Category: woodturning

  • My second commission

    A couple of months ago I wrote about turning a doorbell surround as my first paid commission for a colleague at work. Turns out there is some small market for doorbell surrounds, as I recently got a comment on that post asking if I’d be prepared to do another.I guess the metal parts of these doorbells has…

  • My first woodturning commission

    This week a colleague approached me to ask if I could make something for him.His house, which he’s been renovating, still had an original doorbell from whenever it was built. The door bell was a round metal plate with a button in the middle, inset into a wood ring which was screwed to the wall.…

  • Turning a burr

    Burrs are very interesting bits of wood. They are odd growths that occur on the surface of tree trunks. I’m fascinated by what causes them to occur, since they are basically a mass of knots. Wikipedia on burrs Burrs typically have all sort of faults within the wood. But the wood is so dense both physically and…

  • Pen turning

    Well it had to happen eventually. Given a lathe for enough time eventually you’ll give in to the allure of pen turning. I had started talking about giving it a go, and not long after Kat found herself in Turners Retreat with her dad. Being awesome, she bought me some supplies for turning pens.

  • The Mallet of many mistakes

    In last months woodturning magazine there was a project-in-a-day feature for making a mallet. I caught my eye because the head of the mallet was made from lignum vitae, a very dense hard wood which is normally found in the balls used for lawn bowls. As it happens I was recently given a couple of…

  • Making a chess set part 2 – The Bishop

    Feeling good about how the king had gone, I set to work on the bishops.I decided that the thing to do would be to turn 2 head-to-head in a single length of wood. This would mean I only pay the ‘cost’ of work holding once for two pieces. 

  • Making a chess set. Part 1- The King

    As a geek and a wood turner. One of the most obvious things to attempt to make on the lathe is a chess set.In fact it was probably one of the first things I thought of to work towards. I did a lot of research at the time, and found that chess designs are not…

  • Streptohedrons

    A couple of months ago David Springett came to the Hampshire woodturners monthly meeting and gave a demonstration. Amongst the things he demonstrated were what he called ‘streptohedrons’

  • HWA July meeting

    This month Mark Hancock came to demonstrate what he termed a ‘rocking vessel’ What this actually means is a hollow form, with no flat base. So rather than standing up in a conventional way, they roll around, or ‘rock’ to a natural resting point.

  • DIY lathe dust extractor hood

    Last year I bought myself a serious dust extractor for use in the workshop. It has a huge dust collection bag and a 100mm hose.I have it sat between my bandsaw and my lathe. The bandsaw has a specific dust port for connecting this type of extractor to which makes life easy. The lathe on the…