To read Part One click here
If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools
My tools arrived today! I’m glad I waited before gluing the handle blanks together. Either my 1/2″ router bit is not exactly 1/2″ or 1/2″ square bar is not 1/2″. [...]
I’m still having a ball turning spheres! This is how I turned a hollow sphere. I first mounted a piece of wood about 3 1/2″ square by 5 1/2″ long between centers and turned it round with tenons either side sized to fit my jaw chuck. I measured the diameter of the cylinder at the center point and it was 3 1/4″. I then parted the cylinder in half.

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Continue reading Turning a hollow sphere
If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools
I am waiting on arrival of two tools a friend is making up for me. They are for lathe work and accept radius carbide cutter inserts. The tools are made from some 1/2″ x 1/2″ x [...]
At the demo by Fred Holder I attended he turned a sphere and used a set of sphere calipers. They are available online, but are pricey, so I did some more searching and found a great article by Al Hockenbery. It involves a bit of math but is a fairly quick and easy way to turn a sphere on the lathe. This article describes and illustrates the process.
I’m having a lot of fun turning these spheres and have also decided to start a wood collection and am going to turn my collection into spheres! One of the nice things about the spheres is that they show off the end, face and side grain in a small area. They also look so cool and feel so good to hold!
If anyone else is doing this already or is interested in starting I’d love to hear from you. If you’re interested in trading wood to make spheres or trading the spheres themselves let me know. I find a nice size piece of wood to start with is 3″ x 3″ x 4 1/2″.

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Continue reading Turning a sphere
I needed to make a donut chuck so that I could mount a 12″ bowl on my lathe and finish off the bottom of the bowl. I have a set of cole jaws for my jaw chuck, but they will only expand 10″.

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Continue reading Make a Donut Chuck
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