How to Do More With a Wood Lathe

Try some sanding, buffing or polishing.

You can use wood lathes to create basic cuts, like shoulders, V's and beads. Concave and long taper cuts are a little harder to master. When you've mastered these cuts, you can try some fancy work like turned balls and turned boxes. All of this work uses wood. However, although wood lathes often aren't designed for metals, the wood lathe will work with plastics. So, to do more with the wood lathe, try some plastic turning or polishing. To do even more, try some sanding, buffing or polishing.

Things You'll Need

• Catalyst-setting plastic (not phenol-based)
• Gouge, skew, or parting tool chisels
• Miscellaneous sandpaper grits and sizes
• Sanding drum

Instructions

1. Turn some plastic. Use catalyst-setting plastic that's harder than wood but softer than metal. Avoid heat and pressure molded plastic like Formica and Bakelite. Mount the plastic on a 4-jaw chuck and set the tool rest slightly below center. Hold the chisel handle a little higher than the cutting edge to give a negative rake. Use cutting-type chisels like gouge, skew and parting tool rather than scraping chisels to avoid chipping. Turn the piece and the chip should come off in a continuous ribbon.

2. Polish some plastic. Remove any tool marks by using a 150-grit sandpaper. Then finish with wet 150-grit and 400-grit papers. Use buffing polish to get a high shine.

3. Sand some wood turnings, too. Set the lathe to the second-slowest speed and use a large piece of sandpaper to smooth cylinders, and a strip for other work pieces. Try a sanding drum by holding the drum -- with its abrasive sleeve in place -- against the work piece. The drum works best on sanding the edges of curved work.

References

• Craftsman: Variable Speed Wood Lathe Model 351.217150 Operator's Manual