Woodturners. Lets see those woodturnering projects

Yes, it’s backwards. That’s how they were designed, to get the metal, or wood in this case, turning towards you.

 

Thanks!

Since this is a metal lathe the seating position is definitely odd when using it for wood. The seat doesn’t swivel. The only way to get enough space for a long handled wood lathe chisel is to swing it out to your left, so I’m using the lathe chisel opposite of what I’m used to, as I’m using it left handed. I’m thinking of trying a 30” tall shop stool and placing it so I can hold the tools normally but then I could only pedal with my right foot.

Heck, just mounting a modern wood lathe banjo and tool rest and using it to turn wood instead of metal is against the grain so I’m not opposed to using a Harbor Freight belt to get it working.

That must be like chalk on a blackboard to the purists. I was discussing this on an antique machine forum and shared the videos and one of the guys insisted on sending me enough 1” leather flat belt to fit it. It’s coming this week lol!

 

A friend needed a “visual aid” for his high school senior presentation on the Battle of Antietam and asked me if we could make a civil war cannon on my lathe:

 

Awesome

 

Is it harder to do the turning with the slower speed of the lathe or do you have more control of the shape you are forming?

 

It’s definitely harder. The sitting position is awkward so you have to swing the longer lathe tools out to your left side. It’s totally opposite how it usually use my Rikon lathe.

A friend’s 18 and 14 year old sons trying out the antique pedal lathe:

The 18yo in the first half of the video is using a tool I made from scratch last night from one of the metal lathe tool bits I got with this pedal lathe.


The 14 yo in the second half of the video is using a manufactured carbide lathe chisel as well as a lathe chisel I reground on my slow speed grinder into a different style of lathe chisel.

It’s pretty cool being able to make your own tools from scratch or convert one type of tool to another on the grinder. I never tried it before the first one I did recently.

 

Success - exercising without realizing it!

Some folks have asked me if it’s hard to pedal this antique lathe while trying to make something on it, like trying to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Friday evening I received a part I needed to mount a modern wood lathe chuck in one of the antique metal lathe chucks that came with this lathe.


This is not a self centering metal lathe chuck so it took a lot of adjusting of the four individual jaws but eventually I was able to get it well centered. Then it was just a matter of screwing on a modern wood lathe chuck.

So now I can finally mount a modern wood lathe chuck on that and a piece of wood in the wood lathe chuck.

It looks like a long and bulky combination but it moves the piece of wood farther right on the bed of the lathe, so it’s a better position for me to work on the turning wood while I’m sitting on the lathe than before.

With this more modern lathe chuck mounted I was determined to try some turning techniques I couldn’t previously on this antique.

So I was concentrating on trying to make a “captive ring” which I had made on my modern lathe in December


I wasn’t using the same tools as I was for the baby rattles because I was trying to make the rings with a different lathe tool technique I had seen in a video, so I never quite accomplished a captive ring that evening.

But when I was done I realized I had been pedaling this lathe at a moderate pace for 40 minutes straight and hadn’t even thought about pedaling. I just couldn’t maintain the wood spinning at a higher rate of speed needed to get a smooth finish on the wood for very long without getting winded.

So pedaling backwards isn’t an issue and neither is manipulating the lathe tools to turn wood while pedaling. And I wasn’t dead after pedaling for 40 minutes either.

But I think in the back of my mind that was one of the reasons I got this antique lathe in the first place - to be able to get exercise while concentrating on something else completely.

 

What an awesome way to exercise. I would have never thought of that. Maybe I will have to get my mother's treadle sewing machine out and give exercising a whole different look.

 

I made a 6.5” wide, 7.5” tall cherry kitchen utensil canister this week. I was “commissioned” to make this along with two cooking spoons and two spatulas:

 

I think I reached the upper limits of the capacity of my 3/4 hp Rikon lathe. I tripped the overload/ overheat protector on the Rikon three times when I started hollowing this out with a 2” Forstner bit. So I’ve been worried I would burn it up.

My good friend/ landlord who lets me use part of his work shop area thought my antique Barnes lathe wasn’t practical and was taking up too much of our shop space and has been bugging me to try to resell it if I could make a decent profit on it.

It’s being delivered to a new owner tomorrow. So with the profit from that I was able to start searching for an upgrade to my Rikon.

One of the officers of my local wood turning club helped me find one.

It’s a barely used Nova DVR XP, with a 1 3/4hp direct drive motor with computer control, 16” swing with the capacity for 29” bowls by swinging the headstock outboard. It includes the outrigger set up. So I don’t think I can ever outgrow this one.

 

Nice Utensil holder! The spoons look a little flat though!! LOL

 

As of now ;-)

The cherry boards were thick enough that I can create a good bit of depth with the lathe.

One of the reasons I wanted a lathe with the ability to turn outboard was so that I can put kitchen cooking spoons on a jig and use the lathe to hollow out the inside of the spoon, turn it over, and form the contour of the other side.

Then I’ll put it on and turn it like a spindle to make the handle and finish the shaping.

I’m sure some day I’ll use the outboard turning option to turn larger platters and bowls. It can turn up to 29” diameter with the headstock turned outboard.

The factory legs on the Nova put the spindle about 7” below my elbow height, so I kind of did a hybrid mount initially, half on the bench top, half on the legs. This way the spindle is at the same height my Rikon was, and I could use my bench but also keep more of the bench top free as a work area:

I revised how I mounted it tonight. I just didn’t like the looks of it, half on legs, half on the bench. I built a bit of an extension to the bench top and tied it into the frame with some rough cut 4x4 oak buttresses.

 

Cooking spoon:


It wasn’t as simple as it looks:

 

Cherry is great wood to work with, and that’s what I made this kitchen utensil canister with, but I’ve got a new favorite wood.

I just love working with Bradford pear wood for these utensils:

 

A friend wanted some olive wood kitchen utensils but olive wood is way too expensive.

Acacia is an exotic hardwood originally from Australia. It’s a strong, dense springy/ stringy rot resistant wood. So I tried some as a substitute for olive. It’s hard to work with on the lathe as big chunks splinter off easily but it finishes nicely with a dark rich grain pattern:


I just started making cherry dry dry goods kitchen scoops again. I haven’t done one of these scoops in several months. Since I have a bigger more powerful lathe now and I’ve upgraded all the necessary lathe chisels and chucks to make them, and I actually know how to use them, these elevated handle scoops are much easier to complete and frankly better overall.

 

A friend asked recently if I knew how to make a honey dipper.

I went one better - I found this jar with a glass lid with rubber seal at the local Goodwill for $2, and made a honey dipper lid to fit it.

First honey dipper - it ain’t perfect because I had a catch with a lathe chisel while trying to round off the top knob and I had to finish it with a belt and disc sander and 3” sanding discs on my hand drill instead.

But I’m happy with it.

 

Very Nice Honey Dipper!

 

Thanks!

I’m building a steady rest for my Nova DVR XP lathe out of some scrap MDF and cheap used inline skates. I just finished the frame:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Qks4tBRqMYs?feature=share

 

It works!
https://youtube.com/shorts/PkuMVIQLKfY?feature=share

 

A little heads up - I’ve been using Bradford pear for turning kitchen utensils and dry goods scoops on my lathe. The stuff is now my favorite wood to turn. It’s a very fine grained dense hardwood that’s easy to work with.

They’re now considered an invasive species in many states. The branches break off easily in wind storms because of bark inclusions on the branches extending too far into the trunk, so lots of homeowners just want them gone, thinking the wood is junk because it breaks off so easily.

It occurred to me today to contact a local tree service to see if they have any Bradford pear logs, so I called the first one that popped up on a local web search.

He said he has tons of Bradford pear from taking them down. He’s going to start setting them aside for me and deliver them to me regularly.

So I now have a permanent unlimited supply of Bradford pear logs for wood turning, being delivered right to my doorstep.

You might want to contact your local tree service too if you’d like to give this wood a try.

The picture is of some of the Bradford pear utensils I’ve been making.