Acquire tools over time is a way to increase you abilities to turn. Not all equipment is necessary, but many tools and pieces of equipment will improve you abilities as a turner.

Economical Ways to Expand Your Chisel Collection

Even general woodworking tool companies, such as Woodworker’s Supply have over 100 different turning chisels. Suppliers which specialize in turning tools, such as Packard Woodworks, or Craft Supplies each have over 300 different chisels! Why are there so many types of chisels? Which ones do you really need?  Last time, I wrote about tools for getting started in spindle turning. I mentioned that there are five chisels that you need. Remember that in spindle turning, the grain of the wood is always parallel to the axis, and its orientation does not change as the work turns. The attack is always downhill, and the cutting action is always across the grain. This dictates that we use shallow gouges to scoop out material across the grain, and skew chisels to slice the end grain off cleanly.

Making a tool rest

Most turners make do with a limited number of tool rest because of the expense.  Once you start making your own you discover the proper tool rest can make life a lot easier.  Actually it is not a difficult or expensive venture.   It is not necessary to have a welder as you can take the pieces to a welding shop or muffler shop and they will do it at a reasonable price.    Since I do professional turning I often need special fixtures and tool rests so I used these needs as an excuse to take a welding course at the local junior college for $60 and buy a very nice stick welder from a neighbor for $200.  After the wife spent $1500 at the vet I bought a Lincoln 195 MIG welder as a consolation prize.  Now I wonder how I lived without a welder.  With all the different tool rests I have made over the last four years even with buying the welders it is cheaper than having them made.

Grinding the fingernail Grind on the One-way Wolverine System

I was amazed at how clean of a cut they were able to accomplish with just a gouge, no scraping or sanding. Well after extensive research and years of training, I can confirm they can still accomplish the same with just a gouge.  Since I wanted to learn how t use the fingernail grind in my woodturning, I needed to learn how to grind this profile. After all, if the grind isn't consistent, you will have great difficulty in learning to use it.  What we are here to talk about is how to grind the fingernail gouge and how to do it consistently. I am going to assume that you know how to use a grinder, and that you have properly installed a One-way Wolverine grinding system and that your grinding wheels are true, faced and in good working order.

Lathe Operated Drum Sander

We built the pictured drum sander for about $44 in parts. The unit is operated by the lathe motor, can be removed easily and is quite compact. The specifications we give are for a sanding unit to fit a Jet midi lathe. You will have to modify the dimensions to fit your particular lathe and the diameter and length of your drum.  The base plate, tilt board, and side plates are all made from ¾ plywood—Home Depot sells ¼ sheets at a reasonable price, and one quarter sheet was enough for our unit. A 9 inch width for the sander frame was about max for our lathe.

Shop Made Drum/Thickness Sander

While researching information on building ukuleles I came across a discussion on shop made drum sanders. I contacted one of the participants regarding the sander and a ukulele builder from Hawaii contacted me and offered to send me a copy of the plans. I am in the beginning stages of easing into ukulele building so I thought I would take a crack at constructing the unit. I have seen plans for larger drum sanders that seemed very complicated. This plan is really basic and didn't seem like it would be a huge undertaking. The following information recaps the construction process including some of the problems I encountered.

Building Your Own Thickness Sander

The drum sections are cut from 3/4" MDF using a router and template. Most of the frame is also MDF with oak for critical pieces. MDF prices here are reasonable, about $17 a sheet, but some places it's as high as $60. Standard 3/4" plywood will do for the frame, but the material for the drum needs to be solid. Because standard plywood has voids I would not use it for the drum. The sand paper is held to the drum by a wood dowel cut flat on one side. It fits in a hole drilled in each section of the drum. There's an arm on the ends of the dowel with springs to tension it. Most of the drum sections are hollow to reduce weight. Some are solid with a hole for the 1" diameter shaft. The holes need to be accurately placed so that the drum will run true. The drum is trued after the entire sander is complete by gluing sand paper to the carriage and sanding it. The sand paper stays on the carriage to keep the material from sliding around.

Home-made Thickness Sander

Before going much further, it is important to note that what results here is a real power tool, driven by a 1/3-1 HP motor that is capable of producing a variety of injuries very quickly if safe work habits are not observed. Since most folks tend to feed wood toward the drum which is rotating toward the user, a slip of the hands can result in the wood being ejected toward the user at injurious speeds! Don't use this when tired, under medication which causes drowsiness, etc. The author writes this article as a community service, but assumes no legal responsibility for the final functionality of this machine.

Beall Treen Mandrel

Turning wooden bottles/boxes just got way easier.   The Beall Treen Mandrel is ingenious in the simplicity of its design. That design, executed with high-end materials and super precise machining makes turning small, thin-walled boxes simple and safe. Even intricate, snug-fitting lids suddenly became easy to create with turning tools I already had. The Beall Treen Mandrel works equally well on full-sized of mini lathes. I turned nearly all of the bottles/boxes during the evaluation on my JET Mini Lathe. I turned one bottle/box on my full-sized lathe just to be sure there were no problems there and there were none.