My wood pile is a testament to dabbling. When I first started
turning, I did a bunch of small bowls and ornament spindles. I cut up
a bunch of spindle blanks and small bowl blanks. I still have bunches
of them after almost 10 years. I still have them because I went onto
boxes. I started getting loads of exotic 2"x2" and 3"x3" sticks for
boxes. Made a bunch. Still have loads of box sticks nine years
later. I have my vase stock, nested bowl stock, large vessel stock,
small vessel stock, dozens of egg blanks, a couple of hundred pen
blanks (I made three), and about 2 dozen sphere blanks. Oh yeah, a
have about $1,000 of Australian burl caps for a project that is about
25% complete (before Pasadena) and a stack of canister blanks too.
Right now I'm collecting light colored and figured woods for coloring
(or stacking). Not sure which it will ultimately be.
Joe Fleming - San Diego


On Aug 9, 6:27 pm, "Maxprop" wrote:
"Darrell Feltmate" wrote in message

news:rBCui.83006$tB5.50638@edtnps90...

Just for fun and to answer a question on spindle stock preparation, I took
the chain saw to a piece of birch and readied a piece for a potato masher
and then turned it. (The video is on my blog.) Whatever happened to
spindle turning? At the club most of the guys bring in faceplate stuff.
There is hardly a mallet or a gavel to be seen. I like to turn a variety
and while the Oland is my favorite tool for faceplate, where would I be
without a 1" skew or straight chisel for spindles. Never mind the oregano,
variety is the spice of life.

I don't turn a lot of spindlework, but I have done a number of maple
baseball bats recently. And I turned half a dozen belaying pins (an archaic
boating item) a while back. I do enjoy spindle turning, but enjoy facework
more. One of the quandaries I now face is my next lathe--should I buy a
long bed which will allow me to turn the occasional spindle, or buy a short
bed, or something like the Vega, which will make facework easier. The jury
is still out on that.

Max