Breezy Hill Turning

Turned Wood Art by Michael Foster

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Tools and Jigs

Old grinder I now use just for sharpening scrapers with dual home made wolverine arms and tables

Grinder rests I made in order to be able to use the rest with arm in place on both sides

Home made "Wolverine" type arms

Home-made indexing jig

Detail showing how the pin works and the various number of index holes

The jig mount to the back of my Axminster chuck

Table I had made by a welder that fits in the banjo and can be used for layout or a table for a router sled

Router sled that holds a laminate router for use with the indexing jig (lathe not running)

Home made brass caliper

Large calipers made from 1/4" sheet aluminum for measuring wall thickness of large work

Buffing station showing Beall on right and smaller on left. Grinder on top is used for sharpening carving tools.

Buffing station with drawers dedicated to each grit that hold buffs and polishing compounds/wax.

3 point tool with compression fitting holding it in handle

Depth guage for measuring depth of bowls

This belt sander rig that I purchased from Jon Siegel is what I usually use for sharpening now

One of the advantages is very quick setup to get the perfect grind on tools

The V block is quickly changed in the indexed holes. All tools are marked with the number used to duplicate the same grind

Jon added this block to use with the Wolverine system if you care. I freehand grind my gouges with a Michelson grind

I modified the indexing board Jon made to allow me to get it out of the way for freehand grinding.

Index board collapsed. Very quick to do as it involves 2 hinged boards.

Jig for drawing lines on work parallel to the lathe bed

Hollowing rig with Jamieson handle, Laser Trac laser and home-made rear steady

I used 1" galvanized pipe sanded to 600 on the bottom pipe for smooth action. Lags and lock nuts to join pipes

Clamp system allows for positioning capture rig back and forth as needed

Laser trac laser system from Jeff Salter works wonderfully. Set the offset to wall thickness and rotate head to adjust.

Priddle style woodburner, or more accurately, wood vaporizer

Home made handle for custom NiChrome wire burner tips.

Jig for reverse turning large pieces.

Home made press for the stack laminations in segmented work.

Home made center steady I still use when I need more than one, or the Robust is just too large.

Wonderful steady made by Robust. Quality that matches thier other products.

Home made mini hollowing tools using allen wrenches and cement nails

Adjustable hangar for the Foredom that is built into the carving station and allows easy adjustment for length of cable.

Tools and Jigs

These are some of the jigs solutions I have come up with, copied or bought that I thought maybe of interest to other turners. The pictures and short descriptions should be enough information, but if you have questions feel free to email me.

I got the idea for the indexing jig from Bill Johnston on the Kestrel Creek site. I find it useful for layout, carving and use with the router sled. I had a local welder weld the table perpendicular to a post that fits in the banjo. The table comes in handy for use with the router and layout. Here is an article I wrote that describes the use of the indexing jig and table for laying out spirals.

Aluminum calipers I made out of 1/4" sheet metal range in size measuring wall thickness on vessels 12' to 24" deep. I got the idea from an old AAW article written by Jim Hume.

The buffing station was my idea. I didn't like the limitations of buffing on the lathe. My solution involved a mandrel powered by a 1625 rpm motor. It has a Beall on the right that will allow access into deep bowls due to length of the shaft, and has a smaller screw type mandrel that will allow use of smaller buffs, including goblet buffs. Each drawer is dedicated to buffs for one grit and the compound. The grinder has a cardboard disc that is charged with polishing compounds and puts a mirror polish on carving tools.

The belt sanding sharpener from Jon Siegel is now my go-to sharpener. I use it free hand for bowl gouges (I like the Michelson grind I learned from Johannes), and the indexing is a snap for sharpening roughing gouges, skews, parting tools… It has several advantages. 1) No hollow grind 2) It is very safe as the belt move up, so no chance of the belt grabbing the tool 3)changing belts/grits is a snap 4)buff to the right removes wire edge from grinding 5) because of the indexing, setting the V block and getting a new edge takes a matter of seconds and removes very little metal. See Jon's article for more info.

I use Lyle Jamieson's hollowing rig with a new laser light that Jeff Salter just released. This laser has a really nice feature that allows one to set an offset for the wall thickness then turning the head will alter the angle of the light to the tip of the tool allowing the user to change the angle as the vessel curves change without removing the rig from the vessel. Works like a charm.

I made the woodburner/vaporizer after seeing Graeme Priddle demo it. He has shown this at many venues, and there are now a number of articles that show you how to build one, like this. This is a high energy burner and is great fun to use, but not for the faint of heart.