Learning Turning

[sainty]

I've been looking at the turning forum in another place and i fancy having a go. I rarely have a chance to do anything for myself because if i'm in the workshop I'm doing proper work so I'm looking at it as a chance to get a quick fix for fun. If i learn a bit along the way, all the better.

Every time I have a go it ends up in a bit of a mess so I'm looking for a few pointers of where to start.

I dont have time to go to a club, so it ideas for practice, timber types etc would be good.

[mtr1]

You've tried here I presume

[sainty]

cheers Mark, I will have a look.

[paulchapman]

Every time I have a go it ends up in a bit of a mess so I'm looking for a few pointers of where to start.

I reckon the best, and fastest, way to learn is to get an experienced turner to give you a few lessons. If you understand wood and how tools cut, then learning the basics doesn't take long. I'd never done any turning before but got a friend to show me the basics and in four sessions produced these










Cheers

Paul

[studders]

I've been teaching myself for a bit now and I'm a crap, very impatient learner, especially when things go wrong.
Two things helped me enormously... Getting HSS reasonable quality Chisels and this book.
Then it's just a case of practice, lots of it.
I rehandled all my Chisels, whether they need it or not. Made for good practice as I could see any improvements. I don't think any two of them are the same though, apparently that takes even more practice.

[Doug]

I reckon the best, and fastest, way to learn is to get an experienced turner to give you a few lessons.

Yep i`d second that, just a shame you appear to live in France Stu

& get the book Studders recommends, but you know that already


I`ll try & sort a boat out & sail down mate

Good luck.

Douy.

[jaco]

Hello Stu!
Welcome to the turners (there are but a few of us here) and don't knock the mushrooms, they are excellent at honing your turning skills.
Use green wood from the garden, costs nothing!


Look at the following books:-
Turning Wood - Richard Raffan
Turned Wood Projects - John Hiebert + others
Turning Boxes - Richard Raffan
The Art of Fine Woodturning - S. Gary Roberts
Woodturning - Phil Ions - has got 2 sections 1) Techniques 2) Step by step instructions on 22 projects.
Turning for Furniture
Creating Furniture Parts On Your Lathe
Ernie Conover
ISBN 1-56158-117-8

Cheers
Phil

[mrgrimsdale]

More books the better. They all have something to offer (or to ignore!)
One of my favourites is "Wood Turning" Percy W Blandford - little and old fashioned, without too much stuff about gadgetry. Make your own gadgets.

Main thing is practice. Don't be afraid to waste a lot of wood and burn all your mistakes. Start on any old scraps - just practice simple things like making a cylinder, then go on to a much more difficult task - making two identical cylinders!
I wouldn't bother with special purchases, expensive bowl blanks, until you have got the hang of it on scrap wood.

[mrgrimsdale]

Having a go this morning - little cupboard knobs.
Tips of the day;
1
for sizing the spigots a spanner is the ideal tool. I want 16mm dia and I'm using a bicycle cone spanner which gives me 13, 14, 15, 16mm on one tool. Calipers are too pointy to apply to the spinning wood. An adjustable spanner is less useful because you end up checking it every few minutes.
2
freehand sharpening is really very useful with turning i.e. you just freshen up an edge with a quick 2 second dab over the stone every few minutes. This also avoids using the grindstone which can spoil turning tools by overheating. If you must grind then a belt sander is better; runs cooler and easier to control shapes.

[jaco]

Stu,
Go and have a look at this site, they have a few active turners.
Cheers
Phil

http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/wood ... es-f6.html

[promhandicam]

On a similar theme, I was wondering if there were any resources on making tissue boxes

[jaco]

Stu,
Have a look here.

http://www.woodturningonline.com/index.php

[jaco]

Stu,

Check out some of the work displayed .............

http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/some ... 43173.html

[sainty]

First things first - I received a very generous gift of 3 books and a skew chisel through the post - thanks very much, you know who you are and there's a couple of pints with your name on it.

I have been reading through the books trying to pick up some of the technical side of things but then I needed to get some tools out.

Well after a few hours here and there of messing about this is what has happened so far.

First things first I sharpened my chisels, good place to start. Then I selected some maple from the rack and had a bit of a go. Roughed it out no problems, used a skew to clean it up, nice finish. Then had a mess around for a while just using the skew and spindle gouge, no plan just getting used to the tools.

Then I had another go, maple again. I had noticed that my spindle gouge didn't look like it was the correct shape - too square, so i had a go at it on the grinder to make it more finger nail shaped. Same roughing process, but this time I marked out some coves to have a go at working to a line. This was a much more satisfying yet frustrating way of doing things. Satisfying, because about 4 out of 7 turned out pretty good, but on the other 3 i had a lot of trouble with the spindle gouge catching - which i didn't before (the skew was the problem before but I'm getting better with that).

Next attempt was a piece of cherry that I tried to make a goblet shape from. Nice clean finish, decent shape quite happy then I just started turning other shapes out of it for fun.

Last piece of timber was a piece of oak, much more tricky to get a consistent finish - so more practice required.


Summary: In future I will try and work to a plan, to have something in mind and possible marked out before having a play. I now have worked out a goal to try and achieve a clean finish before resorting to sanding. If I can do that I will be happy!

[jaco]

Stu,

Some pics??