so you've been watching me on tv for awhile and now you want to start turning. this is where it all begins, in a garage. it's a lot less money than a larger lathe,but it still does a lot of great projects. most lathes come with a pulleysystem and in this one i have two pulleys. whoa talk about intimidating, even for anexperienced woodturner you can get lost on
essential tools for small woodworking shop, this isle. you can get free wood by goingto a tree service. you can use that wood to make bowls and other things. now before you start turning, make sure you sharpen your tools. and why do you sneak up on a bead? because you can't make this in one cut. so does this look familiar? this is wherewe shoot our show. now my lathe is front
and center. allii do in the shop is turn, so that'simportant to me my tools are within reach. i havecabinets for storage right here. if you come over to here, this is my sharpeningstation which is very close to the lathe. that makes it nice and easy to come overhere. it also if you notice, has good lightingso that way i can see what i'm doing. for a beginning turner, if you're not quitesure if this is your thing, i'd recommend going with a mini lahe. projects like pins, cups, little bowls,candlesticks. you can make about anything
on here. you're only limited by the sizeof it, but one thing to keep in mind too is, as you go along, you're going to do bigger biggerprojects. possibly, so you move into maybe a midi lathe and this lathe is a very nicestout lathe. it has a good swing and distance between centers and i'm goingto get into all that explained to you. there are literally hundreds of choices,dozens of manufacturers. one thing that holds true though, make sure you get high speed steel. that steel will hold an edge for a long time and makes your turning a lotmore enjoyable. now there are six tools i recommend fora beginning turner. you're gonna want to do spindle
and bowl turning. to start off with thespindle turning, i recommend a roughing gouge. this one's one and a quarterinches.this is the first tool you're going to use when you're trying to makea blank round piece of wood round on your lathe. now the next tool i recommendis a spindle gouge. this one is three or three-eighths of an inch and it is thething that makes the shapes, it makes the beads, it makes all the fancy stuff whenyou're turning something on the lathe. this piece of wood right here is a goodexample. this is cut, you can make a bowl out of it right? but look what happened, itcracked. the wood is wet when it's brand-new and green. so it's losingmoisture like, that so it cracks. what you
need to prevent the cracking issomething called green wood sealer and it looks a little bit like milk, but it'san emulsion and what it does is it helps seal up the pores of the wood. the woods kinda like a straw and it startsleaking all that water, well that will keep it from cracking, it'll slow it down.the other thing though is you can't turn a bowl straight from that the beginning.you've got to do what we call a rough turn. you have to turn the bowl to thisshape, keep it kind of thick. now all we have to do here in oklahoma, is put thisbowl in here with a bunch of shavings and that'll let the water slowly comeout of the wood, so after about three or
four months, you can turn this to finishedbowl. just make sure you close the bag up really tight and store it in a cool dryplace.
