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I wouldn't sand anything - you'll ruin the piece . Especially 80 grit is way too rough for this job. And a RoS will cover your precious house with a thick cloud of dust. Might as well put an angle grinder to it at that rate! My advice is leave as is (patina). Seriously. If you want wood to look...

Interesting - I know some woods smell funny (ebony & ovangkol can smell of cheese, and sometimes IRW can smell like farts), and people's perception of smells can be different, e.g. I find doug fir inspiring, while the Mrs goes checking which wean has soiled his pants every time I bring a doug...

Myford ML8? Never had one, always wanted one, they usually get good reviews.

Hi All, I've done a fair amount of work with walnut, American and Euro. It's one of my favourite woods. I love the way it works, the way it looks and, of course, the way it smells when you're cutting it. A while ago I bought a great-looking piece of supposedly Euro walnut off some bloke on...

I never turned box either. Looks plain to me. Found the stick of African blackwood - need a few more to get a chess set, but it's an option. It will have less figure than IRW though, wouldn't it? Surprised that blackwood turns well - in my mind, the stuff is probably approaching aluminium in...

Just kidding about snakewood - never held the stuff in my hands. Only know one chap who worked with it once and said he didn't think it was worth the money and he didn't like it... The customer loved it though. I thought African blackwood was very hard to work? I'm sure I've had a couple sticks...

I also started on DML 24x, and still using it. Removing centres after you forgot to put the thread protector on is, indeed, a pain in the rs.

Is Masur birch really that good? London plane sounds good - haven't thought about that one! Any UK suppliers? I've used snakewood on my previous set, but it wasn't dark enough, so I ended up staining it black. ;) Talking about black, I'll probably go for Indian rosewood. Tempting to treat...

Hi All, I'm wondering if there's any good alternatives to masur birch? I'd like a similar look for one of my next chess sets - light colour with light figure & marbling pattern, but the stuff seems to be crazy expensive. Maple burr comes to mind, but is it easy to turn, is it stable, and can it...

Also, always make sure you have a wooden buffer between the blank and the metal chucks & centers. When working on something this small, it's inevitable that your cutter will slip, and it's a lot better if if slips into a wooden stop, than into steel.

I'd recommend doing a copy of some Soviet set first. They are quite easy to make, and the most comfortable to play - the smooth curves and minimalist designs just make the pieces an extension of your fingers. Find some photos, stick them into something like inkscape (it's free), adjust to...

As I've said, I'm no real wood turner at all - never turned anything apart from chisel handles (in fact, I bought the lathe mainly to turn bench chisel handles - I am very anal about their shape!) and small bowls before trying my first chess set. I found the chessmen very easy to make, perhaps...

When it comes to machinery, then bigger and more powerful is always better. Every step that you take down the size/power ladder severely limits what you can do with the wood. Unfortunately, this is just a fact of life. Another unfortunate thing is that many of us have minor unnecessary...

Lots of cyclists here it seems. Can anyone advise what grease I should use for my seatpost bearings? Or is that topic best avoided, like sharpening and old vs new tools?

Mine are "Huhao" brand, which is a Chinese manufacturer of decent quality CNC router bits afaik. The seller (on Aliexpress) sold exactly the same bits in "standard" and "premium" quality at twice the price. I've bough bits in both grades just to see if he was conning the buyers and while the...

PS that looked like a cracking mitre gauge by the way - well done. I've got an Incra, but it has cost me nearly 4 times more (even at that price, money well spent).

Narex cabinet scrapers. Bought half a dozen on a visit to Czech Republic a few years ago. From memory, worked out about 60p each. I've used home-made scrapers from ""good ole saw blades", Lee Nielsen and Veritas - none of which measured up to Bahco scrapers. But Narex are in a different league...

Welcome. I'm no "proper" wood turner, but here's a couple thoughts. I'm going by my experience of using a battered old Record Power DML 24x. I assume that the lathe came without extra centers, screws, plates, chucks, etc - you've got to budget for them, as these toys will end up costing you a...

I was half way through this thread, imagining Hairy clubbing baby seals with these rosewood clubs. Only then did I follow the wiki article and realised these clubs are not for hitting living things over their heads. 600mm is very long indeed. And dense hardwoods can be a challenge to turn. How...