Shopsmith Forums

I have an old ShopSmith that my father bought used 20 or 30 years ago. I am trying to cut circles on the top of molding for my windows in the 1905 brick house I live in. My molding is 4.25 inches wide, and the header blocks are 4.5" square. And I am trying to lathe cut simple circular shapes on them. But I am having trouble using an angled cutter knife (ShopSmith brand) cutting these oak blocks. The pattern is about 2.75" in diameter with 3 rounded grooves in them. A 3/4" rounded button in the center and two surrounding rounded shapes around that center button. And it is all oak wood. Its real hard to turn down, and sometimes I get big chunks blow out. I would appreciate any recommendations or ideas on how to do this. I have about 40 of these blocks to go for the tops and bottoms of doors and tops of all of my windows.

If you are new to lathe wood work you will have problems using an angled skew chisel. Try using the scooped out (roughing chisel) first. Then use the smaller scooped out chisel (spindle chisel).

In order to successfully use the skew - first read up on skew use, then practice on scrap wood. Once familiar with it - the skew is excellent for smoothing cuts and making beads. you want to avoid using the heal of the skew.

There are more experienced wood turners here and I suspect they will want to comment here.

In the meantime here a a couple of sites that may help.
http://woodworking.about.com/od/woodturning/p/SkewChisel.htm

http://www.cnew.org/tips_techniques/spindle_turning.pdf

P.S. yep! You are probably trying to make rosettes. There are special drill bits available to make them in blocks of wood. http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5434&site=ROCKLER&filter=rosette%20cutters That's a lot easier than trying to mill identical ones on a lathe.

Yes, the Rockler Rosett tool appears to be what I need. I guess maybe the lathe is not a good tool to try to make these with. But I notice in the videos presented that they evidently are not using oak to turn a rosett, but some soft easy to turn wood. But the price of those Rockler tools is pretty high. I could probably just go buy them already made for the price of the tool. And just put this ShopSmith gadget back away where it sat for 20 years unused at my father's house.

mountain4don wrote:I have an old ShopSmith that my father bought used 20 or 30 years ago. I am trying to cut circles on the top of molding for my windows in the 1905 brick house I live in. My molding is 4.25 inches wide, and the header blocks are 4.5" square. And I am trying to lathe cut simple circular shapes on them. But I am having trouble using an angled cutter knife (ShopSmith brand) cutting these oak blocks. The pattern is about 2.75" in diameter with 3 rounded grooves in them. A 3/4" rounded button in the center and two surrounding rounded shapes around that center button. And it is all oak wood. Its real hard to turn down, and sometimes I get big chunks blow out. I would appreciate any recommendations or ideas on how to do this. I have about 40 of these blocks to go for the tops and bottoms of doors and tops of all of my windows.

I have made rosettes on my Shopsmith in lathe mode, but I used the duplicator attachment and cut them from poplar. Here is a link to a post with a picture of one of the ones I did.

SDSSmith wrote:I have made rosettes on my Shopsmith in lathe mode, but I used the duplicator attachment and cut them from poplar. Here is a link to a post with a picture of one of the ones I did.

That is exactly what I was trying to cut on mine. But in oak wood like the rest of the trim I am making. And how much and where might I get one of these "lathe duplicators?" And I would like to see a picture of the setup to do this kind of work. I was thinking that maybe I should be using a small gouge to start the grooves in the block and then finish up with the angled chisle to form the rounded humps and the deep grooves between them? Instead of trying to cut the entire thing with the angled chisle cutter?

beeg wrote:Forget about using the skew (angled chisle cutter) on this project. Us your gouge and parting tools.

I tried using the small gouge to start the indentation between the humps, but had trouble with it grabbing into the wood and then I had to go back to the skew and try to salvage the "rounded hump" between the grooves. But maybe I am turning it too slow? I have it almost at the slowest speed? Or are the ShopSmith tools too large to do this with? I haven't tried using the parting tool yet? Maybe I need some instruction or videos on how to do this kind of work. Of course my wife expect all of this to just get done in a minimum amount of time without spending any more money for tools.

mountain4don wrote:That is exactly what I was trying to cut on mine. But in oak wood like the rest of the trim I am making. And how much and where might I get one of these "lathe duplicators?" And I would like to see a picture of the setup to do this kind of work. I was thinking that maybe I should be using a small gouge to start the grooves in the block and then finish up with the angled chisle to form the rounded humps and the deep grooves between them? Instead of trying to cut the entire thing with the angled chisle cutter?

Here is a link to the duplicator chapter in Power Tool Woodworking For Everyone. Shopsmith sells them and they come up on Ebay.

charlese wrote:
http://www.cnew.org/tips_techniques/spindle_turning.pdf

Cool, thanks for the PDF info, saved that in my woodworking folder for a later date. Eventually I want to get back to turning a little wood. Always looking for tips and info on techniques.