I finally reached the end of the road with the skew when it came to
turning
small. Just couldn't get into tight "V"s with the double bevel on the
skew.

So - I used a single bevel, regular old quarter inch Buck Bros. bench
chisel
to go finer - turning down a half inch poplar dowel. Worked like a
charm,
despite my initial apprehension. Great for turning fine beads, coves
and
longer tapers, but too wide for short non-tapered areas.

So I tried my shop made parting tool - a sawzall blade with the teeth
ground off, sides slightly tapered to reduce binding on deep cuts, and
end ground square. Still haven't made a real handle for this thing,
the wrapped paper towel thing has worked up to now so why change
things? (see attached "TOOLS").

Turns out I can turn a LOT smaller than I'd thought - the piece on the
far right of the second image - "BASTA" - tapers from 0.02" out
to 0.03" (about a half a millimeter for the metric folks).

Had I tried to turn this fine from the get go it'd probably been a
disaster. But by sneaking up on it, progressively getting finer
with each subsequent piece, I learned ways to use a bench chisel
in a new way which opens up new turning possibilities.

Maybe that By The Yard It's Hard - BUT - By The Inch It's a Cinch
thing is true.

Fun this turning thing.

charlie b

ps - Kate - thanks for the cribbage pegs suggestion. Please
e-mail me so I can send you some of these little experiments.

charlieb wrote:

| Had I tried to turn this fine from the get go it'd probably been a
| disaster. But by sneaking up on it, progressively getting finer
| with each subsequent piece, I learned ways to use a bench chisel
| in a new way which opens up new turning possibilities.

| Fun this turning thing.

Nicely done! Are you ready to tackle a peg-based traveling chess set?

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/

charlieb wrote:
I finally reached the end of the road with the skew when it came to
turning
small. Just couldn't get into tight "V"s with the double bevel on the
skew.

snip

Nice work. soon you will be putting Willard Wigan out of business!


--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

The man who makes no mistakes does not
usually make anything.

Gerald Ross wrote:
charlieb wrote:
I finally reached the end of the road with the skew when it came to
turning
small. Just couldn't get into tight "V"s with the double bevel on the
skew.

snip

Nice work. soon you will be putting Willard Wigan out of business!




------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forgot to say that was a micro-sculpture of Elvis, on a pin head.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

The man who makes no mistakes does not
usually make anything.

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:20:28 -0700, charlieb wrote:

Charlie... Try playing with different grinds on old HSS drill bits... micro
tools..
I made a mini-Oland tool with a piece of an old drill and a 3/8" bolt.. nice for
cleaning up little spaces between beads and things..


I finally reached the end of the road with the skew when it came to
turning
small. Just couldn't get into tight "V"s with the double bevel on the
skew.

So - I used a single bevel, regular old quarter inch Buck Bros. bench
chisel
to go finer - turning down a half inch poplar dowel. Worked like a
charm,
despite my initial apprehension. Great for turning fine beads, coves
and
longer tapers, but too wide for short non-tapered areas.

So I tried my shop made parting tool - a sawzall blade with the teeth
ground off, sides slightly tapered to reduce binding on deep cuts, and
end ground square. Still haven't made a real handle for this thing,
the wrapped paper towel thing has worked up to now so why change
things? (see attached "TOOLS").

Turns out I can turn a LOT smaller than I'd thought - the piece on the
far right of the second image - "BASTA" - tapers from 0.02" out
to 0.03" (about a half a millimeter for the metric folks).

Had I tried to turn this fine from the get go it'd probably been a
disaster. But by sneaking up on it, progressively getting finer
with each subsequent piece, I learned ways to use a bench chisel
in a new way which opens up new turning possibilities.

Maybe that By The Yard It's Hard - BUT - By The Inch It's a Cinch
thing is true.

Fun this turning thing.

charlie b

ps - Kate - thanks for the cribbage pegs suggestion. Please
e-mail me so I can send you some of these little experiments.


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:20:28 -0700, charlieb wrote:

Charlie... Try playing with different grinds on old HSS drill bits... micro
tools..
I made a mini-Oland tool with a piece of an old drill and a 3/8" bolt.. nice for
cleaning up little spaces between beads and things..


I finally reached the end of the road with the skew when it came to
turning
small. Just couldn't get into tight "V"s with the double bevel on the
skew.

So - I used a single bevel, regular old quarter inch Buck Bros. bench
chisel
to go finer - turning down a half inch poplar dowel. Worked like a
charm,
despite my initial apprehension. Great for turning fine beads, coves
and
longer tapers, but too wide for short non-tapered areas.

So I tried my shop made parting tool - a sawzall blade with the teeth
ground off, sides slightly tapered to reduce binding on deep cuts, and
end ground square. Still haven't made a real handle for this thing,
the wrapped paper towel thing has worked up to now so why change
things? (see attached "TOOLS").

Turns out I can turn a LOT smaller than I'd thought - the piece on the
far right of the second image - "BASTA" - tapers from 0.02" out
to 0.03" (about a half a millimeter for the metric folks).

Had I tried to turn this fine from the get go it'd probably been a
disaster. But by sneaking up on it, progressively getting finer
with each subsequent piece, I learned ways to use a bench chisel
in a new way which opens up new turning possibilities.

Maybe that By The Yard It's Hard - BUT - By The Inch It's a Cinch
thing is true.

Fun this turning thing.

charlie b

ps - Kate - thanks for the cribbage pegs suggestion. Please
e-mail me so I can send you some of these little experiments.


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

How do you hold such small pieces on the lathe?

Alan

A Womack wrote:

How do you hold such small pieces on the lathe?

Alan

They don't start out small - the 5/8" square or 1/2" round
blank held in the "pin jaws" (which close down to about 1/2"
diameter) of a scroll chuck on the drive end of the JET mini
lathe- get turned down smaller and smaller - starting at the
unsupported end and THEN, in small increments, back towards
the tail stock/chuck. See the third picture on this page -

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...urning14C.html

charlie b

A Womack wrote:

How do you hold such small pieces on the lathe?

Alan

They don't start out small - the 5/8" square or 1/2" round
blank held in the "pin jaws" (which close down to about 1/2"
diameter) of a scroll chuck on the drive end of the JET mini
lathe- get turned down smaller and smaller - starting at the
unsupported end and THEN, in small increments, back towards
the tail stock/chuck. See the third picture on this page -

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...urning14C.html

charlie b

charlieb wrote in news:46CE6BB8.78B1
@accesscom.com:

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...urning14C.html

Thank you much,you have come a long ways since you started posting photos
on the turnings you were trying.

I would guess the short length makes it possible to turn them without
shake?

Just making my daughter's Harry Potter wand, caused me to need to be very
moderate in the amount of pressure I was putting on the skew.

Alan

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:51:14 GMT, A Womack wrote:

charlieb wrote in news:46CE6BB8.78B1
:

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...urning14C.html

Thank you much,you have come a long ways since you started posting photos
on the turnings you were trying.

I would guess the short length makes it possible to turn them without
shake?

Just making my daughter's Harry Potter wand, caused me to need to be very
moderate in the amount of pressure I was putting on the skew.

Alan

You probably do this already, but a habit that I got in was learned from Dick
sing... Use the skew one-handed and use a finger on the other side of the
spindle to match the pressure of the skew.. sort of like a steady rest..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing