I have been given a new tool – wood worker help please

I was offered some old wood chisels from my sister’s husband’s dad’s second wife’s dead father so it seemed chrulish to refuse. I didn’t realise they came with a lathe.

I bolted it ot a workbench, fitted a length of square pine scrap I had and fired it up. I have no idea what chisel does what and they all seemed to bounce around a lot.

I figured it would be easier if I had some kind of tool rest near the spinning wood so rested another lump of wood there and it was a lot better. The U shaped chisels seemed best for getting rid of the square corners. I then used some pointy ones to cut some rings. That seemed to work.

Can anyone tell me what any of the chisels I have are actually meant to do, same with any of the other tools laid out on the workbench?
If there meant to be some kind of tool rest rather than a balanced block of wood to rest against?
Any recommendations for easy stuff to make?

If there meant to be some kind of tool rest rather than a balanced block of wood to rest against?

Yes  Look up some youtube vids

Can someone alert the emergency services please?

Yeah looks like an accident waiting to happen. Go to evening classes

Just looked at YouTube and you are right, there is definitely a bit missing. Let’s hope they didn’t leave it in France when they moved his stuff back, and it is just somewhere in the garage of stuff they are trying to sort through.

I assume I will get a smoother finish, less bits ripped out with better wood and a steadier chisel, right?

It’s missing it’s rest.

If you put 90deg stock on you will bounce off it as you hit the edge. Knock the edge off with your hand plane think of putting a big arris on the corner of the wood.

Chisels will come in all shapes and sizes. Bowl hooks cut offs ect. YouTube really is your friend here there are some fantastic wood turners channels.

Also I know it’s a given but PPE really is a must absolutely no loose clothing. Face visor ect.

Just crack on and play egg cups are a fun start and ash or beech are easy to use as Stock pines are very hit and miss.

For Can someone alert the emergency services please? and []i]Yeah looks like an accident waiting to happen. Go to evening classes[/i]

Please can I point out the safety mask.

Who gave you a load of sharp things?

Who gave you a load of sharp things? can be deduced from this my sister’s husband’s dad’s second wife’s dead father. Apparently he was found dead wearing a pair of shorts and some flip flops with the lathe still running so they immediately thought of me.

It does seem fairly straight forward so most of the time will be spent thinking of long round things I can make and what materials I can fit in the lathe I guess.

You have a mixture of gouges ( u shaped chisels) skew chisels ( the pointy ones with the cutting edges at an angle) scrapers ( the blunter ones usually with a slightly curved edge), parting tools, boring chisels, specialist bowl tools ( the ones with the inserts) etc.

the basics are explained very briefly here

https://www.axminstertools.com/ideas-advice/beginners-guide-to-woodturning-tools/

As above, lathes are potentially very dangerous. The only serious accident that I have had ( so far) in a workshop was using a wood lathe whilst under direct supervision of an experienced technician as a teenager. It used to scare the crap out of me when students used it in my college workshop. Strongly recommend you get some tuition if you’re going to use it seriously and, get a tool rest that fits the lathe asap

You have a mixture of gouges

Pretty sure that’s what the Paramedics will be saying shortly

It’s important that you wear loose clothing, a tie and a long scarf 🙂

Old skool D&T teacher here…

Firstly – yep the rest is a bit of a priority…in a handlebar is kind of useful for a bike kind of way….I’d maybe cut the plug off the lathe to prevent yourself being tempted until you get that sorted! But….struggling to see where the rest would go on that model – there’s no obvious attachment point. A rest is absolutely crucial to using a wood lathe.

Second – the squared stock. In a school environment it would land me a load of hot water if I handed square section to a student to use…specifically mentioned in actual british standards and HSE guidance and everything!….but it would be fine for me to use it. Totally fine to work from square if you know what you are doing but hand it to a noob – not so much. Hand plane off the corners or knock yourself a little jig up to do it on the band saw that I think you have.

Third – sharpen your tools. Then consider sharpening them again. Can’t stress enough what a difference it makes. And as a noob, it’ll be so much harder to know if it’s you or the tools. It might well be the tools. And I’m not talk about sharpening once every 6 months – I’m talking a couple of times a session. Only snag – sharpening is not ‘that’ easy. The technician I work with currently has been a technician since the 90s but he was beyond useless at doing this with a grinding wheels, whet stone etc. Got a Tormek now and it’s a game changer. Don’t google – you’ll hate yourself – probably costs more than the lathe. It definitely cost more than the lathe! Whatever…..youtube and buy what you need and spend the time to learn to get yourself some sharp chisels.

Lastly….user name and ‘previous’ aside – you don’t need to go to evening classes before dipping your toe. YouTube is your friend here. Feel free to PM me for tips etc but…..using a wood lathe is up there with wheel building as a cathartic exercise. Enjoy.

Yeah, that needs a tool rest.

Do not use it without one and at least a basic understanding of what you are doing.

But….struggling to see where the rest would go on that model – there’s no obvious attachment point.

There are loads of lathes with a 2-bar bed setup like that and the tool rests attach in a way similar to the image below.

Lathes can be really dangerous. I used to be well into it when I was starting out and had a few gnarly mishaps that luckily I got away with.

Any evening classes near you? There are quite often wood turning clubs that can be very good for beginners.

It’s actually a really nice thing to do and very satisfying creating things.

But yeah, you do NOT want to be getting it wrong.

I have worked (without fear) on some very big bits of fast moving machinery ,but I was always (and still am) nervous around wood lathes.

Give it a load of respect WCA ,or google ” Accidents…when wood turning  goes wrong”

The course where I taught had a lathe room with about 8 lathes in it.

Man that was a scary place to be on an evening class!

I’ve seen unbalanced and poorly mounted blocks of wood ejected and stuck in a wall.

I’ve accidentally done almost what I posted in that gif above.

I was working on a lathe, short sleeved t-shirt and I must have leant over it to do something or other. The chuck caught my sleeve, instantly wound it up and my sleeve and arm jammed the machine.

I escaped with a badly grazed and bruised bicep.

But hey, you can make lovely lace bobbins! 😉

Or if you do it wrong…

 you can make lovely face bobbins!

I went to the local man shed to learn to use a wood turning lathe, was great and made a few things.  They had a great setup with all sorts of wood working machines and even a CNC one.

Just moving house so will be checking out the local one there too, looks like they do bike recycling, so that should be good too.

The good news is they have found the tool rest and another box of chisels and ‘stuff’ so I shall be collecting that tomorrow, probably.

I have had a quick google/YouTube about lathe and it seems the safest way to work is naked except of a jockstrap.

I will be very careful and definately partially round any wood that I start with. I am happy to make some pointless round stuff while I get the hang of it.

I will be looking for someone to sharpen some/all of the chisels as I have also been told that the guy who owned them was left handed so they are sharpened for a left handed user. I am not sure if that actually makes a difference but they probably need a fresh sharpen anyway.

Thanks for all the help and advice so far. I might try and find a local ‘mens shed’ to learn the basics from someone and then rely on YouTube.

Anything wrong with using materials other than wood, providing they are softer but also rigid enough to spin? I saw a guy stick a load of coloured pencils together with some kind of resin and then turn them which looked pretty.

and it seems the safest way to work is naked except of a jockstrap.

We DO NOT need pictures!

I would honestly get to grips with the basics using wood first.

There’s a lot of work and cost in creating those resin pieces and it would be easy to mess them up.

Using cheap, crappy softwood is often frustrating as it chips out and doesn’t cut too well so use a hardwood such as poplar or Sapele or Ash etc to begin with. You’ll get better results and progress more quickly.

The way you have that timber mounted there is not really how you tend to do that type of turning. That’s a 4-jaw chuck as far as I can make out and it’s best for when you turn bowls etc, where you are holding the timber at one end.

For spindle turning, which is what you have there, you generally have a ‘drive centre’ which, when that chuck is removed, should fit into the hole left in the spindle by way of a tapered shaft. It’s just a push fit. Never bashed in.

The drive centre has prongs on it. What you do is find the centre of the timber each end, remove the drive centre and tap a little point into the tail end, and then tap the drive centre with a wooden mallet into the head end so that the prongs bite into the wood.

You then refit the drive centre, mount the timber into it, locating the prongs, then holding the timber you slide the tailstock near to touching, lock it down, and then wind the tail centre into the point you made with a little pressure.

Set the rest a little below centre, in line with the bed, rotate the timber by hand to check it isn’t going to hit the rest, then start up and make shavings!

It’s actually fairly easy to sharpen the chisels in general. They are not honed to a very high grit like bench chisels, but rather ground on an abrasive wheel at the correct angle.

You set the angle of the bevel, move the gouge up to the wheel and then kind of roll it to get a nice even grind. Little and often is generally the idea.

But yeah, have a go. It’s a really satisfying thing to do. 🙂

Looked at the photos, scrolled down a bit, then checked who the OP is…

Can someone alert the emergency services please? and Yeah looks like an accident waiting to happen. Go to evening classes

For the love of God, get some instructions, there are just so many ways things can go horribly, messily and painfully wrong!
Woodworking with sharp tools is bad enough, lathes, wood or metal really aren’t things to play with, without proper training.
I did metalwork at school, using a lathe, I didn’t get to do anything with a wood lathe, but same issues apply, I wouldn’t touch one without a proper training course.

reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=git6jz5r37I

Today I watchged some YT, added the tool rest, used hardwood and the sharpest of the chisels I have been given.

I make a square bit of wood round and added a few bands using different chisels to see what they did.

I swapped out the chuck I used before for one of the spike types I think Kayak was describing earlier. It worked but the 4 jaw one seemed to hold the wood more solidly. When I first started turning the wood to rough off the edges, it stopped against the chisel and the spikes just spun around on the end of the wood. Clearly this was caused by me pushing the chisel too far forward but it meant that the spikes on the chuck had carved a groove in the end of the wood which that sat in rather than digging hard into the wood. I tightened everything up a bit and it remained in place but it wouldn’t have happened in a 4 jaw chuck.

According to some American guy with a lathe, the four jaw fixing is better for all types of things, not just bowls but he is American so I thought I would check here. The only real disadvantage I see is that you can’t work on the end of the wood in the vice. Any reason NOT just to used the 4 jaw clamp?