wood craft
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My Big Lathe
This is my favourite lathe and was in fact the first lathe that I bought though I didn’t use it straight away. I can turn up to 24″ diameter on this lathe. I love the history associated with this lathe. It started life as a metal spinning lathe – something I’d never even heard of when I first had the lathe. It was in a poor state and I had to derust then paint it. There was no tool rest and when I was asking Huw to make one for me I really didn’t know what I needed. This tool rest can be moved at a couple of different points…
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Viceroy Short-bed Lathe
This Viceroy short bed lathe is a wonderful lathe. I can turn up to 16″ over the bed and if I wanted and needed I could also turn larger pieces on the outside. However since I have another, larger lathe I’ve never set this up for outboard turning. This lathe has been converted to variable speed running from zero to about 1400 rpm. This is great as the belts for the different speeds are harder to change on this lathe than my little Scheppach. So I have an inverter mounted on the wall and a three phase motor. There was a three phase originally on the lathe but unfortunately not…
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The Smallest Lathe
This is a Scheppach (dmt450) 5 speed bench mounted wood turning lathe. This lathe was the first lathe I used seriously. And I did use it seriously considering it was a small inexpensive lathe. It was bolted well to the bench and within months I was turning bowls up to the maximum diameter of 10″ (150mm). And these weren’t always round bowls either. I had already been making furniture for several years so I knew how much I liked the natural edge and the beauty of the wood in its fullness, not cut into a straight line for my ease of use. I was very impressed with this lathe. It…
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Commissions 2
Commissions come in all shapes and sizes. I enjoy the challenge of making replacement turnings for people. Most of my work is free form – I can choose what shape I want. Bowls, pots, vases, tea light holders. they are all things that give me the chance to look at a piece of wood and make the best I can from that particular piece of wood. If there is a rotten bit in the wood I can change the shape, it doesn’t matter. So it is good having the occasional challenge of turning something exactly like another piece. Since the original was turned by someone else there is also the…
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Enjoying Life
Enjoying life. Not taking things too seriously. “Hard work never killed anyone, why take the risk and be the first one”. All statements that Huw has always felt. He is however a worker and even when he’s not in his workshop (he is a precision engineer) he likes keeping busy. And what better a way to spend a Saturday than making a coffee table. So, enlisting the help of his friend Merfyn, who is retired and originally trained in woodwork before the dust forced him into painting and decorating, they set to work. Huw is very fond of the wood he rescues from old pallets. Much of his work is…
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Anniversary Bowls
My anniversary bowls have devoloped from a mistake I made when I was inexperienced which I mentioned it in my blog on learning through experience. I have made many special birthday or wedding anniversary bowls with a coin in the base. I have made at least three bowls for people celebrating their 100th birthday. For two of these I was able to get the wood for the bowls from the farms where the women were brought up. So the bowl was truly personal to them. They would probably have played in the tree from which the bowl was made. I remember being told afterwards that someone went to see one…
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Commissions 1
Commissions offer a different challenge to my everyday work. I love to have different commissions. Sometimes I am given commissions to turn bowls from wood that someone’s home and that is always a pleasure as it has so much personal meaning to the people involved. Wood always has a history but if that history is linked to the people who are able to keep the wood and possibly even pass it down through the generations that is so special. It is also through being given commissions to turn something from people’s own wood that I have come across some of the most beautiful wood I have had the pleasure to…
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Ornamental Bowls.
Ornamental bowls show the individual character of each piece of wood. Ornamental bowls are a delight to turn and they can be turned from fresh (green) wood or seasoned wood. They offer the widest scope in showing the wood to its greatest advantage. Many ornamental bowls can easily be used as fruit bowls or trinket bowls. Each ornamental bowl is different even when using the same wood. Each species of tree, each part of the tree, whether branch, trunk, root or crotch wood (where the trunk branches out), all have different characteristics, different figuring – and different problems. I use only local wood. The furthest I have fetched a tree…
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Wood Finish 2. Oil.
Which wood finish to chose is the most difficult aspect of wood turning, in my opinion. Oil, however, is the natural choice for a food safe wood finish. But which oil? Robin Wood, an experienced wood turner I would instinctively trust, is totally in favour of Linseed oil (Flaxseed oil) which can be bought for culinary use. However, other people say that it isn’t an ideal wood finish. I used it on the inside of a corner cupboard I made years ago and the smell lingered for years. I definitely wouldn’t use it for within an enclosed space again. Some say Jojoba is ideal as it is actually a liquid…
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Wood Finish 1. Polish
Deciding what wood finish to use can be a bit of a minefield. There are a lot of different things to take into consideration. The wood finish that brings out the figuring, refraction of the light, etc. best is a polish but this tends to be quite shiny which isn’t to everyone’s taste. It is also not very waterproof or very tough. However, if it is scratched it is easy to re-polish. Varnish is the toughest wood finish which is why it is used for yachts but this is a coating on the surface of the wood rather than going into it and if it gets scratched the whole finish…