I was working on turning a log into a round, and noticed all of a sudden
the lathe acted really unbalanced. I kept going a little bit, figuring the
part I wasn't cutting was causing the problem. When I shut the lathe off
to move the tool rest, I saw the problem: The center had slipped into the
pith and the piece really was off.

So the morals of the story is to avoid turning wood with the pith still in
it and if the lathe is suddenly off balance shut things down and figure out
why!

The leg you save might just be the one attached to you at the hip; don't
become attached at the hip to the turning leg. :-)

Puckdropper

Puckdropper wrote:
I was working on turning a log into a round, and noticed all of a sudden
the lathe acted really unbalanced. I kept going a little bit, figuring the
part I wasn't cutting was causing the problem. When I shut the lathe off
to move the tool rest, I saw the problem: The center had slipped into the
pith and the piece really was off.

So the morals of the story is to avoid turning wood with the pith still in
it and if the lathe is suddenly off balance shut things down and figure out
why!

The leg you save might just be the one attached to you at the hip; don't
become attached at the hip to the turning leg. :-)

Puckdropper

Was the drive end attached to a face plate? You might be able to
resume the rounding by tacking a small piece of plywood over the
central part of the end, resting the center on that. I say plywood,
because a piece of board might be split by the center, putting you
back where you were.

--
GW Ross

What man can think of, man can do -- I
think.

"G. Ross" wrote in
:

Was the drive end attached to a face plate? You might be able to
resume the rounding by tacking a small piece of plywood over the
central part of the end, resting the center on that. I say plywood,
because a piece of board might be split by the center, putting you
back where you were.


No, just a drive spur. Good suggestion.

I came to the conclusion that the piece I saved from the firewood pile is
best put back in it. The soft center went all the way through the wood,
which made it useless for turning tops.

Puckdropper

On 7/8/2016 10:21 AM, Puckdropper wrote:
"G. Ross" wrote in
:

Was the drive end attached to a face plate? You might be able to
resume the rounding by tacking a small piece of plywood over the
central part of the end, resting the center on that. I say plywood,
because a piece of board might be split by the center, putting you
back where you were.


No, just a drive spur. Good suggestion.

I came to the conclusion that the piece I saved from the firewood pile is
best put back in it. The soft center went all the way through the wood,
which made it useless for turning tops.

Puckdropper

Have you ever used one of these drives or was your piece of wood too small?
http://tiny.cc/2t1scy
I haven't but they do seem to be preferable to conventional spur drives
in some circumstances.
Graham

graham wrote in :

On 7/8/2016 10:21 AM, Puckdropper wrote:

No, just a drive spur. Good suggestion.

I came to the conclusion that the piece I saved from the firewood
pile is best put back in it. The soft center went all the way
through the wood, which made it useless for turning tops.

Puckdropper

Have you ever used one of these drives or was your piece of wood too
small? http://tiny.cc/2t1scy
I haven't but they do seem to be preferable to conventional spur
drives in some circumstances.
Graham


My piece probably would have fit, but I just used spur with the many
smaller teeth. (Way better than the 4-point spur included with the
lathe.) I can see the benefits of that system, though, especially if
you're turning a soft wood that would tend to cam out fairly easily or if
your end cut is irregular.

Puckdropper