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Lathe & Ornamental Turning Work

This section will hold technical information on the tools and techniques of the ornamental turning I practice. There is some background information in the Archived Site here. This deals with the adaptation of a machinist's lathe to do basic ornamental turning. At present, I use four lathes in my work:

1. A Grizzly machinist's lathe for basic milling operations and some basic OT work,
2. A Cler Rose Engine/OT lathe for the rose engine work, curvilinear work, etc.
3. A Nova 3000 for plain turning, especially the hollow turned vessels, and
4. A Carba-Tec mini-lathe for small plain turning details.

Building this website in early 2006 has been a time-consuming task, and the aesthetics of my ornamental turning will be the focus of this new website, so as time allows in the future, some technical material/photos may be added here.

For those interested in building or buying a rose engine lathe, check out the great plans for a home-built rose engine by Jon Magill, available from the Ornamental Turners International website or the American Association of Woodturners website, or consider investing in the rose engine lathe designed and manufactured by Lindow-White Machine Works. Josh Salesin has an excellent website, ornamentalturning.net, with many resources for anyone interested in any facets of ornamental turning.