Sampling of Finished Pieces
Some of my woodworking machines
I had my first experience with a wood lathe in my high school woodshop class in 1983. It was fun, but it also was a disaster. When I was an electrician stationed on a submarine, we had a metal lathe. I never got to use it, but I really enjoyed watching the machinists use it. My wife bought me a Shop Smith machine in the late 90’s. We moved households many times back then so I really never used it significantly, but I tried several times.
We have since established ourselves in Millville, NJ, living here since 2000. I was introduced to a woodturning club that was newly formed in 2002. The club had a couple of “Master” woodturners as members as well as some “Rookie” woodturners. I definitely fell into the rookie status. For the next few years I attended the monthly woodturning meetings religiously and learned a lot. I actually didn’t start turning for a couple of years. I took the time to learn as much as possible before I started my own woodturning experience.
Eventually I bought a vintage Oliver wood lathe and started my venture in woodturning. I started off making wooden bowls. With that lathe I could turn up to a 12 inch bowl. I then bought a large lathe. It is about 100 years old and has the ability to turn 36 inch diameter and 12 foot in length. At this point I learned how to turn large bowls and fell in love with bowl making.
Along the way I have picked up several other lathes, including vintage pattern maker lathes and modern state of the art lathes. The number of lathes I have in my workshop continues to vary and I currently have 20 lathes.
I am a member and past president of the Cape Atlantic Woodturners, a club based in southern NJ. I am also a member of two other woodturning organizations, the American Association of Woodturners and the World Wide Woodturners. By being an active member in these woodturning groups, it allows me to stay informed of new techniques and procedures that enhance the art and craft of woodturning.