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Suddenly Off Balance

I was working on turning a log into a round, and noticed all of a sudden the lathe acted really unbalanced. I kept going a little bit, figuring the part I wasn't cutting was causing the problem. When I shut the lathe off to move the tool rest, I saw the problem: The center had slipped into the pith and the piece really was off.

So the morals of the story is to avoid turning wood with the pith still in it and if the lathe is suddenly off balance shut things down and figure out why!

The leg you save might just be the one attached to you at the hip; don't become attached at the hip to the turning leg. :-)

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper
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Was the drive end attached to a face plate? You might be able to resume the rounding by tacking a small piece of plywood over the central part of the end, resting the center on that. I say plywood, because a piece of board might be split by the center, putting you back where you were.

Reply to
G. Ross

"G. Ross" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

No, just a drive spur. Good suggestion.

I came to the conclusion that the piece I saved from the firewood pile is best put back in it. The soft center went all the way through the wood, which made it useless for turning tops.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Have you ever used one of these drives or was your piece of wood too small?

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I haven't but they do seem to be preferable to conventional spur drives in some circumstances. Graham

Reply to
graham

graham wrote in news:nloken$nlp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

My piece probably would have fit, but I just used spur with the many smaller teeth. (Way better than the 4-point spur included with the lathe.) I can see the benefits of that system, though, especially if you're turning a soft wood that would tend to cam out fairly easily or if your end cut is irregular.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

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