Best tool for certain lathe turning

[swampgator]

Fenced in a 14 acre pasture in about 1964 with freshly harvested locust. It is the hardest wood I ever put a chain saw to. That fence stood solidly until about 1998 when young whippersnapper decided he didn't want a fence there or cows in the field. Ripped up the posts and burned them. Whoa, Nellie! Should have sent him to a counselor. Next time I'm up in Chattanooga area, will look for some of this. Beautiful wood. Thanks for teaching me something about this beautiful wood.

[terrydowning]

I'm getting proficient making those drum sticks with the angle grinder and lathe. Now I'm thinking about another music oriented project for my Black Locust that I can make on a lathe. An object that functions as a woodblock but turned on a lathe will look something like a mushroom It can be hand held by the "stem", or mounted on a rail in an array of different sizes tuned to concert pitches and played like a marimba. To make these efficiently I need to remove a lot of material quickly. I'm thinking CHAIN SAW instead of angle grinder or chisels. I do quite a bit of chain saw work - some of it quite detailed. I realize that in order to run the teeth into the rotating material it will be necessary to stand on the back side of the machine.

I'm on my way to the post office right now to see if my new gilmer belt has arrived, (old one was totally shot and fell apart while making drum sticks) otherwise I'd know a little something more about whether this is a stupid thing to try or not. Any advice?

I still think sharp chisels with a lathe are the most efficient tool with turning wood. Once you have the shearing cut down removing material can be quite rapid. If you prefer the grinder and feel safe with it, knock yourself out. The only chain saw turning I've seen was on very large circumference objects and the lathe speed was very slow. I would not recommend it on a SS with out a speed reducer.

As for the black locust in a musical instrument one other factor comes to mind and that is the tonality of the wood. Marimbas and other wooden percussion instruments are typically made from Honduran Rosewood or African Paduak because of the warm tones, harmonics, and resonance produced when struck with a mallet. Honduran Rosewood is generally preferred hence the term "Rose Block" for the traditionally wooden hollowed out wood block. These are often done in plastic now. You would have to try the black locust and offer one to your music director to try out. If the tone is satisfactory, then a tuned set may be worth the effort. Tuning would be similar to tuning a marimba by getting the basic shape hollowed out and removing material with carving and sanding for final tuning. You may want to research marimbas tuning and sizing to determine the mass of material required for individual notes.


Just some thoughts

[deec]

I'd like to see a pix of that black locust handle.

I've made a few handles out of Black Locust and I'm very pleased with the results. My trusty 40 year old hatchet suffered a broken handle a while back and I couldn't find a suitable replacement so I whittled out one of my own.



I've got about 6 chords of Black Locust fire wood stowed away in the wood stacker but every time I feed the wood stove there's a piece or two that I toss aside into the project wood pile. That project pile is getting out of hand.

[deec]

So your chisels are KNOT sharp huh. The FIRST thing ya have to do when ya buy a new chisel is sharpen it and maybe change the bevel angle.

I guess I've been carving wood with a chain saw for too long. When you buy a new chunk of Oregon saw chain it's as sharp as it needs to be right out of the box. If you are good you can make a slight improvement but it is not necessary.

Now that I pay attention I see that the factory edges on my new chisels were atrocious. I did not have much success using a free hand approach and the sanding disc w/ 600 grit. I can see that a guide is necessary to get an accurate face. I used an oil stone - just free hand with no guide and was able to get about 1000% improvement over the factory edge. If I hone this another 50 times or so the divots from original grind might be gone. I had so much fun touching up these edges and benefiting from the results that I'm inspired to strive for perfection. After taking a closeup pic I can see that I still have a long ways to go. I'll probably have to get that SS sharpening guide just to get my chisels to where they should've been new out of the box. After that, hand honing with my Grandfather's Arkansas stone will do nicely.

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After working on my edges I was amazed at how effortless it is to move the edge through the wood, and just how much detail can be achieved with some practice.

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I have to say though that the angle grinder with a fresh 36 grit disc is the best way to rough out these sticks. I takes me only 2 minutes to go from square stock to a nearly shaped drum stick. Of that, 30 seconds or so is with no rotation, then with speed control on FAST, another 90 seconds and the tail, grip and shaft are ready to sand. After making a few dozen of these I can turn the diameters to within .032" by eyeball. It takes a bit longer to make the tip to my satisfaction though.

[JPG]

I've made a few handles out of Black Locust and I'm very pleased with the results. My trusty 40 year old hatchet suffered a broken handle a while back and I couldn't find a suitable replacement so I whittled out one of my own.



I've got about 6 chords of Black Locust fire wood stowed away in the wood stacker but every time I feed the wood stove there's a piece or two that I toss aside into the project wood pile. That project pile is getting out of hand.

Thank You!

My recent stump project included what I believe to be black locust(only gandered at the stump). I also salvaged a piece of cut off from a sink hole where cutoffs from many trees were dumped(same 'property/location'). I believe the small piece was a branch from the locust tree, but the grain and texture more closely resemble your handle. It achieved a nice mellow color after finishing wax(dark) resulted in a tan color.