Pole (Bungee) Lathe

[Crooked Tree]

Hello Spinny people. I haven't posted on this part of the forum before, usually confining myself to angular work. However, I had had a plan in the back of my mind to make a pole lathe that would sit on my bench, having seen something of the sort on the net long ago. That was a work of art and a dim memory and lost on the net somewhere. I made this instead for a few pounds:

Early version with fixed tool rest and mangled stick

Later version with better toolrest and investment in a skew chisel rather than chisel chisel

Treadle

The "stocks" are from an old door style, as is the upright to which the bungee attaches. They are braced laterally by pieces of ply. They locate in dog holes in the bench using a piece of 3/4 inch steel round bar glued into the bottom of the stocks, with a hole drilled through for threaded rod. This rod protrudes below the bench top and the stock is held down with a wooden washer and wing nut. The centres are 12mm threaded rod with a point ground on the end. Adjustment is via the wagon vice and/or a spanner on the end of the threaded rod of the centres. A block in the wagon vice slot (not pictured) prevents the string from wearing away on the edge of the slot.

The ultimate objective was to turn bowls. Below is an attempt using a 2nd hand spindle gouge, re-ground to a steep bevel like a bowl gouge:

The mandrel was turned using... the pole lathe. Much easier with a skew chisel. With a bit of practice. This mandrel was turned entirely using the skew, the end cut off, nails banged through to make "prongs" and then that bit glued back on again. The bowl required a lot of sanding and it was difficult to excavate the centre with the mandrel in the way. The problem was overcome by forging some hook tools which will work at the required angles. More on that if I get round to it and/or anyone is interested.

 

[Woodchips2]

Ingenious, well done!
Regards Keith

 

[gregmcateer]

Good work, young fellah

 

[Silverbirch]

Very interesting and well done!
Do keep us up to date with how things progress.

Ian

 

[tekno.mage]

Very impressive indeed. Please let us know how you progress. I used a friend's pole lathe out in the woods some years back and it was that which inspired me to take up woodturning - although I'm very glad my own lathes have motors I found that using a pole lathe keeps one leg very fit! My friend did most of his pole lathe turning using a heavy straight-across chisel that was about 2" wide (rather than a skew) and some old continental style spindle gouges.

I'm particularly impressed with the bowl you've started on - that can't have been easy - although from what my friend told me it used to be common practice for bowls to be made on pole lathes as nested sets using hooked tools with 3 or 4 bowls cut out of a single piece of wood (like using a bowl saver on a modern lathe).

 

[AndyT]

That looks a lot of fun! I'd be surprised if you don't already know about Robin Wood who makes and sells wooden bowls but if you don't, have a look at his very well written and interesting blog - I think you'll like it.

 

[Crooked Tree]

Thank you all. I have indeed seen Robin Wood's site, amongst others. The most useful things for me have been the videos of Ben Orford turning a bowl which are available on the web. These allowed me to work out that my tool rest was too high for bowls, so it now has a low position for bowls and a high position for spindles. I still struggle to get a "nice" sounding and feeling cut on the outer part of the inside of the bowl, and with the internal bevel hook used to smooth the outside, but no doubt I will learn/ work out that my tools are wrong (this bad workman is allowed to blame the tools as he made them).

The nest of bowls is a bit of a way off. I lack the tools for that - my hooks are too large, for starters. For now I am sticking to the highly wasteful but easier approach which results in a staggering quantity of shavings on the floor!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

So, there are other pole/bungee lathe turners on here ? Have you sought out your nearest Association of Pole lathe turners and Green woodworkers (APTGW) local group yet ? I did, and find my local group a great bunch of people.

I've only made a few bowls so far, but I'm trying to follow Robin Wood's advice to avoid sanding, but work on improving the tooled finish. Mind you, I quite like "rustic".

Here's my latest one, in Elm

It is (probably all too apparently) a tooled finish, no sanding. I have only one outside bevelled hook at the moment, though I have got some tool steel to make more when I get chance to use the forge.

 

[Crooked Tree]

Nice looking bowl. The dark bits contrast well with the lighter grain. Tool marks do not look bad in the photo - my attempts so far were too much of a mess in places so I cut my losses and sanded to achieve a more contemporary look. Still practicing on the cut finish so hopefully sanding will become less necessary, particularly for timbers such as elm which look better with a cut finish from a plane rather than sanded or scraped. You seem to have done well with just an external bevel tool (although this one seems to do most of the work). I also have an internal bevel one for smoothing (not proficient yet - still wrecks it at the moment) and a cranked internal bevel hook for thinning down the core. How do you do that bit without one? Mine seems to scrape mostly, so probably not quite right yet. Here they are, resting on a handle to be fitted to the cranked tool:

I have not yet looked up other local masochist turners - have yet to see whether this is a passing phase or a more permanent part of my woodworking.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

They look good to me. My hook looks quite like your one on the right there - the hook on mine was formed round a 6mm rod, but it is perhaps flattened and ground/sharpened a bit further up from the hook. That flat, sharpenrd section I used to thin down the core. There is the corner between the bottom of the bowl and the core where it gets to be more of a ragged, dragging scraping action, but fortunately the core doesn't have to look good ! I did some of the hollowing of the one above with an Ashley Iles spindle gouge (I know, don't try this on a power lathe). The outside was actually smoothed off with a big skew.

The outside bevel limits how deep it will hollow and still get the cutting edge to contact the bottom of the bowl - goblets can't be too deep ! I need to make some more tools. But I struggle to see how the inside bevelled hook can not dig in. I wonder if there is not normally at least a small outside bevel too. I must go take a look at George Lailey's tools at the Museum of Elglish Rural life some day.