Yellow poplar porch posts

[roger oldre]

I had a customer bring me a rotted off porch post that he wanted duplicated. they needed to be 9' long. I have seen several post where others have done long posts in pieces. My big lathe will do 7' between centers but I do have two lathes. hmmmmm.
I tied them togetherpattern.jpg
I used a router for a cutting toolrouterlathe.jpgin the center bottom of the photo you can see the follower that runs against the original template.this is how it looked from the safe side of the work table.coupledlathe.jpg
Now that they are done I'll have to put everything back. they turned out well not a bad finish from the router. they took about 1 1/2 hours apiece including sanding and flipping once.

[Scott Brandstetter]

Thats a big project. Looks like a great result to me. Customer should be very pleased.

[Michelle Rich]

very clever & well done. My only concern is poplar posts..not exactly the best rot resistant wood..but customer is always right :-(

[Pat Scott]

Wow, I'm impressed that:

1) you have 2 lathes and the space to put them.
2) that you had 9' long boards (I know it was a glue up).
3) that you only spent 1-1/2 hours each including sanding.

You must do this kind of thing often?

[roger oldre]

Pat, I started production turning when I was seven. 3500-4500 spearfishing handles each year around thanksgiving. the order stood for 25 years. My dads shop. He specialized in big stuff up to 2' in diameter and 16 feet long could be done on"the big lathe" 9' between centers but we would similarly fasten the tail stock to an outrigger and turn half and flip for the other half. Most of the time we did staved turnings. We did run a solid blank that weighed over a ton to start. Both of the lathes are home built. The router left a good finish that sanded easily with 80 grit to a finish that painted will turn out very well. for both columns I used one sheet. Poplar sands well paint gets a good grip too. properly painted and installed they will last a long time. the elements getting into unprotected end grain is what usually spells the beginning of the end. many exterior door companies use poplar for the door jambs. Thanks for the comments!