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October 12, 2023 Wood Turning... Rekindling an old flame The '80s was a decade of woodworking passion for me. I was living in Savannah when I saw my first ShopSmith demonstration at the mall. The Mark V is a remarkable machine with five tools in one... table saw, disc sander, horizontal boring machine, drill press, and lathe. Just right for a wanna-be woodworker with a single car garage! So I bought one that day and brought it home. I was also preparing to transfer to Mobile so I didn't have much time to play with the ShopSmith. Fast forward a year and we were settled in a new house and job. Our new house had no garage so I kept the ShopSmith in the foyer and would roll it out onto the walkway to play.This did not last long before Carol told me "you cannot keep that thing in the house!" So I got busy building a 24 x 32 workshop. As soon as it was dried in the ShopSmith and an old Craftsman radial arm saw moved in. I used those two machines to finish building the shop complete with wall cabinets, work benches, and work table. So began a decade of woodworking fun! I loved working on the ShopSmith and began making everything from small toys to fine furniture. I also added a planer, jointer, and bandsaw, as well as many small handheld power tools. I was living the dream as my house slowly filled up with furniture and what-nots. Exploring the lathe was fascinating and very enjoyable. I made many small lathe projects and also began incorporating lathe work into my furniture projects. I became very passionate about woodturning, especially bowls. And so it went. I spent most of my free time in the workshop and a lot of time at work dreaming up new projects and researching tools and techniques. I lived and breathed sawdust and laquer fumes! But by '88 I was slowly burning out and Carol and I needed to share more time together if our marriage was to survive. We discovered catamarans and windsurfing. That became our next passion and woodworking took a backseat. Then in '89 we adopted a precious baby girl and turned our focus toward her. The ShopSmith was rolled into a corner of my shop and sat there untouched for the next 35 years.
Fast forward 35 years to the present. The kids are grown with kids of their
own, Carol and I are comfortably retired, and my amp building fever is
cured. For the past month I've been watching bowl turners on YouTube. It's
amazing what is being done with a lathe these days. I felt my long dead
woodturning soul coming back to life. I even began researching modern
lathes. Then it dawned on me. Dumbass, you have a lathe! So I drug the
ShopSmith out of the corner and proceeded to brush the cobwebs off. The
motor still ran, but everything else was froze up from 35 years of neglect
and rust. After three days of rust removal I finally got the headstock to
slide on the way tubes. I removed it and put it on the bench and proceeded
to tear it down. It took about a week and $200 of parts to rebuild and get
it mounted back on the frame. I spent another week cleaning up all the
ancillary parts and getting everything to move freely. Finally, it's alive!
It really shows it's age cosmetically, but everything works as it should.
Yesterday morning I set it up as a lathe and mounted my next project. And
that brings us to the point of this story...
The Lamps!
I really enjoyed finishing up this old project and look forward to more lathe fun. Unfortunately, COPD and sawdust don't play well together. Hopefully I'll find a way. Fingers crossed! |
