Can anyone provide a better work method for producing Windsor chair spindles
besides spokeshaving? A typical spindle would be about 9/16 inch diameter
at the butt end tapering to 5/16 at the top end and 24 inches long..
Hickory or white oak. Too thin for turning in the lathe. Regards, Dave

David Anderson wrote:
Can anyone provide a better work method for producing Windsor chair spindles
besides spokeshaving? A typical spindle would be about 9/16 inch diameter
at the butt end tapering to 5/16 at the top end and 24 inches long..
Hickory or white oak. Too thin for turning in the lathe. Regards, Dave

HI David,

I'll be surprised if there's a better way than w/ a spokeshave. What
exactly is it that you don't like about the spokeshave?

The reason a lathe is an inappropriate tool (and the spokeshave is
appropriate) is not that the spindle is too thin; it's that the spindle
must be strong, which it cannot be if you start cutting across the
grain, as per turning. Spindle stock must be riven, not (rip) cut, then
shaved, not turned, for optimum strength. Maintaining the grain is what
keeps the strength.

Sorry to bear the news you didn't want to hear, but that's how I see it
anyway...
H

"David Anderson" wrote

Can anyone provide a better work method for producing Windsor chair
spindles besides spokeshaving? A typical spindle would be about 9/16 inch
diameter at the butt end tapering to 5/16 at the top end and 24 inches
long.. Hickory or white oak. Too thin for turning in the lathe.

You can use a rounding plane (stail engine) and a trapping plane to add
shape the spindles.

Try http://www.ashemcrafts.com/.

Alternatively, you can make traditional wooden versions from which Fred
Lambert's cast versions were derived.

My chair on my web site - Projects - Plans of a Chair of the High Wycombe
School (foot of the page) was made entirely with wooden rounders and my own
version of the trapping plane.

Unless you have a willing helper to turn the wood by hand (see the hand
crank/twizzler) a powered turning head is essential for use with the
trapping plane.

Jeff G

--
Jeff Gorman, West Yorkshire, UK
email : Username is amgron
ISP is clara.co.uk
www.amgron.clara.net

David,
Actually, they can be turned on a lathe. You need a steady rest, which
is a set of soft wheels that are set in the center of the spindle to
prevent the 'whip' action of a thin spindle. If you don't have a steady
rest, you can use your hand, but this is requires some experience; if
your holding hand is getting hot, you are using too much pressure. You
can also do it like Norm; start with a dowel and use a wood rasp and
slower speeds.
robo hippy

David,
Actually, they can be turned on a lathe. You need a steady rest, which
is a set of soft wheels that are set in the center of the spindle to
prevent the 'whip' action of a thin spindle. If you don't have a steady
rest, you can use your hand, but this is requires some experience; if
your holding hand is getting hot, you are using too much pressure. You
can also do it like Norm; start with a dowel and use a wood rasp and
slower speeds.
robo hippy

Robo: Thanks for your comments. I do have a steady rest consisting of
three pre-lubricated ball bearings (two fixed in a V-formation, and the
third bearing adjustable according to diameter) - interesting that you
mentioned "soft" wheels. Can you describe "soft" wheels in more detail?
Also, I have found a fairly successful method by using a leather glove on
one hand as a moving steady rest, with the other hand holding a VERY sharp
gouge, moving them together from left-to-right as the diameter decreases.
High rpm's and a light touch work best.
I begin with 3/4x3/4 inch square stock with all four edges rounded to 3/8
inch radius on the over-arm router - a quick job to prepare for turning.
Dave

"robo hippy" wrote in message
oups.com...
David,
Actually, they can be turned on a lathe. You need a steady rest, which
is a set of soft wheels that are set in the center of the spindle to
prevent the 'whip' action of a thin spindle. If you don't have a steady
rest, you can use your hand, but this is requires some experience; if
your holding hand is getting hot, you are using too much pressure. You
can also do it like Norm; start with a dowel and use a wood rasp and
slower speeds.
robo hippy

On 3 Jul 2005 23:19:26 -0700, "hylourgos" wrote:

The reason a lathe is an inappropriate tool (and the spokeshave is
appropriate) is not that the spindle is too thin; it's that the spindle
must be strong, which it cannot be if you start cutting across the
grain, as per turning.

I don't see this - or at least only half of it. You need
straight-grained stock for strength, but once you have it, then it
doesn't matter whether you turn or shave it. Riving doesn't make
straighter grained stock than sawing either, although it does show you
the stock that's straight grained and will effectively filter out your
fragile spindles before you turn them, rather than after.

I'm not a good turner, so I usually get my spindles made by a guy across
town. When I do make them though, the trick seems to be the turning
technique - use the skew and a real paring cut, not by scraping. Both
remove timber, but it's scraping that puts the force into the timber and
causes bowing and vibration.

I'd never wear a glove near a rotating shaft or lathe. Instead use a
sailmaker's palm or similar - the leather wear pad of a glove palm, but
without wrapping around your fingers and possibly trapping them, if the
glove gets tangled in the work.

David,
Well since I never use a steady rest, I have always been under the
assumption that there are harder and softer wheels, depending on the
type used. I don't know if that comment was appropriate or not. I had a
show last weekend, and another one this weekend, so I am somewhat
fried. When turning thin spindles, start at the tailstock end, and work
back to the headstock. Try to turn it to finish thickness in small
sections. It is harder to go back for one long pass. Also, there is
less whip if the headstock end is in a chuck rather than on a star
drive.
Some guys say never use gloves. I don't, just because I want to feel
the work. As far as the leather goes, I asked a blacksmith why he used
a cotton apron instead of a leather one. He said something along the
lines of it takes the leather longer to get hot, and longer to cool
down. By the time you feel the heat, it can already be on fire.
robo hippy

Andy Dingley wrote:



I'd never wear a glove near a rotating shaft or lathe. Instead use a
sailmaker's palm or similar - the leather wear pad of a glove palm, but
without wrapping around your fingers and possibly trapping them, if the
glove gets tangled in the work.

You're right, although in this case the spindle is small enough that it
could do no harm. It will break, or the spur center will spin, before
anything serious happens. I wouldn't get it near the center, though.

John Martin