wood turning

[egaParticipant @ega]

Posted by Alan Charleston on 22/10/2018 06:28:15:

I have found the Diamond Tool Cutter from Eccentric Engineering is excellent for turning wood, particularly if you use a round rather than a square tool. I have attached a couple of pictures showing the finish I got on the end grain of a piece of Kanuka wood. The finish is as good as that from a skew chisel but is of course dead flat. I use a similar cutter arrangement in my ball turner. There is very little sanding required after turning.

[Can't seem to get out of quote mode!]

Interesting points. It occurs to me that the tangential cutting action of the cutter in your ball turner is the same as that in J A Radford's design.

Kanuka sounds as though it might come from NZ, too.

[Nathan SharpeParticipant @nathansharpe19746]

VPosted by Vic on 22/10/2018 09:31:49:

Posted by Nathan Sharpe on 21/10/2018 19:50:16:

Thanks to all. I've found what I needed at "AZCarbide", they have a range of inserts designed for/suitable for woodturning. Nathan.

What did you buy and how much was the postage?

Vic, at those prices I was never going to buy! I just wanted the range of shapes and am now looking for the full geometry of each insert. There must be a "near enough"

Alan, that is also of interest, can you tell me if you modified from metal cutting angles to wood cutting angles?

All good info and many thanks. Nathan

[Nathan SharpeParticipant @nathansharpe19746]

Re my previous post. It should have been "near enough" with a standard metal cutting insert. Nathan.

[Alan CharlestonParticipant @alancharleston78882]

Hi ega,

Yes, Kanuka is a bigger version of Manuka (as per the honey).

Hi Nathan,

The tool angle on the ball turner is the same as on the diamond tool holder and the tool was ground using the jig which came with the holder. I don't suppose it's surprising the setup works well with wood as it's similar to how a gouge is presented to the work on a woodworking lathe. The wood peels off the work without tearing, even on end grain which makes it ideal for ball turning.

Regards,

Alan

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

For turning wooden balls, get a bit of steel tube and make sure the cutting end is square and sharpen it like a leather punch with the taper on the outside, use this tool after you have roughed out the ball using the whole front edge to cut. To get a number of uniform sized balls, just make then the size of the bore of the tube, when the ball is to size it just pops into the tube.

Turning wood in the metal lathe with metal turning tools, hard, fine grain wood is good(mature Rimu in NZ), just don't use soft new Radiata Pine, you'll have a real hard job even on a wood lathe with the sharpest tools.

Ian S C

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Ian S C on 24/10/2018 12:43:32:

For turning wooden balls, get a bit of steel tube and make sure the cutting end is square and sharpen it like a leather punch with the taper on the outside…

….

…just don't use soft new Radiata Pine, you'll have a real hard job even on a wood lathe with the sharpest tools.

Ian S C

That looks like a pretty good way to do it – do you mean feed the tube-tool in square to the axis, from the side?

I managed *sort of * OK with my hand-gouge on Zebrano for Saturn:-

But sticking a caliper across it a few ways will expose its out-of-roundness pretty mercilessly…

[VicParticipant @vic]

Probably not viable if you’re only making one or two but ball turning jigs are available for wood turning Lathes and you get a perfect result every time, and much quicker. How long a piece of wood will stay that way is anyone guess though!

[VicParticipant @vic]

I thought I posted this but I get my wood turning carbide cutters from Glenn Teagle.

**LINK**

[egaParticipant @ega]

Posted by Ian S C on 24/10/2018 12:43:32:

For turning wooden balls, get a bit of steel tube and make sure the cutting end is square and sharpen it like a leather punch with the taper on the outside, use this tool after you have roughed out the ball using the whole front edge to cut. To get a number of uniform sized balls, just make then the size of the bore of the tube, when the ball is to size it just pops into the tube.

Good point. GHT covers this procedure in his Manual where he mentions that the method was used for turning billiard balls.

That reminds me that there is a specialised trade in the manufacture and maintenance of cues; I wonder if they employ hand turning.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

https://www.peradon.co.uk/cue-manufacture.aspx

Try this.

[VicParticipant @vic]

Posted by ega on 24/10/2018 13:55:38:

That reminds me that there is a specialised trade in the manufacture and maintenance of cues; I wonder if they employ hand turning.

The cheap ones may be turned but it looks like the good ones are hand planed:

**LINK**

[egaParticipant @ega]

KWIL and Vic:

Excellent video – thank you.

My impression is that only the splice is planed; there was a shot of what looked like a lathe near the start.

Some interesting similarities with metalworking: seasoning the stock and rolling on surface plate to check for straightness.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mick B1 on 24/10/2018 13:32:07:

But sticking a caliper across it a few ways will expose its out-of-roundness pretty mercilessly…

Don't worry, Saturn is out of round itself by a ratio of about 9:1

Neil

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 24/10/2018 16:58:05:

Posted by Mick B1 on 24/10/2018 13:32:07:

But sticking a caliper across it a few ways will expose its out-of-roundness pretty mercilessly…

Don't worry, Saturn is out of round itself by a ratio of about 9:1

Neil

…but not in the plane mine is…

[VicParticipant @vic]

For some reason my earlier post has the wrong link. It should be this one.

**LINK**

It clearly shows the hand planning process.

Edited By Vic on 24/10/2018 17:59:12

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

With tools held in a metal lathe the finish is not always too good as hand held woodturning tools you rub the bevel before cutting the wood so in effect are planing the wood. Ball are easy to do by hand if only doing small quantities as some of the jigs can be expensive.

This was done free hand and is near as possible a perfect sphere it did require the sharpening of the tool quite a bit as ply knocks off the edge very quick. The sphere is 4" diameter.

This came third in the last woodworking show at Alexander palace some years ago

[egaParticipant @ega]

Vic:

Fascinating video and an object lesson in what can be done with simple tools. The long vee block or sticking board that the plane wielder uses takes care of what could be a stability problem on the lathe (and I notice that he very properly puts the plane down on its side when it is not in use).

R O'S was surprisingly good.

[egaParticipant @ega]

Derek Lane 2:

It is a long time since I visited the Woodworker exhibition at the Palace but I am sure I should have remembered your piece if I had had the pleasure of seeing it in the wood.

Hollowing the sphere and managing the lid must have taken some planning!

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Posted by ega on 24/10/2018 21:43:36:

Derek Lane 2:

It is a long time since I visited the Woodworker exhibition at the Palace but I am sure I should have remembered your piece if I had had the pleasure of seeing it in the wood.

Hollowing the sphere and managing the lid must have taken some planning!

The hollowing was done first.

This was the table for the last one and also the winners table

Edited By Derek Lane 2 on 24/10/2018 21:55:46

[egaParticipant @ega]

Derek Lane 2:

Looking at your second photo, were you third equal?

I very much like those plates.

[VicParticipant @vic]

Posted by ega on 24/10/2018 21:38:35:

Vic:

Fascinating video and an object lesson in what can be done with simple tools. The long vee block or sticking board that the plane wielder uses takes care of what could be a stability problem on the lathe (and I notice that he very properly puts the plane down on its side when it is not in use).

R O'S was surprisingly good.

Yes I thought it was very interesting. I think with a natural product like wood, even if it was properly seasoned, could move somewhat during the making of a slender object like a cue. You can take account of this if you’re working the wood with a hand plane but not if you’re turning it on a lathe. I wonder how many turned cue’s get binned because they end up warped?

[egaParticipant @ega]

Vic:

On the possibility of the wood moving, obviously Messrs Parris know their business but I did wonder whether cleaving the blank rather than just sawing it would have helped; they seem to be getting the necessary straight grain by rigorous selection.

I suspect that an excellent cue could be made by machine methods with non-wood materials but it seems that the players are a conservative, perhaps even superstitious, group of people who stick to what they know. If this means the fostering of hand skills then I am all for it!

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Posted by ega on 25/10/2018 11:58:46:

Derek Lane 2:

Looking at your second photo, were you third equal?

I very much like those plates.

Two different classes one for those that had entered competitions before and the other for first time of showing mine was the second class

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