How to keep from burning fingers while turning dry wood

I were gloves when I turn. Leather. I cut the fingers tips out of at least one glove so I can pick up small things and feel surfaces and such when I am turning.

Ted

Same, leather glove.

One of the heavy duty turners I know wears the leather gloves from HD. After catching the cuff in his chuck, he now trims the fingers and the cuff off, leaving enough leather to completely cover his palm, no more.

He found that he needed some super glue (gel) to keep the stitching intact on the glove parts.

Robert

Why are your fingers getting burned? Is this during sanding

I know some bowl and hollow form turners - wear padded palm fingerless gloves to reduce some of the pounding their hands get during roughing.

If it's your finger tips - carvers have a green tape they put on their fingers to reduce nicks and cuts. Lee Valley carries it. It's not as sticky as surgical tape so you don't remove skin when removing it.

It could mean your tool is dull or being used at angle causing more friction. Some turners use temperature to determine the amount of support or thickness of a bowl.

Phisherman is right on.. In my experience, anything above warm means that I need to sharpen/hone/change tools..

Also, riding the bevel is an overused term, IMO, and if you're actually doing that, instead of rotating the edge in a bit, you'll have a lot of drag on the wood by having a non-cutting portion of the gouge in contact with the wood.. (think burnishing)

Could also be speed, but if you and the lathe feel safe, you're at the correct speed, IMHO..

mac

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You might be right. It could be a dull gouge. Because JD said the shavings were burning his hands I assumed that it was from flying wood chips. At certain cutting angles, especially on larger bowls, I get shaving coming off so fast that they beat on the side of my hand and my pinky finger. It stings and burns. The glove acts as a buffer.

Ted

That's the only time I have heat issues. Some of the native hardwoods around here are just nasty to work with, but with so much movement when drying you need to work the wood dry.

Besides, by the time I find a really gnarly piece of wood that looks interesting to me, it may be the stuff that didn't fit in someone's fireplace, or a dead tree that was removed from a yard. No telling how long it has been drying.

You betcha. Great comparison.

Robert

That makes me feel better. I was thinking maybe I was the only cheapskate around. When I go for walks or hikes through local parks and such, I'm always on the lookout for pieces I can carry or drag out. (grin) I did get a 40 inch by 12 inch log of spalted maple this way.

Ed

Get a woodstove - all sorts of nice turning stock shows up in the firewood, and when you screw one up too badly, there's a place to get rid of the evidence and make some use of it....

Hey Reed.. Have you tried these?

I ordered a set just for the hell of it.. hard to lose at this price.. Found out that I REALLY like them, just wish they were available in a thicker tool..

Shear cuts become easy with these critters and I find I reach for them more and more instead of a bowl gouge or conventional scraper..

If you haven't tried them, it's too bad that the picture doesn't show the profile.. From the top it looks like a 1" round nose scraper, but with a little more point. From the bottom, it's got a rounded bevel and the whole bottom of the tool is rounded.. Really nice to roll over to 45 degrees and such..

mac

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I don't think it has anything to do with being a cheapskate. ;^)

As I tell my friends, it is responsible use of resources, an eco- friendly move to recycle a resource that would be lost.

Plus... I don't have to pay for it! :^)

When I go for walks or hikes through local parks and such, I'm

We have brush collection days here twice a year when everyone trims their trees, and takes the old stuff. If you have no fireplace or don't want to use one, what do you use that wood for if you can't bbq with it?

I have picked up Ash, Elm, Cedar, Juniper, Mulberry, Mesquite, Bradford Pear, Redbud, Dogwood, different kinds of oak and a few others just by keeping my eyes open when going home.

I have turned pieces of mesquite and crotches of ash that would rival just about any reasonable bowl blank you can get.

Right now, I have my eye on some dried, worm-holed sycamore that is being hauled to the side of a guy's house in my neighborhood after its demise. His professional tree removers didn't haul it away (?) so he may think he is leaving it for the next pickup cycle.

I may just have to help him out.

Robert

I have too much oak, maple, hickory, pine, and other wood (in log form) in my backyard. Can't give it away, I can pay to have it hauled away (too expensive), or I need to obtain a city burning permit for everyday I want to burn. I don't have the space to cut and dry the wood--there's simply too much. I get responses from a Craigslist ad--people say they will come and get it (free) but they don't. A neighbor used to take it for his fireplace, but no more. Right now I'm doing nothing at all, hopefully it will rot.

You really suck, sir... I think we've just experienced a drive-by gloat.. ;-]

mac

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I checked out the Spindle Master but as with the versa chisel, there were no profile pictures.. The "hidden" side in the pictures is round.. or I guess you'd say half-round because the top/other side is flat.. It sounds like the same thing from the descriptions, though, just 3 or 4 times more expensive.. I find myself using it quite a bit for light shear scraping because it's easy to get the 45 degree angle by rolling it.. A skill I still don't have with a conventional scraper..

I'm building more 3/8" Oland tools and a couple of them are going to have this grind... I want to see if it's as effective when it's 3.8" thick..

mac

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