Hi,
I was thinking of making some coffee tables and wondered about using a lathe to make prettier legs than just having rectangular ones. I've never used a lathe before. Can anyone recommend any good books/web sites about them and any entry level models?
TIA
Don't forget to buy a first aid kit.
I'd suggest asking the same question in uk.rec.models.engineering as there are some very knowledgeable people there and if they don't have the answer themselves they would likely know where best to ask.
Different type of lathes on that group. rec.woodwork may be suitable. There are at least 2 magazines a month that have features on woodturning. And 300+ books currently available. It is too complex a subject to go into detail over here. It is not too difficult a task to make chair legs, but unless you intend taking it up as a hobby, then there is no sense in buying a lathe to do just that. They start around £100, but are not too good at that price. Expect £250 for something that would be suitable for legs. It is the bed length, as well as motor power that you need to know. A basic lathe may have a bed of 36", but I doubt it would cope with a 3" length of timber along its full length. Also, they are the messiest woodwork tool. Chips go everywhere, worse than a router I think. Alan.
For a small lathe (450mm length; 250mm dia., so OK for chairs and coffee tables), there's a 'table-top' model on which I've seen a good review:
And remember that you need special lathe tools. For wood, the safe ones are long, with long handles - hence not cheap. Every time I consider buying a lathe, I get frightened by the start-up costs of tools and chucks and things.
The best way to find out is to find a local wood turner and go and have a chat. Failing this, buy a wood turning magazine and then go to any local woodwork show advertised.
R.
If you are seriously thinking about wood turning go to the Forums here
Your two other options are to seek out a local turner who would probably be quite happy to make the legs for a small number of beer tokens, or seek out a local wood turning club and learn to turn there.
Rob
Yes, of course. Although some of their skills are pretty diverse. I only suggested it as I thought it might be a good place to also ask. A lot of knowledge there, as there is here too.
================================================ Machine Mart do a range of woodworking lathes and tools:
Cic.
The hardest part is making four legs with the same pattern.
One option not yet mentioned is to go the other way and use something like a pole lathe. Startup cost a few quid. There are many other minimal cost lathe designs too, that are good enough for a fair few jobs.
NT
Sawn tapered legs (tablesaw and jig) are easier than turning.
Remember a lathe is for life, not just for coffee tables! For a long time I deliberately didn't own one, I just borrowed as needed, because once you have a lathe you're a woodturner and then you start turning stuff for the sake of it, not just to keep your tables off the ground. It's a slippery slope...
It's not trivial to learn turning. You need to _learn_ (book or demonstration) because some of the key rules and principles are far from obvious. For this reason a local turning club can be a very good idea. Then of course it's just a matter of cheap timber and practice.
A key part of turning is having a source of nice, free hardwood. There's no point in recycling pallets, the wood is too nasty. You need a lot of practice timber, so don't even think about using "turning blanks" until you're getting reasonable - they're too expensive to practice on. So instead you're hunting for prunings and fellings. So far this Christmas I've been given a sackful of ivy and a holly tree in kit-form. Bits of these will go back as the odd bowl or treen wine bottle stopper, and I'll hopefully get more from the same sources again. This also means you need access to saws, axes, rain-free storage racking and a bottle of wax emulsion for painting the ends. A woodburner is handy too, as you make a _lot_ of waste. You won't believe how much you cut off a log, but if it's all going on the fire, then who cares.
I turn much of this stuff roughly while it's green (i.e. to 1/2" walled rough bowls), wax it all over, leave it for a year and then finish turn them next year. In the meantime they shrink, go oval (that's why I leave the walls thick) and a couple split.
Main project for Christmas was a low table for a tiny nephew to draw at. The top was a frame of recycled pallet wood with a lot of round- over routering, but the legs needed inspiration. So one of the simplest "nice" turned legs is an 18th century pad-foot - the foot is circular, but the main leg is turned off-centre (easy). Fine Woodworking's web site has clear instructions on how to make one, and if you Google for it there's even a readable preview of the PDF if you haven't joined the site.
Books:
Keith Rowley
and Richard Raffan
are two good authors for starters.
Some other books are OK, if you already have them - Tage Frid's excellent cabinetry book
tells you much of the spindle turning you'll need to make furniture, but not how to make bowls.
Otherwise go easy on books. Get these and read them (which means doing some turning too) before you buy any David Springett!
The spindle turning / bowl turning distinction is important. Spindles have their grain longways, parallel to the lathe bed, which makes their turning easy and their strength good for furniture. "Bowls" are _any_ shape, where the grain is crossways. This means that turning them is continually "uphill and downhill" with the grain, so technique changes. You also end up making bowls (and other stuff), but rarely furniture. Many turners turn one or the other, as the techniques, tooling and even the lathes can become so different.
Tools:
As always, start out with some catalogues and a couple of magazines. Axminster & Record Power for starters.
Lathes need to be woodturning lathes, or else very heavily modified metalworking lathes (not worth the trouble).
You can't do woodturning on an engineer's lathe. You can "turn wood" on one, but it's different (and not much use).
Lathes are expensive, so again it's a good incentive to try them out on the club circuit. Mini lathes are of little use, except for making the sort of tiny treen that's its own reward, but no use as a table leg. Are you making tables, or occupying yourself turning fruit and mathoms? Table legs do often require a lathe that's longer than most.
Some of the better lathe deals around are Axminster's own-brand with the cast-iron beds. The AWVSLS900 (just over 200 quid)
or (better) the long-bed version with bundled chuck package deal
These are nice because they're good headstocks, on good beds and they use sensible headstock threads. There are 3 sizes of headstock thread:
3/4", 1" and 1 1/4" - if you use one of these (ie not 20mm) and ideally 1" or above, you can afford to buy expensive chucks for your first lathe, knowing you can use them after upgrading in the future. They also have variable speed, which is a really nice feature for woodturning.They're cheap lathes, and the headstock to bed attachment is less rigid that you'd like for turning big bowls. Also the stands are tinny, but easily replaceable.
You might start out turning between centres (but get a 2-prong rather than a 4-prong) or on a faceplate for bowls. A small faceplate is handy (and cheap) too and gives more clearance around bowls. Pretty soon though, you'll want a 4 jaw chuck, which is =A3100+ Get a well known one, with different jaws available, that will still be available in a few years time when you want the extras. 4 jaws are often quicker and simpler to work with than centres, especially for squared timber in furniture making. Prong centres or pin chucks for turning green prunings.
Or look up "pole lathe".
Tools:
Go easy on tools. They cost, and you don't need many.
The basic set is just a handful (4?), but you duplicate them in different sizes, according to the work, and also for bowl vs. spindle work. Then there's any number of bobbin furtlers and other gimmicks. Avoid those.
Start with the Axminster set
=A360 quid for a sensible set of useful tools, in good metal, with good handles, and at a great price.
Then buy another of the big gouges and the scraper...
Your lathe tools should be solid HSS, as they do wear and HSS reduces your sharpening time. You'll need a grinder. One with the 10 inch geared wet wheel is now very cheap. Tormeks are lovely, but what a price! Woodturning grinding is _not_ the precision art that plane or chisel sharpening is.
For spindle turning you need a big gouge with a fingernail grind on it, not a bowl grind. So get the big Axminster bowl gouge and reshape it (angle grinder) before sharpening it to a fingernail shape (it's all in the Raffan book).
Also convert the supplied round scraper to a square scraper (cheaper than a square scraper of equivalent quality). You might even (if you have a chuck and are doing bowls) grind up another as a dovetail scraper.
Then you need some other tools: a toolrack (plywood with holes in) and a good worklight. I like to work with a 150W halogen on a stand (cheap Screwfix) over my shoulder. It's also a good place to hang my toolrack
- the base is fixed rigid and made heavier too. The rack needs 6 or 8 holes, so that every tool for a job is there and in its own hole - saves hunting. Worklights are important - you need to put the light just where you need it, often swapping side to side.
Raffan and Frid will then explain the virtues of a carving cut rather than scraping, and the arcane art of "rubbing the bevel".
Sanding needs a bunch of decent paper. Cheap Hiomant rolls in a range of grits (I start 80, then go to 240) or Hermes J-flex (lovely stuff) for posh. Only use small pieces of sandpaper, in case of wrapping accident!
Finishes (IMHE) are mostly shellac (in tiny plastic drip bottles) or commercial friction polish, polished with wood shavings. Oil on figured timbers first, or waxes afterwards too.
Safety gear is a faceshield (check you can breathe easily without steaming up) and most importantly a turner's smock (easy home made). Short sleeves, no fastenings to catch, smooth fabric and high collar. I don't wear dust protection, because I don't make dust. When I do (scraping, tropicals, sanding) then I do.
That's a good point.
Pole lathes are great fun, and if you get the chance, have a go on one
- ideally for a green chairmaking course with someone like Gudrun Leitz.
A pole lathe is a back and forth lathe (rather than a "turns") that uses a bendy sapling and a rope, driven by a foot pedal. You provide the rest.
If you have a motor, then crap technique will scrape you there in the end. If you have to pedal it yourself, then it's a good incentive to learning carving technique straight off. You'll be a much better turner after a day on a pole lathe.
As a way of getting work done, bugger that.
Well, you can make a bungee pole lathe which is slightly easier than working as a bodger in a copse. And as for getting work done, every spindle in my home was made on a pole lathe and there are lots of them.
If you're anywhere near Derbyshire, go and visit Craft Supplies:
Another option not mentioned so far is the router lathe. These can turn out quite interesting looking legs with spiral flutes, rope twists etc as well as stuff that looks like it has been more traditionally turned.
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