adolescence

February 2010...

My lathe was born...

the first few months were rough, we had a lot to sort out, a lot to learn, about eachother...

wood moves, get over it...

maybe the greatest woodworking quote of all time, I'm sure the poet who penned it had no idea I'd forget his/her name...

an all wood treadle lathe moves a lot, but Christopher and Mary over at CME Handworks anticipated this in their construction.

I've had ten months now to get acquainted with this baby, I know now to check the head stock alignment first, tighten all the grub screws. The paver has migrated to its desired home on the right half of the treadle, every thing is oiled, my stool has finally found its destiny...

I don't even need the heater on this side of the shop. It's effortless to spin, till you stick a piece of metal in it, but I've learned to use that metal...

and true to my nature, I'm not a Neaderthal, I've upgraded my technology...

just haven't learned to use it right yet, sorry, I'll get the orientation correct next time.

if you know Santa, please tell him I need a tripod for an iPhone 4...

and if you are the Apple repair guy, pretend you didn't see this video.

process

as summer flows past in its irregular heartbeat of projects one thing has remained the same, the plodding progression of drawer building. Just when it all appears to be nearing completion, the last dovetail cut, the last groove plowed, widths and lengths tweaked, a few questions arise.

Do I really like these knobs?

well... not really, they interfere with the design in ways I can't quite figure

too small, too busy, wrong color

so it's back to the lathe, a strip of hard maple trimmed from the tabletop, and the lessons learned from the previous bunch. One afternoon is all I need this time, thirteen pieces from one stick, though it was a little hairy near the beginning.

And then it's time! Glue-up...

no wait...

Maybe I should finish the insides of the drawers first, after all sanding between coats will be so much simpler, just don't finish the tails or pins...

where to put all these pieces!

After the insides are complete I can do the glue-up (no I'm not procrastinating) final fitting, and then finish the outsides. Then I can show you the finished pictures, I think you'll agree the new knobs really made the piece!

update

I've had a good weekend, a few afternoons after work, and a couple odd hours otherwise, after giving this thing a good lube, or two, the action is so smooth it's almost a letdown, I really thought I'd get a workout.

Once it all settled in, it's really no effort at all, just gotta keep the rhythm.

The first piece off the lathe is actually two; "matching" handles for my BIG files.

Figured I'd make a subtle change to each to mark the difference in the tools themselves.

The hard maple cut-offs from the tabletop seemed to be as good a challenge as I could muster, but the results are out of this world! I really can't believe a meat-powered machine could do work like this, total control over speed and depth of cut.

I've been transitioning over for a couple years to pure hand-work, and I love it. Every time I perform the same task without power, noise, and dust, I'm continually amazed at the speed, accuracy and fulfillment I can achieve.