lathes and table legs

The OP wants "Woodturning 1-0-1". Getting the best out of a router lathe takes a considerable amount of experience and practice.

Reply to
1501
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A couple of comments on Andy's excellent postings on wood turning.

I think he plays down a bit the problem of dust generation - dry wood produces a large amount of dust, particularly when sanding, much of it down in the particle sizes (

Reply to
robgraham

Dust is certainly a hazard, but making a lot of it is too often an indication of poor turning technique. How much dust do you think Steve Firth was making, pedalling out an entire house on a pole lathe? 8-)

The trick is to use slicing cuts, not scrape. If you're turning green wood by this means, you'll reduce your dust exposure far more than wearing a mask.

Now sanding is admittedly a dust source, so in that case, yes mask up. For the particularly irritating timbers (tropicals, triffid) then I tend to simply avoid them altogether. My biggest dust source is probably when turning large bowls in MDF (stacked rings) and for that I use vacuum extract.

That seems to be a US thing whenever they see a video camera. New Yankee Workshop is infamous for removing guards for clarity, but then hiding half the screen under a message "Don't remove guards" instead. Personally I'm less worried about unguarded blades than I am about the US lack of riving knives or splitters.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Could all these postings be turned into a Wiki article? With some nice pictures?

Owain

Reply to
Owain

What exactly is the difference between a riving knife and a splitter?

Reply to
Ian White

Primarily the North Atlantic Ocean AIUI.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

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has the low-down ;-p

Reply to
Dave Osborne

Riving knife (arguably one form of splitter) moves with the blade, a simple splitter is fixed to the table.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Thanks, and also to Dave O.

Reply to
Ian White

Most of machine mart's range (not just woodwork) seems to be Clarke. Who are they and are their tools (again, not just woodwork) any good? They seem to be half the price of the lathes mentioned in other replies.

Reply to
Fred

Yes, I was thinking that! How do you do that: experience or a jig of some sort?

Thanks for all the replies. I don't remember seeing anything about lathes here before but I could be wrong.

Reply to
Fred

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Machine Mart and Clarke have been around for a long time so they must be getting it right most of the time. I have had a couple of very bad items (very poor angle grinder and something else) but most things are quite good quality. They're very good on returns so if you buy one of their cheaper lathes you won't have any trouble returning it if it's not up to expectations.

Find a showroom near you if possible - very helpful and almost everything on display. I always have a look in the returns section for good bargains.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

In message , Fred writes

Hardly hiding from a quick google, are they ?

e.g.

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and are their tools (again, not just woodwork) any good?

Cheap and functional

made in China like all the rest

Reply to
geoff

Heh - MM are my oldest source of "regular" spam. I've never used them for anything, but somehow ended up on a mailing list of theirs. I think they've been contributing to my junk folder for well over a decade now...

Put me right off ever using them, even after I found out that they weren't a bunch of fly-by-night box-shifters...

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules

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I get fairly regular messages from them but I don't mind as they're actually quite useful. I now get invitations to special discounted events when I can buy with VAT discounted, so I don't complain about a bit of spam.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

They do what they're designed to do. - Which for woodturning, isn't enough to be useful.

The CWL1000 is admittedly usefully long, but it's horribly crude and has almost no rigidity. It's OK for turning things that are already cylindrical, but I wouldn't like to start up an out-of-balance blank on it, let alone bowl turning.

Machine Mart are about 50 quid _more_ than Axminster. Compare the CWL20RV and the AWVSL900

Reply to
Andy Dingley

As a professional woodturner I would advbise you that before you start using a lathe please join a woodturning club where all the expertise is available PLUS the access to books videos etc.

Alternatively please purchase the magazine "Woodturning" printed by the Guild of Master Craftsmen in Lewes in Sussex.

Regards, Peter.

Reply to
petercharlesfagg

I had found their web site but it doesn't tell me (objectively) how good they are.

A previous post said a lathe would cost £250 for a good one, yet the Machine mart ones seem to start from half that. Cicero says his experience (perhaps not including lathes) is that MM/Clarke are good. Does anyone else have experience of their lathes?

TIA

Reply to
Fred

Sorry, I've just hit send on another question asking how good they are before reading your reply.

So you think they are only designed to work on preformed cylinders then?

Is it just Clarke's lathes that you don't like or are all their tools just as bad?

Ill certainly check out the axminster ones. Thanks.

Reply to
Fred

But that's not what you asked, you said "who are they "

I have one

it works

It's not what you would call a piece of precision engineering, but I'd call it value for money

Reply to
geoff

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