"Arch" wrote in message
...
Football season is over and it's cold, not just chilly here in S.
Florida today, gray and windy and we are not set up for this kind of
weather. I'm even more grumpy than usual, but always right and never
wrong.
For the great majority of our turnings, how much is gained by sanding
past 350 or 400 grit? I wonder if 600 and 1200 and 2000 grits are finish
or fetish? What's the 'cash value' of rubbing with steel wool, paper
sacks, and all those other grits, grains and grunts? Or swinging
incense while swaying with pumice and rottenstone? You'd think that for
turned wood objects to retain some evidence of being wood, the Beall
system of sequential buffing with tripoli, white diamond, and maybe a
touch of carnauba is as far as we should go or need to go. We ought to
leave a little something for potters, glass blowers and jewelers.
I've gone the 'prescribed' method a few times. This involved sharpening my
scraper and gouge as well as honing the latter every few cuts. On the
sanding went all the way to 800 not skipping a grit. I usually stop around
320. Then applied Watco exactly per instructions followed up with 5 or 6
applications of shellac. The bowls being made were for the wife and must
admit they came out very well, i.e. smooth as a baby's backside.
Most if not all of the other bowls I take to 320 and well there is a
noticeable difference but enough to justify the extra work, hmm, only if
making a piece for a loved one.
Is grinding every cutting tool's bevel and edge with the precision of a
degree or two worth the effort or just an unreasoned dedication to
following rote advice? As for honing a woodturning tool, we are cutting
wood, not slicing prosciutto or incising brain tissue. Some of us,
anyway.
Given some of the punky wood I have to work with now, sharp is the only way
I can get even a halfway decent cut.
What good is a tachometer on a lathe or on a car for that matter? RPM
may be the same at the edge of a one inch mushroom as at the edge of a
twelve inch bowl, but the speed the wood roars past my skew sure isn't.
Spindle speed is mostly intuititive, we turn at a speed we are
comfortable with and does the job safely and efficiently. No preset rpm
is ideal for your next turning so why ask.
On my truck, I kinda like having the tach as I tend to keep it under 2500
for almost all driving. On the lathe, your observation is spot in. The
speed is set where I am comfortable. Reminds me of speed limit signs in
western Kansas in the pre 55mph days - Drive at a safe and prudent speed.
And what about our inordinate worries about using some self ordained
guru's only true way to offer up a gouge or join a skew's processional?
If we really have an uncompromised belief in the decreed methods'
ceremonial (faith based turning?) we should employ power driven
longitudinal feed, cross slides, and compound rests and be done with it.
Isn't the free and fluid flow of cutting tools while looking at the cut
surface instead of the tool edge what woodturning is? Too much dogma,
too much instruction, too much method and too much concern sometimes is
too much. Rigid constraints spoil fun and relaxation for the hobbyist
and impair form and design for the professional.
I never had a lseeon. I learned from reading this group and several books.
Perhaps this lack of lessons shows in my work.
Some of our timber drying methods border on the supernatural. IIRC, the
scientific name is "Voodoo Desiccation" and there are many serious
endorsers. We all know that wringing water out of the end of a spongy
green timber involves time, patience and the surrounding humidity. Where
you live makes a difference. Some U.S. counties remain dry in spite of
Hurricane Katrina or the 21st Amendment.
Of course you won't agree with me and I don't expect you to. I am
programmed to follow the leader and hew to the party line, but my
catharsis even if it's all wrong, sure warmed me up on this dreary day.
I hope it did the same for you. No humble opinions here, but enough
reverse dogma for now.
Reminds me, should I put a 45 or 46 degree bevel on all my gouges? They
are the required powdered metal, of course. Since I'm a closet
conformist, I'll add a "TIC", but do I really mean tongue in cheek? OK,
so you're sorry you read this far, well there were no ball games on TV.
Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter
http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings