Bits and Pieces |
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Aluminium lace bobbinsby Guy Ravine RPT (Compiled by John Stinson)When making lace bobbins from aluminium, be sure to cover them with lacquer rather than metal polish. This helps keep the lace clean. | |
Can't find a pencil sharpenerby Bob French RPT (Compiled by Malcolm Martin)Bob uses his grinding wheel to sharpen pencils and to cut up rag. And probably some other uses he didn't tell us about | |
Centre findingby Bob French RPT (Compiled by Malcolm Martin)To find the centre on the end of a piece of stock set a carpenters marking gauge to approximately half way across the width and mark from each side. It is then easy to judge the centre of the small rectangle or triangle to mark with a centre punch | |
Cow bonesby Guy Ravine RPT (Compiled by John Stinson)When boiling cow's shin bones to prepare them for turning, be careful where you deposit the residue! | |
Easy woodsby Guy Ravine RPT (Compiled by John Stinson)On long production runs of items like eccentric turned pears, stick with a nice easy wood. Don't let the client persuade you to use a difficult wood like laburnum. | |
Low voltage light.by Frank Clark RPTA simple low voltage spotlight can be made by using a 12v 20w car bulb and a step down transformer. Buy an old desk lamp from a jumble sale or car boot sale, preferably one with a flexible stem. Remove the fitting for the bulb from the reflector and fit a bayonet fitting from an old car light. House the transformer in a plastic box to protect it from dust and shavings. Fit a switch and suitable connectors to the box. This box containing the transformer can be positioned some distance from the lathe. The lamp can be fixed to the lathe or hung above the lathe to illuminate work.
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More edge to your gougeby Bob French RPT (Compiled by Malcolm Martin)After roughing out, to save time in changing tools tilt the roughing out gouge sideways and use the side bevel as a skew chisel and end with a nice smooth finish. | |
Parallel finished rolling pinsby Bob French RPT (Compiled by Malcolm Martin)To obtain a good parallel finish on a long cylinder e.g. rolling pins or mangle roller set up a smoothing plane at a similar angle to a skew chisel. This makes a perfect broad skew chisel with a depth gauge. | |
Production Runsby Bob French RPT (Compiled by Malcolm Martin)When making a number of the same items on a production run he uses as few tools as possible. He will measure things by the multiple of the tool width he is using to save using a rule to measure. If spindle turning he will use a Stem Drive centre and work on one part right through the batch and then go through the whole batch doing another similar operation mounting and demounting each spindle in the lathe while it is running. He has found templates to be a waste of time. | |
Spindle Washerby Frank Clark RPTWhen making washers out of thin copper sheet for the headstock spindle sandwich the copper sheet between two pieces of 3 - 6mm thick wood or plywood using double sided tape on both sides of the copper sheet. Then drill or cut with a fretsaw the required size hole and cut round the outside circumference of the washer. Carefully separate the sandwich and remove the tape. The washer requires the minimum of deburring with a file. This technique can be used for cutting other shapes in thin sheet materials with a fretsaw.
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