Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Lathe woodworking






The image to the right is a picture of a man using a lathe. What a lathe is, is spin a block of wood which can then be shaped into a beautiful design. This machine is used to create designs which accent the whole block of wood. This is used to create table legs with a design like the one shown below. To create these design, you must first set up a squared piece of wood and find the center of both ends of the piece of wood. after the center is found, you have to mark your wood and tightly screw your piece of wood in place. After this process, you must then mark your wood in which you would like to shave off. after your wood is in place, you must now attain the tools necessary to obtain the shape that is wanted.
Before beginning to carve, one must first know the fundamental of the machine. The image below displays the tools necessary for the design of the piece of wood. Each tool has its purpose for shape and structure of the piece that is being created. the small tool to the right that is curved is used to obtain a smooth curve within the piece. the one next to that is used to begin the detail of your piece, to get into the small areas for perfection. they tool in the middle has a sharp tip, and this is used to get an angle on your work of art. it is where you obtain the specific parts that are separated in sections as shown in the table leg above. the next tool is used for the bases or beginning of the sculpture. the last tool to the right is the main tool that is used for the shaping of every design. after this tool is used, the other tools accent this one as the other smaller tools are used for more detail.
The easy part about using the lathe machine is its ease. After one has created a design, sanding is done on the machine. sanding is fairly easy because the piece is spinning and all one has to do is place a piece of sand paper on the piece. after you sand your project to perfection, the next step is to wax your piece unless it is going to be stained first. This machine is used to make baseball bats where the baseball bats are waxed and buffed on the machine to give it its shiny finish. I personally love using this machine because its pretty simple to use if one is skills enough to do so. the hard part is creating a design on paper and creating that design to real life.

1 comment:

Squerl said...

Thanks for the lathe blog. Good pix and info there. Seems like fun to do as well. Squerl