Simple things to make on a lathe

[tombear]

Rather than hide them in totally irrelevant threads I thought I'd start one on "usefull" items of treen I've made. I happen to be using a old Myford ML 8 but I don't think that a pole lathe would be unable to do any of them. Since I tend to be copying historical stuff it would have probably been done on a pole lathe anyway...

Today I have been mostly making a biscuit pricker based on one in York Castle museum.

I was making a replacement batch of hardtack for the ones that had gone green ( I was too quick bagging them up so was enough moisture left for them to spoil ) with the square cutter I made to cut and ***** them in one go. I also did a few round ships biscuit type ones using a mug to cut and used a chopstick to put the holes/****** in that help them dry out. This took for ever so I looked up a design, enlarged it to about 2.5" dia and turned a handle on the lathe. From sycamore. The York one was too plain even for me so I added a tiny amount of decoration.

I used a drill guide to drill pilot holes for the cut down 1" tacks which Id smoothed the cut end of. Easier to do it before then after. To even them up I put the working face on a flat surface and tapped down on the handle so they were all level. Because I didn't have any smooth sided tacks or thin nails I will yacht varnish the face and nails to smooth off the tiny machined grooves on their sides and seal the end grain. The whole thing has been soaked for a few hours in walnut oil.

ATB

Tom

Previously I've done a long pastry rolling pin, extra large pestle, mazer/ cup, candle sticks, potato mashers, tool handles, ladles/ dippers ( ok only the short handled dipper was turned.) bowls, things for hitting froes, the name of which escapes me, water bottle stoppers and a base for a rushlight holder.

 

[Harvestman]

That's a nice piece of work, and also I learned why biscuits have holes!

 

[tombear]

Cheers!

i have a theory that the holes in hardtack were so there to make weak spots so you could actually break them up!

The three lb I made are currently sitting in the wife's dehydrator and when I'm in the kitchen I put it on or a couple of hours. I'm not sure how long they actually need, being about half a inch thick, but it keeps the flies etc off them.

ATB

tom

 

[Muddypaws]

Nice work! A very interesting kitchen tool you have there.

 

[Fraxinus]

I thought the holes in hardtack was put there by the weevils...

Nice bit of turning and the Myford ML 8 is a nice bit of kit, got to use various bit at bedford saw and tool many years ago on their saturday turning club.

Rob.

 

[Zingmo]

Beautiful work Tom.

I am wondering though if the plainness of the original was deliberate. Surely any unnecessary grooves would just get full of the mixture and make it harder to keep clean?

Z

 

[tombear]

Cheers!

you'd think that you'd make things easy to clean and some indeed are but there seams to be ( and even I fall into this mind frame at times ) a strong urge to decorate. Often it's to the point of madness Although it maybe that fancy versions are treasured more and a disproportionate number survive a surprising number of domestic items were decorated. Home made treen items were a popular gift for wives and sweethearts ( may they never meet) and you end up with such extremes as the later Welsh love poons and some knitting sheaths I've seen which have been carved to the point of fragility!


Aye, I was lucky to get a 50s or 60s ML-8, 2 careful owners , for 200. Even stripped to 3 parts it nearly crippled two of us carrying the parts to the weaving shed up on the 3rd floor. The motor is huge but hums away happily all day. I've got three 17 inch stool legs to do next.
atb

tom

 

[Fraxinus]

Ha ha! you think that is heavy? One of the lathes at the above shop was out of pinewood studios...the tailstock ran on railway tracks :Wow:

Rob.

 

[tombear]

After a long pause due to other projects I've finished off a sycamore bowl I roughed out several months back. I'd cut a blank out from green wood and did most of the turning wet but no matter how sharp the tools of the speed it kept tearing in certain areas. So I took it off the ML-8 and did some other stuff.

Rather than chuck it I finished it off today and oiled it with Walnut. Not something that's up to gift standard but a user.

It's about 7 or 8 inches across.

The lathes now set up to make a copy of one of Dura Europa ballista bolts since a guy demonstrating black smithing at a event gave me a arrow head that's dead like one of the ones they excavated. I've roughed out a 18 inch by a inch and a half length of ash ( I think ) on the band saw and turned it round. Tomorrow ill shape it some.

ATB

Tom

 

[dewi]

Very nice

Couldn't help but laugh when I read "Today I've been mostly making..." ... the Fast Show will never die!!!!

 

[tombear]

Today I was mostly making ballista bolts....

The forged head was too big for a arrow and I didn't have any suitable long bits of wood for a cloth yard anyway.

ATB

Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Today I was mostly making ballista bolts....

The forged head was too big for a arrow and I didn't have any suitable long bits of wood for a cloth yard anyway.

ATB

Tom

Ohh nice, that is good.

 

[Robson Valley]

I have a mahogany china cabinet, built for family in the 1820's, so I was told. At some point, the leaded door glass had been replaced.
At some point, somebody decided to change the door and drawer knob/pulls to something much unlike the decorative moldings.
Found some wood and found a turner to make 4 replacement knobs which are in keeping with the overall design.

Let it be known that you can assist with restoration (like your carboot tools) and you might find yourself in some real mystery turning!

 

[dewi]

Today I was mostly making ballista bolts....

The forged head was too big for a arrow and I didn't have any suitable long bits of wood for a cloth yard anyway.

ATB

Tom

Erm... a ballista bolt? Are you planning an uprising or an invasion then Tom?

 

[tombear]

Nah, just wanted to practice turning spindles, been given the arrow head and have a interest in Roman military kit. One of the lads suggested making the ballista to go with it but I don't have the spare cash for the wood let alone the metal parts we'd have to buy in. Sad to say thats the only thing stopping us. Mind we are the idiots who once nearly bought a 3.7" pack howitzer and only didnt as it had pneumatic tyres not the early spoked jobs.... Bored out you can have them live on a shotgun cert...

ATB

Tom

 

[dewi]

I always wondered if you could build a ballista from a leaf spring... be interesting at the very least.

Nice to hang on the wall even if you don't use it though... good talking point at parties and all that.

 

[tombear]

There's a type of primitive Pict/Roman crossbow that's all wood or bone/horn that I'd really like to make but I've yet to find a idiot proof set of instructions. It's a guesstimate job as there's only some dubious illustrations and the odd trigger nut turned up.

I wonder what to turn next, for once I've a decent supply of wood.

ATB

Tom

 

[Harvestman]

I wonder what to turn next, for once I've a decent supply of wood.

It is approaching Christmas. Make spinning tops. They go down well with parents of small children (and big kids like me )

 

[tombear]

Good idea, may do some with the middle son who I'm teaching the basics to when he is of a mood.

At the weekend I picked up the bell part of a handbell. Not old but of decent heavy construction. No handle or clapper. So I picked up a screw eye expanding bolt thing (just used the inner part, nut and washer,) from the hardware shop and filed a huge brass screw into a clapper and attached the two together with a bit of scrap brass chain I had laying about. The handle is about 1.5" wide and nearly 9 inch long, turned from one of my stock of carboot beech rolling pins.

i epoxied a suitably sized nut into the hole I drilled into the handle and fitted the thing together before it cured. When it is totally hard I will tighten the nut on the inside of the bell as I didn't want to risk pulling the nut in the handle out by over tightening it before it had completely set. It also needs a few more coats of linseed oil.

i got the thing to call the lads in from the garden at meal times, I had picked up a old chuck wagon triangle that had supposedly come off a Cumbrian hill farm where they had used it to call the shearers to eat. I wish I'd made a note of the details at the time. It cost pence anyway and was worth it for the story. Anyroad it isn't as loud as I'd like so I've been looking for a cheap school bell.

Next to it is a variation on the rag wool tools it seams I'm collecting, 50p, just needed a sand and a soak in linseed and a rather nice old awl, also 50p that had been pretty much dipped in varnish a few times. It felt horrible in the hand so I sanded it down and since it was heavily stained I soaked it in the dark oak stain Danish oil I got cheap. I've touched up the blade on a diamond plate.

ATB

Tom

 

[bobskie]

I have a lathe under my stairs but unfortunately it doesn't have a motor! I have been keeping an eye out for one I could adapt for it but not found one yet, maybe one day!