Woodworking and Lathes and Shopping

As I mentioned last time, last weekend we got lumber for a horn bow grip and for Robin to make pegs and things with, and that we have a Shopsmith and a dremel lathe.

A Shopsmith is an interesting beast, where one motor connects to and runs multiple power tools (one at a time). It does an OK job on everything, but not outstanding.

Buying lumber re-woke Ron's interest in woodturning, so last weekend we went to Rockler, a local woodworking store. We saw a couple smallish lathes, one of which was a discontinued floor model on sale.

Saturday morning we were back at Owl Hardwood Lumber, so Robin could figure out how much to charge for a small table similar to one he built in shop class in high school. That led to purchase of more exotic hardwood turning stock, in the form of "magic wand" blanks, for Ron to make.

Which led to a trip to Berland's House of Grownup Toys Tools to look at lathes. At that point I figured we'd be buying next weekend which would be (1) after payday, and (2) 15% off Jet tool Father's Day sale. 

Then we went back to Rockler. Where the floor model lathe was still on sale, for less than the sale price would be next weekend at a smaller (shorter length) lathe we were looking at at Berland's. We took it as a sign, and it followed us home.

We didn't get the stand for the lathe, so we had to go out and get a 2x12 to mount the lathe to and then set on a Workmate. Turns out that's a good setup for Ron (and Robin), as its taller than the stock lathe stand - so we may not bother with a lathe stand.

Today we went up to the Woodcraft store in Libertyville, where some inexpensive chunks of wood to practice on followed us home, as well as a package of bottle stopper blanks. Because that way I can sell people fancy stoppers for their potion bottles.

Robin and Ron are taking turns with the lathe. Robin's about to go try making something "real" now - a couple pegs for pouches, out of a pen blank. Once he gets a lesson on honing tools.