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Aren't we all - and it's interesting that two oft-quoted reference authors on woodturning - Rowley and Darlow - don't make any mention of this, and I haven't seen anything in the Wood Turner either. The principles are pretty basic when one steps back and looks at them, but are somewhat...

Interesting as I've clearly been sanding at too high a surface speed. Most of the wood I've been using isn't that hard - spalted maple, spalted beech, sycamore, gean, ash and elm - and I'm not aware of having any problems, though perhaps someone with a keen eye would be critical. Certainly one...

First time turning yew and was impressed by the quality of finish I was getting, but found that it takes such a high polish from the fine grades of paper that sanding lines are rather apparant. I was doing this at the club and was surprised to be told that I should sand no faster than 500rpm as...

"There don't seem to be any pully and looked to be a direct drive of the lower wheel." As Bob says you must stick with the 6 pole motor which has 940 rpm load speed (this is 50hz X 60 seconds divided by 6 (poles) minus a few revs for what is called slippage) - fit a 4 pole motor and the blade...

Thanks Bob - for reading what I missed -- oops !! I would suggest that that is not electrical power but mechanical power level, or perhaps average power level and the current given is peak - or perhaps 70% is the efficiency one can expect from a motor ?. Anyhow we're near enough discussing...

I'll put my pennyworth in if I may on the basis that I faced a not dissimilar problem with a friend's Graduate (bought from a school displenishment for £50 !!!). Albeit that's probably a 4 pole motor, but it was the balance between the cost of a new motor, fighting with having to mount it and...

No, the bench is now not dirty or extensively green as it has been sanded down with a multitool, but it is old and the wood has suffered correspondingly. I could sand it back to absolutely clean wood, but that then destroys all the patina and it becomes a rather tired looking new bench. What...

I'm restoring a folding garden bench that came from my grandparents and is probably 1930's vintage or earlier. I'm well aware that I shouldn't remove the patina it has but I've had to sand it lightly all over to remove the lichen that is on it. The seat is thinnish teak strips and they've all...

Well it had a very thin base, part of it none(!) but that was about 10mm by the time it had that very pretty bit of laburnum added, but that is just being picky. The rest of it, Blister, you're right. Possibly a bit high on the clamping force; speed may have been around 1000; I forgot I...

Thanks Tony - I needed the mechanics to understand what went wrong. It's all a learning process but it would be nice to have some output once in a while! Rob

It broke because I put it on a set of button jaws to clean up the bottom of the plug - it was proud and had been made on a glue chuck so was 'gluey'. Cutting something flat like this on the face is an area I'm not confident in - had several catches in the past, so I decided to scrape it gently...

The three photos show the story. Having done the repair to the base, I then mounted the bowl on a button chuck in order to tidied up the underside of the plug. I was concerned about what tool to use so opted for a scraper - OK to begin with !! :( How should I have done it and what tool...

At least it didn't hit me !

Sorry John - "tail stock" chuck. Here's some pictures. I just cut a disc of a laburnum bough for the plug - it has the curious effect on the 'inside' photo of appearing to be a tunnel - a 'black hole'. The bowl is 9 " in diameter from maple rescued from a firewood pile - a certain amount of...

That does assume that there is enough depth of wood in the hole for a taper to be effective. I'd drilled in from the top to give me a depth marker and because it was a bigger bowl than I'd done before, the initial hole wasn't long enough and had to be taken out of the backcentre chuck and...

Ah, good - and I see that all the 'good' turners do it too, so at least I get some comfort not being in that classification myself. Unfortunately the bottom of the bowl had developed a rather over-turned internal shape so the plug had to be a stepped affair - I cut a disc off a laburnum bough...

This was one of those "Oh b$%^&*r !!", etc. moments. My first attempts at a bowl greater than my normal 6". I'd got hold of some larger section maple which is all flame and early rot which turned well, but I got the control of my measurements wrong when turning out a 10" piece and have gone...

I've been turning for a year and have only really recently got to terms with turning out the inside of a bowl - that means that I am now confident enough with my tool use that I can do it reasonably quickly, consistently and without the bowl taking off into orbit. Tomorrow of course will be...

I've got a beehive roof to rebuild; I reckon the cedar on it has lasted 40 years of my ownership and maybe another 40 years of the previous owner. The rebuild should again be cedar, but I'm not sure about my access to any planked cedar but can get larch locally - would that do for the 20 more...

Lot of inertia there - the block has quite a mass and it takes quite a bit of power to get it moving at speed. The bobbin sander is just a couple of inches of small diameter shaft with sandpaper round it. Rob