I know there is a S.E. Michigan chapter of AAW but it is quite a
ways from my area. Hoping to find some turners in the 30 miles
of Jackson region.

My dad had a good shop in the basement while I was growing up.
Though it was usually off limits to me, I would get in and play
with the wood often. Dad had an old Craftsman cast iron lathe
and when I was around 11 or so got to start playing with it.
Made a few bucks off kids at school making nun-chucks and such
all through high school. I spent about 20 years as a cabinet
maker and trim carpenter, with the occasional opertunity to do
some turning, loved it. Due to an accident, I was forced to
change occupation out of the cabinet industry about 12yrs ago.

Always loved the lathe and have found it is something that is
within my physical abilities to do. So for Christmas got myself
a Jet Mini. Now I've been reading here, and even picked up a
few books to find that I've been using most of the tools wrong
all this time. I get good results (I believe) but do get beat
up occasionally with catches. So am trying to re-train myself
to use the tools as they are intended and would like someone to
chat with and see what they do differently. I've rarely used
the skew (mostly in scraper mode) and had the shaft edge put a
small cut on my finger (not the first won't be the last) other
day when it kicked off the heal while trying to follow
directions from one of the books.

Razz

If I can't screw it down, I can always screw it up!!