I've been meaning to post this for a long time but I'm lazy. I spoke with Any Hoyt and he goaded me into finally posting it. (My spell checker doesn't know Hoyt. It suggests Hot, Hoot, and Host. Andy our hot host, what a hoot!!) I also wasn't sure where to post it. I've split it in half. The visits to the turners I'll post here and the other visits in the off-topic forum. Hope that makes everyone happy.
In late November they hold Artists Open Studios in Northeast Connecticut. There are over 90 artists in 72 studio locations. I decided to visit wood workers and to concentrate on meeting the local wood turners but I missed some when I was sucked into the studio of a potter, a couple of photographers, and a gentleman who does pen and ink drawing. Still, I did visit a few wood workers.
I only visited three studios Saturday because I spent a good deal of time talking with people. As much as I wanted to see their work, I really wanted to talk with them.
My first stop was The Studios at Puddin Lane. This is Ken Langworthy's house. Behind his house he has a two car garage with a one car sized addition off the side. The driveway is buried under chunks of wood. The addition is the gallery and the garage is his shop. Ken was one of the nicest folks I met all day. Ken's shop is packed to the rafters with tools, bowls, wood, and unidentifiable stuff. There is only a narrow path to get from the door to the lathe, wood stove, and other tools.
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The first picture, above, is Ken behind his lathe. It is an older Delta lathe. Ken has limited vision so years ago the state gave him the lathe so he could make a living. You can barely see the green headstock and some of the original bed on the left. Ken was showing me the beefy extension bed he built for this end of the lathe. Also out of sight are the buckets of homemade turning tools that sit on the floor. On the wall to right you can see some store bought tools and under them some tools made from lawn mower blades. He had tools made from car springs, struts, large screw drivers, and other strange pieces of steel. A couple were made from steel bars from a loom and looked a lot like John Hart's Ugly Stick. He also had home made handles. Some of those were made from square steel stock, three feet long that had two quarter-inch bolts as set screws to hold the various cutters.
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The lathe was as eccentric as Ken and his tools. He explained the Delta lathe originally had five speeds, no reverse, and broke twelve dollar belts all the time. The lathe is now powered by what he describes as a hydraulic drive, as shown in the picture above. There is an electric motor on the top that turns something (pump, compressor?) that is hooked up to a transmission (PTO?) from a John Deere tractor. The output shaft turns a large plywood flywheel that powers the lathe via a long belt. He turned the electric motor on and by pulling out and pushing in a handle under the lathe bed, connected to a valve, he was able to continuously vary the speed of the lathe down to a crawl. He says the lathe has plenty of power/torque.
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In the studio portion of the shop, a long table was covered with a variety of turnings. I was intrigued by his wooden lamp shades. A couple are shown in the above picture. They are even more translucent than this picture would have you believe. Hard to take a picture of a lamp in broad daylight with the camera flash going off!
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I really liked this little bowl, about twelve inches in diameter, because he left some of the tree so you can get a feel for the size of burl in relation to the tree.
He also had some off axis pieces that were interesting. The outside of the vessel turned on one axis while the inside was turned on another axis giving the wall of the vessel a varying thickness.
As Ken handled that piece, holding it at the end of his nose so he could see it and rubbing his hands all over it I realized he "sees" his work differently than those of us with sight.
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(I heard he has a OneWay) Perhaps if we meet at the turner's club he'll warm up. Clearly, he was set up and prepared to met folks looking to buy art not talk turning. 
Originally Posted by Andy Hoyt
I was hoping the hydraulic drive might inspire you!
