How To Turn Wood On A Metal Lathe

Joined Feb 13 2012.

How to turn wood on a metal lathe. Wood Lathe vs Metal Lathe. They are more versatile. Gary Max Active User.

Turn the Wood at Proper Speeds The wood that is being turned by the lathe must be turned at an appropriate speed. Small bench lathes are usually mounted on a sturdy bench or pedestal. Years ago Fine Woodworking featured a lady who used a metal-working lathe to turn wood.

Centers are pieces of metal with points at the end that go on either the headstock or tailstock to hold the wood in place when turning. The rigidity of a wood lathe is a problem. Two Basic Methods for Turning With a Lathe One way is to use the headstock and the rear spindle to suspend a piece of wood between the two and turn along the length of the piece of wood.

Put that guard on select the direction of the rotation and then turn on the lathe. Metal turning is often high torque lower speed. You can put a bar in the tool post and use it for a rest for stanart wood turning tools but mostly I use tools in my normal tool post.

A good rule of thumb is the wider the stock the lower the speed. Wood lathes are for wood pieces and metal lathes are for metal pieces. Some woodturners like to use a very small spindle lathe to turn.

The lathe has two ends on it the headstock and the tailstock. With certain tropical hardwoods you will want to cover the ways with paper or plastic and make sure that you clean up any lathe chips right away because the wood cells contain sand. You can turn wood on a lathe made for turning metals.