cheap wood turning
What would you rather have? a nice big shiny lathe, with shiny new tools? Or give someone your converted item, for example, as a gift, and watch their jaw drop?
I am a firm believer that great wood turning can be done without all those expensive tools.
I have been a woodturner for years and have produced many turned items using cheap alternatives.
Tip 1: Get a used lathe.
My lathe cost me £50 several years ago. It had barely been used and the guy I bought it from was already buying a more expensive one, can you believe it! There are a lot of people like him around here.
Second hand lathes are easy to obtain; eBay is the easiest. If you’ve seen a lathe you want in a magazine, you’ve read the specs.
Always contact the buyer beforehand; ideally ask if you can see it working.
Tip 2: make a bench for him out of recycled wood.
The bench my lathe is on came from wood from a shipping container. If I had bought it new it would have cost £40 easily.
Tip 3 – Make your own hand tools for wood turning.
Hand tools for turning wood can cost a fortune. Almost all my tools are chisels; I don’t bother with crooked chisels etc. since I can do almost anything I want, using an ordinary chisel and parting tool.
Go to a boot sale and look for old, rusty chisels covered in paint, ideally with broken handles.
What you are really looking for is a “sheffield” steel ideally with a makers stamp as well (eg sorby and sons). Most likely it’s a “high carbon” steel blade that you bought cheap. Buying new ones (if you can find them) will cost you a fortune.
Remove the handle (if it’s broken it comes off easier) and twist a new handle to fit your hand.
Sand all the rust and debris off the blade and glue it down with a 2 part epoxy into the hole you’ve made in your new handle. You now have a custom built wood turning tool that would have cost a fortune to purchase
If you don’t have a sander, lay some thick wet and dry paper on a hard flat surface and rub it back and forth until clean; This is what I used to do before I could buy a power sander.
Tip 4: Keep your tools sharp.
A sharp edge means the wood is cut and not broken. Ripped wood is almost impossible to finish to an excellent standard as all the fibers are effectively broken.
A sharp tool allows you to spin longer, and if you just cut right, the end result will look great and be a breeze to finish. Large, thick, and deep cuts will dull the blade quickly. You also run the risk of “sinking”
To sharpen tools you will need a grinder. These can be easily obtained on eBay. You must wear protective glasses, as a small piece of hot steel in your eye will mean a visit to the hospital. You only have one pair of eyes, so take care of them.
Tip 5 – Save your wood turning shavings.
Once your object is ready for finishing, i.e. there are no sanding marks and you have used fine wire wool, you can easily polish it with a handful of wood shavings.
Pick up a handful of chips. Start the lathe. Press the chips onto the work until you can feel it heat up, then repeat with a fresh handful.
This heats the wood so that some of its natural oil begins to come out and the friction polishes it.
On many occasions this is all I have done for the finish – you get the natural look plus the feel of the wood.
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