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Thread: Metal Spinning Start

  1. #1

    Metal Spinning Start

    I don't know if this belongs in the Turners or Metalworking forum but I have a desire to try my hand at metal spinning. I just purchased a metal spinning toolrest from Oneway but haven't found a good source for the other tools needed to get started. Any suggestions on a source for good quality metal spinning tools?

  2. #2
    You will likely have to make your own.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Mathews View Post
    I don't know if this belongs in the Turners or Metalworking forum but I have a desire to try my hand at metal spinning. I just purchased a metal spinning toolrest from Oneway but haven't found a good source for the other tools needed to get started. Any suggestions on a source for good quality metal spinning tools?
    A club member here had all of his metal spinning tools up for sale a few months ago. I can try to reach him and see if he sold them. He always bought top-of-the-line.

    Did you try Google? This came up: http://newproductllc.com/metal-spinning/

    JKJ

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    A club member here had all of his metal spinning tools up for sale a few months ago. I can try to reach him and see if he sold them. He always bought top-of-the-line.

    Did you try Google? This came up: http://newproductllc.com/metal-spinning/

    JKJ
    Actually, that was one of the few sources I was able to find online. I was hoping to gather more info. and possibly a recommendation before making a purchase. Recognized metal spinner Terry Tynan also has a website with a collection of tools for sale. I'm surprised more woodturners haven't entered or discussed the craft. It seems like a logical extension to woodturning.

    Edit: John - Yes, please contact the club member you mentioned that had the tools. I am interested in them.
    Last edited by Steve Mathews; 08-07-2017 at 9:48 PM.

  5. #5
    If you get a set of Terry's 1st dvd's, he has instructions on making a couple tools in the dad's. The tools he outlines how to make will start you out with the tools you need to do 90% of most jobs.

    I started out making and using those tools, and when the need for a different tool arose, making it was not a problem.
    Last edited by Dale Miner; 08-08-2017 at 8:01 AM.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Mathews View Post
    I was hoping to gather more info. and possibly a recommendation before making a purchase. ...
    Maybe you can attend a demo by a metal spinner. We once had a local metal spinner come to the Knoxville turning club and demonstrated and shared a wealth of information - making forms, annealing copper, what tools he liked best for different uses. He said he made a good income making mutes for brass instruments, mostly trumpets. He makes them in two parts.

    I'll try to find the guy's phone number. I'll also ask John Lucas; I believe he has done some metal spinning (and has done almost everything you can possibly do with a lathe, and he is good at all of it!)

    JKJ

  7. #7
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    PennState Industries has a metal spinning starter kit that has the tools, blanks, a couple forms and other items you need to get started.
    .

  8. #8
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    I haven't done any metal spinning but I did attend a demo by Dale Miner a couple of years ago at the 2013 Ohio symposium. If you have any questions about spinning metal - he is the guy to contact!
    Steve

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  9. #9
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    I have 45 years of professional spinning experience.

    1. Watch every youtube video you can find
    2. make a wood mandrel.
    3. Clamp a circle of soft metal (copper, 1100 aluminum etc.) to the mandrel with your tailstock.
    4. Spin it with a wood stick.
    5. Be Safe!!!
    Now you have the feel of it and advance from there - Don't over think it - Just get started.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Lansing View Post
    I have 45 years of professional spinning experience.

    1. Watch every youtube video you can find
    2. make a wood mandrel.
    3. Clamp a circle of soft metal (copper, 1100 aluminum etc.) to the mandrel with your tailstock.
    4. Spin it with a wood stick.
    5. Be Safe!!!
    Now you have the feel of it and advance from there - Don't over think it - Just get started.
    I asked a friend who said basically the same thing. No need to buy tools to get started, you can make everything.

    JKJ

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Lansing View Post
    I have 45 years of professional spinning experience.

    1. Watch every youtube video you can find
    2. make a wood mandrel.
    3. Clamp a circle of soft metal (copper, 1100 aluminum etc.) to the mandrel with your tailstock.
    4. Spin it with a wood stick.
    5. Be Safe!!!
    Now you have the feel of it and advance from there - Don't over think it - Just get started.
    I'm still waiting on the Oneway toolrest but after that arrives that's what I plan to do. There's one guy on YouTube that started with simple wood sticks and that's what he still uses. Here another video that I thought was instructive and funny at the same time. Not all of us find success at their first attempts at something new.


  12. #12
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    I love seeing the interest in metal spinning, I never thought I would see the day that so many would want to try it.
    I still have two spinning lathes and you guys make me want to cut some circles and spin something.

  13. #13
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    When I watched the video, it seemed like the fellow was doing fine when he was spinning "uphill" and stretching the material to his left. But it seemed when he went down-hill (that is from a larger diameter to a smaller diameter that had already been formed that he got in trouble. So my take is that it may be smarter to always go from the initial end to the far end and make each stroke in the same direction (towards the far/larger end).

    Also, my perception is that he overworked the material and that it work hardened on him. I have bent some metal and had to anneal or soften it at times when bending it. From logic, it would seem that if you fairly quickly/smoothly work from the center of the disk (right side of lathe) outward (left side of lathe) and don't keep going back (especially going down hill to the right) that you minimize work hardening.

    But my thoughts are not based on any experience in metal spinning but is based on other experience in moving metal around and some of the classic properties of steel.

    I will be following other people comments who know more.

  14. #14
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    His biggest mistake is learning with a big circle (of metal) in proportion to the "nose" of the mandrel. The "down-hill" (outer circle to nose) movement is called back spinning and there are reasons for a spinner to do that but he is not at that level yet.

  15. #15
    The metal spinning toolrest arrived today and seemed to be typical Oneway quality, very well made. I tried to get some 1100 aluminum locally but couldn't find any so a few 8" discs were ordered from the source John Jordan mentioned earlier. They should arrive early next week. That should give some time to make the mandrel out of some scrap MDF lying around. My first project is to reproduce the part shown below. It's about 3" in diameter and seems simple enough. No doubt I'll discover all of the complexities in making it.

    010.jpg
    Last edited by Steve Mathews; 08-11-2017 at 10:30 PM.

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