Fred Williamson's lathe

[iclark]

there have been discussions here of adding weight to the lathe to reduce vibration.

Frew Williamson did the demo last month at the local woodturners club.
it was remarkable what he could do on a heavy-duty Oneway lathe and he brought a number of custom tools that he has developed.

for his home shop, he has evolved a custom-built lathe that I thought the turners here would like to see:
http://www.fredwilliamson.com/Pages-Main/My-Lathe.htm

in addition to the cast concrete and steel bearing support for the lathe,
do note the asymmetric toolrest in the first picture.
he brought a couple of those rests with him that he used. he said that it really helps working on the inside of the bowls. he has them made up in a local-to-him machine shop. he also brought a toolrest that he uses for parting the bottom of the bowl that is just a post with the top ground into a flat toolrest.

Ivan

[ashbury]

After looking at this work I don't think I shall ever try turning anything again. No, not even a pen. A true artist and craftsman.

Ashbury

[iclark]

After looking at this work I don't think I shall ever try turning anything again. No, not even a pen. A true artist and craftsman.

based on his comments and discussions at the meeting, Fred would be disappointed to hear that first part. he is definitely a true artist and craftsman, but it was also obvious in person that he really enjoyed sharing his techniques and knowledge. he brought handouts describing his techniques (basically what he has posted on his site) and he answered any questions we asked - even one of my dumb ones - with politeness and information.

I am in awe of what he can do. I never expect to be able to do what he does. actually, I don't even expect to try, because I haven't been bitten by the thin-elegant-artsy-bowl bug.
he did inspire me to really want to do some turning, but I have some old-fashioned (and out-of-style) items that I have been itching to make.

I look forward to seeing some pictures of your future turnings. I'll post mine when I eventually get them done.

Ivan

[dlbristol]

Amazing!! He is obviously a very skilled turner, but equally skilled at the mechanical end of things as well.

[paul269]

Thanks for the post. I enjoyed looking at Mr.Williamson’s site.

I hope I am not hijacking your thread but I have a question for the turners.

Short of making a lathe from concrete, how do you add weight to the shopsmith?

I don’t have the speed reducer and the shopsmith is light. In the past I have added sand bags to the ends. Is anyone else adding weight somehow?

[ryanbp01]

I guess I don't get it. Whenever I have turned something, my Shopsmith doesn't need weight added to it. I haven't experienced the machine moving around on it's own. Why is the added weight necessary?

BPR

[beeg]

Added weight needed is for turning out of balanced wood.

[wildcard]

My guess would be, if you drilled some holes in the legs of the SS, going accross the width of the inside of the legs and mounted some galvanized pipes, you could put allot of weight lifting weights on those pipes and add allot of weight to the SS.

Not sure if this would work, but its the idea i had for adding weight to it. Just have to get the parts and money to try it.