Wood WOrking on a metal lathe

[Trico]

I also posted this thread on metal lathe general board. I have purchased a Logan 200 metal lathe and would also like to use it for some wood projects. Can i do this with the metal curring tools or do I need to buy a separate rest and wood chisels. Any information greatly appreciated.

[jgourlay]

I do this. GENERALLY you need new tools. The typical carbide inserts are infinitely too dull to work wood. A VERY sharp hss tool may work. But when I say sharp, you need to actually hone the edges.

Better is to get a "banjo" rest that will fit--the JET rest fits my Atlas, then get some woodworking gouges, scrapers, and skew.

You can drop a lot of scratch on these tools. You should probably go over to Grizzly and get the cheapest ones you can find until you've learned how to grind/sharpen them. Then move up.

Note that with VERY sharp HSS tooling in your toolpost AND THE RIGHT WOOD (boxwood, lignum vitae, ebony, cocobolo) you can thread wood just like metal.

Note also that wood is fibrous: chucking up the piece so that the grain runs axial to the lathe (spindle turning) is a whole different animal from chucking it up such that the grain is transverse to the axis (face turning).

Go to smartflix and rent some vids on wood turning afor getting your hands dirty.