Preparing the Wood

For the majority of the work I do, I use the Taig metal lathe.  For the initial preparation of wood, however, I use a Central Machinery wood lathe.  The Central Machinery lathe is, quite frankly, not a very good tool.  This particular model, though, has a few useful features: 1) it's relatively inexpensive; 2) it has a variable-speed motor; and 3) it has the same 3/4-16 headstock thread as the Taig.  This means that I can use the same chucks on the wood lathe as I use on the Taig.  This picture shows the Central Machinery lathe, some blanks ready to be turned, and the gouges that I use for turning wood:

The first step in preparing the wood is to make square wood into round wood.  Notice that I do not use a drive center, as is common with most wood-turning.  Instead, I use a 4-jaw Taig lathe chuck.  This gives me a positive grip on the wood without needing to rely on the teeth of a drive center.  This picture shows a blank in the wood lathe, ready to be turned:

The object of this exercise is to produce a cylinder of wood that is of  approximately consistent diameter.  Turning wood on a wood lathe is a "freehand" operation, and I'm not sufficiently skilled to turn wood to small tolerances.  Therefore, my final step in preparing the wood is to use the Taig lathe to get the entire piece to a consistent diameter.  This picture shows the wood being turned on the Taig.  Note that I'm using the live center in the Taig tailstock, and I'm turning the wood using a "right-hand" tool (i.e. a tool that cuts right to left):

Once the wood has been prepared, I use the bandsaw to cut a piece in the desired length.  For a Big Daddy tamper, this is about 2-1/4" long.  Once I have cut the wood to length, I use the Taig lathe to drill a 5/16" hole through the wood and to square both ends.  The finished piece looks like this:

Next: Assembling the Barrel

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Last modified: 12/08/02