Pole Lathe - Bad Vibrations

Warning this post contains explicit pole lathe material.

I don't think you can have good vibrations on a pole lathe and mine have been particularly bad recently.

One problem with the single bed design is that its very light. Very convenient for carrying around, but its quite prone to all sorts of shake, rattle and roll as you work.

One consequence of the design can be chattering, which is a bouncing of the chisel over the wood as you turn, making a good finish hard to achieve. The first image shows a bad case. This seems to build up, starting as a slight iregularity and then growung until the chisel bounces over the wood.

Now the shows are over I've switched to using the lathe in the shed a lot but I've been finding it hard going. Sometime this summer I took it off its legs and fixed it to a couple of upright timbers. I found it very difficult to get a good finish, well, any finish at all. I've been forced to work slowly with a light use of the finishing chisel (I use a 2 inch skew chisel for both detail and finishing).






At first I thought I was using a blunt tool and spent some time giving it a good honing. For this I use a 1200grit and then a 4000grit waterstone - for a quick hone I would just use the 4000grit waterstone.

Finally, I noticed that the lathe was bouncing more than usual and then I realised that one of the uprights was actually vibrating like a bow. I can't imagine why I didn't notice it earlier, but it is possible that it's developed over the summer and only very recently affected the work. It's about a 2 1/2inch by 6 inch lump of pine and looks solid but I'd used it so that I could bolt through the 2inch side and not the strength of the 6 inch face

As usual I had little time, being late in preparations for a Christmas market. But the problem was so severe that I could not even finish a rolling pin to my satisfaction. This forced me to take down the upright, turn it through 90 degrees and cut some proper joints so that its now more stable. The joints were tight enough that I used a mallet to force the upright and lathe bed into position with hardwood wedges. I've not needed to put any bolts in yet.

What a difference it makes! I can use a lot more power without the lathe starting to chatter, and the likelihood of the chisel digging in is much reduced.

I was getting very depressed with my turning. Partly its the weather, the cold and the dark. The shed I use is very convenient being just over the road, but its an old cart shed with an open front. Now I am re-energised and planning to do a lot of work on the lathe in the coming weeks.

The neat coathook on the beam is courtesy of my nephew Christopher who has been listening to Robin Wood too much and is now lecturing us on how to use a knife!