Getting wood to turn on you lathe can be a challenge. However the off cuts from a building site have great potential as practice turning blanks. Off cuts of commercial 2 x4s make good turning blanks for beginners. The wood is usually fir, spruce, or pine. These are soft woods rather than hard woods. The …
Wood Trivet – A kitchen turning project
Turning a wood kitchen trivet is a great project to practice your bowl turning skills. You make the face of the trivet flat and shape the profile of the edge to suit your project. The end result is a wooden trivet you can be proud of. Kitchen trivets are used to protect surfaces from pots …
Cup Holder Extension
Turning a cup holder extension I have an awesome coffee cup. It keeps the coffee hot for a long time. But it does not fit into the cup holder in my car. In order to solve the problem of not being able to use an extra-large coffee cup in my car’s cup holder, I had …
Woodturning Shop Notes
Shop notes are an often neglected tool of the woodturner. Planning your project helps you avoid mistakes and reduces your turning time. Keeping shop notes is easy with this template. Add them to your toolbox today. I can recall several occasions where I had turned a wonderful project. One was a seed pot maker and …
Turn a Mexican Train Dominoes Hub Even If You Are a Beginner
Turn a Mexican Train Dominoes hub and make dominoes more fun. This wood turned domino train station is a little challenging because it involves some refinement after the lathe. You’ll need some face-plate turning experience for this project, but it’s suitable for the advanced beginner. I played dominoes when I was a child. I don’t …
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Turned Wooden Christmas Bell
Bells are a traditional Christmas ornament. They are part of the Christmas narrative. Jingle bells, sleigh bells, silver bells, I think you get the idea. A turned wooden Christmas bell will be a lovely ornament on the tree. A bell shape is fairly straight forward and a quick search through my Pinterest board, featurning 100+ …
Turned Wooden Snowman
It is December and there is snow on the ground. Do you remember trying to make your first snowman? I can recall thinking the snow was perfect and running out to make a snowman. Then as I rolled the snowball and accumulated snow all of the leaves that hadn’t been raked were sticking to the …
5 Tips for a Positive Attitude at Craft Shows
5 Tips for a Positive Attitude at Craft Shows I’m writing in the middle of Christmas craft fair season. It is November 17th and Christmas is still a month away. This is after the big Fall fair in Rock Creek, BC, Canada, and the small community Christmas craft fairs are starting up. Doing so many …
9 Shop Safety Tips for Woodturners
Wood turning involves spinning wood and sharp tools. Spinning wood can lead to dangers and injury. But following some simple shop safety tips you can avoid common injuries associated with wood turning. Let’s start by looking at your woodturner shop. Did you notice that I said “your shop” and not mine? There’s a reason for …
