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Newbie Question

G

gran

Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
116
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Location
Dothan, Alabama
What is the best way to go about turning a 36" dowel? This sounds like it ought to be simple but it is giving me fits. I'm trying to make a walking stick. I need to turn a square piece of wood so that it is the same diameter the entire length. It seems like it ought to be easy but it is beating me. When I'm done it is indeed round but not all the same diameter. The lenght of the piece makes the differences in diameter obvious. I have a spindle steady that helps keep the whipping under control. My tool rest is 12". Should I get a longer one? What is the best way to do this?

Thanks
 
Hi Gran

I do these on the router table! 😱 Maybe that is blasphemy here on the AAW forum, but if you want it done fast, easy, and accurate, get yourself a roundover bit which matches the radius of the stick you want, get a square stick, push it through four times, and you are pretty much done except for sanding, which you can do on the lathe if you like.

I have done this in a number of cases, the biggest one being the spars for my sailboat. I needed two spars 2" in diameter, one 12' long and the other 10' long. It took me about 10 minutes to run them both through the shaper with a 2" roundover bit in it. Conversely, turning the 14' mast took about 8 hours and it is lumpy if you look down the surface. I felt better about that after I took a good look at some commercial wooden masts, and they were lumpy too.

Good luck with it.

Bill
 
Bill's right. It takes a pretty high level of skill to get a really clean line for 36". Most of us can only do it with extensive use of the 60 grit gouge and most of us would end up with a nice, 1/4" diameter cane.

Dietrich
 
A question about the use of the 60 grit gouge. Would wrapping it over a straight edge help? Seems to me that it would take down only the high spots . Might be able to get it even before it reached the 1/4 " size.
 
Personally, I'd reccomend using the whole sheet handheld and partially wrapped around the spindle (about 90-180 degrees). Use a light pressure and a sweeping motion from end to end with the lathe running at a relatively low speed (5-800). This should highlight the high points and the back and forth sweeping should bring them down.

Only problem with using the straight edge is that you'll have a very small contact surface. Now, rubbing crayon on the edge of the straight edge and touching it to the spindle while running to mark the high spots might not be such a bad idea.

IMHO
Dietrich
 
Gran,
I run mostly architectual stuff, including posts and martial arts staffs up to 9.5 ft. I really got the hang of long spindles when I took a job about 10 years ago to make the spindles for a Moser designed bed. I think I did over 100 spindles, all had to start at 5/8" in dia and taper to 3/8" in dia. The length ranged from about 9" to over 30" as I recall (I had no spindle steady then). Here is what I can remember of what I learned doing them.
1. Faster is almost never better. So slow down when you start to get
the spindle whipping.
2. Use a smaller tool, not a larger one. A small roughing gouge works
better than a skew.The larger gouges make wider shavings. This takes
more energy than the smaller gouge. I use a 1/2" forged (continental,
or Euro-gouge style) gouge ground straight across as you would for a
roughing gouge.
3. Tuck the handle agianst your side with your hand near the ferrule.
Make sure your index finger is lined up with and on top of the handle.
This gives you more control. Wrap your other hand over the spindle
with your thumb just behind the cut on top of the spindle. Your index
finger should wrap around the back of the spindle in front of the cut
and your middle finger wrapped around the back oposite your thumb.
do this lightly or you will get a nasty friction burn on your fingers.
4. I discovered that if you allow the bevel of the tool to lead the cutting
edge you could obtain a cleaner and more consistant cut. This technique
can be a little catchy so be gentle. I have since read that I am not the
first to discover this. It is called a backing cut. I have done this type
of cut with both the gouge and a skew with good success.
5. I stick a strip of 100 grit sanding belt to a straight board with some
double-sided turner's tape. Rub this lightly along the length of the
spindle. It will take off the bevel burnish marks on the high spots so
that you can see the shiney low spots. If you rub to hard the spindle
will become oval or worse.
6. Finish the sanding with the lathe off and running the paper along the
length of the spindle.
7. I invested in some spindle steady's after this job. If you must cheat,
cheat fair! (translated this means; whatever it takes to get the darned
things turned is okay by me. This includes hiring someone else to do
them, which I thought a lot about while doing them).
8. Oh yeah, I forgot. Don't do a marathon session. Turn a few a day
when you are warmed up and really in the groove. This way you can
choose to do them when you are at your best instead of suffering
through the frustration of having to throw some away and start over.

Kindest regards,
Bill
 
Backing cut

?Backing cut? with a skew.?
😱
I have to try that. I suppose I should back from the small diameter to the larger?

I am going to try it today!

Good post. You sure got my attention.
 
I have recently completed 2 canes for my own use that took a little over a 31 inch turning. William makes most of the main points. I rough turned the blank to round in the middle where I could get my steady rest going quickly. I found once I had used my roughing gouge my 1/2 inch skew was the best to work with and you have to go slow! I used a 2 foot level placed on the work to see my high and low spots. This means lots of starting and stopping (along with shifting steady location) with pencil marking showing areas to take more off and areas to leave alone as you work towards your diameter. After the skew work I used a passive sander. Be light with the passive sander as I got too agressive on my first one and it has a small area that went out of round. Not really visible but I know it is there :mad:. I never got above about 900 rpm till I was polishing and finishing.

I've had people say that bowl turning is much harder than spindle turning. Makes me laugh and want to challenge them to a 30+ inch straight piece of round wood!!!! 🙂 Just taking your time and working slowly should help a lot.

Wilford
 
SQUARE2ROUND,
Actually, you go from larger diameter to smaller diameter. This is the general rule for spindle turning. Also, when doing the backing cut with either the gouge or the skew pay attention to your feed rate. The more even your feed rate the easier it is to stay in control. The other important thing is bevel rubbing. The microsecond you lose the bevel you get a nasty spiral catch. The resulting surface you get from this cut is not the clean finished surface you normally get, its kind of like a real shallow screw thread, but it is easily sanded. I found that the gouge gives a better surface than the skew. I think its because the gouge presents a curved cutting edge to the wood which provides a distinct (or cut end) end for both sides of the shaving which limits its width.
As far as using spindle steadies. Wilford describes what I do. I put spindle steadies about 2ft apart on really long spindles. This means that I sometimes end up using 2 or 3 steadies on a spindle.

Kindest regards,
Bill
 
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