How did you get into Woodturning?

[z3ddie]

I am brand new here so obviously my interest level is quite high (for the time being!) But I would be interested to know what made people take up the craft.
I was a bit of a b.gger at school any my woodwork teacher used to drink with my dad - I went into class one day, one of the few that actually interested me and he called me over and gave me a piece of cut wood, didn't even know it was Ash at the time, it was about 5inch square and around a foot long and just told me 'plane that until it is completely round' I spend the next 3 or 4 double periods with the wood in a vice planing away and taking it to him where he would inspect it and then throw it back at me with pencil marks where he found high spots. After it was planed to his satisfaction he then took me to the lathe, to be honest I had never even noticed it in the workshop until then, and he showed me how to find the centres and mount it.  He then got his big carpenters pencil out and drew the outline on a sheet of paper and said, 'thats what your going to make'  He then showed me how to rough out and showed me a few basic cuts and I ended up with a lamp that is still in the family nearly 50 years later. He had me sanding and waxing the b..dy thing for the rest of the term and eventually he let me drill it and take it to the local electrician to wire it up (they wouldn't trust you with that even in them days). After I showed him the finished piece he didn't compliment me but told me that my old man had told him to keep me busy.  All I can say is he was the only teacher I left with any respect for.  Nearly 50 years later I have returned to turning, just wish I had rediscovered it sooner.

[seventhdevil]

firstly let me welcome you to the forum.


my first experience of turning was at school where i made a few legs to go on a table i was making when i was 15?

i did not do any more turning for about 10 years but in the mean time had become a joiner as i love wood. to be perfectly honest i can't remember exactly how i got back in to it but i believe i had to make something fairly round and ended up using a drill and lots of sandpaper.

after that i must have been talking to my boss as he mentioned that he had a bench top lathe and some sorby tools just sitting around in his garage rusting away. we stuck a deal and i bought the lot for £70.

once i had it home i had to clear a space in the shed and find a power cable to reach it but got started straight away and turned something that (according to my dad) looked very like a widow's comforter. then i made a primitive bowl, then a small pot, then a vase, then a rolling pin all made from wood i'd pinched from the offcuts bit a work.

after that i started turning out bowls galore as i decided i liked doing them more than anything else and bought loads of blanks off ebay and eventually traded up to a SIP 01490 40" lathe.

after a few years of craft fairs and pushing my light weight lathe to the limits i forked out £2500 for a jet 3520B and loads of extras. i haven't looked back since.

i've now been turning for about 7 years and love it.

[Eric Harvey]

Same again,started with woodturning at school,aged 14,with tools made from files that had been annealed and whatever by the metalwork teacher,they were basically scrapers of differing shapes and sizes,so I made the fruit bowl that everyone made those days,then the hard part,four legs for a stool and a couple of other things that my memory has lost,but by the time I left school aged 16 I had a grade 1 C.S.E in woodwork(having a Dad who was a trained cabinet maker helped a bit there)that was it for woodturning for yrs,as an aprentrice I couldn`t afford a lathe,then I got a motorbike,then a girlfriend who turned into my wife,who said lathes are to expensive,I didn`t earn an awful lot,then at 39 I had to retire due to ill health and needed a hobby,so one birthday soon after I was bought a drill powered lathe from Argos,burnt out two drills on that,cheapies from Agos,before converting it with a half HP motor a niebour gave me,serious power now,trouble was changing speed,had to dismantle the pulley system to put different sized ones on to make it go faster or slower,50th birthday I got an Axminster Perform CCVBL with a 14" swing and 43 1/2 " between centres and a 1HP motor and variable speed real joy,had that for 7yrs just over,when daughter had a little win on something and bought me a Jet 3520B,soninlaw got the Perform lathe and its still in use 10yrs on and only on its 3rd drive belt,so for the last twenty yrs I`ve been woodturning as a hobby and what a joy its been,cheers,

Eric.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Welcome to the forum.
   Like most people I first tried woodturning at school, I wanted to make a bowl so the teacher got me to saw the corners off of a square blank with a tenon saw. plane the top flat and glue it using a paper joint to a block fixed to the faceplate. HE then proceeded to turn the bowl!!
 On leaving school to start my apprenticship as a joiner/woodmachinist I was taught to turn by one of the chaps on the company but could never get on the lathe as all the men had priority.
  Skip forward many years, I left the forces and picked up my tools again and ended up as director of my own joinery company. I needed a little turning job doing and sent it out to a (now famous) turner who charged me an arm and a leg. Needing another one a few months later I got my own lathe and made it my self and gradually took on more turning work. Fast forward again, following a bout with cancer and still with the need to earn a living but still having the desire to work with wood,  it was a natural choice for me to turn full time, which I did and quite successfully so too. Eventually I became a Registered Professional Turner and still can't wait to go to work in the morning. Every day is different as is every piece of wood and so too are the turners which make it so enjoyable.

[bodrighywood]

School. With files, no chucks, glue on face plates etc as others have said. Loved it, Managed an A GCE ( pre cse etc) and then went to sea. Got back into it some years ago, made redundant so ended up doing ti full time and wishing I had many years ago.

Pete

[edbanger]

Welcome to the forum

I trained as a wood machinist / furniture maker after doing woodwork at school, this was factory based and once qualified left. I went in to sale where I am still today, but every year for the past 12 or so years my wife as given me an experience at doing something or the other for my birthday. In 2013 I was off for a two day woodturning course with Tom Pockley, if anyone could have told me what would happen to me on that first day I would have bet my house against them, luckily  for me no one did.

I now plan to spend the rest of my life as a woodturner

Ed

[Walnut Les]

I got into woodturning after being in a car accident, I was lucky enough to be able to sit and watch a friend who turns for fun as I was recovering.
As I sat there he would explain what he was doing and gave me some great advice on what not to do. I then had a go on his lathe and as soon as I had made my first bowl I was hooked, I ordered my first lathe the very next day after talking it over with the wife and I have never looked back.

Take care and happy turning to you all. Les