End Grain Turning

UNless you've got a monster lathe, you're really talking about making a couple of 300mm platters out them. End grain turning is an odd way to put it, they should be turn on a faceplate as REALLY shallow bowls. If you catch my drift. Darrel Feltmate's website has a wealth of info that might be of use to you. Was this supposed to be a drive-by? Wish I had the wood.

Dave in Fairfax

Hei Dave, I have a chinese lathe with a 300mm swing but the lathe has a swivel head for larger work. I'm hoping to make a couple of platters at least 400mm. I'll check out Darrel's site. Cheers Paul

Unless otherwise stated all references to location refer to Western Australia

I start with the outside, and that cuts rim to base, same as any spindle turning. If you don't have a huge chuck, you'll probably want to try some combination of short tenon into glue block. Glue won't hold well, but a cross-bored pin through the tenon does firm things up pretty well.

Reversing to hollow, I'd keep my cuts gentle, more with the nose than the wing of my gouge, due to the mount problems. You may use pretty much any gouge you care to. I like flat forged types, but fingernail spindle gouges also cut their way from center with good control. I do smaller stuff on mine like that, but your leverage at 200mm from center is going to be pretty strong, so keep that rest almost touching. If you find yourself picking up grain as you work out, you can consider spritzing the working face with water - or LDD, if that's your pleasure - to soften them and make them easier candidates for cutting with a freshly honed gouge.