My therapy or what I do to keep from going nuts

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Those of you who know me well already know that in addition to my sign business, I am also full time care-giver to my 92 year old mom who has Alzheimer's.

 

To keep myself sane I have taken up a new hobby that hopefully will add some income to my SS when I start to draw in 18 months...wood turning. I bought a lathe a few months ago and just plunged right in...and it has worked wonders for me. Here are some pics of some of the things I have made.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

Beautiful work...

[BannerJohn 1,324]

a few more

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

very nice work 

[BannerJohn 1,324]

anybody need any authentic cedar shavings, let me know. I have a crap load

[OWJones 1,981]

It's a very relaxing hobby.  Prior to moving to Iowa, I made custom pens on my lathe - wood, fancy plastics and even synthetic stone.

 

 

You can find the kits available at most wood working stores - I used to get mine from the WoodCraft store just down the street from where I worked.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Yeah I have a pen mandrel on the way and already have a few kits waiting, and blanks. Don't know how my blind eye is gonna handle the small stuff but we shall see.

 

So why did you stop?

[mr300s 1,272]

Wow very nice John.   That may pass the Banner making,   awesome work ...

[BannerJohn 1,324]

The day I get my first SS check I will shut down my ebay store and and do no more signs.

[dirtrocker 60]

Nice work guys!

I don't have the patience for woodwork.
If I screw up on metal, I can weld it, grind it down, smooth it out and put paint on it and no one knows the difference.
Wood isn't that forgiving. When I make a mistake with wood, it's like it puts a big sign that says, "He messed up, RIGHT HERE"

LOL!

[MadHatterGraphix 1,258]

John looks great I love wood working but never got into the lathe one day I will. When either I stop doing what I do or not having to replace some junk equipment I bought.

[rlvied 292]

Nice work on the lath guys. My nephew does a lot of wood turning. It would be nice to have room for a lath.

[fustratedinhawaii 71]

AWESOME John !!! Seems like you picked it up FAST !!!! I can't see you having problems making money off that !!!

Can you make me some "custom" toothpicks ??

 

OWJones...BEAUTIFUL pens!!! What have you NOT done ??!!!!

[Cal 393]

Nice work John.  What type of wood is that bowl mounted on the lathe in the first pics made from?

Years back my first big tool purchase was a lathe so that I could put a porch railing on our house.  My son also has a mini lathe that he turned pens and such on.  All kinds of wood, plastics and deer antlers.  He made a right smart bunch of money with it before he lost interest - that was in his teens.  If you need more pen kits contact me, we probably have a hundred or so still in the shop.

If you are not familiar with it, Wood magazine has an online forum with one section for turning.  I find it as useful a forum as this one.

Cal

[OWJones 1,981]

Yeah I have a pen mandrel on the way and already have a few kits waiting, and blanks. Don't know how my blind eye is gonna handle the small stuff but we shall see.

 

So why did you stop?

 

I didn't have a lot of cash on hand when I moved (I was moving to help take care of my ailing father) and I sold some of my larger power tools to help pay for moving expenses.  Then I ended up getting into vinyl cutting (and everything else) and haven't felt the urge to go buy more tools.

 

There are pen-turning lathes that will automatically follow templates, several craft show vendors use those - you literally load up the wood, pop in a template and hit "go" and it turns a pen in a few minutes.  That enables them to sell their pens at a lower price for what is essentially the same as what used to take me 2-3 hours.   It's tough to sell $40 pens when the guy in the booth next to you is selling the same pen for $25-30.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Those look great. I have a lathe in storage. I moved and don't have the shop space that I used to. I have a bunch of the tools and even a water bath stone sharpener but not the time to use them at this point. Definitely about top of the list for fun things to mess around with wood though. I plan on spending more time with it when I retire.