Woodturning Tips Compiled by Richard Nice

1. Remember the Radius is what you are cutting not the diameter therefore you are actually cutting off twice as much, as you think you are, so go careful.

2. Finishing don't be in too much of a hurry to cut off the centers, leave them on as long as possible. This will give you the opportunity to finish the work on the lathe which is far quicker than by hand, even if you spray the work it is good to give a final wax polish with a trailing end of a cloth with the lathe running.

3. Washers are quite useful for sizing the ends of turned spindles. Select the correct size hole in the washer for the required fit in the finished hole. Place the washer between the spindle and the lathe center, turn the spindle down until the washer fits the spindle. This tip saves you constantly stopping and removing the spindle to check it's size, because the washer is free to rotate around the center. It can be limiting on smaller sizes, as you will only be able to use the tail stock running center.

4. Work down hill in other words work from the out side towards the center of the spindle or bowl, as the title suggests it is easier to work and control the gouge, chisel or scraper working this way.

5. Scrapers best used on end grain therefore I tend to use them only on faceplate work such as bowl turning etc. Be sure they are sharp ! allot of people condemn scrapers out of hand, but have they ever used a sharp one on a difficult wood ? I don't think so. A blunt scraper is worst than useless and will do more harm than good, remember on harder woods they will need sharpening quite often, so keep them sharp, that's the secret.

6. Skew Chisels select the biggest ( widest ). It is easier to use a wider skew than a narrow one. This is because of the leverage you can apply, the wider the skew the bigger the leverage, therefore the more control you have over the chisel. Think of the handle bars of a bicycle with your hands near the center it is more difficult to steer the same applies to the skew. I have a 1.5" skew which appears at times to be using an Elephant gun to shoot a mouse, but it is very simple to use, again keep it sharp.

7. Compasses make sure you use the compasses with the screw adjustment in the center. I tend to set them slightly wider than the finished spindle to allow for cleaning or sanding up. I have several pairs that are colour coded on the ends so I know where to use them see below.

8. Templates I normally draw a template of the shape for large batches ( more than four ! Less than four see below. ) setting out the length accurately and the diameter being marked with a blob of the correct colour code to match up with the coloured compasses above. It sounds complicated but it is quite simple.

9. Masking tape used on the rest to mark out the measurements of length which can then be transferred to work easily, providing the rest is left in the same place all the time.