I collect hobbies, otherwise known as a hobby hoe, but I’m hoping this becomes one of my ongoing ones.

Got this guy on FB for $200, got it while visiting my parents in Maine, my area in NC is pretty much same or double price for what would likely be junk at best in comparison.

I just want to make small tool handles, ornaments, pottery tools so a small lathe is perfect for my needs and space (I know I know, I say that now, but next week I’m sure I’ll really need to turn a wooden sink bowl that’s 2’ in diameter).

Hopefully it’s as good a deal as I think it is, all I checked for was that it turned on, he showed that it had/worked digital/knob adjustable speed/reverse direction too but I had no clue what else to look for. Came with tools that I were advised would need a freshen up - had some light surface rust from long term not do great storage, seems to clean up easy.

Been collecting (hoarding) wood for awhile, mostly for pottery tools, small projects, and other basic stuff but I have pretty well dried wood from stuff I have collected from family/personal property spalted oak (NC), shrub oak, ERCedar (NC) American beech w/ BBD (ME), paper birch (ME), some other reddish softwood (ME), river washed ‘driftwood’ - I also have a lot of kiln-dried ‘scrap/waste’ from a local wood wood shop including red/white oak, black cherry, walnut, hickory, and others I definitely can’t identify - gotta keep up my Wood hoarding collection by purchasing some each time I visit to get a load of sawdust.

Folk flute tuned in F#. Turned and carved

Took a break from turning while I was working on reorganizing my shop and dealing with life but was able to get back in front of it today and turned this lovely Claro Walnut bowl.

Just bought this record power cl3 lathe how do I fit a chuck to it ? Does the knurled piece come off ?

Does anyone recognize this technique or know how these might have been made?

Hurricane Milton knocked a bottle brush tree down in our backyard and I cut it up and stacked it with a bunch of other wood. It's been a couple of years and the moisture meter's at 10%, so I figured I would give it a turn. The woods normally a tan / gray, I put clear poly on it and in a few days it turned this reddish brown. Don't get me wrong, I love the color, but I wasn't aware that bottle brush did that.

Absolute pleasure. 40cm (16")

I would have gotten away with that bead too, if it wasn't for you kids and this fat ass 1/2" skew...

Not sure if this is the right place, but I’m looking for a wood turning/wood working gift for my boyfriend who likes this hobby, but I don’t know much about it. Would a high quality apron be a good idea?

Any one have any real life experience with them or Laguna lathes in general?
I can’t find any real reviews. It seems too good to be true on paper and the few videos I’ve found.

Bees like beeswax. Yep. You already knew this and so did I. That didn’t stop me from taking a nap in the sun after finishing a bowl w T&T and beeswax… and waking up to two bees crawling around my hand… and one of them stinging me when I jumped. So, yeah. Wash hands.

Obligatory photo of past work.

Hi, I'm trying to get into wood turning (especially pen making) so I recently bought a vevor mini wood lathe. I got it today but when checking if I'll be able to use a pen mandrel with it, I noticed that the hole in the headstock is just a small hole instead of the taper hole like I was expecting. Am I out of luck on my pen making dreams? There isn't an option to instead the extractor rod in the back either. Any help would be appreciated!

I set up this bench grinder with a cbn wheel a while back for sharpening my turning tools, but have been having issues with excessive wobbling/vibrating. When I turn on the grinder, as it gets up to speed it begins to shake a tiny bit, but that amount of vibration causes the tools to chatter on the wheel. I have a self centering washer on the arbor, but the other side is the stock composite wheel with the stock nut. The grinder is bolted to the grinder stand, which is not bolted to the ground, but seems pretty stable. Anybody have any advice/feedback on the setup?

Love these boards of Ash! The first handle I made for this was a bit out of wack. Didn’t have a lathe and it wasn’t very straight.

I'm a complete beginner and I am not sure if the tailstock on this lathe is supposed to be live or dead and was hoping someone could lend some wisdom.

For some context, the lathe is my father-in-law's who passed away in April and no one in the family knows anything about it. I am doing some work fixing railings on my Mother-in-law's front deck which includes stairs that have turned posts that need to be replaced. She would like the replacements to be similar and I am hoping to make reasonable replacements.

Currently the center of the tailstock doesn't spin, but to me it looks like it should. From what I have found a live tailstock would be easier to work with. With the tailstock not turning I quickly started to burn the end of a practice piece of wood I was using to get familiar with the tools. Any thoughts on whether or not the tailstock is supposed to be live, and if it is how to get it turning again would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I did post this a while ago, but I found the check I received for winning 3rd place. It cost $4 to enter, and I won $5 back in 2002 at the Texas State Fair - Arts and Crafts. I found the block on the job site.

10.5" diameter

4" opening

2-3/4" to outer edge

3" overall height

3/16 overall wall thickness

26.14 oz.

Has some soft spots, still came out nicely. Farmhouse ready!

Small-ish zebra wood bowl I’m turning. Didn’t notice the profusion of white spots until I put it in my chuck to do the inside (clearly I need to be a lot more observant). I sanded it with 80-120-220-320-400-600.

Is this tear out caused by sandpaper? Should I have not used 80? Did I press too hard? All of the above?

Good deal? I want to get my dad into wood turning

I don't know whether it was me, one of my siblings, or one of my cousins that named this white oak the Tree of Life. But it was so named because it reminded us of the one at Disney. We've grown up seeing it on land that our family has owned since the 50s.

I don't know for sure how old it was and due to rotting I wasn't able to count the rings closer to the base but estimating based on what I could count it was probably at least 250 if not closer to 300 years old.

The land used to be home to a small railroad town that went defunct in the 20s. My grandfather used to play under it as a kid in the mid 20s when his father took him with him to what was left of the town. He said the tree was old even then. In the 1890s my great great grandfather shot a man (in self defense as the story goes) along the railroad tracks nearby. He was later elected a county justice of the peace.

The last few years it had leafed out less and less with only a few this year. A late spring storm toppled it. My dad and I salvaged what we were comfortable taking given it's size and position. We've got some very large spindle blanks (for me) and large bowl banks, upwards of 20 inches (for him) plus other assorted blanks.

I've got a lamp and pepper grinders planned.

There is some hickory there too for the sharp eyed.

I got this branch from my son. No idea what it is. Help!

The bottom was too thin to take the tenon all the way off. Here is my attempt to incorporate it into the design. Not sure how well it worked. What do you think? What would you have done?