Knowing nothing about using a lathe before starting this project, I asked a veteran wood turner who I saw at the Marin County farmer's market for some tips. He imparted some wood-turning wisdom on me and told me NOT to glue the whole stack up, but to glue a few pieces at a time, lathe,
then glue onto that. He was absolutely right. If you're lathing by hand, it's very difficult to reach way inside the horn mouth with a HSS chisel and lathe with any degree of accuracy. I stacked the first seven slices and glued all but the one at the very bottom (the throat). Then, I mounted the stack to a lathe plate with 2 1/2" screws and screwed the whole assembly onto the spindle. Looking back, I probably should have only glued the four slices and turned that before adding more because the thickness of those seven layers made it difficult to reach way inside with the chisels. I ended up sanding it down with 60 grit because the flare is very slight with the first few layers.
The process continued like this through all 19 layers--glue, lathe, glue, lathe, glue, lathe. I used my template while turning, cutting a little at a time, and testing the profile with the template. At this point, I still have a ways to go as you can see from the length of the template sticking out.
Knowing nothing about using a lathe before starting this project, I asked a veteran wood turner who I saw at the Marin County farmer's market for some tips. He imparted some wood-turning wisdom on me and told me NOT to glue the whole stack up, but to glue a few pieces at a time, lathe, then glue onto that. He was absolutely right. If you're lathing by hand, it's very difficult to reach way inside the horn mouth with a HSS chisel and lathe with any degree of accuracy. I stacked the first seven slices and glued all but the one at the very bottom (the throat). Then, I mounted the stack to a lathe plate with 2 1/2" screws and screwed the whole assembly onto the spindle. Looking back, I probably should have only glued the four slices and turned that before adding more because the thickness of those seven layers made it difficult to reach way inside with the chisels. I ended up sanding it down with 60 grit because the flare is very slight with the first few layers.
In addition to innumerable unexplained phenomena, such as the catalyst for life, gravity, ESP, the unique human need to believe in life after death, and the mating rituals of fruit bats, another mystery eludes me:
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to have the lathe follow the profile while turn the horn in a manner similar to how letters or shapes can be routed using a template? Is this possible in any or most affordable routers?