rwyoung
Member
Greetings from Lawrence, KS!
I've recently taken up woodworking with an eye toward doing some projects around the house. But the more I study furniture design, the more I start to like some of the simple turned elements found on Boston Bombes, Chippendale chairs and the like. So as I learn other techniques I decided to add spindle turning to the list.
Watched eBay for a while and came up with a low-mileage Turncrafter Pro for cheap. Then I signed up for a pen turning class at the Woodcraft in Lenexa (Kansas City suburb) as a way of getting some basic turning instruction.
This also falls in line with a resolution I made a few years ago about holiday gift giving. That resolution was that I would not give gifts that required batteries. Now that gets even easier! Pens, bottle stoppers, etc. But I may have to relax the requirement a little bit because I like the looks of the pen-light flashlights from PSI and others.
And one more thing I discovered. It is fun! I made one pen in the class. We made Wall Street II's (it was a Woodcraft Store class after all). And today I picked up three Slimline kits to do on my own tonight. Decided to also try a BLO/CA finish. No problem at all with the finish! Did the William Young (no relation by the way) method and it worked just fine. Only hitch was on the first one when the belt snapped on the lathe. 10 minutes of futzing around to put on the spare and back in business.
I don't have a digital camera worth a tinker's damn so I'll take a quick snapshot at work tomorrow to post here.
I've recently taken up woodworking with an eye toward doing some projects around the house. But the more I study furniture design, the more I start to like some of the simple turned elements found on Boston Bombes, Chippendale chairs and the like. So as I learn other techniques I decided to add spindle turning to the list.
Watched eBay for a while and came up with a low-mileage Turncrafter Pro for cheap. Then I signed up for a pen turning class at the Woodcraft in Lenexa (Kansas City suburb) as a way of getting some basic turning instruction.
This also falls in line with a resolution I made a few years ago about holiday gift giving. That resolution was that I would not give gifts that required batteries. Now that gets even easier! Pens, bottle stoppers, etc. But I may have to relax the requirement a little bit because I like the looks of the pen-light flashlights from PSI and others.
And one more thing I discovered. It is fun! I made one pen in the class. We made Wall Street II's (it was a Woodcraft Store class after all). And today I picked up three Slimline kits to do on my own tonight. Decided to also try a BLO/CA finish. No problem at all with the finish! Did the William Young (no relation by the way) method and it worked just fine. Only hitch was on the first one when the belt snapped on the lathe. 10 minutes of futzing around to put on the spare and back in business.
I don't have a digital camera worth a tinker's damn so I'll take a quick snapshot at work tomorrow to post here.
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