One of the UK's most loved woodturning demonstrators is Tony Wilson
who is also in a wheelchair. Despite this, his work is fantastic and
he tackles large, small and unusual pieces. Nothing seems impossible
for him.

I don't know Tony's e-mail address but he works for ASK Tools near
Leeds. Their office e-mail is and I am sure
that they would pass any enquiry on to Tony.

Tony is an inspiration to all turners, disabled or not. If you have a
look at http://www.burmastar.org.uk/issue5.pdf there is an article
from our woodturning club on Tony

Kindest regards and I hope you all have a wonderful 2006

Paul



On 31 Dec 2005 13:25:03 -0800, "
wrote:

Hello everyone. I'm brand new to this forum. I'm a 55 Y.O guy and a
fall from my roof 5 years left me in a wheelchair for the rest of my
life. I'm what the doctors call a T-8 complete paraplegic which means
there's no real feeling and no motor response to or from any nerves
below my 8th thoracic vertebrae. In laymen's terms, I'm paralyzed from
my mid chest down but I have full use of my arms and hands.
I was a decent woodworker before my accident and I've tried to work
in my shop from the wheelchair, but it's not working out too well.
Simple things like feeding stock thru a table saw is really difficult.
Four hands are needed to push the stock and push the wheelchair. I've
never done any turning before and I've been thinking that woodturning
may be more easily done from a wheelchair since there's not a lot of
moving around required. It's a hobby that I'd like to take up if the
obstacles are reasonably easy to overcome. One problem I can foresee
right away is that a lathe on a stand is way too high for me to work at
comfortably. I would need to build a lower height stand of some kind.
No real problem. I could handle that. Any advice would be helpful.
Is it worth it to try this out? Thanks.