how did you learn to turn?
- Thread starter Flootsie
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As for how I got started, I was invited to a get together one night a Jeremy (aka WoodWrangler)'s house to learn some fundamentals. Ed Nelson (Nelsone) was there too and proceeded to make a pepper mill for us. He let anyone that wanted try the lathe which was a monster of a Powermatic. Just a few minutes on the chisels and I knew I'd be liking this. The rest is self taught & a few glances at some how to books. Sometimes for me that is the most efficient way. Like FredP said, as a teacher, I usually have a terrible student, and the student in me has a terrible teacher, but we persevere, and when we're done we're not mad at one another.......
I was struck by your saying your son learned to turn and he is now 10. How young do you think is too young for learning to turn? My grand-daughter is going on 11 and I was thinking it would be cool to get her turning. i think the element of vandalism that Richard Raffan cites would appeal to her.
I learned through books, videos, watching demonstrations and trying out various and sundry tools. My competence depends on how frequently I am on the lathe. When I am without logs, my bowl turning skills diminish, but after 5 or 10 rough-outs I'm pretty good again. Same way for finishing the bowls. On spindles, I have my moments with the skew, some good, some bad, but I usually end up with something close to what I had in mind. If I need to make a cylinder of a certain diameter, I cheat with my South Bend.
Roy G
I learned through books, videos, watching demonstrations and trying out various and sundry tools. My competence depends on how frequently I am on the lathe. When I am without logs, my bowl turning skills diminish, but after 5 or 10 rough-outs I'm pretty good again. Same way for finishing the bowls. On spindles, I have my moments with the skew, some good, some bad, but I usually end up with something close to what I had in mind. If I need to make a cylinder of a certain diameter, I cheat with my South Bend.
Roy G
Took a pen turning class at Woodcraft, then made a bunch of pens. Read some pen making books and then began trying all sorts of various models. Then took a bowl turning class, yep, at Woodcraft, and began turning bowls, then tops, then Kaleidoscopes. Then took a pepper mill class, this time at Highland Hardware. Turned many pepper mills, and then I was off to turn whatever pleased me, or saw in books. Learning the good basic techniques in a hands-on class with an instructor or tutor seems to me the only way to begin on the lathe. And just importantly was learning just how to use the tools and sharpen them. I learned different techniques in every class.
I took a basic spindle class then a bowl class at Klingspor. After that the dark side took over. WoodArtz here from the board mentored me a couple of sessions, then I took a class at John C. Campbell folk school. After that I learned that every turner has their own style, and instead of mimicing someones, I took a little from each, figured out what worked for me, and made it my own.
I had forgotten how I complained when I had to learn to sharpen tools, and change things on the lathe, and season wood (which I still know almost nothing about and need to learn), and temper metal, and build workbenches, and...and...and...
ALL I WANTED FROM THIS
I remember saying petulantly (I am a drama queen)
WAS TO BE A MASTER TURNER!
As usual, skills rest on subsets of skills.
I also agree with the two posts that you do some and learn some, and that every turner has his/her own style. We are thinking about this get-together in May, and have just decided that all we can do is show what we (mainly Alan) know(s) how to do. This is not ALL turning, nor even RIGHT turning, whatever that is. It is OUR turning. So it will be really enjoyable, because if we are just bringing what we know (plus some exercises, since I have been teaching for 30 years and tend to do that sort of thing) then everyone else who comes is bringing what they know, too.
(Warning! Gets preachy)
As to when a child can learn, mine learned at 8 and was doing captured rings (3 fitting within each other on a single spindle) by early age 9. He worked in green wood, mainly because there was a lot of it around and so he could piddle and "waste" all he wished.
He hasn't done it in a while, mainly because of workshop issues, and I am going to set up three lathes on my side of the new workshop so that he can be on one whenever he wishes (I like to have one for all the time and another for experimental projects, such as when we made our own ornamental turning setup, hence 3 if the kid is to have access).
Tricks and moving parts seemed to appeal: captured rings and hidden compartments and such. I think I will look into Victorian magic tricks as a side line of research, as some of those involved turned "tools" for the tricks. Also, Alan knows how to do puzzle balls (the pierced balls within balls) and that would be fun!
(Typical specialized tools for puzzle balls are here, plus Alan tells me you need a half cup chuck with a removable tapered dowel in the center to get the location, plus the usual hand tools.)
My point is that, IMHO, once they get past the initial rush of turning at all (the vandalism phase) kids don't wanna keep making the equivalent of table legs. As with all teaching, "do not condescend". Commonly, this is done by making the projects too simple and then gushing with praise anyway.
Acquiring skills imparts self-respect, thank goodness, but the skills need to be real, not just asserted.
Kids are skilled creatures by nature: cut that girl loose on the lathe (with supervision, says the momma part of me)!
Okay. I, too, forget how to do stuff after a while of not doing it. I was doing a good run of dowels yesterday (what's a South Bend?!) and then got distracted by doing captured rings. Whatever I end up doing, I need to spend a day at the lathe today before sashaying myself into a wood working show tomorrow!
2 thoughts 1) One nationally known turner/teacher alledgely said at the end of a bowl turning workshop "You have now turned a bowl, If tou want to be a bowl turner, turn a bowl every day for the next 3 months, then you may be a bowl turner." 2) the Southern Piedmont Woodturners, Concord, NC, have 4 Saturdy workshops each year with respected turners as instructors and members have lathes so they can try out the lesson(s) of the day. We also have numerous events throughout each year, a week at the Cabarrus County Fair, 2 weeks at Carolina Mall raising money for Hospice, etc., where new/curious turners can watch other members do their thing(s) on a lathe, ask questions and then try out for themselves what they watched. I, too, learned my first skills on a Shopsmith, but being in SPW allowed me to become a woodturner, accompanied by practice. I've also made hundreds of mushrooms and weedpots, which often ask and answer a question, while you're turning. Make a few mushrooms with a skew for a real learning experience. SPW meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 7:00 pm, Old Courthouse, Union St., Concord, NC We would love to have you visit, then join.
Over 20 years ago in highschool. We each turned 4 legs for stools.My Dad still has his in the living room today. What's funny, though, is even though I remember everything from the rest of woodshop I can't really remember much about turning other than marking and measuring the stock. I have no idea as to when it is appopriate to use one tool over another, maybe some reading would help. I do not have a lathe now, but hope to get one eventually.
Hi all,
I served my time in England as a metal turner and moved from job to job as the factories went overseas I ended up being to make everything from the smallest aircraft and auto components to oil pipeline valves you could stand up in on machines which are bigger than a house, (for such large castings the object is bolted to the cross slide and the cutting tool is held in the chuck. Yes the x slide has a feed and the chuck also)
When I retrained as a bricklayer (brickmason) and went to work in London I started visiting Portobello market, it wasn't long before I bought a chess set with an orphan in it, (a polite name for a replacement piece from a similar set). What to do? I didn't have a lathe.
I did have a power drill and a workmate bench and soon found a short length of angle iron to act as a tool rest and a wood chisel, (regular type) So, I clamped the drill in the workmate and screwed a wood screw into a piece of wood to grip in the drill chuck and commenced to wood turn. By the time the piece was finished I had worked out the essential differences between wood turners and metal turners.
I served my time in England as a metal turner and moved from job to job as the factories went overseas I ended up being to make everything from the smallest aircraft and auto components to oil pipeline valves you could stand up in on machines which are bigger than a house, (for such large castings the object is bolted to the cross slide and the cutting tool is held in the chuck. Yes the x slide has a feed and the chuck also)
When I retrained as a bricklayer (brickmason) and went to work in London I started visiting Portobello market, it wasn't long before I bought a chess set with an orphan in it, (a polite name for a replacement piece from a similar set). What to do? I didn't have a lathe.
I did have a power drill and a workmate bench and soon found a short length of angle iron to act as a tool rest and a wood chisel, (regular type) So, I clamped the drill in the workmate and screwed a wood screw into a piece of wood to grip in the drill chuck and commenced to wood turn. By the time the piece was finished I had worked out the essential differences between wood turners and metal turners.
I also trained as a metal turner/machinist and quickly found that it paid much less than the silk screen work I was doing at the time. So, I turned wood as a hobby and continued in the design business. Now i design woven fabrics and still do wood work as a hobby. The feeling of making something with my hands, that I can see taking shape and done with simple tools still intrigues me much more than all the complicated machinery and dozens of people required to make mass produced fabrics or books or newspapers.
My first time ever holding a turning gouge was at the Charlotte show many years ago (when they had tools). We bought my first set of turning tools even though we couldn't afford a lathe. I signed up for a class, but didn't actually take it for several years. I don't turn often, and find that I am kind of chicken to experiment by myself.
Being a little reluctant to experiment on your own is probably quite sensible from a safety point of view, that's why getting together in a workshop is such a good idea we all learn from each other, and the techniques others use which seem so difficult in print are easy to pick up when there is someone on hand to offer a word of friendly advice.
The English turner Bill Jones, who had served his time with his father and worked as a turner all his life, was always willing to attend demo's and the like. He said there was something to learn from everyone, and I agree with him.
He wrote two books which are often available on Amazon I will try to remember to bring them along to Mike's workshop.
He is a bit quirky and writes mostly about ivory turning of chess sets and ornamental turning. But he wrote weekly back and forth with his father about some of the problems he encountered and his account of an age now past is heartwarming and amusing in equal measure
Like many others I watched a few videos and show demos then tried on my own. After that I did take a couple classes one with Allan Leland and another with Bill Wallace. There are several things about being self taught. One you tend to pick up bad habits and two you do everything the hard way.
And three: you do things nobody else has done.
I learned how to turn my first bowl...First anything on a lathe Nov 2008 from Earl (Erasmussen) on his decked out Harbor Freight lathe that he had at the time.
Then shortly there after I won a Lathe from Dave (DaveO) and have been turning ever since. I turned my own bracelet and have been making many ever since. Charlie took 14 hours of his time in one day to help me build a segment cutting sled and make a nice segmented potpourri vase.
I recommend Segmented Turning by Malcollm Tibbettes and I think it's called turning with Ray Allen.
I love TURNING~!
Then shortly there after I won a Lathe from Dave (DaveO) and have been turning ever since. I turned my own bracelet and have been making many ever since. Charlie took 14 hours of his time in one day to help me build a segment cutting sled and make a nice segmented potpourri vase.
I recommend Segmented Turning by Malcollm Tibbettes and I think it's called turning with Ray Allen.
I love TURNING~!
My turning education started years back when I saw wooden pens and decided I could make one. I remember the salesman saying all I needed was a kit, a mandrel and a gouge. He forgot to ask if I had a lathe. I chucked the mandrel and pen blank into my bench top drill press and used some sort of live center mounted to the table. I remember a bunch of catches and exploding pen blanks until I learned how to old my left hand real steady as that was my tool rest - I actually got pretty good at it and probably turned 100 pens that way. I came across a Jet 1236 and was amazed how much easier it was with a tool rest. I am really looking forward to the class later this spring
gee Phil all ya hadda do was lay the DP on its side and screw a 2xwhatever to the bench for a rest!:rotflm: voila....instant lathe.
:notworthy:
I have nothing but admiration for someone who wants to do something...anything...THAT badly!
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