April 2008: Inside This Issue

Welcome to all of our new U.S. and International subscribers and thank you for joining us! This is the seventeenth edition of Lathe Talk, a free monthly newsletter (e-zine) for subscribers of Steve Russell’s "Woodturning Videos Plus" woodturning website. This newsletter will be delivered on or about the first of each month to the email address you indicated on your sign-up form. All back issues of this newsletter are available to subscribers here.

Lathe Talk will offer tips and tricks to make your woodturning easier and more productive. I’ll also show you ways to save money in your studio, so you can stretch your hard earned money. In addition, we will periodically offer subscribers only specials on our videos and e-books. If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me a favor by forwarding it to them. If a friend DID forward this to you and you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting our subscription page.

Recent Demonstrations: On April 4th – 6th, the Lone Star Woodturners Association had a booth at the annual Woodworking Shows tool show. I demonstrated turning wooden dowel bottle stoppers and small bowls on a Jet mini lathe. I was great to meet many of my Lathe Talk subscribers at the show. Thanks to everyone for stopping by our club booth and introducing yourself!

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10% Discount On Any Purchase! For the month of April 2008, you can save 10% off any regular, or sale price item on our website. All items are included in this special sale. To access this special offer, enter the coupon code 1345 on the shopping cart page in the coupon box area. Click the "recalculate" button and your discount will show on the screen. Offer ends April 30, 2008 at 12:01 midnight, CST. Additional subscriber only discounts and specials will be offered in future editions of Lathe Talk.

Overview

Woodturning is for the most part, a very fluid process. Many turners create designs on the fly and rarely if ever, work from pre-drawn plans. However, from time to time all of us need to be able to accurately measure our projects before or during turning. You may need to mark the major transitions on spindles, or perhaps you need to size a tenon, or a recess for an inlay, or the lid of a box.

Having the right tool on hand makes everything so much easier. No matter what you turn, a few basic measuring tools are always good to have on hand. If you enjoy creating your designs on paper first, or if you're working from a pre-drawn set of specs for a commission, you'll no doubt need a much more comprehensive set of measuring tools.

Through the years, I've accumulated various measuring tools and jigs in my studio that I use regularly for all sorts of measuring tasks both on and off the lathe. The following tools are the ones I use the most, and would not want to be without when designing projects, or whilst turning at the lathe.

Calipers

Essential calipers for woodturners (from left to right):
inside caliper, outside caliper, small and medium dividers.

Calipers are one of the most ubiquitous tools in a woodturner's studio. Useful for both faceplate and spindle turning, you need a good set of calipers to measure tenons, check the size of recesses, measure lids for boxes, mark major transitions for spindles and a hundred other tasks.

Manual (upper) and electronic (lower) calipers are
great tools to use when precise measurements are necessary
and are accurate to 1/1000".

If you don't have any calipers now, look for a good 6" or 8" three piece set that contains a straight, inside and outside calipers. These will be necessary for a variety of projects around the lathe. If you are turning larger projects, look for longer versions of these tools for greater measuring capacity.

These calipers can easily measure
the thickness of bowl and hollow form walls.

Angle Gauges

The Tormek Pro Angle Master is a great jig to have
by your grinder for checking bevel angles on your woodturning tools.

I use angle gauges frequently when setting up jigs on the lathe, or if I'm making critical beveled cuts with my bandsaw. The angle gauges sold for measuring the bevel angles on woodturning tools (like the Tormek Pro Angle Master) are always great to have on hand to check the accuracy of your woodturning tool bevel angles. Even if you don't own a Tormek, the Pro Angle master is a great tool to have next to your dry grinder to check your bevel angles.

I often use these tools when I need
to determine or replicate specific angles.

Centre Finders

If you turn spindles at all, a good centre finder helps you to measure the correct centre on your blank, reducing waste when roughing out your projects. If you turn pens, these tools can be a big help when working with some exotics, or alternative material pen blanks that are quite often very small, offering little room for error.

Centre finders are an easy way to accurately locate
the centres on spindles prior to mounting on the lathe.

Compass/Dividers

If you like to plan your projects on paper first, a good compass/divider set will be invaluable to you as you create your designs. I have a professional set that is almost 45 years old, but they still serve me well. Dividers can also be used to check the distance between the transitions on your projects, when the lathe is off.

If you plan your designs on paper first, a compass
and divider set is great to have on hand.

Profile Gauges

Metal or plastic profile gauges are a great way to check the profiles on your projects when turning. I use them frequently when doing spindle production runs as a quick way to check the profile before stopping to use my story stick, or custom cut profile gauge. If you need to make multiple copies of a project, this tool is very handy to have on hand.

If you're making multiple copies of a spindle, a profile jig
is a quick way to check the accuracy of your profile.

Parallel Rulers

Parallel rulers allow you to draw accurate parallel lines when designing projects, or when measuring plans for a commission, or a bid. These rulers are one of my prized possessions, as I used them when I was in the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in high school, for homework assignments when I needed to draw navigational maps, or plan naval convoy routes. Today, I use them for creating design layouts of complex projects, before giving it a go on the lathe.

Parallel rulers are a great tool to use when designing
woodturning projects in advance.

Layout Templates

Layout templates are one of my favorite measuring tools in the studio. While there are numerous ways to draw a circle on a blank before cutting it, few offer the versatility of clear plastic layout templates. Since the template is clear (as opposed to plywood or cardboard disks), it's very easy to move the template around to find the best overall figure, or to eliminate defect areas on a blank.

This clear layout template is my favourite way for drawing
circles on bowl blanks prior to cutting on the bandsaw.

When I started many years ago, I always wanted to turn the biggest project the blank would support. As I gained more experience, I preferred to turn the best project that each blank would support, regardless of the original size of the blank. While this results in some waste, the resulting blank offers the best and highest concentration of figure possible.

This is a personal decision of course, but I much prefer to turn the best section out of each blank these days, instead of simply turning the largest project possible. Layout templates allow me to make these cutting decisions quickly and accurately.

Circle Drawing Rulers

The Acu-Arc ruler allows you to draw accurate circles from 6.5" to 50"+ in diameter. This circle ruler is great for marking round circles on bowl or platter blanks, or when designing new projects on paper. While dividers or a compass might work well for drawing smaller circles, if you need to go big, this is a great tool for the job. These rulers offer a very compact and extremely accurate way to draw circles.

With the Acu-Arc ruler, you can draw accurate
circles from 6.5" to 50" or more.

Flexible Curves

Flexible curves feature a series of thin plastic segments that slide against each other, allowing you to move the curve to experiment how various curves would look on your vessels. You can also use them to check work in progress against a pre-determined curve that you want to achieve on your project. When used in this way, the flex-curve acts much like a template, or profile gauge and is very useful for not only designing projects, but also as a guide when finish turning a piece.

By using a flexible curve, you can easily experiment
to find the perfect curve for your project.

Design Considerations

Whether or not you need one or more of these tools really depends on what you're turning and how you approach the turning of your projects. If you plan everything at the lathe as the wood is spinning, there is little need for drafting tools. You will still need things like calipers and normal rulers of course, as well as a good set of dividers.

When I first opened my studio, I did very little pre-planning of my projects. One of the things that appealed to me about woodturning was the ability to create projects on the fly. There is a certain freedom offered by the fluid and dynamic nature of free-style turning. However, I have returned to my love of drafting recently to assist me with the layout of complex projects and those that have not progressed beyond the conceptual stages.

If you ask a hundred of your woodturning friends if they hone their woodturning tools, you will probably get ninety-nine no's and one yes. Few of the woodturners I've met at my demonstrations around the U.S., or even those I know personally hone their tools. While on the surface this might look like a resounding endorsement of using your chisels straight off the grinder, there are in fact times when honing your chisels makes sense.

Honing tools in general and woodturning tools in particular, is not among the easiest of tasks. This is especially true when freehand honing the more complex shapes like Irish grinds, which by their very design can be difficult to accurately hone free hand correctly. In the past, I typically used my chisels straight off a dry grinder wheel and only rarely used a slip stone, or hard stone to hone the edge. Through the years, I've changed my mind on this subject and I now frequently hone my tools, especially when making finishing cuts. I want the best surface possible straight off the tool, so I can spend as little time sanding as possible. This means that I need to get the best edge possible when using a dry grinder wheel for the last few critical cuts on the surface. To get a better edge than the dry grinder can produce, I have to hone the tool.

This holds true when working from a wet ground edge from my Tormek as well. I still take the time to hone using the leather wheel for those last few cuts. I've tested this on many projects through the years; with tools straight off the grinder and honed tools and the hones tools consistently deliver a better surface quality on final finishing cuts. Since the last cut produces the surface you will be sanding, you want to get the best surface possible to reduce sanding. The following honing tools are the ones I use the most, depending on the project at hand.

Tormek

The Tormek water grinder is an excellent sharpening system that includes a built in leather-honing wheel. It's very simple to move from the water sharpening stone to the honing wheel without any danger of rolling, or damaging the freshly sharpened edge. When you free hand hone, there is always the chance that you will compromise the freshly sharpened edge with your honing.

The Tormek water grinder is my favourite tool
for honing woodturning tools and cutters.

The Tormek solves this challenge by the use of a special jig that keeps the freshly sharpened tool at the same angle it was sharpened at when honing. I have been a big fan of Tormeks for years and this is yet another reason why Tormeks offer many advantages in a woodturner's studio. Using the Tormek leather wheel, it's quite easy to hone the bevel to a mirror finish, with a highly refined cutting edge.

Diamond Hones

I use several different styles of diamond hones in my studio for honing, including large and small flat plates, round, tapered cones and credit card style hones in various grits. Since I frequently use carving tools in my studio, diamond hones allow me to quickly touch up the edge in between regular sharpening. The tapered cones are a great way to refresh the edge on hook tools, or ring style cutters. The folding flat hones have a diamond surface that is 1" x 4", which is a great size for a general purpose honing tool.

These large diamond hones are great for honing
woodturning tools and can be used with water.

Credit card style hones are very popular with many woodtuners for their compact size and full-faced (instead of the ones with holes in the surface of the diamond plate) diamond surface. These full-faced hones are much better for honing tiny cutters, since there are more diamonds on the surface. If you use these hones extensively on smaller carbide cutters, the edges will eventually wear out.

Credit card size diamond hones are
popular with many woodturners.

One easy way to give a bit more life to your hone when the edges wear out is to use a small abrasive wheel to cut off the worn edge on all four sides of the hone. I use a small wooden jig to insure I get a straight edge cut and when I'm finished, I have a fresh diamond surface on all four sides. Normally, I remove about 1/8" of the edge off each side. This technique will allow you to get about five times the life out of one of these credit card hones. Now that's stretching a buck!

These hand held folding diamond hones are useful for
honing many woodturning tools and cutters.

Slip Stones

These silicone carbide slip stones are great to use for removing
the burrs on the inside flutes of bowl and spindle gouges.

Teardrop shaped slip stones are a great way to quickly refine the edge on your gouges. When I first started production turning many years ago, I used silicone carbide slip stones to refine the edge off the dry grinder before making my finishing passes. The newer ceramic-based slip stones work much better than the older silicone carbide ones and provide extended wear resistance. Slip stones can be used to remove burrs on your tools, or to refresh the edge on tools that have lost some of their sharpness.

Side view of teardrop shaped slip stones.

Hard, Flat Stones

Hard flat oil stones like combination India (aluminum oxide based), or Arkansas stones (natural cut novaculite stone) allow you to hone the edge of your tools very easily. While these stones work well for some honing tasks, you still need to use a slip stone, diamond hone, or other honing tool to refine the inside edge on bowl and spindle gouges. Although I used flat hones many years ago, I rarely use them now, as I prefer using the Tormek now for full bevel honing.

This combination India stone offers a course side for
reshaping and a fine side for honing.

Hand Held Diamond Hones

Small hand held diamond hones like the ones pictured, are indispensable in a woodturner's studio for quick touch ups and for honing small cutting edges. I use these types of hones frequently for honing the small carbide cutters on my Arbortech mini grinder blades and when using micro turning tools. They are also easy to keep in your pocket when turning, so they don't get lost in the shavings.

Eze-lap diamond hones are my favourite hand held
hones for use with power carving tools.

Consider Honing

When I used to give sharpening demonstrations at The Woodworking Shows, I would always have several turners come up after the demo and talk about sharpening and honing. Few of those I met ever honed their woodturning tools, proving that it's not absolutely necessary in the woodturning world. However, there are times when honing will serve you well, allowing you to get a better surface off your tool than would otherwise be possible.

Honing for me was a means to an end, as it allowed me to spend less time sanding, especially when turning spalted timbers. Today, I usually only hone before final finishing passes however, I have begun to experiment recently with honing for a few times before stopping to go to the grinder. One thing is for sure, if you can learn to hone correctly, you will always have the option to use it if you think it's beneficial. It sure has been for me.

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Steve