut, ambrosia maple, tulip poplar, etc. It's very rewarding, but there's a whole lot to it. And as 4570Man says, the lathe and the bandsaw are just the beginning. If you're like most of my turning friends, you'll discover that no matter how many turning tools you have, you're always just one more tool away from excellence. They don't call it "The Vortex" for nothing. :laughing:

Best advice I can give is to find a local woodturning club and attend their next meeting. The AAW website has a list of local chapters, American Association of Woodturners. I rarely meet a woodturner who's not happy to share experience and advice. Since you want to turn bowls, you'll be working with big, heavy material. A moderately large green bowl blank can easily go 30 to 50 lbs when you mount it on the lathe, even after trimming it reasonably round for balance.

Take your time choosing a lathe and your first gouges and scrapers. You can go really wrong buying without informed help from experienced turners. There's an awful lot of "wudda, cudda, shudda" regret out there. For a bowl lathe, you want something with at least 1-1/2 hp, and capable of a minimum spindle speed of 100 rpm. There are some very nice Asian-made lathes available now (even the Powermatics are now all made in Asia). If you limit yourself to bowl blanks under 12" and pre-balance them carefully, you can get away with 300 rpm. But it's dangerous, and won't be much fun when the lathe starts bucking and walking on you.

For a bandsaw, a 14" saw with a 6" riser and a one hp motor will work, but you'll need a special blade (e.g., 3/8" skip tooth 3 to 4 TPI), and will have to be very careful and slow. Green half-rounds are brutal on a small bandsaw. Here again, folks at a local woodturning club can be enormously helpful. I bet there are bowl turners near you who'd be happy to invite you to their shops and let you see what's involved first hand. Even let you try out their equipment.

 

[wassup8687]

I turn bowls from wood I cut. Nothing like bringing a bowl to life from a tree on your own property.

I have a Delta lathe that I bought brand new about 30 years ago because I loved the idea of turning wood. I tried it out initially and it didn't work out very well. lol It then sat for 25 years in my barn and I got the itch again.

Thank god for You Tube. It's amazing what you can turn out when you know what you're doing.

Keep watching, learning, reading the forums and you'll get many good ideas.

I have seen some good looking deals on Craigslist. Keep checking.

 

[crazyal]

I'm going to hold off on getting a lathe to see if my neighbor finds something. The Grizzly uses a similar belt set up as a snow machine for it's variable speeds. It's not the best setup but it works and keeps the price down. I've heard of people forcing the belt to get it as slow as 500 rpm. I do understand that slowing it down further is not easy. I'm hoping that with using a bandsaw to round the blanks vs using the chainsaw it's not going to be too out of balance. I know that if I buy a Harbor Freight bandsaw I will have to do things to it to get it to perform the way I want but I'm hoping to not have to do too much to the lathe. In the long run if I only turn bowls I would really like to build a bowl lathe,