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Success Story

Emiliano Achaval

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Joined
Dec 14, 2015
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Location
Maui, Hawaii
Website
hawaiiankoaturner.com
  1. Some of you might remember when I posted about our "loan a lathe" program that our club started. Since we have not received any new nominees, our young turner Sebastian still using the Nova lathe. A few weeks ago he stopped by to see if it was ok to fix a stripped bolt in the banjo. Of course, I said yes, and he fixed it himself. It is gratifying to see his progress. A few days ago he posted a picture of a Pheasant wood crotch bowl he made. I gave him the wood, darn! Super nice wood! Another piece I gave him, an Olive crotch, also turned out fantastic. I believe we have gained a turner for life. He's posting on Instagram, if you can, check him out. I know he would like some words of encouragement. You can see his user name in the attached pictures. I wish I had started at his age! I believe he's around 14 or so... I have to ask him to post his work on this forum...
 

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Pretty nice work for a beginner. I like your recommendations to him for a finish Emilliano. Our club also has a loaner program. We have 6 lathes for newbies to use for 90 days to see if they want to get into turning or just feel it is not really for them. If someone is making good progress, and brings items in and seems excited about turning, they can check the lathe out for an additional 3 months or so, if no one is waiting to get a lathe.
 
Pretty nice work for a beginner. I like your recommendations to him for a finish Emilliano. Our club also has a loaner program. We have 6 lathes for newbies to use for 90 days to see if they want to get into turning or just feel it is not really for them. If someone is making good progress, and brings items in and seems excited about turning, they can check the lathe out for an additional 3 months or so, if no one is waiting to get a lathe.
I really think loaning him the lathe was the boost needed to get him started the right way. His goal is to save money and get a bigger lathe. He has exceeded my expectations, I'm so happy for him. We will let him keep the lathe until a new nominee comes up. ANd of course, he can bring it back for demos and hands on.
 
Our club also has a loaner program. We have 6 lathes for newbies to use for 90 days to see if they want to get into turning or just feel it is not really for them. If someone is making good progress, and brings items in and seems excited about turning, they can check the lathe out for an additional 3 months or so, if no one is waiting to get a lathe.

Roger, : what kind of lathes does your club offer. Emiliano mentioned a Nova but I would have thought they would need to be mini lathes for ease of transport? Do you loan tools also?
 
Roger, : what kind of lathes does your club offer. Emiliano mentioned a Nova but I would have thought they would need to be mini lathes for ease of transport? Do you loan tools also?
In our club we are lucky to have a guy who is a real mechanical genius. He has taken some older lathes, some mini lathes and such and reworked them to make them good machines for a beginner. We have a couple of old Delta lathes, a couple of Jet mini's and I believe one old Craftsman tube lathe. He is working on another now I think. I have a spare motor that needs a start capacitor that he was going to repair and use it for a lathe. I think we do have a couple of beginner sets we lend, and some of our members have donated some tools to help with that.
 
Our club is in the process of finalizing a lend a lathe program and should have the first lathe loaned out next month. Inspiration came from an earlier post that Emilano posted a while back.
Glad to hear I motivated your club to start something similar!! Best of luck, keep us posted. ALoha
 
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