A Lesson From My Shop Vac

As I was working my way through the workshop cleanup I used my shop vac a lot of the time. It is fantastic for getting at that fine dust that the machines especially kick up. However, I noticed that I was getting less and less suction from it and the motor was obviously working harder with fewer results. I opened up the machine.

Inside I found that the filter was a disaster. Shop vacs like mine and the vast majority of them out there in the real world are wet/dry machines. You can suck up dry dust or wet sludge with them and more than once they have been used to simply pick up puddles of water from the floor. So the interior environment tends to be damp.

My machine like most has a foam filter around the little cage inside around the motor. The filter was so packed with fine dust caked to it that was preventing air from flowing and the motor to work so hard it was in danger of overheating.

Enter your lungs. When you breathe in you pull in that fine dust just like your shop vac. The inside of your lungs is damp just like your shop vac. Fine dust cakes to the lining of your lungs just as it does to the foam filter. The more it cakes the harder it is for your lungs and therefore your heart to work. this is decidedly unhealthy.

I took the filter and washed it and dried it and reinstalled it. This is hard (I hesitate to say impossible with medicine these days) to do with a set of lungs. The better idea is to prevent the cake in the first place. Get a good cartridge mask and use it. Replace the air filters at reasonable intervals. Take care of your lungs, you only get one set and turning wood is a lot more fun if you can breathe.

As with many things in life, it takes longer to write about them than to do them. The shop cleaning is farther along the path to results than is the writeup, but it is interesting to me do this exercise. I hope it holds some interest for you. I have added a few more pages as I have found some boxes that I have not opened for ages and projects that have laid forgotten for a year or more. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of work to get to be able to do it.

Choosing A Wood Lathe: What To Look For When Sturdy Counts

While it is obvious that wood lathes spin wood around, it is not always obvious to the first time buyer that spinning wood, if out of balance, vibrates tremendously. In addition, wood lathes may be asked to spin very heavy sections of wood and need to be able to withstand considerable force. There are a couple of simple things to look for to ensure that a lathe is sturdy enough for the work at hand.

If you have a small shop and intend to turn small objects, it may seem as if sturdiness will not be a factor, but this is simply not so. Most small lathes turn at high speeds and have a very high minimum speed. Just as on a car, an unbalanced wheel does not seem a problem at low speeds but vibrates at high ones, the same thing happens on a lathe with unbalanced wood or with unbalanced lathe parts. While a small piece on a small lathe may not try to walk across the floor, vibration encourages poor cuts and difficulty in a good finish.

Larger lathes tend to have lower minimum speeds and thus allow for less vibration in unbalanced pieces. However they also are generally bought with the purpose of handling larger pieces of wood and thus more weight. A bowl blank of forty pounds is not unusual on a lathe with a twelve to sixteen inch swing and can literally walk a light lathe across the floor of the shop.

The solution to the problem is to have a lathe sturdy enough to handle the work. It starts with a good foundation such as a stand that is well made and heavy enough to not move under the forces of turning. Sand is a good vibration absorber and many turners design their lathe stands to hold hundred of pounds of sand.

The lathe itself should have lots of cast iron and steel in its construction. Stamped metal parts tend to give little support. Good welds should be looked for. Check with your woodturning friends and find out what lathes they use for the type of turning you intend to do and then find out if they are satisfied. Good bearings are a must and even more important are the bearing housings. Bearings are easily replaced but not where they live in the lathe.

One of the best tests of sturdiness is common sense when looking at the lathe. If it looks solid it likely is. This would not be just a catalogue look but rather a chance to stand at it and see if the steel is substantial and the iron castings are solid and well finished. The mechanisms to hold the headstock, tailstock and tool rest should be strong and lock firmly. Speed controls should move easily and switches readily accessible.

The final test of the lathe will happen as you turn on it. Many turners will push the envelope of size and speed and safety is each individual's responsibility but much of it can be ensured with good planning and a little foresight.

Wood Everywhere

November is here already. As a matter of fact, it is almost half gone and the stores are all Christmas nutty. One of the things that is happening around my part of the world; Nova Scotia, Canada; is the sudden appearance of wood piles as folks get in next year's wood.

The idea is to get green wood this year to cut to length and split for next year's fires once it is dry. Some folks even go a couple of years ahead. However, this is a woodturner's dilemma. What wood to turn and what wood to burn?

Advice? Keep the best looking stuff. Crotch wood has some great grain but can be hard to dry. So what? If it splits it is fire wood. No loss. The same with twists and turns and burls. Look for some good grain and if you find it while splitting, keep the logs from near it. If you keep your eyes open, there are some great finds in the wood pile.

By the way, keep some of the plainer, straight stuff for some kitchen spindle work and the like. Clean wood is great too.