Having been inspired by the Barbara Dill articles, I've made a fair volume of shavings
and kindling, and would like to add a few hints for the low-skilled like me who try multi-
axis turning for the first time

With apologies for laboring the obvious:

1. It's great fun, but don't expect to make anything nice on your early attempts. The
combinations are just too complex to visualize easily (even with the backing of Ms.
Dill's article). I would also suggest keeping the axes fairly close together (no more
than 1/4" or so), especially on shorter pieces which amplify the effect of the axis
change.

2. Even if it isn't your normal practice, I strongly recommend wearing a face shield: the
pressure on the piece comes at odd angles, the drive spur may not engage equally fully
on all the axes, there is a lot of vibration, the noise of the tool hitting the part covers
some of the warning signs of an approaching break or slip.

3. Reset the toolrest frequently, and if you have a choice of rests, use the
smallest.That will let you get in close to the piece, and this is really important as the tool
edge is going to be unsupported a lot of the time.

4. Resetting the toolrest on a new axis is a good time for a sanity check. If you cut
coves along different axes at the same point on the piece's length, you're going to end
up with very little wood at some stage. Sighting across the toolrest while turning the
piece by hand willl give you some idea of how much wood you can still remove, and
where.
Another way of avoiding problems on the ends is to draw radii around the various
centers you're going to use, that will give some idea of how much stock can be
removed along each axis before running out of material for the drive spur (DAMHIKT).

5. The "ghost" of the wood is misleading; remember that only the "solid" part is wood
all the way through, and even that can be an odd shape...

6. The vibration on the tool gets worse with every change of axis, and your grip may
have to change accordingly. That is equally important for sanding. I find that backing a
piece of sandpaper with an old mousepad makes it far more comfortable to hold
against the wood, and to get the pressure needed.

HTH

-Posted by Ozum (http://ozinsight.com/)
-All-in-one yEnc newsreader, scanner and freeware autoposter.

A Newbie's perspective on a set of instructions put together by someone
who is very familiar with a procedure can be invaluable. It's so easy,
when doing instructions, to ASSUME that "everyone knows that - so it
ain't worth mentioning." - and leave a HUGE HOLE in the instructions -
and thus make it harder for the person trying to follow the
instructions. It's a balancing act - spell out EVERYTHING and bore
your user to death - or - skips some seemingly insignificant points and
KILL the user. (OK so that was a bit of an exaggeration. But newbies
are easily discouraged - and you don't want to discourage folks from
trying something that can be fun.

wells wrote:

Having been inspired by the Barbara Dill articles, I've made a fair volume of shavings
and kindling, and would like to add a few hints for the low-skilled like me who try multi-
axis turning for the first time

With apologies for laboring the obvious:

1. It's great fun, but don't expect to make anything nice on your early attempts. The
combinations are just too complex to visualize easily (even with the backing of Ms.
Dill's article). I would also suggest keeping the axes fairly close together (no more
than 1/4" or so), especially on shorter pieces which amplify the effect of the axis
change.

Baby steps are always a good idea - at first. Starting with 3/4 x 3/4 x
6 to 8 inch stuff is a good start. Small enough to not be too
intimidating but enough wood to work with. And keeping the offset from
the blanks actual center to 1/4" or a bit less is a good idea - cuts
down on how much Air Wood you need to turn through.

It's also good to start with ONE center on one end of the blank and
multiple centers on the other. That way you can work closer to the
single center end and get used to turning through what Barbara refers to
as Air Wood on her DVD

2. Even if it isn't your normal practice, I strongly recommend wearing a face shield: the
pressure on the piece comes at odd angles, the drive spur may not engage equally fully
on all the axes, there is a lot of vibration, the noise of the tool hitting the part covers
some of the warning signs of an approaching break or slip.

A face shield, or better yet a helmeted face shielded respirator - like
the TREND or AirStream is a good idea in general.

And when it comes to pressure on the blank, cranking the tail center
really hard into the blank is asking for trouble. Getting that balance
between holding the blank adequately enough that it doesn't STOP as you
make a cut - and having the blank bend - or break - as you turn Air Wood
aware is tricky. Best to err on the side of too little than too much
pressure.

3. Reset the toolrest frequently, and if you have a choice of rests, use the
smallest.That will let you get in close to the piece, and this is really important as the tool
edge is going to be unsupported a lot of the time.

It's ALWAYS best, after mounting a piece, to turn the lathe OFF, move
the tool rest - and hand turn the piece to make sure it clears the tool
rest. Moving the tool rest while the lathe is running is not the safest
thing to do. Moving it while an off center piece is spinning is asking
for a problem - that you REALLY don't want to have.

I use the 6" tool rest that came with my JET Mini and angle it to get as
close as possible to where I'll be cutting. With shorter, smaller
diameter blanks you usually aren't making long cuts anyway so you aren't
using the whole tool rest length.

4. Resetting the toolrest on a new axis is a good time for a sanity check. If you cut
coves along different axes at the same point on the piece's length, you're going to end
up with very little wood at some stage. Sighting across the toolrest while turning the
piece by hand willl give you some idea of how much wood you can still remove, and
where.

If you're turning a light wood, put a dark piece of paper or whatever
BEHIND the piece.
If you're turning a dark wood, put a light piece of paper or whatever
BEHIND the piece.
This will let you see where the Air Wood is - and where the Solid Wood
is.
If you see little or no Solid Wood - better pick another pair of centers
before proceeding.

Another way of avoiding problems on the ends is to draw radii around the various
centers you're going to use, that will give some idea of how much stock can be
removed along each axis before running out of material for the drive spur (DAMHIKT).

Leave the full square ends on until the very end. You DO NOT want to
turn them off before you're done with the rest of your turning.

5. The "ghost" of the wood is misleading; remember that only the "solid" part is wood
all the way through, and even that can be an odd shape...

Visualizing Cause & Effect is THE Challenge of multi-axes turning.

If Barbara Dill's papers on multi-axes turning don't work for you, try
this idea. Requires a simple drawing program and some understanding of
basic mechanical drawing to do - and understand since it requires Top,
Side and End views.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...Turning14.html


6. The vibration on the tool gets worse with every change of axis, and your grip may
have to change accordingly. That is equally important for sanding. I find that backing a
piece of sandpaper with an old mousepad makes it far more comfortable to hold
against the wood, and to get the pressure needed.

Believe it or not, I find that using a skew - with a curve in the
cutting edge - works best - for me - when doing multi-axis turning.
Using the Long Point - down - and starting the cut with just the tip of
the long point means starting with very little of the cutting edge -
actually only the point - engaging the wood. Little "bites' means less
banging.

HTH

Thanks for sharing your insights - so well.

charlie b