Turning seasoned wood on a pole lathe

On the third day, after your pole lathe has passed its maiden turning test, the empahsis will be on learning to use the main green woodworking tools safely and accurately to produce small turned items. Wood turning on a pole lathe at our ancient woodland camp in kent. Seasoning your own wood turning blanks from fallen tree limbs. The other end of the cord reaches up to the end of a long springy pole. Although rolf works mainly with seasoned wood he is increasingly enjoying working with freshly cut, or green wood. It does not take to long before you have created an unsellable work. The pole connects to the lathe s spindle by a length of rope, and gives a fine degree of control over the turning speed. The lathe project has taken a number of months to complete as we chose to build a vikingstyle lathe from raw timber. Build your own pole lathe and learn to use it woodcraft.

The operator is known as a turner, and the skills needed to use the tools were traditionally known as turnery. Industrial lathes wood working lathes baileigh industrial. The good rule is to use green for bowls, and seasoned for legs and similar. Using traditional methods, ben shows you how to split, axe, and prepare a piece of wood, as well as how to use a shaving horse and a lathe to create a finished wooden product, in this 4 part series. Prepared wooden fillet three sided cross section of seasoned ash or beech, used as a tool rest for the pole lathe. Pole lathe tools and accessories woodsmith experience. The lathe itself there are many types is often described as the first machine tool and its origins go back to the bronze age. On the third day, after your pole lathe has passed its maiden turning test, the empahsis will be on learning to use the main green woodworking tools safely and. A shave horse is a legoperated vice and a pole lathe is a legoperated piece of kit that allows you to turn wood using handchisels.

Before controlled kiln drying came about, fully seasoned wood. If you dont see what you are looking for, feel free to call us toll free. Do not be frightened of turning seasoned wood or even square stock on a human powered. The first two days will be spent making the lathe from high quality seasoned dimensioned hard and softwood assembled into kits. Once the leg or stretchers were finished, being of green wood, they required seasoning. Specialised tools such as bowl hooks may be used for some of the work. You can use seasoned wood on a pole lathe, it just slows the work considerably. An expert pole lathe carver, of which wood counts as one, can make as many as five nesting bowls from a single blank. Youll make a chair with a woven sea grass seat to take away with you. Turning seasoned and square billets of wood on the pole lathe. Winson woodcraft tree surgery, firewood logs, pole lathe turner. Chair legs would be stored in piles until the quota usually a gross of legs and the requisite stretchers was complete. If you have a wood lathe, you are probably accustomed to turning pens, spindles, and maybe even bowls.

Apr 28, 2001 at its simplest, the traditional lathe consists of a frame, a treadle and a long springy pole. Invariably they have shorter handles because there is not so much of a control issue as there is with the high speed of a power lathe. If you decide on a wood lathe that does not have a stand, you might want to invest in one. A special design of lathe is recommended for turning bowls, but as an experiment i tried adapting this lathe to turn small bowls. Union graduate lathe turn up to 18 inch 3 phase moter with converter.

Went through the whole process from log to rolling pin using axe, draw knife and turning chisel. I think that if you tried to make a peppermill from green wood, that it would probably split when it dries. Adaptations are the use of a mandrel in the photo above left one has been hammered into the bottom of the bowl blank, and supporting the tool rest at a skewed angle using a piece of wood fixed to the tail stock lower right. Turning an african blackwood mallet on a pole lathe youtube. Green woodworking low impact living info, training. As a professional turner, i cant emphasize enough how important it is to have a stand thats stable, strong and heavyparticularly for bowl turning. Who said you cant turn seasoned andor tropical hardwoods on a pole lathe. I first met a lathe a metal turning lathe in fact when i was about. Pole lathes are only really suitable for turning green wood. In the event of your lathe being somewhere in the middle, ie 325mm, we are confident the gm5. Build a professionalquality lathe stand thats stable, strong and heavy.

Make sure your wood is fixed properly to the lathe, try to make sure that the turnig speed is correct. A pole lathe, also known as a springpole lathe, is a woodturning lathe that uses the elasticity within a long pole as a return spring for a treadle. Wood turning courses creative, craft and artisan courses. Pole lathe series turning a garden dibber duration. The price you pay for wood can truly have a negative affect on. Call 19206844990 and talk to a baileigh woodworking expert. Pole lathe turning seasoned square timber as some of you know i make strops. If you dont see what you are looking for, feel free to.

Now you spend time turning it and add more to the final selling price. Wood turning courses, workshops and schools across the uk. It is possible to take a freshly turned green wood bowl from the lathe and place it on your shelf and it will dry fine without problems. Wood turning a newly handled billhook this entry was posted in woodland skills and tagged green woodworking pole lathe on 1120 by gary updated 2365 days ago wood turning on a pole lathe is great fun and a useful skill. Tools often tend to have longer handles for extra leverage because of the higher forces involved in turning bowls. The handle of the mallet is made of apple and the head is african blackwood.

A pole lathe, also known as a springpole lathe, is a wood turning lathe that uses the elasticity within a long pole as a return spring for a treadle. It would definitely be easier to turn green wood, but is that just part of the challenge. Alasdairs experience covers everything from woodland management to green woodworking, so theres not much he doesnt know about wood. These free up space on your worktables while still keeping your wood turning projects at a comfortable height. Anglosaxon crafts wood turning on a medieval spingpole lathe wood turning lathe working tools your main tool in every woodturning project woodworking for beginners projects.

Just for fun, go to your local lumber yard and ask one of the salesmen for a walnut bowl blank 12 x 12 x 12 and notice the perplexed look on his face. Even if it didnt split, it would probably distort, and then the grinding mechanism would jam when you tried to turn it. The lathe is an ancient tool, dating at least to the egyptians and, known and used in assyria, greece, the roman and byzantine empires. Wood turning timber blanks over 100 items northampton location.

The terms part seasoned or air dried dont mean much as this could mean the wood is still damp and not stable enough to go into a heated home after turning. May 03, 2020 you will be carefully guided through the buildup, stage by stage to produce a durable and efficient pole lathe that will last for many years. Woodturning is the craft of using the wood lathe with handheld tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Woodturning videos archives woodworkers guild of america. Wood turning on a pole lathe at our ancient woodland camp. After this came the pole lathe where a cord was wrapped around the work piece and its ends secured to a pliable pole and a foot treadle. The shave horse is basically a bench with a foot operated clamp, which grips wood allowing it to be worked, typically preparing wood for turning using a drawknife, or clamping wood being shaped carved. You may also fancy learning the traditional wood turning craft of bodging, which uses green unseasoned wood to make chair legs and other cylindrical parts. Tool rest for pole lathe green woodworking specialists. See more ideas about wood turning, green woodworking and wood lathe. Unfollow wood turning lathe to stop getting updates on your ebay feed. Drying green wood bowls 6 methods for success turn a wood.

After initially building an experimental pole lathe, powered by a 4 foot bundle bow, matt decided he wanted to build a larger pole lathe so that he could begin to learn wood turning. Season woodturning logs faster the traditional seasoning time for natural drying of logs for turning is one year for each inch of radius. Large pieces of wood can be very off balance when mounted on the lathe and may should be spun at the lowest speed until they had been trued, green wood is. Intrigued by the idea and wanting to work with wood but having very little money, i cobbled one together and the polelathe steadily crept into my life. As this water dries from the wood, the wood will contract in shape unevenly, due to the differing shapes and sizes of the woods cells. Some suppliers apply hot wax to the outer edge of blanks because the blanks are still damp and likely to crack if they dry too quickly, the wax will slow the drying process and. Firewood logs seasoned, dry hardwood mix of slow medium and fast burn logs suitable for open fires, wood and multifuel burning stoves. With a pole lathe you can make anything roundcylindrical, like bowls, chair legs, rounders bats etc, and with a shave horse you can make anything square. All heavyduty wood lathes offer variablespeed control and include tool rests and face plates. As this water dries from the wood, the wood will contract in shape unevenly, due to the differing shapes and sizes of the wood s cells. I study medieval woodworking a lot, and ive always wanted to try out the medieval style lathe.

We build each wood lathe with a cast iron base to ensure high accuracy for spindles, bowls, and other wood turning projects. Do not be frightened of turning seasoned wood or even square stock on a human powered lathe, it is possible, and we have been doing it for centuries. You may also fancy learning the traditional woodturning craft of bodging, which uses green unseasoned wood to make chair legs and other cylindrical parts. This course is run by chris who is passionate about green wood bowls turned using a pole lathe chris first learnt this ancient craft several years ago after he and his son attended a bowl turning course at bodgers barn in dorset run by mace bryant. Like the potters wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism which can generate a variety of forms. I build a pole lathe to keep my horse company mick grewcock. The finishing stage was turning the leg with the pole lathe the pole lathe was made on site. Yes, i have found that whether working green or seasoned wood the horse is invaluable in bow making. Introduction to pole lathing little acorn furniture, devon. The common denominator is that most of the projects that you produce are probably made of wood. Green woodworking means literally working with wood that has been freshly or. While wood turning technically falls under the umbrella of woodworking, it is often considered a completely different craft. I build a pole lathe to keep my horse company mick. Theres no question that turning wood is one of the most fun things that you can do in a shop.

Youll make a fourlegged stool with a woven sea grass seat to take away with you. Find a large selection of exotic wood blanks, domestic wood blanks and more at rockler. Turning tools for the pole lathe are different to those used on a power lathe. Wood lathes in mini, midi and full sizes woodcraft. The use of a broad 2 chisel for smoothing is pretty unique. Although that, he says, is like the holy grail of turning. During the past 20 years robin wood has produced and sold over 30,000 wooden plates and bowls from his small workshop nestled into a peak district hillside. When wood is cut from a living tree, it is saturated with moisture. The film is about robin wood making a set of ash nesting bowls from a piece of branch wood, on a pole lathe. The pole lathe making a stool the ancient craft of the pole lathe. The shave horse is basically a bench with a foot operated clamp, which grips wood allowing it to be worked, typically preparing wood for turning using a drawknife, or clamping wood being shaped. The left hand side are the before photos and the right hand side are photos of the billhook fitted with a handle he turned on a pole lathe. Season woodturning logs faster flute master tools for.

Please use the links to see some information on making a pole lathe, and on turning items. The pole lathe make a chair the ancient craft of the pole lathe. How to turn a bowl on a pole lathe money the guardian. I first discovered the polelathe in 1976 in a wonderful book entitled woodland crafts of britain by herbert edlin. The wood to be turned is fastened between two centres, which are turned by the operator using the treadle. If time is of no consequence this may be alright, but if you prefer turning seasoned wood and are impatient as i am, three to five years is a long time to wait.

He gives demonstrations and tuition in the use of a pole lathe at schools, historic buildings, country fairs and agricultural shows, as well as at woodturning clubs. Get some seasoned wood to practice on sycamore is easy to work and gives apleasing finish. You dont need too many tools, but make sure the ones you use are razor sharp. Jun 03, 2016 who said you cant turn seasoned andor tropical hardwoods on a pole lathe. Oct 05, 2018 yes, i have found that whether working green or seasoned wood the horse is invaluable in bow making. See more ideas about lathe, wood turning and wood lathe. The second lure to turning green wood is that the size of the bowl is not limited to what is available in the lumber yard.

I used to turn a barbers pole out of a piece of mahogany on the wood lathe. Included in the woodsmith pole lathe kit and the ready to turn pole lathe. The british craftsman bodger in his makeshift woodland hut, the victorian home worker turning out chairback spindles, table legs and banister supports, and all manner of wood turners traditionally used the pole lathe in their cottage industries at its simplest, the traditional lathe consists of a frame, a treadle and a long springy. Pressing the treadle pulls on a cord that is usually wrapped around the piece of wood or billet being turned. The major difference between this type, and the modern lathe is that the motion is reciprocal, rather than continuous circular motion. Mar 26, 20 turning seasoned and square billets of wood on the pole lathe. Pole lathe turning seasoned square timber sean hellman. These are made either from kiln dried oak or ash, sawn on the bandsaw and feed through a planer thicknesser.

Mar 26, 20 the video shows how i turn them on the pole lathe. On a pole lathe, spindle turning is done using similar tools to those used by. Did a great 1 day introduction to pole lathing course with alasdair in august. There are several types of accessories that can be helpful for your woodworking projects. Bowl turners know that walnuts pronounced end grain in the bottom of a bowl tears easily and produces a surface that can be difficult to sand. Dec 07, 2014 after initially building an experimental pole lathe, powered by a 4 foot bundle bow, matt decided he wanted to build a larger pole lathe so that he could begin to learn wood turning. See more ideas about wood lathe, lathe projects and wood. Wood turning on a pole lathe is great fun and a useful skill. Yes, i have found that whether working green or seasoned wood the horse. Woodworking for beginners projects get free ideas, strategies and info for woodworking projects and ideas. These tend to be produced in limited quantities for sale by polelathe turners who also do some blacksmithing work. Wood turning and pole lathe courses will show you how to create beautiful shapes from lumps of wood.

Primarily a tool of tradesmen known as turners or throwers the term bodgers came later, the lathe was also used by pulley makers, seal makers. Okay there are a few drawbacks, tools go blunter sooner and as the wood is dry and therefore harder, it will take longer. Marked the depth of the cuts with my rosewood cutting gauge that i got at woodcraft a while back. When the treadle was moved the pole was pulled over by the cord which created enough tension to tum the workpiece back again. These free up space on your worktables while still keeping your woodturning projects at a comfortable height. You may make your own bespoke turned fruit bowl or a pair of candle sticks. About medieval and renaissance lathes the lathe is an ancient tool, dating at least to the egyptians and, known and used in assyria, greece, the roman and byzantine empires. Learning to turn wood on a machine or pole lathe could become one of the most satisfying and enjoyable things in your life. Walnut turns best at a lathe speed of 8001,000 rpm, and requires sharp tools.

This set would not be suitable for use on a powered lathe or for turning bowls, where sturdier types are required. See more ideas about wood turning, wood lathe and wood. Turning stock we stock a large variety of bowl blanks and assorted turning woods in domestic and exotic woods. I want to build a spring pole lathe, modelled after the medieval reciprocating lathe design that was used for hundreds of years to do lathe turning. Nov, 2014 a pole lathe is a machine for turning wood. A good lathe stand is just as important as a good lathe.