We start with pain.
Those are simply too big. I really don’t know what I was thinking when I turned them, but seeing them sitting on the table, and hefting them – it was just wrong. Once I realized that they were wrong, I couldn’t un-think or un-see or un-realize. So, I went quickly over to the hot metal shop and un-realized them.
That’s what a 16 ton forging press does to mortal materials. Zeep-pop. I salvaged something from all of this, though, since it gave me a chance to process the performance of G-Flex and carbon fiber chop bedding. I know that, since I posted the first episode with the carbon fiber, I’ve been informed that carbon fiber and steel are maybe sub-optimal, but it’s too late to worry about it for this set. Anyhow, I had a lot of not exactly fun removing the wood and composite from the blades. My conclusion was that, “wow, that stuff is tough” I had to sort of skim a diamond cut-off wheel down the metal to cut the CF/epoxy mix.
Now, I have to be careful how I say this, but: these chisels are intended for a female person with hands that are a bit smaller than the trogloditic machine-tools I have at the end of my arms. When I hefted the original handles, they were big for me to hold on to. They were also heavy. Pretty, but wrong. I decided to go with something a lot more slender and grippable.
Next (not shown) I took two pieces of cherry off a large cherry board I’ve had for a while, then set the table saw blade at a 45-degree angle and knocked the edges off so I had 2″ octagonal pieces. Those fit directly into the chuck(s) on the lathe and I could jump right in and shape them. But, for the sake of making things harder, I first cut the ends off and pinned/epoxied a thin sheet of synthetic ivory into the butt. Generally, I am profligate with my materials since I consider the valuable part of any given project to be the hours of my life that tick away while I am making it – $20 worth of synthetic ivory is no big deal compared to the hours and hours I have sunk into the project.
That’s a trick I learned from Jimmy DiResta. Use a flat clamp to create a slideable flat surface that doesn’t risk spinning when the table saw or bandsaw blade hits it. Back when I started using Mr Happy Dancing Bandsaw, I nearly mangled my hand trying to cut a piece of pipe on it. Bad idea. The great thing about Diresta’s trick is that you can put a block of wood under the clamps, too, if you need it, so that the height is exactly right – just slide the whole mass.
Here’s the video and if you work with table saws or bandsaws it’s worth much more than you’ll pay to watch it:
A few happy hours (time just floats away when I’m lathing things) later, I had a new set of handles.
Normally, I’d put a drill chuck in the tailstock and use a drill to center-hole the necks of the handles, so it was a more or less perfect 1/2″ – but the handles are about 28″ long and the lathe bed is 36″, so I just sucked it up and drilled it freehand. Because these are quite a bit thinner, there was less margin for error, but cherry is tough wood, and I did a pilot hole with a 1/4″ drill and everything went fine. After that, I did a round of fitting everything together to make sure it would assemble before I got it all covered with glue.
… “covered with glue,” I thought. I do have a tendency to get epoxy in weird places when I use it. (My earlobe, once…) I thought that it might be wise to protect the wood from myself, so I took a roll of stretch-wrap plastic and wrapped the two handles good and tight, then called it a day.
Next up: re-assembly.
re the bandsaw video: his kitty looks very much like one of my past kitties that lived to 18 years old. Made me a little sad and happy at the same time.
The bandsaw video was good. It reminded me that it was time to make a new table insert for one of my saws (a two inch aluminum one that’s been on it since the 1960’s), so I did, and while at it I double checked the squareness of the blade, and found it too needed some adjustment. I especially like his use of a big wooden clamp for difficult stuff. One forgets how well suited that is to sliding across a table.
I learned much of my wood turning technique from reading a book now in the public domain, called “The Practical Woodturner,” by F. Pain. He was a firm believer in short handled gouges, and “cutting wood as it prefers to be cut.” I don’t care for long handled tools except for face plate work.
Which reminds me I haven’t played with the lathe in a while, because I don’t have anything useful I need to make. I’ll have to start trying to think of something useless.
johnson catman@#2:
his kitty looks very much like one of my past kitties that lived to 18 years old. Made me a little sad and happy at the same time.
My sympathy for your loss.
Matthew Currie@#3:
It reminded me that it was time to make a new table insert for one of my saws (a two inch aluminum one that’s been on it since the 1960’s), so I did, and while at it I double checked the squareness of the blade, and found it too needed some adjustment.
Excellent!
I tend to make things like inserts, etc, out of ABS plastic. It’s tough, doesn’t shatter, cheap, etc. I buy it in big sheets from e-plastics.com (Ridout plastic)
DiResta’s so good at explaining the stuff that he does. I really enjoy his videos. Joe Pie is also great: https://www.youtube.com/@joepie221 And of course this Old Tony.
He was a firm believer in short handled gouges, and “cutting wood as it prefers to be cut.” I don’t care for long handled tools except for face plate work.
Well, it’s true that as long as you keep the toolrest adjusted right, it doesn’t really matter. But what if you’re turning a bowl and are attacked by a whale and all you have is a short-handled skew chisel? I’d maybe survive, but you wouldn’t.
Which reminds me I haven’t played with the lathe in a while, because I don’t have anything useful I need to make. I’ll have to start trying to think of something useless.
Turn some small elegant handles, drill them and glue T-shank blades into them: pumpkin saws! Great gifts for kids. And they can duel with them, too.
I wonder what wood F. Pain was working with? I would hate to try and rough out a large bowl from an obnoxious hardwood with a short handled gouge
Marcus, I’ve noticed that the handle you show in detail along with the wood clamp has a slight misalignment between the main body and the part glued to the synthetic ivory. The grain doesn’t quite line up: the tip appears to be rotated about 8 degrees. Does that bug you as much as it would bug me if I did it?
Commenting on above, the short handled chisels are for spindle work between centers. A bowl counts as face plate work, and yes, better have a long chisel for that one. You can expect to have to scrape end grain, which is a different sort of operation from paring on a piece between centers and uses a different chisel. On that latter, if you have a sharp chisel, you need very little force and leverage, and are likely to be using one hand to hold the chisel down on the tool rest.
I like Joe Pie too, though my skill as a machinist is somewhere at the level of aspiring to be minimal.
cvoinescu@#7:
The grain doesn’t quite line up: the tip appears to be rotated about 8 degrees. Does that bug you as much as it would bug me if I did it?
It doesn’t bug me at all. I guess the point of having something layered in there is that it interrupts the grain; if I had been worried about the grain I wouldn’t have done a spacer.
I see your point, though. I suppose I should worry about that in the future.
That is painful, but I suppose a 16 ton forging press would be a good way to work off any unpleasant feelings from making them too large.
I think ‘ergonomically designed’ is the term you require. I run into tools designed for large men pretty much every time I buy tools. . Even my snowblower is designed with a stupid length handle that assumes I’m a six foot tall dude.
It would be so much easier to use if I could use leverage and my lower body strength to operate it instead of wrenching my wimpy bird shoulders.
I have met very few men who have larger hands than me. Their palms are broader, and they are stronger, but I have emasculated many a mouthy dude by comparing my long fingered lady mitts to their short fat stubs.
My brothers hands easily dwarf my hand size. He jokes that our Grandpas hands were so large that if he swung at someone, he couldn’t miss.
Forget to say…. The cherry looks great! It will develop even more color as it tans. Odd how it starts out pinkish and develops the deep cherry red with exposure to light.
Tethys@#11:
Odd how it starts out pinkish and develops the deep cherry red with exposure to light.
Cocobolo is amazing. It completely transforms itself. Lignum vitae, too.