The Renaissance Woodworker

This week I give you one more small project idea for really, really late Christmas gifts. I turn this bottle stopper out of Zebrawood using a Penn State bottle stopper chuck. I mention some of my booty from Christmas and announce a new special feature for the podcast. The blog of the week is The [...]

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I got an email the other day from Todd O up in Minnesota. Todd took up the challenge of my audience participation turning project put forth in episode 9 and made his very own Euro Screw Cap pen. Shannon, I finally was able to turn my pen (pictures attached). I made it out of ebony, [...]

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Ok folks, here is the long promised video of our first audience participation turning project. I pulled out all the stops on this one and chose one of my cream of the crop blanks in my stash. This is also my first attempt as compiling a complete video. I had a lot of fun making [...]

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This week we will start the first in a series of audience participation turning projects. The pen you see above is an example of the project we tackle this week. Today’s podcast discusses what you will need as well as the basic process to create this beautiful pen. Throughout the week I will release additional [...]

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The charity auction I have mentioned in my podcast is this weekend and I needed to get a pen done to go with the Sushi box I already made. (post for that coming soon) As this auction is sponsored by a church I decided to break out some of the Olive wood I have from [...]

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Welcome back to the latest installment of the Renaissance Woodworker podcast. Stay tuned to the blog this week for releases on the infamous sharpening station, the sushi box, and a maybe some more. In the coming episodes of RWW I will be discussing some projects that we can all work on together in the same [...]

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For all of you that have been listening to my turning related podcasts and thinking about making the plunge you must check out the sale that Woodcraft is having on Sorby turning tools. Many of you may have already received this flyer in the mail but I wanted to highlight it here since Sorby makes [...]

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This week I discuss my Sushi box design and build, the new Rockler wall mounted dust collector, the blogosphere impact, and field a question from Wilf on turning steel recognition. Here is the link on steel spark patterns to identify the type of steel you are grinding: Pen turning is a great entry to wood [...]

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In this week’s episode I pull out the jump rope and barbells and do some turning tool exercises. These exercises are designed to give the new turner a feel for the major tools. I focus primarily on spindle tools today as faceplate turning with bowl gouges should really be a topic for it’s own podcast. [...]

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In this week’s episode I discuss the principles of turning tool handling. 1. Match the speed of the lathe to the size of your work piece -Under 2 1/2″ square: 2000 rpm, over 24″ long: 1500 rpm -2 1/2″ – 4″: 1500 rpm, over 24″ long: 1000 rpm -over 4″: 1000 rpm, over 24″ long: [...]

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