I know there is a S.E. Michigan chapter of AAW but it is quite a ways from my area. Hoping to find some turners in the 30 miles of Jackson region.
My dad had a good shop in the basement while I was growing up. Though it was usually off limits to me, I would get in and play with the wood often. Dad had an old Craftsman cast iron lathe and when I was around 11 or so got to start playing with it. Made a few bucks off kids at school making nun-chucks and such all through high school. I spent about 20 years as a cabinet maker and trim carpenter, with the occasional opertunity to do some turning, loved it. Due to an accident, I was forced to change occupation out of the cabinet industry about 12yrs ago.
Always loved the lathe and have found it is something that is within my physical abilities to do. So for Christmas got myself a Jet Mini. Now I've been reading here, and even picked up a few books to find that I've been using most of the tools wrong all this time. I get good results (I believe) but do get beat up occasionally with catches. So am trying to re-train myself to use the tools as they are intended and would like someone to chat with and see what they do differently. I've rarely used the skew (mostly in scraper mode) and had the shaft edge put a small cut on my finger (not the first won't be the last) other day when it kicked off the heal while trying to follow directions from one of the books.
Razz
If I can't screw it down, I can always screw it up!!