New tools!

I recently got a set of hollowing tools from the Monster Tool Company, run by Randy Privett. Here you can read a funny story about how he started making hollowing tools for turning. Like a lot of other tool makers, he started by making tools for himself, but how he started selling them is pretty interesting. His quality and customer service are top-notch, and when you ask a question you get an answer from him, not some receptionist or customer service rep.

I got the "system II" and tried it out the other night with a side-grain shallow cherry hollowform. This is rough-turned and is now drying, awaiting its final turning and finishing. It was my first experience with this type of tool, and it's very different than any other I've used, but everything went pretty well. Well, at least until I shot my second piece off the shop wall after a good catch!

A couple of updates...

I had a few things to post about in separate posts, but forget it.. I'll do one big update here:

After my chainsaw fiasco (see other post) I finally got my new Husqvarta 142-18". Sweet! Haven't fired it up yet, but will soon. (see below)

Our neighbor took down a box elder while I was at work. My wife called me for the heads-up, and as I was coming home around 8:30 with almost no daylight left the crew was removing it all! I grabbed 3 large logs, 2 small logs, and thanked the crew for being patient while I loaded my car.


I got the 3" beall bowl buffs to go with my buffing system. They're balls that can be used to buf the inside of bowls, where the 8" wheels won't fit. (see below for an example)

I FINALLY buffed the large ambrosia maple bowl, and I did the cherry bowl while I was at it (using the new bowl buffs for the inside). They each received watco danish oil (several coats) first, and dried for about a week. The buffing process consists of three steps: first a tripoli rouge, followed by final smoothing with the white diamond, and then application of carnuba wax (which, incidentally, is food-safe). Here are some quick photos of the final products. Check out that sheen!


I turned another nostepinne from 2 types of wood. I used rosewood for the shaft, and black & white striped ebony for the handle. This handle feels nice in the hand. This was sanded to 12,000 grit, followed by 2 coats of danish oil and a three-step buffing. The wife was happy to add this to her collection.


That's it! I have a few other things that I'm working on now... I'll share them soon.

Chainsaw fiasco

In March, my chainsaw broke. It was the threads on the oil tank. No big deal right? I had a 2 year service agreement... I looked online to see if this was a common problem, and guess what? There's a recall on the handle of this model. A recall of the handle on a chainsaw. THAT's not good...

So, I go the store (sears) for a repair or replacement, and they send me to the sears service center. Fair enough. I go to the service center and drop it off for repair. 10 day ETA... sounds good.

3 weeks go by, and no call. I call sears, who says they're "waiting for a part" which the CSR thinks is the cap for the oil tank. Sounds wierd, but OK, whatever.

2 more weeks and we get a call that it's ready for pickup. So, I go to the service center, and sure enough they fixed NOTHING. That's right. It took them almost 6 weeks to decide it was cheaper to replace it, and sent it back.

After getting over my irritation, I decide that at least I can get a new saw. I'm told I have to go back to the store to get a replacement. Ok.... so off I go to the retail store. Now, I like sears in some ways, but their tool sales people sure do suck. After 30 MINUTES to figure out what the repair center was saying on the form, and ANOTHER 30 MINUTES to figure out how to ring up what was determined to be a "return" (and 3 sales people to decide what the reason code should be... is it "poor performance" or "product does not function"? good lord...) they realized they didn't have that model in stock anymore. (remember the recall?)

In the end, I got the original cost of the saw PLUS the 2 year agreement back, and got new Husqvarna 18" (instead of the 20" craftsman) and a three year service agreement for the same price. If you know chainsaws, you'll agree that the loss of 2 inches of bar length is worth the dramatic increase in product quality. So a happy ending, but what a pain in the ass.

Where art thou?

Sorry folks, the day job's been a bit crazy this week.

I picked up a 16 gallon shop vac this weekend, and I'll be doing some shop cleanup ASAP. I also plan on making a wide entry duct for the hose to use it as a dust/chip collector during turning and sanding. To help, I got a very cool power switch adapter that senses current to the lathe (or other tool) and turns on the vac (or other accessory) only when the lathe is on. Slick!

5 days!

I ordered the replacement switch from Jet today. They'll send it without any issue, but they said it can take up to 5 days! Ugh. More patience.....

Community

I have to give props to the folks on the message boards at the Woodturner's Resource. I've found it to be a great place to ask all sorts of questions. I'll announce that I'm a complete beginner, and not get one condescending remark. Everyone is friendly and helpful. I look forward to asking all of my stupid questions, and I know I'll get many great responses. Already, I learned a ton about the best ways to dry bowl blanks. (The general consensus is that Dave Smith's alcohol soaking method is the way to go. I won't get into the details, but you can find them here.)

I set up my compressor today, and I didn't realize how helpful it's going to be with blowing the sawdust out of my shop. It made my cleanup go very quickly. I also ripped (lengthwise) the other log I got from the power company (did I mention that I love my new chainsaw?), and I'm looking for help identifying the species. It has some ineresting darker streaks running through it, and the general grain pattern looks nice to. Hopefully it will turn well and produce a nice bowl.

Meanwhile, I'm cleaning the garage/shop while I wait for Jet to open tomorrow so I can order the replacement switch for my lathe. It's hard being patient.

Update: Damn, looks like the species above is eastern white pine, which is soft and prone to cracking due to wide rings from fast growth.

Two steps forward, one step back

Yesterday saw great progress, but also some frustration. I bought a chainsaw for cutting blanks out of logs that I find (including the cedar that I cut by hand already) and an air compressor for getting shavings out of hollowed vessels. If you're craving some unboxing action, check out the flickr sets here and here.

The chainsaw is great. I cut that piece of cedar into two bowl blanks yesterday without any trouble at all. Once the pieces got too small to stabilize for cutting with the chainsaw, I used a mitre saw to shape them, hence the 45 degree cuts on the corners. One has a good gouge out of the side that happened during the last bit of hand cutting when I pulled the two pieces apart, but I think it's low enough that I can turn away the wood around it without affecting the overall shape.

Here's where the step backward enters the story... After I got the blank mounted between centers, I go to turn on the lathe and the switch literally comes off in my hand. Apparently a small piece of plastic in the shipping box that I thought was packaging material was actually half of the trim around the switch housing. Well, that meant that one moderate lifting of the switch would just tear it out. Fortunately it wasn't stuck "on", but unfortunately I'm not doing any tuning until Jet reopens on Jan. 2 to send me a new part. Until then, I guess I'll have to actually clean up the garage and make my "shop" ready for work. I can also work on sharpening my tools with my new Tormek Supergrind that I haven't used yet. More on that later.

Lesson learned: Buy a chainsaw

I grabbed a great looking log today from the dump pile of the local power company. It's about 12" in diameter, and I needed to saw it in half to make some bowl blanks. This is the first... and last time I will ever saw a 12" dia. log with a bow saw. What could have taken 2 minutes with a chainsaw took 45 by hand. Lesson learned: Buy a chainsaw.

Setting up the lathe

I unpacked the lathe tonight and set it up; all went well. I couldn't resist trying all the cool stuff I've learned watching Woodturner's Workshop. I grabbed a 1.5" dowel, cut about 10 inches off, and mounted it between centers. So far, so good.

After grabbing my safety glasses, I turned on the lathe and used the roughing gouge to round out the piece. Then I grabbed the spindle gouge, and tried some different shapes. It was actually pretty easy to get the tool to do what you want, but it does seem to take a certain touch. I tried some other tools and various speeds to get the feel of everything.

I wanted to try out some finishing techniques I'd seen on TV, so I tried sanding with 150 grit paper while the part spun on the lathe. I also tried steel wool, but that was a BAD idea since it likes to wrap around the part and throw shreds in every direction! Next, I put some lemon oil on rag and let the rotation of the lathe work it into the wood. Since this was pine, it didn't take too well, but I got the idea of how to apply it. Next I tried some butcher's wax, and found that you have to speed up the lathe to work it in. In the future, I wouldn't put oil on if I were going to put on a waxed finish. Lastly, I parted off both ends and briefly cleaned up the end faces.

I must admit that I'm fairly impressed with the outcome of my first experiment, and I'm definitely hooked on turning. It was TONS of fun, and I can't wait to get into my first project.

Here's the assembled lathe:


Here's my fantastic set of Sorby tools:


And here's my finished product:

Welcome

I'm a complete beginner at turning. I've never used a lathe. Ever. But... that's about to change since one arrived on my doorstep this morning (yes, I was expecting it). I'm going to learn how to turn wood, and this is where I'll share my projects, progress, experiences, successes, and failures. I hope that this will be of help to those considering turning, and of interest to anyone else.

For now, here's a shot from unboxing the lathe: