How do you orient your lathe?

[Mike Peace]

I am with Jeff on this. Put at an angle with the Headstock end closet to wall but far enough away to easily use the knock out bar. This will maximize your space while still allowing you to work on the far side of turn from the end when you slide the headstock down.

[Darrell Duvall]

I just bought a used Powermatic lathe and a bunch of tools. I am getting it set up in my shed. I have some large windows that face north. Is it better to work with natural light or artificial? I have several light bulbs in the ceiling but overall this old shed is pretty dark except in front of the windows.

How do you store your tools? The man I bought them from had them sticking up in buckets sitting on the floor. He knew which one was which by what color was on the handle. He had different buckets for different kinds of tools. One bucket was scrapers, one was bowl gouges, one was spindle gouges and so on. I barely know which one is which and looking at the ground ends which are all different makes me wonder why he had so many different shapes on his bowl gouges. Lots of different sizes and lengths also. I have more than 90 tools to figure out. Some are easy, skew chisels, scrapers but all the different gouges make my head spin.

Is there a thread on here somewhere where someone explains all these different tools?

He also had some tools which his son said were carbide tipped. Some are round and some are square. These tools have double grip handles. What is that for? To choke up like a bat? They seem to tear up the wood pretty bad no matter what speed you run the lathe at. The gouges give me better cuts. So do the scrapers. The skew chisel seems to be easy to use just like a knife while whittling but I can't do much more than cut things round and smooth with it. Right now I am turning pine and oak 2x2 and 4X4 pieces left over from construction jobs. My shed is full of leftover wood which is why I bought the lathe to use it up for toys and stuff.

I know I have a lot to learn and I am not afraid to ask stupid questions so be patient. I only know one thing for sure and that is I don't know it all.

I have lots to learn and I am going to meet a man who does turning who is going to give me lessons. I was hoping to learn a little before I met him. How about books? Any books that might help?

[Rex Guinn]

Jon,
My pm is at 30deg to the wall so I can slide the headstock and still have room to work. My shop is only 9ft wide. It works out for my situation.

[Jon Prouty]

I had a couple hours last night to clean up a bit. Still have some rearranging to do to fit my daughters new Jet mini lathe in here somewhere. I feel better showing this picture than the messy one.

Jon
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