I want to make some wooden lids for ceramics pots. Tthey should be somewhat "dome-shaped," have a fat lip, and 4 to 8 inches in diameter. I have access to a lathe but have never turned wood before. Any suggestions as to what type of wood might be best, or any other tips?
TIA Marco
Yes, some tips:
You are getting the cart before the horse. I think that you need to learn a little about turning -- it is not as easy as falling off a log or many of us would have lost interest a long time ago.
You need to develop some basic skills before you start to think about a project, I believe.
There is a major difference between the skill sets needed for 'flat' woodworking and those needed for turning. I came from 'flat' and once I started turning I discovered that I really needed to give up the flat work in order to develop skills as a turner.
Please remember that being ham-handed with a tool which you don't know how to control and a piece of wood going around quickly could result in a fat lip on you rather than on your lid.
Bill
Marco Milazzo wrote:
"Marco Milazzo" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
If you are after saving money, you are barking up the wrong tree. Before you are able to do this job yourself, you will have spent a lot of money. Large amounts if you get hooked on it.
Better find a woodturner in the neighborhood and pay him what he wants for the job.
_Then_ you save money!
Bjarte
Assuming access to a lathe means access to someone who turns, your project is not too complicated. Any wood is fine, of course, if there's no food involved. If food is involved, stay with the bland stuff like beech, birch or maple. Remember that a tight dry fit is a broken jar if the wood gets wet.
I turn my lids on a chuck, mounting my basic circle on a 1" recess or gripping a 1x1" future knob. I then turn either the outside, including my knob and tenon, or inside to fit the screw-on lid reversing to finish. faceplates would work, too. Talk to the owner of the lathe and a couple other turners before you take the first shaving.
Hi Marco, I assume that you are a potter turning clay on a vertical lathe (wheel). You use your hands and various 'paddles' as tools to shape by forming as well as adding or subtracting a plastic medium. We woodturners usually shape a rapidly rotating solid medium with sharp metal tools and are limited to removing some.
Obviously there are many differences and similarities in the two crafts, but using both approaches in the making of a thrown/turned object might help us get around the restrictions of either discipline and broaden the horizons of each. We already use many crafts in turning and decorating our wood. Sculpturing, carving, painting, machining; the list goes on as turners begin to overcome the restrictive bias of purists and are intergrated with their fellow craftsmen-artists.
Like your craft, turning wood is a deceptively simple endeavor. Easy to get started, but once begun it takes over with an infinity of ways to go and distances to travel. (and things to buy!) I hope that you will continue to ask here, read and/or get some instruction and begin to turn wood so you can marry the two crafts as you progress. Perhaps some here would enjoy trying that marriage, pehaps not.
Welcome to woodturning and this ng. If you are interested, continue to ask for woodturning advice while sharing your particular expertise. Everyone here is both ignorant and expert. It just depends.... ;)
Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter
Wow George, you're really gettin' my brain cogs spinnin' lately - first the sandblasting cabinet (©, tm, pat.pend.) and now the above.
--Movie script--
Bad guy pours a flammable (or is it inflammable?) liquid in a jar with a tight-fitting, kiln dried, wood lid. Said jar with a wet rag is placed on a mantle shelf above the crackling fireplace of his business partner who has passed out on the couch from one too many and also just happens to be the husband of BG's mistress, who always wanted to live in Mazatlan...
Columbo enters the house's charred skeleton and sees only the broken glass in front of the hearth. He's only half interested in his investigative duties today. You see, just a couple days ago, he took delivery of his bran'spanky new Stubway mega lathe and just can't wait to get back to filling his trenchcoat pockets with little curlies and mashing his stoogie against the inside of his faceshield.
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