Hello all,
It's been a while, but I've been working two jobs all winter (construction for the boss, and construction as a freelancer on nights and weekends) and haven't had much time to cool my heels. Of course, killing yerself has it's advantages- I recently got myself a pretty nice gloat for a guy I built a shop for the year before last. He recently opened his own hardwood supply store and became a lathe dealer, so he was unloading his secondhand machine for a sweet price. I ended up with a Delta 12" variable speed with a couple of brand new link belts for $675. Lot of machine for that price (the sucker weighs
400#)- and my first piece of big iron. Add that to a ton (give or take) of weeping willow burl I got from a customer who was having a giant willow cut down, and a new chainsaw, and I'm set for a while with the lathe.Of course, the march of progress never ends, and I recently saw a technique I hadn't considered on the DIY network- metal spinning. Looks like a terribly useful thing to be able to do, and I'm planning on having the local machinist/welder/small engine repairman (I live in a small town, so there's still one of those guys around) make me a tool rest with posts and a "spoon" for doing this. The guy's prices are pretty good, and he's got the stuff to make whatever I decide to go with, but I figured it couldn't hurt to see if anyone here has any first-hand experience doing this to help me get the right stuff. (For those of you who don't know what this is, here's the link-
All in all, it looks like it might be a fun thing to try out, so any good advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!