Do any of you watch TheWoodworkingChannel.com? Sometimes it gets overly repetetive, but it's still nice to have multiple opportunities to catch a wanted episode.
They announced a few days ago that they had snippets of stuff from IWF in Georgia, interviews with Norm Abrams, and a nifty 20 minutes with Nick Cook.
Nick was commissioned to turn a table base for a furniture designer. They delivered the lumber, a 30" diameter log, about 30" long. He said that it just would not fit on any of his lathes. What to do? He mounted the sucker on two face plates, used two Powermatic 3520b, 2hp lathes, flipping the headstock on one, and screwing the other end onto the flipped tailstock (with a live center) of the other. The bases were clamped together for stability. He was able to bog the lathe nearly to a stop several times. He figured that he was at about 50 rpm spindle speed.
It evidently took him several hours to make this happen, but we only get to see 20 minutes. The end is fun, with Nick seated in the midst of about 350 pounds of shavings from the piece. He says it was the largest overall piece he's ever turned. He says he's done 30" before, but only 6" thick. He figured that the original chunk may have weighed in excess of 1000#.
It's worth seeking the project out at the site above, just for the sheer head shaking worth!
His main tool was a roughing gouge that looked to be pretty shallow, maybe 3/8" thick HSS, and maybe 2" wide. The heft of the piece was surely a bonus in turning that puppy.
Interesting 20 minutes IMO.
They announced a few days ago that they had snippets of stuff from IWF in Georgia, interviews with Norm Abrams, and a nifty 20 minutes with Nick Cook.
Nick was commissioned to turn a table base for a furniture designer. They delivered the lumber, a 30" diameter log, about 30" long. He said that it just would not fit on any of his lathes. What to do? He mounted the sucker on two face plates, used two Powermatic 3520b, 2hp lathes, flipping the headstock on one, and screwing the other end onto the flipped tailstock (with a live center) of the other. The bases were clamped together for stability. He was able to bog the lathe nearly to a stop several times. He figured that he was at about 50 rpm spindle speed.
It evidently took him several hours to make this happen, but we only get to see 20 minutes. The end is fun, with Nick seated in the midst of about 350 pounds of shavings from the piece. He says it was the largest overall piece he's ever turned. He says he's done 30" before, but only 6" thick. He figured that the original chunk may have weighed in excess of 1000#.
It's worth seeking the project out at the site above, just for the sheer head shaking worth!
His main tool was a roughing gouge that looked to be pretty shallow, maybe 3/8" thick HSS, and maybe 2" wide. The heft of the piece was surely a bonus in turning that puppy.
Interesting 20 minutes IMO.
