Recent content by A.Turner

Interesting, I'll have a better look/drool when I get home. Thanks for that.

What would be good timber and more importantly where do I get it? I have asked this before elsewhere and nobody can point me to a supplier in Birmingham.

That has made a noticeable difference but I find it is still pitting on the ends where I used a parting tool to make the ends straight (I saw the stubs off) and also in the bottom of steep cuts where I guess it is turning into end grain...

The wood is a common tree from a colleagues house out in the country, I don't remember what though. I bought the sharpening jig and a white stone. On the existing pieces I could clean up the pits on most surfaces, but the steep cut on the one piece is still pitted. I will try and do a new...

Thanks for all the suggestions, so many things to consider! I am going to Axminster Nuneaton tomorrow and will take a piece with me. I'm getting their sharpening jig and also a pink stone.

3/8" spindle gouge. It's Axminsters own http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-hss-woodturning-tools-set

To clarify my cutting speed! I cut shallow but fast, hot knife trough butter. I use the wheel that came with my grinder and I suspect it is quite rough and will do little for tool longevity. I see Axminster do a frame I can stick on my grinder...

Didcot is indeed a bit of a trek, but thanks for the offer. There is only one club in my locality, they meet once a month and every other meet is a demo. Not very helpful when you need mentoring. Spalted. I get the wood for free so I use whatever I am given and am grateful for it. The cost of...

The example pieces were cut at 4000RPM, the tools are as sharp as I can do on my basic grinder. My next purchase will be a proper sharpening system, but they are inexplicably expensive. I wouldn't know if the wood is soft or not, where the pits are feels like plastic bristles though. It reminds...

Just read this : http://www.turningtools.co.uk/wtintro/grain/grain.html. Makes sense but I can't actually see the grain in the wood. I suppose, logically, if the sides are the end grain then the grain must be flowing along the bed in which case on the surface I am cutting across the grain. So I...

Hello, I've dried some logs I collected from a work colleague and cut them into smaller pieces. When I turn them I notice large pits. What I also notice is that in the direction it was cut the surface is smooth, but the other direction it is rough, examples...

I have read lots of articles on drying wood, and I have no interest in doing that for the afore mentioned reasons. My mistake has been to assume that the wood I was given, and that has, apparently, been drying for 18 months, was going to be ok to use. This is what comes from assuming in a field...

http://adventuresinwoodturning.org.uk/i ... G_9601.JPG http://adventuresinwoodturning.org.uk/i ... G_9603.JPG http://adventuresinwoodturning.org.uk/i ... G_9606.JPG http://adventuresinwoodturning.org.uk/i ... G_9608.JPG This is an adhoc hobby, I have neither the space or organisation to store...

Mixture. Some of it is rhododendron ponticum, I have turned 3 pieces and only one hasn't split. Several piece are, I think, silver birch, of varying diameters and they all have radial splits only. In fact, now that I think about it, it is only the rhododendron that has length ways splits. I have...

Checked all the logs, nearly all of them are 16%, a few are 14%. Checked a few bits I turned weeks before, 16%. This is on the existing ends, I wonder what I would find if I cut them in half... I have a collection if pieces I did from July onwards in the house, mostly 16% though I had to push...