# How long have you guys been turning/what got you started?



## cabomhn (Apr 7, 2012)

I thought it would be kind of interesting to hear from others what got them into woodturning. 

For me, last November at NC State I really wanted to get a pass to the woodshop at the crafts center, and I saw that you could get one with the woodturning class for students that they offered. It was a two day class with about 10 hours of woodturning instruction/turning. And after that it basically turned a switch inside my brain and since then I have been hooked. I thought, "hey! this is something that should be relatively inexpensive in college and something I can do every once in a while!"



Now, I spend probably more money than I should on wood and supplies and I go to the shop ALL the time! I try to get over there a few times a week, even if it means staying up entirely too late to study for exams and such. 


What about the rest of you guys?


----------



## BassBlaster (Apr 7, 2012)

Ive been turning since mid Dec. I was inspired by the turnings the guys was posting over at WWT and wanted to give it a try. I have since fell in love with turning and thats all I do now. I too now spend way too much money on wood and supplies all for turning. This site has helped a bunch though with access to woods I wouldnt have otherwise and at really great prices and trades!!


----------



## txpaulie (Apr 7, 2012)

I received a lathe as a Christmas present in '10, 'bout 16 mos ago...
I'd had a hip replacement a coupla weeks prior, so didn't set it up until last January (2011)...

Just about all of my other projects have taken a back seat since...:dash2:
I wish I'd known that I was gonna spend ALL the intervening days standing at the lathe.

"I'm Paul, and I'm an addict..."

p


----------



## DKMD (Apr 7, 2012)

It's been about three years since I first got a lathe. I turned nothing but pens for the first year, and I've slowly moved away from pens into larger stuff. I love turning, but I think I like collecting wood almost as much... I have a hard time turning some of the 'prized' pieces in the collection.

Like many of the folks here, shop time is scarce, and the 'instant gratification' at the lathe has kept me from touching my flat work tools for a long time... Although my table saw has become a large cast iron staging area for all things turning, I haven't plugged it in for several years. I probably ought to sell the tablesaw, but I'm not willing to clean it off!


----------



## Kevin (Apr 7, 2012)

I was at home recovering from a head transplant . . . . wait no that wasn't it.

I traded a box of wood for a Delta Midi as a present for my wife some years ago. After I got the lathe, I immediately set it up for her 3 years later (that part is no joke). She went on a turning spree then decided the heat that summer was too much. She turns occasionally and I have started turning occasionally also. 

Neither one of us are lathe addicts but you never know when the bug can grab you. I'm still a wood hoarder at heart and do not like to see my wood turned into shavings no matter how pretty the outcome. Well, not entirely accurate but when I mess one up i usually wish I had just left it in block form and framed it or smething. I wonder what a framed turning blank would look like . . . 

:rolleyes2:


----------



## Kevin (Apr 7, 2012)

bigcouger said:


> ...P or M
> Roy



Roy, I been thinking about asking you to be my partner in a new business venture I'm contemplating. You know how everything is "going green" and all. I'm thinking of hitting an untapped market - we could call it "Turning Green". 

manufacturing medium density fiber blocks out of compressed pine shavings and calling them "Green Pine MDF Turning Blanks" or something like that. What do you think about this? 

Just rolls right off the tongue doesn't it? . . . "Turning Green." Think of it when your sub guys ask what you up to lately you could answer "I'm making pine mdf blocks. I am Turning Green." We could use this guy for our mascot: 


:morning2:


----------



## woodtickgreg (Apr 7, 2012)

With milling lumber I always have access to blocks of wood, and friends firewood piles too. I was looking at turning projects on lumberjocks and saw how beautiful the turnings were and said I want to do that. I hadn't turned on the lathe since high school! So I found a used lathe on craigslist for $350 bucks and the addiction began. Started with faceplate turning because that's all I had and some crappy carbon steel chisels that the guy I bought the lathe from gave me. Bent one in half with a severe catch and said all right time to buy some good chisels and I did, and a chuck, and a band saw to rough cut the blanks, needed the band saw anyway. And now I make my own turning tools and will be making some different types of tool rest also. This all started about 3 years ago and I'm still learning. My lathe is an older delta with a 14" swing and a way underpowered 3/4 horse motor, but it taught me what I needed to know and was a good start, I still use it. I would love a powermatic but money makes me think jet 2 hp variable 16" swing as an upgrade, it would be way more powerfull than what I have and would have reverse for sanding and can still do outboard turning. I don't do much with exotics but seem to be able to find really cool domestic woods. I turn a little, then do some flat work maybe, then do a scroll project, maybe make some tools, variety keeps every thing fresh and fun or I would get bored! I can't do just one thing all the time.


----------



## BarbS (Apr 7, 2012)

I used to attend the old Badger Pond summer picnics, where several turners set up mini-lathes to play/instruct on while people visited. I don't know how many folks got there start there, but I purposely avoided the lathe for several years, knowing all the stories of how it ruined flatwork woodworkers forever after. And I feared I couldn't afford all the chucks/tools necessary after buying the thing. Found out it was true, all of it. Someone finally got me on that mini-lathe, and I loved it. I spent a few years doing small work, learning and learning, then an opportunity came up to buy a used Woodfast Short Bed bowl lathe with a 20" swing. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't, and I've never looked back. Now I'm the typical turner, with blanks piled high and my table saw just a staging area for turning. I really should get in and clean and run maintenance on all that old equipment and the hand planes, but I'm just too busy turning!


----------



## kweinert (Apr 8, 2012)

Last July a personal event lost access to my other tools for the foreseeable future. Then, just because I was interested, I took a pen turning class at the local Woodcraft and got hooked.

Bought a Jet 1014 lathe, turned a bunch of pens. Now I've done bottle stoppers, lamp pulls, Christmas ornaments, a couple of small bowls, and ruined some other wood trying to turn different things (natural edge bowls, lidded boxes, etc.)

Now I have my tools available again but they're not set up yet so I'm still turning. 

My friend picked up a Steel City lathe with a 27" bed so I'll be able to run some different stuff again.

I've worked on some segmented bottle stoppers and celtic knot stuff as well. Still learning there as well :)


----------



## woodtickgreg (Apr 8, 2012)

kweinert said:


> and ruined some other wood trying to turn different things (natural edge bowls, lidded boxes, etc.)
> 
> 
> Still learning there as well :)


Failures are not failures if we learn from them, guess that's what wood stoves are for:rofl2: So there is no such thing as a failure I still make my share of mistakes, but I have learned how to hide them and save most pieces


----------



## steve bellinger (Apr 9, 2012)

Well i've been turning about 4 years now. Bought a ridgid tube lathe and hated it so much it sat in the corner for about a year. Got a grizzly 14" lathe and started doing things that almost looked like something.. Found a forum "family woodworking" and they started letting me know what i was doing right, and what i was doing wrong. Made me feel at home there. One of the guys over there is a really great turner IMHO. (Vaughn McMillan) He did more for me than i could dream of.:yes: Ended up giving away the ridged, and the 14" grizzly, and getting the 18" grizzly. It's not PM, or a mayo, but till i get rich it works just fine. i turn mainly HF's but do turn a few vases, and platters, Few other odds and ends. Also as i'm cheap i turn 99% locial woods.


----------



## Dane Fuller (Apr 9, 2012)

I've got a little Grizzly G0657 bench top lathe that I started trying to use this past July. Originally it was purchased to turn reel seat inserts for the fly rods I build but, once I got started, turning now consumes me...:i_dunno: Like Steve, I do mostly HF's but will turn a bowl or platter occasionally. I'm saving my pennies for a Griz G0733. Lots of folks talk bad about Grizzly lathes but I haven't had a second's worth of trouble out of mine. I know quite a few folks that love theirs too.


----------



## CodyS (Apr 12, 2012)

Haven't done much turning, just a couple bowls at school. I got myself a $20 lathe and some cheap chisels to try out... I've used it once... I think I may actually have bent the shaft cause the faceplate doesn't spin right :i_dunno::fool3:. I think if I upgraded I'd have to just build one myself, it would be too much fun to pass up!  They are pretty basic when you thing about it... :i_dunno: the list is getting LONGER


----------



## brown down (Apr 12, 2012)

cabomhn said:


> I thought it would be kind of interesting to hear from others what got them into woodturning.
> 
> For me, last November at NC State I really wanted to get a pass to the woodshop at the crafts center, and I saw that you could get one with the woodturning class for students that they offered. It was a two day class with about 10 hours of woodturning instruction/turning. And after that it basically turned a switch inside my brain and since then I have been hooked. I thought, "hey! this is something that should be relatively inexpensive in college and something I can do every once in a while!"
> 
> ...


both my grandfathers were hobbits woodworkers . my fathers, father bought a lathe for 18 dollars back in i believe the 5o's. when he got tired of it he gave it to my father. my father than showed me how to turn pens and showed me i could make my own grunt calls and turkey calls, WELL, it exploded from there. I now turn bowls platters pepper mills i still turn calls, but recently found out that one of the smaller shops i had some of mine at closed shop:diablo::diablo:. i stay away from pens, i want to smash something when they go flying off the mandrel:dash2::nyam2:.


----------



## cabomhn (Apr 12, 2012)

cody.sheridan-2008 said:


> Haven't done much turning, just a couple bowls at school. I got myself a $20 lathe and some cheap chisels to try out... I've used it once... I think I may actually have bent the shaft cause the faceplate doesn't spin right :i_dunno::fool3:. I think if I upgraded I'd have to just build one myself, it would be too much fun to pass up!  They are pretty basic when you thing about it... :i_dunno: the list is getting LONGER



I've seen a couple home-built lathes around the net and they don't seem that hard to build if you had the right tools. If you did tackle that if would be awesome to see!


----------



## Kalai (May 2, 2012)

HI everyone, I started turning bowls when I was 12, so that means I have been turning bowls for 33 years, I was doing it professionaly even when I was in high school. I have had my own business ever since, I love turning most of all but to feed my turning addiction I became a logger and a sawer, so now I log and mill a bunch of wood and I sell some of the wood and keep the rest for me,:yes:
I still do a lot of production turning, one year I made over 2000 bowls in one year. I also make a lot of pens too.
Aloha everyone.

Kalai


----------



## TimR (May 2, 2012)

Same story...different teller. 
A little over 3 years ago, was cleaning out the 'non-shop' kind of stuff from my shop building to make room for using it as a shop. I came across a floor plan I did back in '96 when I built the shop, and in the corner, sat a lathe. I never had a lathe, never used one...but knew a well equipped shop should have one. 
I got on CL and found a used Jet 1642 with Stronghold and other jaws for $1500 and I jumped on it. Took a Woodcraft day class within a week of having the lathe and haven't stopped much since. I sold the Jet exactly one year later and got a PM3520 after trying out various lathes including the Robust AB ( a VERY nice lathe) but the PM is too good a value IMO.
I belong to 3 different area turning clubs and am involved in majority of events one or other has going on, including doing club demos and festivals/shows which really are fun after you get over any fear goofing up ( hey,  happens sometimes!). 
I do encourage folks who have opportunity to attend meetings to do so, it really helped me overcome alot of issues early and I keep on learning everytime I attend one, even if it's doing something I already know how to do. Besides, it's a good group of folks to be around!:clapping:


----------



## davidgiul (May 2, 2012)

DKMD said:


> It's been about three years since I first got a lathe. I turned nothing but pens for the first year, and I've slowly moved away from pens into larger stuff. I love turning, but I think I like collecting wood almost as much... I have a hard time turning some of the 'prized' pieces in the collection.
> 
> Like many of the folks here, shop time is scarce, and the 'instant gratification' at the lathe has kept me from touching my flat work tools for a long time... Although my table saw has become a large cast iron staging area for all things turning, I haven't plugged it in for several years. I probably ought to sell the tablesaw, but I'm not willing to clean it off!


I think you know that the next disease to wood hoarding is tool hoarding. That table saw will only sell if it's to be replaced by a bigger one.


----------



## davidgiul (May 2, 2012)

Kevin said:


> bigcouger said:
> 
> 
> > ...P or M
> ...


The concept is good but it wouldn't work. The Cat is too much of a pine hoarder. You would never be able to sell anything.:wasntme:


----------



## Vern Tator (May 3, 2012)

:wacko1: Damn, this topic is making me feel old. I started turning in the early 60s and bought my first lathe in the early 70s. It was a craftsman pole lathe, not much, but it turned out some pretty neat things. I know it was before 75, because my dad, living in Connecticut and I, living in the mountains of Colorado, used to talk on the phone once a week and compare turning experiences. In 75 Dale Nish published his book, which really gave us something to talk about. I used that lathe until I sold it in 89 and moved aboard a sailboat for a few years. By then I knew someone who had a lathe but didn't turn. I exercised it for him. I got a jet mini (used) in 2000 and still have it. I have changed it to a reversing variable speed, and it still use it quite a bit. In 2005 I bought a short bed Vicmarc that I turn on daily. Now I'm looking for a good used lathe with a longer bed, a guy asked me if I could do some table legs for him.


----------



## Patrude (Jun 22, 2012)

So hear's my story; I'm 67, an turning just about every day. Up until 5 yrs. ago my lathe was pretty much a good place to put things. Shop apron, an stuff. My son was home on leave from the USAF and invited me to a pen turning class at WoodCraft Supply. Not being that interested in pens, spending time with my Son was what really got me to go. Now, 5 years and a lot of shavings later, my three lathes get most of my attention. I been turning for 5 years and lovin every minute. Now, when he makes it home the girls know where to find us. In the shop TURNING..that is unless were out hunting down  timber


----------



## drycreek (Jun 22, 2012)

Turned my first project in school and a few more in my mid twenties have not touched a lathe since untill May of this year when I picked up my Jet mini. Now I'm slowly acquiring the tools I need to get started. When I say slowly It's because the house is being remodeled one room at a time and have three more to go, nine down then update the outside. The BOSS kind of rules to a certain degree. My hopes are to have my shop outfitted and supplied by the time I fully retire from public work.
Currently have a table saw, lathe, radial arm saw, compound miter, drill press and a selection of hand tools but not nearly all that I dream of. My dream list includes a planer, drum sander, large belt sander, jointer, shaper etc, and a whole catalog of hand tools.


----------



## The_Architect_23 (Jun 30, 2012)

I have been turning for about 1 year now.
We kicked out our room mates and i converted their room into a workshop.
noticing i had basically no tools ( my father is a machinist, so never really needed to buy anything hahah ), i started picking up things here and there. harbor freight, and craigslist. shortly after i decided i wanted to get into rocketry. Tooling for making motors is very expensive! but can be made of wood! Thats where it all began..... I researched small lathes for low $$$ finally settling on a harbor freight mini lathe with coupon on sale for 150-ish. went home, set it up, made my 4 tools and figured what else can i do with this? Shortly after i searched craigslist for wood to put on the lathe as spindles in motors, case formers ect. and noticed a person selling a box of pen turning parts, accessories, and blanks for 100.00. needless to say it was a steal, there was burls, dyed and stabilized blanks, mandrels, kits ect. everything! But i still was not satisfied after making a few pens, i needed more.... i purchased my 1st lathe chuck and bowl jaws online, turned a bowl and loved it. kind of just exploded from there. now i have a very functional shop missing few items to turn tree to bowl and pen. Im up at all hours scouring the neighborhood for "firewood" and fresh cut trees.... the better half says the 1000 Lb wood pile in the back needs to be thinned out for the 4th of july party :dash2:
but thats okay! more room for new wood


----------

