Shopsmith Forums

I have a used Mark V. So my first attempts at turning were with a few short pieces of 2x2 lumber I had cut to size with the bandsaw. I mounted it with the spur drive and live center on the tailstock. I was following the manual to start roughing smaller than 2" at speed C. I was using the large shopsmith gouge that came with the Mark V. It worked ok till I hit a knot and then it would stop turning and make a squealing noise until I pulled the gouge away and then it'd spin again. I thought, OK I'm pushing too hard as IDK what I'm doing. This helped sometimes.

The issue I had though was basically at the knots I could not provide enough pressure to really turn that area and not have it stop spinning at least a few times. I guess I kind of expected more torque out of the shopsmith.

I did try and sharpen the chisel a bit on the sanding disk, which didn't really seem to make much difference.

So I guess my questions are

1. Is it a big problem that this happened? - I tried to minimize the time cause I can't imagine it's good for the machine to jam up like that.
2. Is it expected that knots in store lumber just cannot be turned on the shopsmith? Or is my machine no good / need something fixed?
3. Should I use a different chisel here or do something different from using the large gouge to make the square round? Is it something that is solved with technique?

The squealing noise is the Belt slipping on the pulleys inside the Headstock. Not a desirable thing to do for a long time. It is a safety feature to have the belt slip to avoid damage elsewhere in the Headstock. Excessive slipping indicates a need to adjust the Idler Shaft Assembly to tighten the Poly V (upper) Belt by turning the Eccentric. Excessive slipping can also be caused by a worn lower V belt.

While I am not an expert woodturner by any means, as for the knots their grain runs at a different angle then the rest of the wood and are generally harder. Hopefully someone more experienced in handling wood with knots will chime in on how to handle them.

It sounds like what happened is that the knot caused a jam which, together with the loose belt problem, caused the quill to stop turning. My first thought is that, after adjusting the belt tension as described by Russ, just avoid turning wood with knots. Depending on what you are turning, avoiding knots may be as simple as choosing different stock or may involve sawing and laminating clear pieces. I think that knots are likely to have an edge blunting effect on even a well sharpened gouge, so they are best avoided. If the design of the intended piece does include or feature a knot, it might be possible to deal with it by using a heavy gouge and a very light touch. Someone with experience turning knots will have to chime in here.