Woodturning Lathe

SETTING UP THE LATHE FOR TURNING BETWEEN CENTRES

Once the wooden blank is prepared for the lathe, it is time to attach the blank onto the lathe. To do this, 4 stages should be followed.

Line up the vee groove and the indentation on the blank with the forked centre, then tap the other end of the blank with a mallet.
To secure the wooden blank in place, the tailstock, with either a revolving centre of dead centre, is moved into position and locked using the locking handle.
Slacken the fixing screw, then turn the hand wheel to make fine adjustments to the position of the revolving/dead centre before tightening the fixing screw.
Adjust the tool rest into position then lock securely in place.

The blade of the turning tool should be supported just above or below the centre axis of the wood.

TURNING TOOLS AND PROFILES

Most workpieces will start off as a prepared octagonal blank which should then be turned to produce a regular cylinder. Once the blank is uniformly shaped into a cylinder, various cylindrical forms can be created using 4 different lathe tools: gouge, parting chisel, skew chisel and scraper.

GOUGE

The gouge is a good general purpose lathe tool. There are two main types of gouge, the roughing gouge and the spindle gouge. It's the roughing gouge that is commonly used for removing waste material quickly (roughing): for example, to turn the blank into a cylindrical shape. The thinner spindle gouge is used for more intricate details such as concave curves.

SKEW CHISEL

The skew chisel is used to cut various intricate, detailed cuts into the wooden blank such as vee grooves and bobbins.

PARTING CHISEL

As the name suggests, one of the main uses of a parting chisel is to separate finished work from the waste material. It can also be used to create square shoulders and steps.

SCRAPER

Although a scraper can be used like the gauge to remove waste material and create a basic cylindrical shape, it is mainly used to create a smooth surface prior to sanding. It can also be used to create concave curves, such as hollows.

WORKING TO A GIVEN DIAMETER AND A SPECIFIED LENGTH

As you work through the course, you will be expected to provide evidence that you can turn a workpiece to a given diameter and to specified lengths stated in a working drawing and/or to match a template to a tolerance of ± 1mm.

FACEPLATE TURNING

The other basic type of turning carried out on a wood lathe is faceplate turning. The most common type of wood turning projects produced on a faceplate are wooden bowls and serving platters. Just like turning between centres, the solid piece of wood turned needs to be prepared prior to it being mounted onto the lathe. To prepare the wood for faceplate turning, the wood is cut into an octagonal shape. the faceplate is positioned centrally onto the wood and is fixed in place with wood screws. The final stage is to attach the faceplate directly onto the spindle of the headstock.

THINGS TO DO AND THINK ABOUT

State the 4 main parts of a wood lathe.
State the purpose of a forked centre.
State a reason for using a revolving centre rather than a dead centre.
State the 4 main stages when preparing a blank to be turned between centres.
State the name of the 4 different lathe tools and theit uses.

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