A year of bodging ...

[Sheffield Tony]

I probably mentioned before that the woodworking I know I learned in "O"-level woodwork at school about thirty years ago, and some from my father. On returning to hobby woodworking I found that I knew enough about cutting joints etc to make functional, but a bit boring, items. In search of a bit of extra something I had a go at bit of carving, and DW packed me off on a pole lathe turners course. This was last August, which I know is more that a year ago but I'm allowing injury time for my couple of months out nursing a broken wrist ...

First day of the course was learning to use the tools to make something - anything ! My avatar picture is from that day, and I made these:

The second day was captive rings:

This all seemed good fun, and so that I could make a mess on my own lawn, I gathered together some scrap wood - packing material and some old window frames, and made my own lathe:

Mixing in a bit of carving:

I'm not quite ready to try a Windsor chair yet, but a stool I can manage:

It is great fun, and working outdoors is a good contrast to being stuck in the office at work. Worth a go !

 

[Mike.S]

Very impressive, not much bodging evident. I particularly liked the stool and your home made lathe.

 

[mseries]

Please tell us more about that homemade pole lathe. It looks whacky enough for me to make though I'd like to build a Da Vinci lathe at some point actually

 

[RossJarvis]

Lovely work S Tony, impressive lathe too, remember, a good bodger is better than a c**p workman any day of the week.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I had the pole lathe together again today, so took some photos for those interested. Traditionally pole lathes are a rather massive affair hewn from half a tree trunk, but I needed something that would come apart easily, be light to handle and fit in the car, and with a facility to use a bungee instead of the pole for the return spring (it's not always possible to fasten a pole into the ground). Also, half a tree trunk was traditionally what the bodger would have to hand, whereas for foday's suburban bodger, skip wood is more available.

It can be packed away neatly:

All it has to do is hold two centres (studding ground to a point) and a tool rest in the right positions. The tricky bits in my experience were finding a design for the attachment of the legs that prevents racking, a design for a tool rest that has sufficient adjustment but doesn't keep falling off, and making a treadle that is light enough and strong enough. I'm still not use I'm there yet with the latter.

Here you can see the V notch and the matching shape of the top of the legs that prevents racking. The two lengths of studding that are holding the legs and the tool rest together for transit also serve to attach the legs:

Here you can see my design of tool rest. The studding is screwed into the wood, which is tapped with a homemade M8 tap. The packing pieces are in thicknesses such that each is double the last (they are powers of 2) so that it is pretty finely adjustable over a fair range. The slots in the rest allow any spacing of the centres to be accommodated.

We were lucky enough to be turning out of the rain, in the great barn at the NT's Wimpole estate today, hence the stuff in the background.

 

[RossJarvis]

That lathe looks a lot nicer close up. How do you hollow stuff out? I can see turning spindles etc, "between centres" but not how you'd just hold one end.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Everything has to be turned between centres. To turn large bowls requires a lot of energy, and a heavier lathe built for that job. Small bowls (say up to 6") and goblets can be done on the pole lathe, with the odd extra bit I forgot to photograph. The bowl blank is mounted between the centres using a mandrel, which the driving cord runs on:

I use an alternative rest, which can be turned around through 90 degrees when hollowing into the end. The core is undercut using hooked tools like so:

.. until you are down to maybe a penny sized attachment point, when you can snap off the core and tidy up with a crook knife. Here's the bowl I was making in the picture above:

Green wood bowls are always a bit rustic; as they dry they will tend to distort a little so they become slightly oval, and the emphasis is on getting a good enough finish with the tools alone, sanding regarded by many as a bit amateur. Real experts (e.g, Robin Wood) will turn a whole nest of 3-4 bowls from one blank, by removing the minimum of material and re-using the core to make the next sized down bowl. I wish I was that good !

 

[Dangermouse]

VERY impressive!!!!!!!

 

[morfa]

Wish I could bodge that well. I'm definitely making a pole lathe tho. I've been wanting a normal lathe for a while, but they're very expensive. So having something that's a fraction of the price that can be knocked down to a small size looks excellent.

 

[disco_monkey79]

I look forward to (hopefully) one day being able to "bodge" as well as that!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Thanks for the kind comments. Of course I mean "bodging" in the green woodworking sense, of making things with what is to hand, rather than the more derogatory modern usage. This notion of making things with what is to hand really appeals to me. And the tranquility of escaping power tools ! Finding a local group of like minded people made it all the more enjoyable.