Shopsmith Forums

I have never used a lathe before. i have read a few books on it and watched a few online videos. i know alot of people recomenend starting with spindles but my shopsmith was missing the tailstocks cup center so i took a piece of firewood about 5" thick and cut it to about 7" long and mounted it to the faceplate ( i screwed into end grain and im pretty sure thats not a good idea but i used some long screws and it was a pretty light piece)


ok so now my piece is on and spinning at the lowest speed. my tool rest is as close to the wood as possible without rubbing. i take a shallow gouge and place it against the rest and slowly bring the bevel into contact with the wood and BAM!! the chisel almost gets ripped from my hand and the tip is bent almost 45deg. i know that catches can happen but before my super basic bowl was finished 3 of my chisels were bent all crazy


there were times when the chisel seemed not to cut and sometimes it would just burn the wood


heres the kicker. i was using a 17 dollar set of chisels i bought from Menards
They arent hss and im sure they are dull. i know i should get better ones but i bought these thinking that i could use them to learn the basics and build as i go. now im afraid to spend money on good ones as i would be super pissed if i ruined a expensive tool.


i had the tool 90 deg to the work... is this correct?

if i understand correctly the idea is to put the chisel against the rest and then lower the tip so the bevel of the gouge rubs the wood and then slowly raise the tip until the edge shaves the wood?

am i missing something other than better chisels?

When you are doing your setup make sure that your toolrest is below the center of the piece that you are trying to turn. THe angle of the tool should never be pointing downwards, always pointing upwards is where you want that tool if you don't you are looking forward to a whole lot of trouble.

Dan

I think you got stung by the jumping in syndrome.

Pre turning here's what I would tackle.

You MUST, MUST, MUST have sharp tools. You're going to have to buy, beg, borrow, or steal some sort of sharpening tool for the tools you bought. Sharp is sharp when you can put the tool gently against the wood you hope to turn and slightly rotate the wood and generate a shaving. If you can't do this - keep sharpening.

Next I'd check your setup. Make sure that the drive center aligns with the tail stock, make sure your quill is locked, headstock is locked, and tool rests and carriage are locked - then give things a wiggle - there should be no play.

Next I'd trim your "firewood" to be about 4-5 inches square (unless you have also bought a live center/cup center) for the tailstock. And then trim off the corners so you are as round as possible before beginning. Trying to face plate turn rough stock longer than 5" without a live center will be frought with problems. In general - if you can use the tail stock - use it.

Do not dip your roughing gouge down past the center line and always have one edge above the other - down side in the direction you are moving the tool.

I would add that you should buy the best tools that you can afford, and get yourself a couple of good books on the subject.

Three books which helped me enormously were

Woodturning - A Foundation Course Keith Rowley ISBN 0-946819-20-3
Woodturning Methods Mike Darlow ISBN 0-85442-086-X
The Practice of Woodturning Mike Darlow ISBN 0-7134-7999-X

Any one (or all) of these books will save you hours of frustration and possibly injury. Woodturning is not easy at first but when you begin to master it it is magic!

Keep at it - you'll get there.

Ray:)

Another thing to do, if you have a woodcraft or similar store anywhere near you, look to see if they have any classes, woodcraft for instace has bowl turning as well as pen turning classes avaliable, i would take one of these prior to trying it yourself, the instructor might notice a life threating error your about to make, or at least something that would cause you some pain.

I would have looked up any wood turning clubs near you, but you didn't fill in your location on your profile. We won't hunt you down if we find out where you are located... I promise. We will, however, be able to assist you better if you do.

Thanks for all the responses. Ill have a while to think things over before i can try again as my gilmer belt broke . I ordered a new belt, hope they arent back ordered for months.

Speaking about the Lathe. It is recommended that you not change speeds without the motor running. Is it okay (not saying it is right just okay) to change speeds with nothing attached to the headstock? For instance: going from TS to lathe. Take off the sawblade, turn on, power down to lathe speed, turn off. Then attach mandrel, turn on, make pen, turn off. I guess if you know you are going to change over; then you can power down before you turn off the SS. Sometimes I am doing a project and then I have to sand or drill after I turned the SS off.