I have just changed my lathe and the centre height has gone up by 2", Great
for the back when doing bowl work,

I had the same problem when cutting end grain with a skew, the handle kept
catching under my ear, as I got to the centre,

Had a think about this ( I find that I sweat less thinking than cutting 2"
off the bench legs).

When the centre is at elbow height my forearm is on a radius (a line between
elbow and centre of the spindle) and by convetion the rest is positioned on
or within 1/2" of this line. So I lowered the rest so it was on the radius
line to my now lower elbow position. I now have no need to stand on tip-toe
to use the skew. The geometry of cutting is the same in either position.

I haven't told the wood that I've done this and it hasn't figured it out
yet.

BillR

"Woodborg" wrote in message
...

Hi
After reading this post it made me think about the height of my lathe.
I have been turning for about a year and didn't think about the height
because the stand that came with the lathe was a fixed height. Spindle
work seemed fine, just hollowing i had to bend my back a bit.
Today I stood beside the lathe and center to elbow height was a
difference of 5 inches. After cutting four blocks and fixing two sets
together with plywood, i tried the lathe.
Bowl work is great, no bending down to look into the shape and also i
felt i had better tool control.
The spindle work wasn't as good and the skew was almost back to the bad
old days. Cutting the end grain towards the center with the skew meant
lifting the handle very high and will take some getting use too.

The down side to lifting the height is the shavings. They use to fly
upto chest height, but now i can feel them falling on my head and also
down my shirt. Also upto now i have just used safety glasses but with
shavings now constanly find my face, i will probably have to go for a
face sheild.

Mark




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Woodborg