Order JET 708352 JWL-1236 Woodworking Lathe, 12-Inch Swing 3/4 HP 115-Volt 1-Phase

Over All Rating Reviews :

I have been running this lathe constantly for about 2 years now. It has run smoothly and consistently since new. The power is great for most medium to large turnings as well. I turn mostly lamp spindles, pens, pepper mills, candlesticks and other type turnings and it is very smooth and precise. I have found that the transmission shifts smoothly and with little effort. The only CON that I would mention is that the working height is much too low for me. I prefer to stand while working at the lathe. I am 6' tall and found that I was constantly hunching over and over time developed a sore neck. My remedy was to simply build wooden risers for the unit that elevates it up around 8 inches or so. I would highly recommend this lathe.

Get more detail about JET 708352 JWL-1236 Woodworking Lathe, 12-Inch Swing 3/4 HP 115-Volt 1-Phase.

!1!: The Best Low Price Bread Recipe & Bread Machine

A nice review of the Turncrafter Plus, with lots of helpful info.

Buffing and Grinding Wheels

Tod Herrli has a speedy way to hone his complex-profile moulding plane blades—with buffing wheels.

Ever the resourceful fellow, Tod makes his own using cardboard from cereal boxes and tablets.*

By gluing discs of cardboard together, he creates various thicknesses of buffing wheels according to his needs.

He bores a hole in the glued-up wheel, mounts it on his grinder, and shapes a rounded profile with a shop-made tool that looks a lot like the rounded profile on a woodturning scraper (photo 1).

I took a class taught by Tod a few days ago on making side escapement planes (blog post to follow) where we used his wheels to do the final sharpening on our blades.

Buffing wheels need to spin in the opposite direction (away from you) than grinding wheels, so Tod built a sharpening station that captures the catapulted rouge when it's applied to the spinning cardboard wheels (photo 2).

He also showed us another trick (photos 3-6). The center holes on grinding wheels need to fit the arbor on your grinder. So if you have a wheel with too large a hole, here's how Tod remedies the situation.

He glues a dowel, which matches the diameter of his arbor, into a hole in a board; draws a 6" diameter circle around the dowel to help him center the grinding wheel; wraps a piece of paper around the dowel; and fills the cavity with hot glue. The paper keeps the glue from sticking to the dowel. Once dry, the grinding wheel fits perfectly on his grinder.

He then uses a dressing tool to round the profile on the wheel so it can be used for grinding moulding plane profiles on newly-made blades.

*MDF will also work.

For new and interesting woodworking lathe updates try this page.

40. Dreaming Creation

Cool Surprise

My husband brought me a new wood to work. Oh, how cool is he? The man is just inspired by what I do,and  he wants to help. He came up with a wood I've never worked with. Very easy to mess up. It burns so fast you must be paying attention.

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) is a species of Thuja, an evergreen  coniferous  tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae.

The soft red-brown timber is valued for its distinct appearance, aroma, and its high natural resistance to decay, being extensively used for outdoor construction in the form of posts, decking, shingles, fencing and siding. It is also used to line closets and chests, for its pungent aromatic oils are believed to discourage moth and carpet beetle larvae. This is more effective in a properly constructed red cedar chest, since the oils are confined by shellac and leather seals. A well-sealed red cedar chest will retain its pungent odor for many decades. Its light weight, strength and dark warm sound make it a popular choice for guitar soundboards.

So I thought I would be finished by this evening. NOT. Those of you that know me. I was dreaming again. So I thought I would give you a preview of tomorrows finale.

I've been burning this all day. I thought I would be finished by now. NO. I'm not even close. But I know it will be complete in the morning.

Here's a preview. Keep in mind i'm not even close to finished.

Much more tomorrow. This is not finished. Only an update to what I'm working on. I can't wait to see it myself.

If you're interested in general lathes you might find this page interesting.

Declaring Victory with the Double-screw Vise

Joseph Moxon I could kiss your dessicated worm-eaten corpse.

My newest version of the double-screw vise illustrated in Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises" (1678) is a complete success. The vise is simple – five pieces of wood. And the only special equipment you need to build it is a wooden threadbox and tap (a $45 investment). And it takes only about an hour to construct.

When clamped to a bench or a table or any horizontal surface, the vise raises your work up to a nice no-stoop height (45" if you please) so you can saw, chisel or lay things out without bending over. And when you are done with the vise, it stores away against the wall.

When I completed this version of the vise, Senior Editor Glen D. Huey said simply, "Make me one, and I'll buy it." That might be the highest praise I've ever received for my work.

We're going to feature complete plans for the vise in a future issue, but it shouldn't be too hard for a slightly clever ring-tailed lemur to suss it all out. Here are some details.

The front jaw is 1-3/4" x 6-1/8" x 30" and pierced by 1-1/2" holes that have 24-1/8" between their edges. The rear jaw is 1-3/4" x 6" x 36" and is pierced by two 1-1/2" holes that are tapped. There is a rear support at back of the vise that is 1-3/4" x 2" x 30", which stabilizes the rear jaw. And the two screws are 2" x 2" x 12-1/2", with 7" of the handle turned down to a shade under 1-1/2" and then threaded.

This morning I asked Megan and Bob to try it out with their own tools and give me some feedback. Bob said, "I might not give this back."

If you hate stooping when dovetailing, or you want a twin-screw vise but don't want to rebuild your workbench, this is the answer.

The following is a short video showing how easy the vise is to use.

— Christopher Schwarz

Workbench Resources I Use All the Time

• "The Workbench Book" (Taunton) by Scott Landis

• "Mechanick Exercises" by Joseph Moxon. Now available in reprinted form.

• "Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction and Use" by me. I know this sounds like a shameless plug, but I actually do use my own book all the time. I'm getting old.

You can find lots of good information on wood lathe tools here.

Woburn Show

I've been commissioned to make a medieval 3-legged stool and decided to make the parts at the show from the Knebworth Ash.

Like this.

A mistake really as what should have taken less than a day has actually taken two, what with all the interruptions and distractions.

 At least I was being paid to do something I'm being paid for because sales aren't exactly booming at the moment. 

Vanessa's getting fed up with being Head of Sales so we're training up a new assistant...

Those beseeching eyes should do the trick... we could probably end up selling loads of dogs!

Find the best wood lathes on sale online.

JET 708352 JWL-1236 Woodworking Lathe, 12-Inch Swing 3/4 HP 115-Volt 1-Phase Right now

Over All Rating Reviews :

I'm a square wood type of woodworker. I'd never put a tool to a spinning piece of lumber, but had always wanted to try. When the Jet 12" went on sale, I couldn't resist the temptation. Just like all the rest of my Jet tools, it went together in a snap, and was built the way that my table saw and jointer are.., extremely solid. Even for a novice woodturner, the machine performed well. Within minutes after set-up, I was turning, and with halfway decent results (not the machines fault, the operator was the only downfall). All of the advertised features were easy and convenient to use. When comparison shopping against Grizzly and Delta, the Jet came up on top again. Jet includes more bang for your buck.

The review got 4 stars only because I haven't had the opportunity to try any other lathes. If my girlfriend had rated it, the results would have been much worse. She hasn't seen much of me since I started making shavings on my most recent Jet pu rchase. Kudos Jet!

Get more detail about JET 708352 JWL-1236 Woodworking Lathe, 12-Inch Swing 3/4 HP 115-Volt 1-Phase.

!1!: Best Buying Tablet Laptop Save and Accessories More!

Read all about wood lathe chucks!

General Lathes

General is a Canadian company that makes wood lathes. They are based out of Drummonville Quebec, where their factory has been producing lathes and other machine tools and accessories since 1946. They are well known for their very high quality, attention to detail, workmanship and materials.

You can read some reviews of general wood lathes over at Wood Lathes online. They feature several of the more popular models from General and provide in depth reviews of many different lathes.

General is one of the few North American companies that still manufacture their products in North America, most lathes are built exclusively in Asia, largely China and Taiwan. There are a lot of advantages to buying a Lathe made in North America, but in the end it comes down to a trade-off between quality and price. You can guarantee that a Canadian manufactures lathe will be very well built, but because of the cost of labour it will also come out more expensive.

General also produces lathes in Taiwan under the brand General International, these are still very nice tools, and quality control is excellent, you don't get the same thing you would from a North American lathe but still overall a very fine product.

Another great resource is this page on General Lathes, they feature many pictures, videos and links to wood lathes for sale. If you're in the market for a great woodworking lathe it would be hard to go wrong with any of their models. With over 60 years of experience, they know what they're doing.

General makes many different sizes of wood lathes, from the 25-200M1 which is essentially a mini lathe all the way up to full size models that will allow you to turn projects of any size. They are a bit more costly than some other brands, but you definitely get what you pay for, some chinese made laths are shoddy in construction and materials and this really shows through in your final results.

A wood lathe is the sort of tool that can last you a lifetime, in fact many lathes can last several generations, or at least the ones manufactures in the 30s could, modern tools are not made to the same standards. In any case it is best to pay for quality up front rather than use inferior products that need to be replaced every few years because they break.

If your new to wood turning, the wikipedia page on wood lathes is an excellent read.

Enjoy!