Maxed out my Lathe...

I got several pieces of freshly cut white ash the other day. I made a box with one smaller piece, but yesterday decided to tackle the biggest one. Carried it downstairs and thought I was getting weak because I struggled a bit to manipulate it around corners and open the door while holding it. Out of curiosity, I weighed it, then no longer felt all that bad - 120 pound chunk of wood. I used my newly made chainsaw stand to cut it up, then my newly restored PM143 to cut an 11.5" circle of wood.

The first bowl, I used the woodworm screw that came with my woodriver chuck, but had a bit of a problem in that the bowl would not come off the screw when it was time. I ended up removing the screw from the chuck while still in the bowl, mounting the blank, and then cutting it out as I hollowed the bowl - not too fun.

The second bowl, which came from the half of the crotch piece shown here, I used the spur drive on. Stayed on the lathe without trouble and had the added advantage of my being able to get the bowl off the lathe when done rough turning.

Both bowls basically maxed out my poor HF34706 lathe - it's got a 12" swing and the blanks were both 11.5" in diameter. The first one was round, but had a protrusion on the back that required a little 'adjustment' - basically, I chainsawed off part of the blank while it was on the lathe. Had to do a similar thing on the second, but because it hit the motor behind the headstock. (Why they designed the motor to be there is beyond me... it's always getting in the way and the cooling vent intake is right where sawdust/chips naturally go.  Next time I order from PSI, I'm going to pick up one of their extended MT2 spur drives just to get the blank away from the motor.)

Even after chainsawing the protrusion off the first bowl, it started out so wobbly that I considered scrapping it. Persevered and stayed out of the line of fire should it come off and am glad I did. The ash has some curl to it, which really came out when I put it in DNA. The second bowl is in the DNA now and has an awesome section that looks almost like some of the burls I've seen you guys post. There was a rather large chunk of the second one that was completely rotten; thankfully it was in the area hollowed out.

Can't wait for these to dry so I can finish turn them...

Half of the 120-pound chunk of wood the bowls came from:

The first bowl roughed out:

Inspiration from Indiana Jones...

I started making a piece of unknown wood round on the lathe without really knowing what I was going to make. As it was taking shape, the scene from Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade ran through my head where Harrison Ford picks up the only wood cup and says "That's the cup of a carpenter..." I ended up making a sort of miniture chalice box. No idea what type of wood it is - a friend found it and gave it to me, but it's very hard and takes a great finish. As you can see, it's nearly white even after application of BLO.

Cedar Weed Pot

This is a piece of cedar, finished with BLO, and is the first time I've buffed a turning. Didn't really make as much of a difference as I thought it would, but there's also no finish on the wood other than oil.

Lathe Tool Caddy

My lathe is resting on a steel rolling workbench. On the headstock side, I have about 5-6" in which to put turning-related stuff. However, it's always in shambles, even when freshly cleaned and organized. Cleaning is a royal headache too - pick up what seems like 290 things, sweep, put them all back, then pick up what was covered with shavings off the floor and put it back too. I got an idea the other day and this is what I came up with.

The plastic pipe is 3/4" CPVC leftover from a project where I used it as conduit to run wires on my boat. I cut it into pieces 5" long and had one short one. The rest of the wood is from the scrap bin, secured together with drywall screws. I drilled out the slots so that the bars for my chuck and the headstock wrenches can fit into them. Also put a hook in place for the bench brush, though I'm still reaching behind the lathe for it.  Now everything has a place, I have extra room, and I can even keep my bowl gouges here as well. Simply lifts off should I want to remove it.  Should I decide I need extra capacity, I already have an idea that will allow me to triple or quadruple it's capacity without increasing the amount of space it consumes, though at this point this is all I really need.


Before:

After:

Some construction pics:

Ash Box

Heard chainsaws the other morning and drove around the neighborhood before work. Found a crew taking down two trees - one white ash (supposedly infected with emerald ash borers) and the other an elm.

This box is the first time I've ever turned ash. Absolutely love the grain and how it turns. The rest of the ash and a few good sized chunks of elm are sitting in my driveway, waiting for the scrap to be cleared away from the beauty that's already inside.

Chainsaw Stand

I recently got a chainsaw to cut up wood blanks to put on the lathe. Only used it a few times since, mostly because the idea of using it scares the hell outta me. Did some thinking and made a stand to brace the wood so that I wouldn't have to use my foot or have the chain near the concrete floor.

Used part of a 2x6, a bunch of scrap wood, and a bunch of old screws/bolts and now no longer have to worry about it. I can cross-cut and split wood for bowls with the grain of the wood. I've used it a few times since and works surprisingly well. I'm really surprised that I haven't seen anything like it before; hope somebody finds it useful.

Set up for cross-cutting as an example, but not a good one; the log should be longer.

Set up for halving a log in preparation of cutting a bowl blank.

Bandsaw is Usable!

It took a while, mostly because I quit working on it.  Projects at work had me so tired by the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was go out in the garage and work on a saw.

The table was attacked with razor blades and WD40 to remove the majority of the rust. (This was rather short-sighted of me, though I didn't know this at the time.) I then wet-sanded the table top with WD40 and 180 grit, followed by WD40 and a scotch brite pad. Heard that wadded foil and vinegar was supposed to remove rust and tried it with limited success, but noticed that the spot where I'd left the foil on the table while going to eat dinner was MUCH cleaner when I went back out. A light bulb went off and I covered the table with paper towels, then saturated them with vinegar. Would you believe that the white towels turned maroon on their own after a couple hours due to the vinegar lifting the rust out of the little imperfections in the table I couldn't reach with the abrasive methods?!?! Repeated this 2-3 times and the table top is now silver again.


Here's the underside of the table before I cleaned it up:

Cleaned the rest of the saw with driveway degreaser and a toothbrush to get into all the nooks and crannies. Got about a cup of metal shavings mixed with dirt/grease out of the area between the gearbox & saw itself - I'm sure there's more in there, but it's all I can reach. Got about half a 3-gallon bucket of this shaving/dirt/grease mixture in total. Didn't take the wheels off, in part because I don't know how they come off and in part because I don't think I'd be able to get them back on even if I was able to get them off. The top wheel had no tire on it at all and the bottom tire was extremely cracked and basically falling apart - it was removed. One V-belt was good, but the longer had a cut that went nearly all the way through, so I got a new one.

After fighting the rust for a good long time, I read online about using electrolosis to remove rust. Picked up a box of the washing soda from Krogers, got a piece of the rebar the construction guys left laying in our front lawn when they did our street last summer (it was there a week after the guys were gone, so I figured they didn't want it anymore and just forgot to pick it up), hooked up the battery charger for my boat, and let it run with the cables stretched out the garage window. Couple days later, all the small intricate pieces were rust free; can you believe it - something I read online actually worked! Wish I would have known about and used this technique for the table...

The base took longer. Couldn't use electrolosis - way too big and I really didn't want to take the motor out. Used a wire wheel in a corded drill, then picked up a knotted wire wheel for the angle grinder. WOW - does that ever work faster! Removed all paint & rust from the base and all shrouds using the wire wheel. Only problem came when I thought the rotation was going opposite to what it was and did an edge - shroud went flying one way and the grinder the other, right into my leg. (Stupid Newton and his third law...) This was about a week later:

Primed the outside of the base and all shrouds with Rustoleum spray primer and did the inside of the stand with red brush-on rust-neutralizing primer. (Wasn't able to get inside to remove the rust, so I wanted something that would prevent it from getting worse.) Brushed on some of the canary yellow exterior metal paint I had left from doing my boat so that it'd be easier to see inside the base. (Doesn't look the best, but I know it's really good paint and it is bright on the inside. It's not like it's visible under normal circumstances anyways...) The outside of the base was done in gloss black spray paint. The shrouds were sprayed with metallic green, which produced a very nice cloud-pattern - don't know if this is an intended property of the paint or just my sucking at spraying... 

Used the bench grinder to wire brush all bolts & guards clean, replacing the missing bolts/washers as I put it back together. I applied two coats of car wax to all the unpainted surfaces, including bolts, before it went back together. Replaced the broken on-off switch with a good one - plan to get a paddle switch for it after I determine if everything's good and if I'm going to keep the saw. Bought a 25' 12 gauge power cord and cut off the female end - this is the power cord for the machine. Used contact cement to put rubber on both wheels, but have yet to crown them.

Before I put it together, I also made a custom-sized mobile base out of 2x6 lumber and a piece of 3/4" oak plywood I had leftover from another project. The saw, all 420+ pounds of it, now rolls easily enough to not be a problem moving around my small shop.  I rounded over the corners to protect ankles and painted this black to match the base, then bolted the base on. Should have rounded over the vertical edges as well - hurts when you walk too close!

The mobile base:

Saw stand, waiting for mobile base to dry:

Inside of the stand - bright freakin yellow:

Where I cut the top-quality wiring that was in the saw when I got it:

The heavy-as-my-car saw mounted to the base:

Shrouds and table are on:

New wiring:

Would you look at that? I can plug this saw in 20+ feet away and yet when the extra length is not needed, the excess cord can be easily & safely stored between the motor mounting plate and the mobile base.  (Was thinking of trying to come up with an auto-rewind system for it, but will probably just leave it given that it takes all of 30 seconds to manually wind up & store the entire cord now.)

Here are a few close-up shots of the table... vinegar actually worked!

Not pictured was how I had to grind & hammer the shrouds where they met - they were sprung enough to make them grab each other when opening/closing. While they're still sprung (nothing I can do about that without replacing them), they now open & close independently. I also epoxied the red powermatic sign back together and bolted it on the front where it was. The retention chain for the gearbox shroud was replaced as well.

I still need to make a cover for the stand opening, probably out of plywood with some kind of latching mechanism - this was lost long ago, well before I got the saw. There's also no throat plate insert - also plan on making one of these. The lower blade guide assembly is completely missing, but am going to try running it without and see how it works. I also cut off some of the original metal decals that were on the shrouds - these are unreadable and I'm hoping to someday find good quality color pictures of them so I can print out, laminate, and affix these to the saw. The angle indicator thing on the trunion had all the writing taken off by the electrolosis, so I need to figure out some way to get it off, mark it up with a protracter, and get it back on in the right position, or simply replace it with something else entirely. The knob for the high-low setting of the gearbox is also gone, so I'll need to make one on the lathe sooner or later.


I do kind of want to paint the saw itself, but I'm torn:

Quite honestly, I'm sick of working on this thing and don't even know if I want to keep it long-term. Having only 6" of resaw is already sucking when trying to cut up wood for the lathe, which is why I wanted a bandsaw to begin with. It's a cast-iron one-piece frame, so I'm never going to be able to get a riser block for it. Plus, it takes a non-standard length blade - while every other 14" bandsaw without a riser block known to man seemingly takes a 93.5" blade, this one takes at minimum 94" and 95" is more appropriate. (While not a huge deal, if I need a blade in a pinch, having to order it online is a PITA compared to running to HD for a blade.) Plus, it has no fence, attachment for a fence, or miter gauge.

Conversely, the shrouds came out looking so good that the paint job on the saw itself really looks bad now, even worse than it did before IMO, even though it's now clean and looked good with the shrouds the way they were originally. It's assembled and in my basement and I'm NOT going to haul it up the stairs and outside, so I'd have to sand/brush the presumably leaded paint in the house before brushing paint on the saw. Metallic isn't available in brush-on, so it'd have to be a different color. Further, without pulling the wheels off, I'm never going to be able to get all that good of a finish on the inside, though it's almost certainly be better than what it's got now. I know that I'll never be able to afford a bandsaw that has the ability to cut metal with the resaw capacity I want for lathe wood, so this would be a better all-purpose saw than say the Rikon 10-235 I was considering. (Freakin Woodcraft... was waiting on that sale for months to no avail, then get the flyer advertising it for $750 two weeks after buying this one!)

So after putting a 4 TPI 1/2" blade on from a local shop, I'm now using it and man, does it cut a bowl blank a lot nicer & easier than either free-handing on the table saw or cutting by hand! Cut a piece of green white ash 11.5" in diameter and the only time there was any problem was when a small piece fell down into the bottom wheel cavity. (Not having a throat plate poses that risk...)