out of balance

First and foremost, replace or reconfigure your drive setup so you can turn at any speed, including Absurdly Slow. Lathes with 500-700 RPM bottom speeds are a Pet Peeve of mine, and I cannot begin to express what a joy it is to go from one of those to a VS drive that will go from Zero to as fast as you like. If spending for a new motor is an issue, put in a jackshaft and configure it to get you down to 100 RPM or less at the bottom.

Then here are all the tricks I had to employ when my only lathe was Ye Olde ShopSmith (700-5500 RPM). Use a drawknife or chisel and mallet to take off high spots. Rig up a router mount (also useful for reeding and dovetailing for leg mounts) and cut high spots off with the router (turning the lathe by hand). Get one of those chainsaw carving disks for an angle grinder. Some folks have elaborate chainsaw jigs to get "close" at the blank-roughing stage.

One further observation - At some point when the shopsmith broke part of it's drive setup, I had a VS motor sitting around from another lathe that was in storage (the un-joys of building a shop). I jury rigged that onto the shopsmith to finish the project at hand, and it was amazing what an improvement that made in using the old thing (it's from the first year of the Mark V production - 1953). I got the drive system repaired, but this has hatched a plan to swap it's motor out for a VS motor and scrap its mechanical speed control, eventually. As a two-tube lathe setup it's not overly rigid, but when the speed can be dialed right down this becomes much less of an issue.

1 Adding weight to the light side. Short fat bolt will help if wood is not too dense; just be sure not to hit with your cutting tool, or you'll spend mucho time reshaping the tool. 2 Band sawing or chain sawing the heavy side to remove excess weight

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

I have a home made circle cutting jig for my bandsaw (14 in with extension). Then if the round blank is chunky, I have another board with center pin to put the blank on, clamp to the bandsaw table and tilt to trim the shoulders of the blank.

Also, I made a brass baseplate for my router that slides on a tool rest to trim the blank (turning it by hand as previously suggested).

That saw is the first place to start thinking. If you've got the traditional cross-grain chunk of log, tilt the table after your circle is made and nibble off the ends where you can reach. After all, you are going to have tapered walls. The fat portions will then be closer to center, where it won't make as much difference.

Play wheel of fortune with your mount, deciding if you can take off more outside where it's heavy, or want to run a forstner down inside. I like my pin chuck for an initial, so I can do things with my scrub plane on the outside while it's still mounted.

I have one of those "lightweight" lathes with a low initial speed of 200 something, but I rarely use it, prefering 360, so I don't grow a beard waiting for the high spot to come around again. Used to have a 688 minimum, so I got pretty good at balancing and lopping off the high spots quickly.

I still use the shopsmith a lot, and have been known to round off stuff with the 12" disk sander before chucking it on the lathe.. *g* Mac

03 Tahoe Widelite 26GT Travel Trailer replaced 1958 Hilite tent trailer 99 Dodge Ram QQ 2wd - 5.9L, auto, 3:55 gears

I'm starting to do this on most of my blanks... I have to bandsaw them anyway, and the "nibble" approach you mention not only improves balance, it's also less stock to remove before you start the "real" turning..

I got pretty good on the Jet mini at putting stuff in the chuck and using the tailstock.. then attacking it gently with a 2" roughing gouge that seemed to out weigh the lathe... it gets round pretty fast that way... (it the mini doesn't walk away from you and get unplugged.. DAMHIKT Mac

03 Tahoe Widelite 26GT Travel Trailer replaced 1958 Hilite tent trailer 99 Dodge Ram QQ 2wd - 5.9L, auto, 3:55 gears

or, if you have a spare $300 sitting around, you could get a The Kel McNaughton Balancer:

mac

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