Re: What can you do with a lathe? Do more with a legacy

[Joe "Woody" Woodpecker]

First off, I wouldn't own a lathe. You see you can't make flutes or reeds with a lathe. You can't make rope like spirals with a lathe. You can't make exact duplication with a lathe. You can't make rosettes, mortises, tenons, contours, dadoes and arches.

What I would buy is a Legacy Ornamental Milling machine.

If you are planning on a lathe, you should see this machine first. Call for their free DVD at 1-800-279-4570

Remember, you have to almost be experienced when using a lathe. If you are turning a couple of spindles and one turns out smaller than the other, you are wasting material. With this machine, there is no real experience needed.

A LATHE IS A WASTE OF MONEY AFTER YOU SEE THIS MACHINE.

-- Woody

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[Ratchet]

[Woody Peckerwood holds forth with blather, concluding...]

And this spam is a waste of bandwidth.

[Greg G.]

This is pretty heavy handed 'enthusiasm' for a product. What... Did you get a new job? Arranged for kickbacks?

Unless you turn bowls, pens, or simply enjoy using a lathe... Not everyone wants to make 200 ornamental spindles.

FWIW,

Greg G.

[Joe "Woody" Woodpecker]

OK, I would like to see or even have an explanation on how you would make a spindle that looks like a three wrap twisted rope, only none of the twists are touching each other except where the rope connects to the square ends. Now remember the center of the rope is hollow, no wood there.

Or a pedestal base for a table which is 5" in diameter and has 12 flutes on a 1" taper over 2'. Each flute is 1\2" deep. And if that is all that is on it, can you make it in less than a half an hour?

Sure leaves a lot of free time to do other projects, instead of "playing" on a project.

Why don't you call for a DVD? 1-800-279-4570. THIS IS NOT SPAM AS I HAVE NO CONNECTION WITH THE COMPANY. I just know what is easy to use for the novice.

[Phisherman]

Go away and sell your junk elsewhere.

[Joe "Woody" Woodpecker]

I saw it at the wood show when it was here in Denver. It can do everything a lathe can do and more. And for the price it is about the same.

Would you buy a TS if you couldn't put a dado blade on it?

When you are making pens, bowles or whatever, should everyone you make be different and look as though it has a problem with it? What does that say about your craftmanship.

[JJFrost]

According to their website you can't do anything with the 400 so why sell it. That was enough to know what a bunch of scam artists these guys are. If they have video put it on the website.

[Andy Dingley]

You make a jig to go on it and add a router. I can flute with a lathe, a router and a gutter jig made of three planks. For reeding I don't even use the router, just a #66 Stanley.

If I want spirals, I'll go and buy some of the plethora of '20s "Jacobean" that's around, then saw them off. I get matching spirals easily, and I reduce the amount of this ugly stuff that's still out there dodging the firewood pile.

Then I'll gouge out my eyeballs for inflicting more of this bloody mock Tudor on the world.

Nor can you with this. I can imagine it turning a baseball bat, but lets see it make a gunstock or a pair of clogs..

I can make tenons with a froe if I want to, and on occasion I've don it. However it's not the best way, and neither is your Legacy machine.

This thing is 600 quid ! For that money I can have it hand-carved in Bali. For 600 notes, I expect to get a Holtzappfell !

Here's a much cheaper version, if you really want barley-sugar twists

A LATHE IS A WASTE OF MONEY AFTER YOU SEE THIS MACHINE.

Next you'll be telling me I need a few grands worth of tenoner before I can make a rabbit hutch.

Sure, this is a great machine if you want to make twirlies all day, and you have a need or market for that many twirlies. But if I wanted to work in a twirly factory, I'd get a job in one. It's all too easy to buy some expensive machines because they deliver factory production levels, then find you must spend the next 25 years working on what's now a production-line in a bank-owned factory to pay for them.

[Jerry McCaffrey]

[e-mail] (Joe "Woody" Woodpecker) wrote in :

Didn't Sears market this years ago as The Router Crafter for like $50??

[Silvan]

LMAO!! Good on ya, Andy. The world will be a better place with that stuff recycled into something less ugly.

[dave]

Joe Woody Woodpecker wrote about a bunch of esoteric stuff.

You know, I've never even wanted to make any of those things, much less needed to. My lathe makes duplicates, copiers are an add-on if you really want one. I find that a ruler, and pencil, and a caliper does just fine for dupes. My lathe decreases my blood pressure and makes my wife happy. Programming a machine to do something is enjoyable, it's coding. Been there, done that. Dave in Fairfax

[Chris]

Woody,

Haven't seen you here in a few months. It's be a wonderful few months.

I think you not only miss the point, but you are misinformed also.

I have seen all of the items you mentioned made on a lathe - don't know how they do it, but they do it. So the Legacy is not the ONLY way to make these things.

Most of the people that make them can SELL them as ART (I know of some who do), for much more than you could sell your robot made pieces for. So the Legacy is not the only way to profitably make items (or necessarily the MOST profitable way either).

I own a lathe and most of the projects I have done so far have little or no usefulness (compared to my other woodworking projects - stools, furniture, toys, etc). Yet I really enjoy working on the lathe - it is almost theraputic. Don't think I would get the same enjoyment using the legacy. Am I "playing?" Definitely! Would not have it any other way.

Ask an artist if they could get a more realistic rendering of a picture, in less time with paint-by-numbers rather than the "old-fashioned" way of free-handing it with no formal plans and I imagine that most would say "Yes." Ask them if they would consider doing it that way and most would say "No."

Sounds like it is quite an impressive machine. But I couldn't let the post go unanswered, lest anyone be discouraged from owning a lathe. My lathe is definitely my "desert island" machine.

-Chris

[Andrew Barss]

: A LATHE IS A WASTE OF MONEY AFTER YOU SEE THIS MACHINE.

Nonsense.

The legacy ornamental mill can do a lot of nice things, and may be a sensible alternative to a lathe for spindle turning.

But try making a bowl, a platter, a hollow form, etc. on one. You can't.

Besides, turning on a althe is just plain fun.

-- Andy Barss

[Silvan]

It can get you laid too. We saw some kind of pillar candle holder thingies at Target that made SWMBO go ooh and ahhh. I told her I could make one, and she didn't believe me.

I made one, and it came out halfway decent, but far from perfect. I've only been turning for a month after all.

She's been all over me for two hours now. Wearing her sexy underwear and everything. It's really amazing. All these things I've made in the shop over the years, and nothing has ever impressed her so much as this damn candle holder.

Well, folks, you know what I'm going to be making tomorrow! :)

[Dan Valleskey]

With the right attachment you can do a shallow bowl. Only small undercuts allowed, I think.

yes- in spades. I have only dabbled in both, lathe wins for shear enjoyment, hands down. I would never consider my lathe a WASTE OF MONEY. The legacy I used- time will tell, so far, it is just a big dust catcher.

-Dan V.

[Griff]

Well next time remember to tuck in your shirt.

[Bridger]

and just what are you doing sitting typing at your computer?

Bridger

[Joe "Woody" Woodpecker]

You can make a bowl or platter with a legacy. And if you desire you can make a set of salad bowls all in one afternoon EXACTLY ALIKE.

The legacy makes it funner because you don't spend so much 'time' playing. Your work comes from sketched plans which has the exact bit to use. You have to guess which type of wood chisel to use and you will worry about tear out everytime you make something.

The legacy is just funner to use and is easier to use so you can finish the job.

Besides, if bowels and pens are all you want to make, you should get a mini lathe. But why spend $400 on a mini lathe when a full size lathe is $650 and you can make stair spindles. Of course why spend $650 on a full size lathe when you can spend $1000 on a true milling machine and do 10 times more.

[Joe "Woody" Woodpecker]

Take her to a wood show where they have a legacy orminital mill and let them show it to her. I'd bet if you bought one for her, you'd never get to turn again. She'd use the legacy when you weren't home and be all over you when you were just thanking you for buting it.

[Silvan]

I was waiting for the kids to go to bed. ;)

The more I think about it, the more sad it is in some ways. I spent a MONTH on that damn chess box. I hand surfaced all the lumber with only two low-quality hand planes. I wrestled my POS boat anchor table saw into cutting the strips straight enough to glue up. I planed and glued, cut and planed and glued, then planed and planed and PLANED to get that damn board to come out right.

I cut the miters on the frames PERFECTLY, and I attached them with splines for perfect alignment and no through joinery. I again wrestled with the POS boat anchor to do finger joints for the box. No dado set, so I had to do 3/32" fingers. Lots and lots of 3/32" fingers. I had to re-make the finger jig three times, then cut, and cut, and cut. They didn't fit qutie right, so I had to go between them with sandpaper wrapped around a popsicle stick. All umpty gajillion fingers.

Then I planed and planed and planed and planed. Then I chiseled and planed and planed and chiseled and screwed and nailed. Then I coated it with around 10 coats of shellac and at least two coats of paste wax. THEN I lined the damn thing with velvet, made velvet-covered trays for the pieces one in walnut, one in maple, etc. etc. etc.

100 hours, easy. A month of spending every spare minute in the shop. Gallons of sweat, sore arms, occasional blood. $60 in materials.

It got me a "that's nice dear" but this stupid CANDLE HOLDER, which I made in about two hours, out of a piece of wood left over from when my neighbor pruned her tree, got me laid.

Something is just wrong with this picture folks.

Maybe this is why so many people who take up turning wind up giving up flatwood. 100 hours of sweat gets a nod, while one hour of mindless fun gets you the key to the furry gates?

What can you do with a lathe? Get laid! Chicks dig men who turn sticks.