Think about what PermaGloss is. If you use it first, the Tru-Oil will never get to the wood.
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DO NOT, under any circumstances buy a three jaw chuck, from HF or Penn State or anyone else. They are just junk. I bought a Penn State mini 3-jaw chuck and it was, next to my Crapsman drill chuck, the worst investment I made when I got started turning. The runout was beyond belief. Buy a good quality 4 jaw scroll chuck. Penn State has some that are reasonably priced and most of them come wit
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What you want is Micro Mesh. You can get it from Woodcraft at It was originally developed for polishing scratches from airplane windows. The coarsest grit is 1500 which is about equal to 400 grit paper. The finest grit is 12,000 which is way beyond even Klingspor's 1500 grit paper. This is the best stuff there is for polishing any synthetic surface. I use it to polish the CA finish I put
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Sharpening tools is a lot like turning brittle material, like polyester resin. You need to use very little pressure or you can de-temper the tool very quickly. Put the cutting in the water often so it doesn't overheat. If you let it get too hot to touch you risk removing the temper. And I would say that 3450 rpm on either a 6" or 8" wheel is too fast, but that's only my opinion.
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I am not arguing that CA is dangerous stuff, but wood turners, particularly pen makers, have been using this stuff for several years as a finish on smaller turnings. I make pens and I'm fairly close to the pen making community and there has been no discussion of anyone, at any time, having any significant ill affects from using it. There are some people who can't use it because they have a par
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CA has been used to finish high end pool cues for quite a long time. Probably the most important thing to remember is that the CA available at places like Home Depot, WalMart, etc is garbage. Places like Woodcraft, Craft Supplies USA, Rockler and Penn State sell good CA. I buy mine from a local hobby store that caters to RC modelers who apparently use it by the bucket. The stuff I get is made
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I glue the whole grip up and turn it all at once. I use a skew on the wood and one of the 4-in-1 rasps for the cork. l normally use CA to finish wood anymore, quick easy and totally impervious to anything except acetone.
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Do a search on luthier supplies.
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Thanks.
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Does anyone know Terry's email? It's hidden.
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I use a Konica-Minolta Z5. It has a macro mode and a super-macro mode. It will focus as close 1 inch and also has anti-shake circuitry in it. It also has a custom white-balance setting so I can shoot in any sort of light and make it look correct. I wanted a Nikon D50, but this was a lot cheaper and takes excellent photos.
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You can also make a "jam" chuck to use for shaping it. Assuming the drill you're using on the hobby lathe has a 3/8" chuck, get a piece of 3/8" dowel and cut a piece about 1-1/2" long. What you want is to actually force the grip onto the dowel so that when you put the dowel into the chuck and turn it on, you can shape it without it spinning on the dowel. I've made jam
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Glad to here he's getting better.
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Craft Supplies doesn't have anything larger than 3/4" and that's very standard with everyone except Penn State and their standard is 5/8". There is a place in Utah that isn't quite set up on the internet yet, Pedigree Wood, that is going to be selling some beautiful Italian resins, but I don't know if they are any larger or not. Penn State Industries used to sell acrylic bottle stoppe
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IF, initially, all you want to do is make cork grips, you don't need a scroll chuck, all you need is a Jacobs type drill chuck with a #2 Morse Taper. The absolute best deal on one is from Harbor Freight. That's where I got mine and it cost $9.99. It rock solid, has absolutely no runout problems and would still be a bargain at twice the price. I know a lot of serious woodturners who also use t
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There are quite a few things to consider in this. First, how deep is the hole you're trying to drill? Second, what RPM is the lathe running at? Third, how fast are you triying to feed the bit into the wood? Fourth, what kind of drill chuck do you have? and finally, how sharp is the bit? Obviously, the deeper the hole, the more tendency there will be for the bit to wander off center. If y
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Pens of Color is a PSI reseller, although generally Sheila's prices are less than buying direct from PSI and the service is better. White Diamond polish and a buffing wheel will give you a glossier and harder finish than Permagloss in less time and you don't have to worry about it leveling.
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I have a Nova Midi Chuck and Stan is correct about it closing on a 1/4" mandrel. With the jaws off, the jaw slides will grip a 1/4" mandrel very tight. The slides also grip over a greater surface area than any of the jaws except maybe the pin jaws.
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What you need are Mineral Spirits and MicroMesh. Fold a paper towel to about 2x3 and soak it with MS. WIth the lathe running at it's lowest speed, hold the folded paper towel against the backside of the material and sand with all the MM grits, 1500 through 12000. Then either polish with a plastic polish or buff with white diamond.
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Krylon Spray Fixatif.
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Billy, Here's a link to one 4 jaw scroll chuck that PSI sells.
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If you're only going to buy one chuck, do not waste your money on a 3-jaw. The PSI Utility chuck is probably OK, but if you buy one, check your lathe carefully for runout before you get it and then check it again with the PSI chuck mounted. Whatever you do, do NOT buy the PSI 3-jaw micro chuck. It is an absolute piece of garbage.
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You can also use CA as a finish. Start to finish takes me about 15-20 minutes.
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Carrington, you did the right thing to check for runout, aside from using a shaft and dial indicator. The runout you're experiencing is enormous. Galen could right about the headstock having been shimmed too much. The only other possibility is that there is something in the morse taper on either the headstock or tailstock that is causing one of the centers to be out of line. This isn't a like
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I believe some people use FC CP for feather inlays, but I, and a lot of other people, prefer Gudebord 811, because it's clear. If I recall correctly, Eden Bromfield uses spar varnish. I suppose synthetic JC nails would work, but if you're going to trouble of doing this, use the real thing, The synthetic stuff will look fake. And finally, yes you do cover it all with finish after the CP is com
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I must be lucky, I've waited as long as 3 days before putting on the next coat and never had any trouble with it separating.
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If you buy one of those Grizzly things, just make sure before you do that you never want to turn wood, otherwise you will have wasted $100.
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I totally agree with Billy. Any lathe that size for so little money is bound to be a piece of junk. Never buy a lathe, or any other tool for that matter, that uses proprietary threads. The two most common mini lathe spindle sizes in the US are 1" x 8tpi and 3/4" x 16tpi. Anything else needs to be checked before you buy it to make sure that spindle is a "standard" size, not
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Stan is correct, the wood will absolutely warp and probably twist as well. Don't drill it before you send it. The only way the small amount of wood removed while drilling would change the shipping cost is if you send it UPS or Fedex. The only sensible way to send it is Priority Mail in a flat rate envelope, it won't matter what it weighs.
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Are you talking about cork or wood? I believe Custom Tackle has an aluminum jig for slicing cork so you can make either checkerboard or diamond patterns. At least I think that's where I bought mine. Andy Dear's exotic burl cork works really well for that stuff. If you're talking about wood, that's a whole different issue.
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