Getting Started in Lathe Turning

It's fun for me when woodworkers like Paul come to my shop and a couple things about that. Paul was very gracious and called ahead of time. That's very important because you never know if I'm here and you never know what's going on. but we're gonna take advantage of Paul being here to talk a little bit about his woodworking. So like me, you're an avid turner. Yes, yes. I just love it. I had a real cheap lathe I bought from a warehouse-type thing. Yeah. That was, I got it for like 75 bucks or something and it just sat in my shop forever. And finally, last December, I started and I made a a Christmas ornament for my wife. And that's the only thing I've done ever. And then I knew that wasn't gonna work. It was just a pulley system. Yeah. And it was just too fast for what I wanted to do. So I took a class at Woodcraft in April with a friend of mine and we made a bowl and a pen, I have here. Well that's some luck, you've got that with you. That's very cool, zebra wood, right? Yep, yep, zebra wood. Nice. And then I bought a Rikon Mini Lathe and I've, so since May till now, I've been doing. I went to a wood symposium, turning symposium, for the, is it- AAW Yeah, AAW. Yeah. Back in September, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And learned a lot, saw a lot of techniques and stuff. Spend a bunch of money? Yes. Wood and a couple other things. But now I do cheat, at least I call it cheat, I don't do traditional tools. I use carbide. Yeah, that's okay. So, so this is playing into, and we actually didn't talk about this ahead of time, but it's playing into a lot of what I talk about when people ask, so a couple things. On lathes, when people ask for buying advice on that, what Paul's talking about is V-belt step pulley system for changing speed, versus you have an electronic variable speed on the new one. And that is such a nice way to go, because it's like a dimmer switch on lights. Right. And you can very easily- Yeah, I did a lot of research online and I, it just I wanted that versatility on the speed. It's a great feature. And then like what should I do first? How do I learn this stuff? The ability to go take a hands-on class. And I think turning, that's especially important. I mean, I've done a boatload of turning videos but when somebody is right here with you, there's so many body mechanics involved in the right body position, getting your hips in the right spot, and managing the chisel correctly, that that hands on class. So did you feel like taking that class was a quantum leap forward for you that, your turning? Yeah, we used carbide tools at the class, and it was just, I can do this. And so I- So a big feeling of accomplishment came outta that? Very big, yeah, yeah, that was the Woodcraft in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And one of the things that's nice with carbide 'cause that's another question that comes up is, it eliminates the aspect of turning, which is like, if you're gonna turn with high-speed steel tools, you also have to know how to sharpen those. And if you change your sharpening angle just a little bit, that also changes the way the tool cuts. So with carbide it's nice because it eliminates, like, all carbide tools cut the same in a scraping technique. So it eliminates that step of learning to sharpen and then learning to manage. Now I did start off, I watched all your videos on turning, you had three or four of 'em, and I watched 'em all, and I had a starter set of the traditional tools. Yeah. And I tried working with it, and I did and I, but I just took a log, actually it was a pine log, but it was, but so I tried it and I used the skew and I was able to do a little bit, I made some coves and I made some beads, but again it was a starter set and they got dull real fast. Yeah. And then I started looking at Wolverine and all the other sharpening systems and it's, and then I took the class, and then- And fell in love with carbide. Fell in love with carbide. Yeah, well and it's nice if you're not familiar with carbide, the carbide insert cutters when a portion gets dull you just turn the cutter to a- Yeah. Sharp section in your back in business. And I found that out. I had been using it for forever and then all of a sudden it wasn't cutting right. And I turned it, "Oh, that's how it's supposed to go." Yeah, so I waited too long before I turned the carbide. And so today when you get on the lathe, what are your, what do you enjoy doing? What do you making? I really liked doing bowls. You can take a log and, two and a half hours I can have a bowl and sanded and finished. It's such an accomplishment. I just started doing natural edge, and that's really cool. Yeah. And then that also helps when it, 'cause I'm turning green, and if you have a natural edge, ,if it deforms as it dries it doesn't really make much difference, because it's already not a true flat edge. Yeah, yeah. So it hides a lot of that deformity. Yeah, well and it's, and I'm the same with bowl turning, is that the reward is very fast. Yeah. And there aren't many things in woodworking where you can spend two or three hours making something and be done, outside of turning a bowl. And especially with green wood 'cause it cuts so fast. And with it going egg-shaped, what I like about that is like, I half jokingly say, "Anybody can make a round bowl, "but not everybody can make an egg-shape bowl." So when it distorts like that, people sometimes look at it- Yeah. And they're like, "Wow, "how'd you get this weird shape to it." Yeah, I have a bowl that was round and now it's oval. Yeah, yeah, that's fun. It's fun, yep. And any particular wood that you have come to really enjoy working with or really hate working with? No, 'cause I don't know, that's one of the things I find wood along the road, People have cut down their trees and it's on the curb, so I pick it up. Or I go up and knock on the door and ask if I can take from the wood pile. We went to a yard sale this summer, my wife and I, and the guy had a pile of wood out there and I asked, can I have some? And he said, "Sure." And my wife picked out one that's got a elbow or Y in it. Yeah. And so it had grain going to, and it just glimmers, it's, I have no idea what kind of wood it is, but it just, I made a plate and a bowl out of that section. Yeah, crotch pieces, where the grain comes together like that are almost always gonna be really dynamic. That's cool. Yeah, but I don't know how to tell what the wood is. I know it's, I did find some, it's got a little green in so I figured that was popular. Yeah. But I don't know how to tell the difference, what wood is what, so I just- So there's a, there's a really, "The Good Wood Handbook" is a really good book. It's available on Amazon. Really good pictures, species characteristics, and not just North American woods, a lot of different woods are in there, so. Yeah, right, That'd be a good resource. And then the other thing to kind of wrap this up, you were saying you just had to get a thing to go with your lathe. Yeah, I had to get a band saw. I had a small Delta it was about three and three-quarters high. You just can't process logs like that. So, in fact, I had, I bent a saw blade- Working it a little too hard? It crimped yeah, working too hard. So I bought a Rikon 13-inch high, so it's still laying on its side, I still have to put it together yet, but yeah, I'm looking forward to using that. They're such common companions really, if you're gonna turn, especially if you're gonna bowl turn, you really gotta have a band saw to rough your blanks out- Yeah. Ahead of time, and then too, if you're doing green and you're coming home with logs, which I'm also guilty of, I'll show you the garage when we're done. You need a band saw. You're gonna use like a saw mill- Right. In order to get that stuff started. Yeah. Well that's cool, Paul. Thanks so much for giving us- Yeah. A little look into your lathe journey. And this is good advice for people and it reinforces that concept of take a hands-on class and just kind of go from there. Yep, it's fun. It just, I can have a bowl done in two and a half hours and it's just so much fun. That's great, thanks so much. Yeah, thank you.