The new bench progresses

This evening I did a load more work on the bench, such that it now resembles one fairly convincingly…

As the floor isn’t level I was in two minds as to whether to build a bench that would need levelling, or one with uneven legs so it was level. I eventually chose the latter option as my bench will be so heavy I won’t want to move it anyway.

I’m using a simple MDF top as I can then replace it when necessary – a bench is there to be used so screwing into it is very likely to happen, as is scoring it with blades etc. Having something that is replaceable seems like a good idea to me.

A new bench

I’ve been wanting a larger bench for some time and today I decided it was time to start building it. I had a load of wood already hanging around so didn’t need to buy much for this project – the top is a 7’ door that’s been here since I bought the place, so I decided to use it at last (and a load of other wood that was part of the garage door I took down).

This evening I built the first trestle and also removed all of the mouldings from this side of the door. It’s a bit rough and ready but will serve it’s purpose. Next I need to complete the other end and join the two ends together.

Hardware

I’ve recently come back from a trip to Cornwall as my great Auntie Gwen passed away – she was pretty great too!. Anyhow, I used the trip as an opportunity to pick up some hardware that’s been languishing there just waiting for me to pick it up. There were 101 boxes of assorted screws, nails, nuts, shims and all manner of other clobber…

Now I need to find space for them!

More wood

One of my friends is renovating a house and has a tree cut down in the back garden this week. And today I picked up some of the offcuts to stick in the loft ready for some woodworking…

The Lathe is in place!

I’ve been doing lots of other things recently (I have an allotment, enough said) so the workshop has rather been put on hold, but today I moved the lathe into it’s rightful position…

I just need to bolt it down and I’m good to go. You might notice the concrete pad is wider at the left end – that’s because the floor dips down quite considerably in this side of the workshop. I considered just putting the lath in place, but decided a level lathe would be better.

So, some shuttering, mixing, laying, trowelling and waiting later, I have a level bed for the lathe to sit on.

An Alder bowl

This evening I popped over to the barn to finish off a small alder bowl that I started at the weekend. Here’s how I left it at that point…

I’d wanted to do a curled over lip but kept breaking the edge so decided to cut this off. I was also going to mount this on my screw chuck hence the small size of the base, however when I glued a block to it and drilled it out on the lathe I found that it was off-centre when I chucked it.

After a bit of investigation it would seem that it’s a combination of the chuck & screw chuck so I may have to make another screw chuck and see how I get on with that. Instead I made a dovetail in the base and chucked it that way.

At present I don’t have large jaws for the chuck so this is how I finish off the base of my bowls – necessity is the mother of invention. I’ve had one spin off into orbit like this (and needless to say it was ruined) but it seems to work well for small bowls such as this.

The alder was nice to turn and looks nice finished off.

Another place for everything…

I’ve been neglecting the lathe for a few weeks as I’ve been playing with a MIG welder and having fun with that, but this evening I decided it was time to do some work on the lathe itself and so I built the following…

Sorry the picture’s a bit rubbish, it was taken on my phone. I had some galvanised sheet in the workshop from a garage door that I took off (it’s always worth hoarding some bits, you’ll never know when they’ll come in handy). I made a bracket on the left hand side with this steel and drilled/tapped two 4mm holes in the main column to attach it – breaking one tap in the process but thankfully I had another.

The other end is attached with a screw & washer through an existing hole on the leg. I used my forstner bits to drill the large holes for the tools, and had to make the left hand one larger still to fit the ferrule of my bowl gouge.

Happy with the new addition I turned the outside of a 6” * 3” Alder lump which was really nice to turn, and had a small area of spalting which looks rather nice on the side of the bowl. I’ll post a picture once it’s finished.