To Improve Your Woodturning

Transcription

1 To Improve Your Woodturning Things to make / buy / do before turning 1 Use measuring masking tape on tool rest 2 Outlet strip on lathe 3 Lighting - So many LED solutions! 4 Get taps to make lots of our own tools / jigs 5 Sanding disks 6 Use of sticky back foam sheets 7 Scroll chuck keys 8 Chuck key top ground to hex 9 Make or purchase a working platform for your banjo 10 Squeeze bottles During Turning 11 Curtains help to keep your work area clean 12 Register marks on chuck and wood tenons 13 Protect your lathe from finishes and paints 14 Use Swifter to take the dust off face shields and safety glasses 15 When sanding or doing finishes, keep chuck key in banjo 16 Do NOT put water based finishes over non-acrylic base coats Maintenance Items 17 Clean threads on spindle and live center 18 Clean chuck mating surfaces - avoid anti-seize rings 19 Treat threaded parts with anti-seize 20 Put silicone spray on lathe ways Tom Coghill March 2, 2019

2 1. Measuring Masking Tape For years I have put blue painters tape on my tool rest and marked off inches on that tape for reference. In the past two months I discovered they locally sell masking tape that looks like a tape measure! This stuff is great for use on the tool rest, and anywhere you need rough measurements. As a turner I can now quickly make uniform tenons so that I get the most grip from my chucks. Do not put the tape on the TOP of the tool rest, put it just below on the support structure. (I found this at a local hobby store for about $2.50) 2. Power Strip Attach a power strip to the back of your lathe or where it will not be in your way, but still near your work. In this one power strip, I plug in power sanders (drill motor), wood carvers and engravers, wood burner tools, and always the lights I use when I am turning. This allows me to use ONE SWITCH to turn off everything. If my lights are out, everything is turned off. This makes sure that all my electrical items are powered down when I step away from the lathe. Handy to have and safety item too!

3 3. Lighting With all the LED lighting solutions on the market, there is NO REASON for you to be working in dim light. There are 110 volt and battery operated units that have clamp or magnetic bases. LEDs give lots of light, they give off little heat and are more resilient than incandescent or CFL bulbs. 4. Use Taps to make Tools Get taps to cut internal threads for both your spindle and tailstock sizes. With these you are able to make countless jigs, tools and time saving items. These can be for vacuum chucking, jam chucks, soft touch centers and many other items.

4 5. Sanding Disks Hardware Specialties sells 12 inch diameter, adhesive backed sanding disks. These can be put on particle board and used on your lathe. Between a center in your tailstock and the open jaws of your chuck (making it flat), cut a spigot in the back, very near the diameter of your closed jaws. Turn the blank round using this recess, then pencil a circle very near the diameter of the sanding disk. Stick the disk to the board and mark the back in the grit of the sandpaper. BE CAREFUL of your lathe speed when using these. 6. Sticky Back Foam Sticky back foam is sold at most craft stores (or online). If you are fortunate, you will find large (9x12) sizes. The foam is about 1/8 inch thick. This is great for not only vacuum chuck gaskets, but also soft touch tips, friction chucks and one can even use it for some tool handles. It is available in all sorts of colors.

5 7. Scroll Chuck Keys The small scroll chuck I have uses two short metal bars to tighten/loosen the jaws. These allow little leverage. I found an inexpensive long-handled screwdriver that has the same shaft diameter as the scroll chuck bars. Now I have lots of leverage. I had the same problem with leverage with my stronghold chuck. I modified the top of the round handle into a hex head. It now fits a 14 mm socket. When turning green wood, I use a 24 inch bar and I am now able to get a good grip on the tenon. 8. Chuck Key Modification Also see Tip # 12 to see how I use the extra leverage to get good registration on returned bowl dry tenons.

6 9. Working Platform in Banjo Base You should build a low cost work table to fit your banjo or purchase a commercially available one (see chefwarekits.com). This tool allows for quick accurate layouts, consistent pattering and a stable way to add controlled embellishments to your turning. Having the lathe HOLD the turning while you work is a great advantage - USE IT! PS - include a shaft collar to the platform post to have it default to rest at center height. (Collar -McMaster Item 9414T19 - $2.85) (Chefwarekits - "bweaveplatform" - $45) 10. Squeeze Bottles Squeeze bottles come in all sorts of sizes. 1 ounce to 12 ounce. All are inexpensive and readily available in cake decoration sections of craft stores. These I use for finishes, making up paint appliers, especially when mixed with other materials such are texture enhancing products. Mike Hosaluk uses these to add colored spikes to some of his whimsical turnings.

7 11. Its Curtains for You! I do my woodturning in the garage. This causes a problem with wood shavings landing all over the nearby workbench and stored tools. I purchased clear shower curtains and hang them from conduit (~3/4 inch). The clear curtains allow me to see around me while keeping the shavings off the benches. This shortens my cleanup time substantially. 12. Put Register Marks on your Chuck and Tenons This is a bigger deal that it appears! Runout is acceptable at times, but at other times it is unacceptable and I found this way to minimize it. When re-turning, set indent marks deep in the tenon and put a registration mark on the tenon where you place a registration mark on your chuck. This simple step will reduce runout by 50% or more.

8 13. Protect your Lathe We often apply finishes to turnings while they are turning on the lathe. This practice drips and drops finishes, paint and water onto your lathe, specifically the ways of the lathe. To keep your lathe in tip-top order, cover your lathe with the 3M painters drop cloth material. This stuff has a lot of static cling that will make it stick to your lathe and protect the lathe from becoming covered with finishes and paints. Likewise you can protect your banjo with that blue painters tape. 14. Swifter makes Quick Work of Static Dust CAN YOU SEE ME NOW? Are you frustrated by the way your safety glasses or face shield get covered with dust? Keep a swifter handy and use it to remove the unwanted dust from your glasses and shields. (Kudos to Rudy for this tip)

9 15. Chuck Storage When I am sanding or putting finishes on bowls, I move a lot of different bowls and turnings on and off the lathe. I am not using the tool rest for any of this work and remove it from the banjo because the tool rest gets in the way. I found a great location to store the chuck key - That hole in the banjo left by the removed tool rest! I know this may be a small deal, but this really does save me time and I am not left looking for where I set the thing down last Don t Do THIS!! I presented finishes in a past demonstation. In that demo I was asked if these water based finishes work over non-water based finishes. As I recall I said that I thought these finishes would work. I WAS WRONG! DON'T DO IT! Recently I spent a LONG time, slowly building a wonderful acrylic finish on an "artistic" bowl. Layer after layer I worked. After applying each successive layer the bowl was left on the lathe S L O W L Y T U R N I N G so the finish was smooth and perfect... Then while complting the final step of polishing it up REAL PRETTY... it blistered, then pealed like a snake in the jungle. Just... don't do it...

10 17. Clean Threads Carefully clean the spindle and the threads if your live center in the tailstock. Removing the gunk and built up dust stuck to the threads will make threading chucks and other items quick and easy. Purchase and use a brass brush (inexpensive and will not damage your threads). After brushing, use a cloth or paper towel to do the final cleaning. 18. Keeping Chuck True THIS IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND What makes your lathe/chuck run true is the smooth mating surfaces on the spindle and the chuck adapter. These surfaces need to remain SPOTLESS. If your get a burr or metal blemish on either of these, you will need to CARFULLY return it to a new condition.

11 19. Anti-Seize Compound Loctite Quickstix C5-A Copper Anti-Seize Have you seen that copper color on the screws for new jaw sets that you purchase? That material is to lube and prevent the set screws from seizing in the chuck jaws. For about $8 you can get a stick of this stuff from Fasteners and Fire Equipment. A little goes a long way, so oneof these will last you many years. 20. Silicone Spray for Daily Use and Storage Finally, as regular maintenance or when you are going to not use your lathe for a period of time, protect those critical surfaces. I use this silicone spray and rub it in with a fresh 0000 steel wool pad. If I am storing the lathe, I spray on the silicone and cover the wet spray with colored Saran Wrap to lock in the material and to keep moisture and dirt off critical lathe parts.