Turner’s Attention Defecit Disorder

A wood lathe, even a small one, offers just too many phreakin’ options
for a budding woodturner with A.D.D. With just the standard stuff that
comes with a lathe and a few tools there’s a lot of territory to
explore. But when you add a chuck it becomes a Star Trek thing - though
boldly exploring can be a bit tricky when the thing you’re exploring is
spinning at a thousand or more revolutions per minute. The universe of
possibilities is so vast - and that’s only considering the lathe and
tools possibilities. Throw in all the woods that are available and it’s
so easy to get lost. Add carving, texturing and other surface
treatments, along with patinas and it’s bouncing all over the place time
- like a BB In a vibrating box - try THIS, try THAT - oh - look over
THERE!

There are just so many already discovered places to visit and new ones
popping up every day. And when I find a place I think I want to really
get to know - someone comes along and says “Hey! Check THIS out!” - and
I do.
I can’t help it. If it’s even potentially interesting - I HAVE to check
it out.

So the latest Check THIS Out is laser engraving - and piercing.

Scott Landon, a turning club member with a unique combination of
imagination, machinist skills and an Epilog Laser Engraver, spent two
hours showing me just the basics of just some of WHAT a laser engraver
can do, along with the a bit of HOW. With a fairly simple shop made
indexing jig that you can attach a chuck to, you can do some pretty
interesting things to a turning - engrave IN the surface - OR - cut
THROUGH the surface. You do the imaginative / creative stuff and the
laser does the grunt work - in seconds - a few minutes at the most.
It’s like a word processor for writers, PhotoShop for photographers, the
DOMINO for a Greene & Greene furniture pheaks. Theres still some
thinking required, and some computer skills with a drawing program
(Corel for example) required. And there are limitiations imposed by the
laser - the beam’s depth of focus limits how much of a convex curved
surface you can work on - but oh the possibilities.

Maybe I ought to just go out to the shop, turn off the phone, stop
playing with the computer, leave the internet alone, avoid looking at
turning magazines and books - and focus on just one thing, to the
exlusion of EVERYTHING else - and really get into say - small pinch neck
pots - for maybe a week. Turn nothing but small pinch neck pots - out
of just two different kinds of wood. THAT’s what I ought to do.
Focus. Discipline. Self control. Practice Makes Perfect. In fourty
hours of turning just small pinch neck pots I bet I could get pretty
good at it.

But - a friend just gave me a nice 8” diameter x 20” long logette of
Pittosporin (sp?) he saved for me (he’s an arborist and woodworker).
Stuff’s HARD and heavy and he says it’s an interesting as hell wood to
play with . . .

charlie b
whirling dervish

WOW, I hope I don't catch what he's got..............oh wait, my wife claims
I alread did.

Great Post (my wife says shutup because everytime I get on this site I want
something new)

JD

I have TADD so badly I noticed it before anyone did. Even if I was a
professional turner, I would never scale the height of fame since I
don't like turning the same thing over and over.

I turn anything that strikes my fancy, and will hammer away at what I
am turning until I am satisfied with the project. Then I move on.

Currently - I am turning barbecue skewers. (Not like you are
thinking!). They are a fun project, cheap and easy to make, and no
one I know is making them.

I needed the double skewers as I have now got a source for really
large shrimp, and they were so big that when I tried to turn them they
simply rolled around on the wood skewers. Metal skewers were even
worse. I got tired of double skewering to hold them well enough to
turn the shrimp while grilling.

So I cut off the curly round end of some metal skewers found at
Target, Walmart, etc. leaving the chromed rod with a point on it.

I predrill a block of wood to hold the skewers and to center the block
between the spur and live centers. Mount them up, turn to shape, add
a recess for a small piece of copper pipe as a ferrule to dress them
up, and they are almost finished.

I take the cut rods and rough the cut end about 3/4" up. Then I epoxy
them into their respective holes, and allow to cure. I will next be
gluing the polished plumbing pipe "ferrules" to the ends with epoxy.
I left the ferrules a little long so I could fill the end with enough
epoxy to make it look finished around the skewers.

Now I am eyeballing a couple of gnarly looking pieces of
mystery wood that would probably make great handles for a "deluxe" or
gift set.

All I know is that I better get a move on because after about 3 - 4
or these sets I will be onto something else.

Robert