Andy Dingley wrote:

That's the trouble with woodturning. No real use for much, too much
fun to leave alone. You get yourself a lathe and the next thing is
you're turning everything in sight. There's a limit to how many turned
mathoms a chap needs.

You can say that again, brother! I haven't been able to leave the stupid
thing off since I got it, but I have no real use for anything I've been
able to produce with it. Especially since I'm using extremely green wood
that warps like crazy as it dries. If I actually tried to use these
spindles for anything, I'd introduce enough stress into the resulting piece
to break nearly anything in short order.

So what I'm getting into personally is mushrooms. I got the idea from
someone's (Darrell Feltmate's, http://www.roundthewoods.com/mushroom.shtml)
newbie projects site, and I've been having a blast making these stupid
things.

I have no idea if the tool control I'm developing will prove useful for
spindles eventually or not, but I'm really happy with my results. My
mushrooms look at lot better (ie more like actual mushrooms) than
Darrell's.

He says he sells a boatload of them at craft shows. SWMBO does craft shows.
I'm using that as an excuse to turn all my little odd small branch scraps
into mushrooms. What the hell. It gives me some justification to continue
having fun anyway. That's the name of the game.

It's going to be a long time before I'm able to turn the chess sets which
were my primary use for this thing.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/