How did you learn to turn?

[Adam W.]

I went and splashed out on a nice vicmarc, watched Allan Batty on youtube a few times and then went and frightened myself with a skew for a few weeks.

Good fun and highly recommended.

 

[throbscottle]

I made decorative object in my school woodwork class. Looked a bit like an elaborate pepper grinder. Completely useless except possibly for hitting muggers with. But I did at least learn how to use a lathe. Then I trained as an engineer for a bit, and learned to use the metal turning sort, with rather more complete tuition (which I've mostly forgotten). Then I made my first lathe using an AC induction motor which came from a mainframe computer - I think it was from the hard drive. Quite a contrast to what we have now!
But I moved on and didn't take it with me, and years later (around the peak of my long-term unemployment probably) made another lathe out of a bicycle frame, bit of old scaffolding pipe and I think a tapered roller bearing from a car. Used frame upside down, 1 wheel as a pulley operated by treadle made out of a bit of plank which pivoted on the bit of pipe. I think I used the bottom bracket as the headstock. Pretty sure the headstock spindle was some kind of large dowel, had a rough pulley and some cunning arrangement with a single ball bearing to centre the pulley end and stop it sliding back out (since there was only the one actual bearing). Anyway I used it to make a rather lovely small bowl to hold a crystal ball. I think I had a bit of some kind of board screwed to the end of the spindle to attach the work to (no tailstock). Made some turning tools by filing down old screwdrivers, had time to play around with that one - until I moved and left it all behind again.
Creature of habit that I am - another lathe is planned! Well actually I did rig up it's proposed motor with a shaft from a dead printer and chassis from a money counter that I found (and dismantled) to make some crappy bearing cases for the pillar drill I was trying to make (worked but wobbled a lot). Just got a bunch of other stuff to make first...
Old files make good turning tools, I discovered, if you grind them right

So I didn't mean to tell you my life story! To actually answer the question, it's "by just trying stuff and playing around with the magic spinney thing and the sharp things".

 

[loc0]

Men's Shed about 25mins drive from home. A place full of different individuals, some 2x times older than me. Great craic, highly recommend .

 

[niall Y]

So, I suppose it depends on what is meant by turning. If it means making things on a lathe to an acceptable standard. Then ,over the years, I have achieved this. But I'm not sure that I ever did learn to turn properly. I was shown how to make components on a lathe at college by technicians but it was a scraper-heavy approach .

Later on when running my own workshop it was often cheaper and more convenient to farm this aspect out. Even when I bought a lathe, later on, I could not compete with the price or quality that some firms were able to offer with their CNC machines.
I did get there in the end. Even if my approach was inelegant, the results were acceptable and workmanlike.

It is often interesting to see how those at the top of their game in their own field approach turning. Folk such as Curtis Buchanan , the chair maker, and Karl Holtey, the plane maker. There is a video somewhere of Karl turning beautiful, round, handles in exotic hardwood. He does this with a simple copy attachment - very much an engineers approach, and the results are remarkable.

 

[Jonzjob]

That is quite an achievement Trobscottle! But please please don't use old files for turning tools. They will shatter and could do you a big time naughty. OK you could do all sorts of fancy heat treating but it isn't anything that I would touce mate!

 

[throbscottle]

Thanks for the warning! I never imagined that might happen!

 

[TRITON]

The local college near me use to have a very extensive woodworking department, but over the years it was less and less and they no longer did evening courses. But I remembered that they used to run a course of turning, so gave them a phone, spoke to one of the woody lecturers who told me he would run a course if i could find a dozen people willing to take it.

I duly informed my fellow students at my own college, we were doing design and another department doing antique restoration.
Few weeks later I phoned the college again to inquire if they had had any interest, and if so i would like to join in too.

I was informed the class was full and there was no place for me.

B$%&@&DS

Last time I'm helping anyone

 

[dickm]

Trying to occupy hands while recovering from operation on tendon in left hand, managed to pick up an old B&D "lathe" attachment and self taught how to make vaguely round wooden objects. Moved up to an old Gamages branded version of a Coronet Minor, and taught myself more with the aid of a lot of reading, to the stage where I was able to make a decent spinning wheel for SWMBO and wedding presents for friends' offspring. Attended one course, which knocked off some of my rougher edges, and now on my last lathes, Mystro and Super 7, which mostly get used for repair work on wood, metal and plastic.

 

[Distinterior]

One of my best friends bought me a Record DML36 SH MK2 as a thank you present for being his best man about 15 years ago.
Once I'd put it all together and got it mounted to a workbench, the first thing I did was buy Keith Rowley's Foundation Course book...Worth every penny!
My first attempts at turning anything were the projects he suggests in his book and its certainly stood me in good stead.
I did add the Bowl outrigger attachment when I wanted to turn some larger diameter bowls (Apparently, it's no longer available to buy new any more...?)
Recently, I've been attempting a few segmented bowls.

 

[Roland]

Back story: Turning is one of those things which had always been in the back of my mind as something I’d like to try. A few years ago we had a carpenter here to make some windows (it’s an old house, and they’re all different sizes). He had been asked to clear a workshop, and would I like the lathe? It turned out to be a 12” lathe, with a set of Sorby gouges, slow speed sharpener, and a wall cabinet of other bits. It would seem that the previous owner had set up a workshop for his retirement, but never made much use of it.

How did I learn: I read the section on turning in a woodworking book, and watched a few videos on YouTube. Then I got a piece of wood and started practicing. Then another piece, and another, and ... After a few months I bought a helmet, and an additional tool, and another, and ...

I‘m still learning, and currently experimenting with CA glue as a finish. YouTube is a great resource, as long as you filter out those people who are accidents waiting to happen.

 

[Jonzjob]

I do believe that one of the biggest problems with wood turning is that you but a lathe and think 'great stuff'!

And then you start spending!

Ohhh, that gouge looks good

I like the look of that chuck!

How on Earth did I ever manage without that tool/this rest/adjustable speed/on and on and on

But do we love it? You bet we do!

 

[Stigmorgan]

I do believe that one of the biggest problems with wood turning is that you but a lathe and think 'great stuff'!

And then you start spending!

Ohhh, that gouge looks good

I like the look of that chuck!

How on Earth did I ever manage without that tool/this rest/adjustable speed/on and on and on

But do we love it? You bet we do!

100%

 

[John Hall]

And Loftyhermes?

Your piont is?

His point is obviously he managed to master it without any aids like YouTube etc..
Probably by ready those strange things called books…
same as anything new, it’s practice, practice, practice…
A retired colleague recently bought a lathe having never used one before….he’s now regularily turning out beautiful bowls.

 

[Jaco]

Have a look at what this guy has on his site.

He also does a news-mail and tutorials

https://www.turningforprofit.com

 

[Jason Wheeler]

Blimey - like many I stumbled into it through desire rather than any skill - I bought a 2nd hand Clarke CWL1000 through eBay which, to my wife’s disgust, stayed in our kitchen for about 6 months before we moved and I had room in my workshop. Anything over about an 8” bowl would shake the frame apart and it was terrifying to use but I learned to let the tools do the work which I think on a larger lathe I would never have understood.

Now have a Laguna Revo 24/36 - all my tuition has been through books and YouTube - for personal family reasons it’s hard for me to get time to travel to courses, much as I would love to, so I just soak up what is online then try and replicate.

It’s the most cathartic hobby in the world, and I have a few - nothing gets the pulse racing like a massive catch!!

 

[Stigmorgan]

Blimey - like many I stumbled into it through desire rather than any skill - I bought a 2nd hand Clarke CWL1000 through eBay which, to my wife’s disgust, stayed in our kitchen for about 6 months before we moved and I had room in my workshop. Anything over about an 8” bowl would shake the frame apart and it was terrifying to use but I learned to let the tools do the work which I think on a larger lathe I would never have understood.

Now have a Laguna Revo 24/36 - all my tuition has been through books and YouTube - for personal family reasons it’s hard for me to get time to travel to courses, much as I would love to, so I just soak up what is online then try and replicate.

It’s the most cathartic hobby in the world, and I have a few - nothing gets the pulse racing like a massive catch!!

I'll see your catch and raise you a 9inch diameter projectile heading straight at your face not only does it raise you're pulse it flippin hurts and turns the concrete floor red

 

[kinverkid]

My first lathe was a multi-badged cheap thing I bought in the early eighties. I turned lots of nice things with it though and learned from the likes of Richard Raffan books and the rarely found woodturning books from the library. I wish I had something like YouTube at the time though. Before books and the printed word came along, people learned by physically being shown how-to which is what YouTube does. But, just like learning from a real person at a club or in a one-to-one situation, you may not always get the best advice and the real learning will come from 'doing'. I'm now on my second lathe, a Record CL3 36 which I got at the end of the Nineties, and can't remember the last time I bought a tool. I have turned hundreds of bowls, spindles and pens, use my tools straight from a white stone (not got a clue what grit it is) on a six-inch grinder and may consider replacing my twenty-odd-year-old bowl gouge in a few years' time. But, then again, I thought that about replacing it a few years ago.

 

[trvlr]

How did I lerarn to turn... Well it was a matter of necessity... I was probably crawling (before I walked) in one direction and there was something more interesting to be seen if I went in another...; and no-ne there to help me get there. So I discovered that I could, by trial and effort, turn (change direction)...

Bak to the kooking sherry for my evening tipple...

 

[Ed Weber]

Self taught, no hands on teaching. I did watch a few videos before YouTube took off. I did have a foundation in woodworking prior to turning so things like grain direction and orientation, tool presentation, etc, took little time to absorb. low res photo

 

[Adam Pinson]

Well Adam I did the video watching, bought a lathe and now make stuff, but I really have no idea how to make chisels.

The handles are good practice and the scrapers are made from old files, had some of them years now, still going strong.