On Wed, 31 May 2006 11:53:46 GMT, Fred May wrote:
SNIP

I am trying to turn a number of 36 inch spindles. The problem I am
having is that I get places where the grain picks out and leaves a very
coarse surface.Eastern pine because it is cheap, handy etc. If it were
hard wood it would be no problem, so no choice. I have used a steady
rest, kept the tools very sharp etc. What am I doing wrong?

SNIP

I am assuming that you mean you had no choice when it came to the wood
you are turning. With that in mind, You might want to do a couple of
things to change up your turning technique to reduce your tearout. I
turn pine from time to time, and sometimes there is almost no way to
stop all the tear out or rough grain left behind.

First, I would make sure I am spinning the piece as fast as I could
(safely). Make sure your tools are razor sharp, and that you are using
the correct one. When I get to near finish dimension on a problem
piece of wood with tearout, I finish my cuts with one of two tools: a
1" skew, sharpen to a fine edge so that I can plane off the material;
or the old 60-80 grit skew, and take the piece to final shape with
that.

However, even with the sandpaper "skew", you will have tearout, it will
just be smaller. And if you go the sandpaper route, you should be
aware that you will be sanding a lot, going all through the grits to
get out the last of the grooves and tearout.

I don't know how many you have of these to do, but if my material was
doing that to me, I would change if I could. If you can't, just take
you time and take off as small amounts of material as possible at a
time.

Robert