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My goal had been to make ALL of my Christmas gifts this year, but I'm coming up well short of that. I am going to make a couple "Cowboy Coolers" for family. And, inspired by a Wood Whisperer viewer project, I plan on making a display case for dad's Marine Corps medals. I want to make something for mom too, but... nothing has inspired me. Anybody have any ideas or suggestions? It would need to be something not very complicated. My tools are limited - just the two Shopsmith 10ERs and a Craftsman table saw. I doubt I'll have my bandsaw or Mark 5 operational in time. My skills are limited too. As is my budget!

heathicus wrote:My goal had been to make ALL of my Christmas gifts this year, but I'm coming up well short of that. ........ I want to make something for mom too, but... nothing has inspired me. Anybody have any ideas or suggestions? ........

Heath - Check your email. File wouldn't upload. I think mom will like them.
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I just got finished reading the PDF you emailed me. Great idea, Mike! I like it! My wife might want a set too...

Nice idea! Not sure it would work for my mother though -- too windy where she lives.. However, it would work for my wife..

Heath,

How about salt and pepper shakers (grinder)?

a1gutterman wrote:Heath,

How about salt and pepper shakers (grinder)?

I had actually considered that. But maybe next year after I've had some experience with turning. At this point, I've still NEVER turned anything. I'm actually a little nervous about about (yet anxious to give it a try).

Another thing I have to consider is the lack of a local source of wood other than Lowes and Home Depot. I visited a closing cabinet shop a couple weekends ago and I asked him where he got his wood. All he would tell me was that, even as a small business, it was VERY hard for him to find rough cut wood locally. The few places available only want to sell bulk. I also talked to a woodworker who had set up at a local small town festival last weekend (he had some AMAZING work). He said he had to mail order most of his wood, otherwise he had to drive a few hours away.

A few things, one i was wondering if i might get that pdf emailed to me, that project looks interesting.

And now for the helpfull part.

For local sources of wood, at least around where i live i have found several people who have bandsaw sawmills, you can search the yellowpages for bandsaw mills or some variation on that and might find something, the guy i get most of my lumber from said that he and several others have a network going and if one of them doesnt have it, another likely will. And the prices are very good, usually $0.75 per board foot for oak, cherry and cedar. but the price does vary a little.

If you are interested in getting into turning, here is my recomindation, first search youtube and the web for how to videos, and while your at it, look around for a local woodcraft store, or turning club, google should work for all of that, the other thing to look for is, check craigslist for free trees, logs, wood, lumber you name it, i have gotten allot of wood for nothing more then having to go get it, and most of it was already cut into manageable sizes.

If you want to get into turning, the best type of wood to turn, and nobody can say differently is, free wood

wildcard wrote: oak, cherry and cedar.
If you want to get into turning, the best type of wood to turn, and nobody can say differently is, free wood

Do you have a preferance on which wood to turn? Oak, cherry, etc. I know pine is probally no good.

I am no expert when it comes to turning, but here is what i have learned.

When it comes to turning, you can turn anything, if you can find some seasoned (dry) pine, then that is really good pratice wood, and you can actually make some nice things out of it, you can also glue together 2x4's and 2x6's and get a lot of practice bowls, spindles, hollow forms or what ever you want. The advantage is, pine is very soft and turns easily. Just make sure it is dry, cause i am sure you have at some point in your life cut down a pine tree, or at least a limb from one, and you noticed all that sap. Now imagine that much sap, spinning right in front of you and onto you, you'll be covered head to toe before you know it. If you wanted to learn spindle work, you can rip 2x4's down to 2x2's and cut them at say 8-12 inchs, you can do the math for how many you can get out of an 8' board.

When it comes to the other woods, each one is different, but you use the same steps, you just might have to work on one type longer then another. but to answer your direct question, Oak turns ok, it is fiberous so you will need to sand it more then softer woods, cherry turns very well, cedar is soft as butter when turning, but is also really brittle, and you will break it very easily if you are not carefull. Black walnut is super hard, but will produce some very good looking things, maple is pretty much in the middle when it comes to turning. red elm, is allot like cherry, sycamore is as well, cocobolo is very oily but turns really easy, it will chip and break though as it also is brittle. poplar is about as close to pine as you can get without being pine, and that is about it as far as what i have turned.

Here are a few links to sites that will provide you with many answers

http://www.woodturningonline.com/index.php
Great site that has many how to's, as well as projects, and plans for shaprening jigs.

http://woodcentral.com/
Under the articles category they have many how to's and plans for how to make many lathe accessories.

http://bobhamswwing.com/index_of_articles.htm
Another great website with nothing but projects, but he has good how to's and some videos

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/catego ... st/page/2/
a couple of very good videos on how to make a bowl and a pen, look at podcasts, #26 for the pen, & #7 for bowl
You will also i am sure find at least one or two of the other podcasts usefull, but not for turning.

And there is a great book that is for beginers, amazon has it for cheaper then anywhere else i have found, it is called Woodturning: Two books in one.
It has pretty much everything you need to get started, and it has how to go from a tree to a wood blank for whatever you want to make, as well as how to use the tools, and many projects you can do for practice.

So I'm thinking pretty seriously about building those lanterns for mom. She has a nice big covered porch that her and dad spend a lot of time on watching the sunset and listening to the Whippoorwills. I think she'd really like them.

The plans call for Mahogany. I don't have any Mahogany and don't know where to get any. Besides, I'm trying to stay cheap. I do have a small stack of (Aromatic?) Red Cedar. This may be a dumb question, but remember I'm a total newbie at this stuff. Is there any reason this wouldn't work?