Greetings and a few initial questions.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Hi All,

My name is Joshua and I am new to the creek. I just joined a few days ago and to be honest I just started turning. I have a cousin that bought a lathe on a whim, the wretch! , and now a few weeks later here I am with a new lathe, some tools a few beginner style attempts under my belt and I am thoroughly hooked. Just a few weeks in and I am having a blast.

But of course I have lots and lots of questions. First off, anyone else here on the Creek out in the SLC, Utah area?

And now for the questions that I have found a bit pressing. My first set of tools were not HSS. Being new I of course bought a set of tools for a whopping $9 and I got what I paid for. Having read here about better tools and the difference that they can make I went out and got some nicer HSS tools but still the beginner quality. Actually following a few posts here I found a local Harbor Freight and got there $38 set. Wow that is a lot of setup for this question... sorry. I was turning a dried Maple bowl blank I bought from McBeaths hardwoods here in SLC and it was very dry and very very hard to work. It did work but it was much more difficult than some green/waxed stuff I bought off of ebay. The tips of the tools I was using all have dark discolorations now. Appears to be blue for the most part. I read here about that in general and comments where made about heating things up too much and destroying the temper of the tools. I was wondering if that is what I did. Does having that discoloration mean I ruined them already? Or is it more normal? I would love any advice or information anyone would care to share because I am truly at a loss to know what it means and what to do.

Oh and this blue discoloring has happened to my parting tool, and several of the gouges. Well to be honest to all of the tools I was using to work on the bowl. Is this indicative of what I was doing? them being lower quality tools? both together?

I had a few more questions but this I think has gotten long enough for a first post so I think I will leave it here. Though if anyone wants to talk about sharpening especially as it relates to the above. I would love to have that conversation.

Thanks,
Joshua

[Paul Engle]

First WELCOME to the creek Joshua, you will find a ton of help here. Look in the SLC for a club ... formost and most importantly , they will be able to show you hands on, second is " SHARP " tools, dull tools rub and get hot with out cutting. Green wood is good to start on as it is easier to turn but harder to dry with out cracking , warping is good and ok. There are many threads describing some of the things you are asking about , check these out thru the " search " at the top of the page, ie, say " gouges", or sharpening or green wood, I cannot say enuf about locating a club, you can google " wood turning clubs " most of the guys would be happy to mentor you.
Utah Association of Woodturners
Telephone: (801) 485-3154
Richard Stucki – dickstucki@attbi.com
Salt Lake City Area

[Dennis Peacock]

Joshua,

Welcome to the Creek!!!!
Glad you're here...bunch of fine folks we have here.

On your turning tools.....first things first....you need to find out what kind of steel your turning tools are made from. Standard carbon steel tools will be much less expensive than the High Speed Steel tools that you really need for turning...especially on dry wood due to heat at the cutting edge.

You can easily find out what steel your tools are by putting one of them up to the grinder and watch the sparks coming off the wheel. If the sparks come off and break apart...kinda like a sparkler on the 4th of July, then it's standard carbon steel. If the sparks coming off don't fracture and appear to be primarily single little sparks, then the steel is HSS.

If your tools are HSS, then the discoloration at the tool tips is just that, discolored and you have lost no temper of the steel. If they are carbon steel, then yes, you have lost the temper of the steel and what needs to be done to use those tools again is to grind away the discoloration and reprofile your tools.

Harbor Freight has a set of HSS turning tools that are relatively inexpensive and you can use those to learn turning and sharpening with as well as helping you decide which tools you will use the most and those are the tools you'll want to purchase of a good quality tool. Crown, Sorby, P&N, and others are top notch turning tools...Even Packard's own brand are good turning tools.

Oh yea....welcome to the Vortex!!!!

[Ron Ainge]

Joshua

I have a brother that live on the west side of the SLC valley and he tells me that there is a Woodcraft store in Murry (I believe) that you should get to know. They probably have some demos there that would be helpful in learning to turn. they also have most of the tool brands that have been mentioned in other posts.

You in Utah are lucky to have some of the best turners in the world close to you. Every June BYU has a symposium that last for 3 days and they bring in turners from all over the world. you can learn more there in three days than you would ever learn by yourself in a life time. You also have one or the best turning supply stores in the country located in Provo called Craft Supply USA. http://www.craftusa.com/

Best wishes in your new hobby and welcome to the creek.

[Ron Ainge]

I forgot to tell you that if you call Craft Supply they can tell you if there are any wood turning clubs located in Utah. I know that there is one that meets in the Orem area, but I don't know about any others.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Joshua - Welcome to the Creek!

You stated that you picked up the HSS set of tools from Harbor Freight - great set to start out with! Only problem with that is that a bowl gouge is not part of the set - if I remember correctly. Part of the problem turning the hard maple blank could be that you are using the wrong tool. Just a guess on my part.

Good advice from everyone so far and I also agree that you should find a local club. As others have already stated - it would help you out in a big way and also a great way to make a bunch of new friends!

Have fun and we all look forward to seeing some of your turnings!

[Nancy Laird]

Craft Supply is in Provo, not far from you. I'd suggest that you contact/visit them and talk to them about the turning tools you need/want/would like to have, and they will have referenced for you to turning clubs in the area.

Nancy (106 days)

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Hello Dennis,

Thanks for the reply.

On your turning tools.....first things first....you need to find out what kind of steel your turning tools are made from.

Sorry I was trying to be clear in what I wrote first and apparently I meandered a bit too much. I have 2 sets. The first ones I bought were the the carbon steel $9 set and they are very clearly the cheap quality. I did some more research since my first post and they were harbor freight's
$9 every day set. The new set is definitely being advertised as the HSS. Each tool actually has that, HSS, marked on it. Now they could be lieing to me but... hehehe

If your tools are HSS, then the discoloration at the tool tips is just that, discolored and you have lost no temper of the steel.

Ah excellent. I was afraid I had already ruined the new set of tools in such a short amount of time.

Harbor Freight has a set of HSS turning tools that are relatively inexpensive and you can use those to learn turning and sharpening with as well as helping you decide which tools you will use the most and those are the tools you'll want to purchase of a good quality tool.

Hehehe. Absolutely. I actually went and found this new HSS set as a result of reading posts on here over the last little while. This suggestion, and it is an excellent one, was made here several times and has been quite valuable to me. "Ruining" a $36 set of tools is far less of a waste in my mind that ruining a $100 single tool. Call me strange.

Thanks again for the reply. I appreciate the help.

Joshua

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Hi Paul,

Look in the SLC for a club

I am hoping to find one. One of the reasons I asked is that a google search turned up the Creek but nothing in SLC. I must be doing it wrong or something. Was hoping to find someone local that could point me to a club as a starting place.

I have used the search feature a lot of the last week or so. Even before I joined, much much easier once you are member! I found lots of mentions of blueing on the tools which is helped me know what was going on but no clear, to me at least, descriptions of what it really meant. Trust me I will continue to search like a mad man as I put this all together.

The questions I had on sharpening weren't really the mechanics. people have been very clear on get, or make a good jig, etc... The questions I had where about where to find a grinder of the right speed as everything in town is in the 3650 range, and where to buy the special cool running wheels people talk about etc... I have seen the swing wildly in price on various websites from $10 to $90 per wheel and according to those sites every one of them is the best ever made.

Thanks for the reply and pointer on searching for the local clubs.
Joshua

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Hi Ron,

You in Utah are lucky to have some of the best turners in the world close to you. Every June BYU has a symposium that last for 3 days and they bring in turners from all over the world.

Oh now that is indeed great news! I am sorry I got addicted, I mean into this after that point. I will have to plan for that next year! Sweet!

You also have one or the best turning supply stores in the country located in Provo called Craft Supply USA.

That is great to know as well. I just called them up online and I am looking over the site now. Thanks for all of the great information!

Joshua

[Dennis Peacock]

Joshua,

One thing to remember when sharpening your turning tools....sharpening at the grinder is supposed to be a relaxed process. Too much pressure during the grinding process only generates excessive heat and makes your turning tools a funny color at the cutting edges so all your turning friends can make fun of you.

Post some pics of your setup...show us a turning or two. Pics man...we like PICS!!!

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Too much pressure during the grinding process only generates excessive heat and makes your turning tools a funny color at the cutting edges so all your turning friends can make fun of you.

Post some pics of your setup...show us a turning or two. Pics man...we like PICS!!!

Hehehe. I haven't actually sharpened the HSS set yet. Didn't seem worth trying until I had a jig of some flavour up and running. I have watched videos online of people trying to sharped them by hand and I just don't have that skill level yet. So the discoloring really is all from the wood. Really... I promise.... No one saw me and you can't prove anything.

I will post some pics as soon as I can get them down from my camera. I started with a green/waxed Black Walnut bowl of about 4x3, then only to an apple out of dried maple that smashed up part the little chuck I had it in, to a better apple with the new chuck, to a lidded box, to the large dried Maple bowl. All of this between last Friday night and this last Monday. Hey I had a long weekend and needed to make use of it.

Joshua

[Bernie Weishapl]

Welcome Joshua to SMC. Enjoy the vortex of turning.

[glenn bradley]

Welcome Joshua and enjoy the vortex. I am still standing on the rim and have not started down that most slippery of slopes so I'll let the fellas that make spinny things help you out there. Just wanted to say welcome.

[Curt Fuller]

Welcom Joshua!

There are only a few turners here at SMC that I'm aware of from Utah. But believe me, in Utah you're kind of in the vortex of the vortex of woodturning. I sent you a PM with some specifics but I don't think you'll have to look far for turning advice.