flames

Below is a pic from Höhler, Hobler, Rindenschäler, Sägeführungen, Kettenfräsen, Kleinsägewerke, Messhilfen, Bohrgeräte, Seilwinden, Sägebock, Holz - Spaltgeräte, Schubkarren, Schärfmaschinen, Windräder, Motorgeräte, Schleif-Service,, their 'hole borer attachment is 215CHF (~£157) don't know if that includes the drill bit. I'll make you one for that price! Otherwise go buy yourself a bit of bar and an angle grinder... But seriously msg me if you want some assistance.

Some great turnery posted recently! Here's one I've finished the other the day; Spalted Hornbeam (sorry not the best photography)

re drying 'big lumps', simple answer - don't. It's not really practical, and the risk of excessive cracking is very high. Most people, including myself, rough turn, then dry, then finish turn. This is obliviously is not an exhaustive explanation.

-you sure that's burr Oak, looks like Olive Ash to me. Either way, nice bit of wood, nice bowl, good going from a small lathe.

Carefully! No, actually there's no magic involved, you just start with a good wall thickness and progressively work your way from the outside Ø to the centre in a series of stepped cuts. That way you always have material supporting the finished wall thickness. Hope that makes sense.

You're most welcome Sloth! Yew and others also here: I've nearly finished a nice NE bowl from some more of that spalted Hornbeam - pics to follow.

Thanks Steve, it's routing to the depth I thought would be difficult, I realise about the multi pass method. It's arbtalk that rotates the pictures, they're not like that on my PC, no idea how to stop it doing that.

Yes, I had thought about routing it out, but I don't currently have any bit that are wider that the router spindle, as the recess is 3" deep, should just about be possible. -next time, pics to follow

Yeah, this is definitely the best configuration from a looks point of view. Nice piece of timber too. The cross recess for the feet was a pain, and I'd welcome any suggestions on how to do it more easily, as I'm no master carpenter. All I did this time was to cut the edges with the circular saw, then make more parallel cuts before chiselling the rest out, and where needed using the power file. The acquisition of that monster 9"x2" framing chisel certainly helped speed things up.

No. 3 with integrated feet.

Finish is Danish oil. It'll need another coat once the wood has dried more. The nuts are M8, I use them becuase they are stainless steel (and I had them already ) Thanks for the offer, I might take you up in that. What are they made from?

Funny you should say that, that was exactly what I had intended to do, but as with all these projects I do, my time was quite limited, so I thought I'd see how it looked just fixed on the bottom, client was v-happy with the result. How ever I've another one of these to do, so if I've chance I'll try it then. Cheers.

-made another one

-peed it down today, but don't worry plenty on people with a 4x4, bring a tow rope maybe Anyone from the milling/craft forum section going tomorrow?

The above reminded me that I took a few re-build & test pictures... For comparison: new Chinese piston compared to genuine Stihl one (on right with rings fitted). I fitted the genuine Stihl cylinder & piston. Vac./pressure test. Tach. and temp. sensors & test cut: 50" - 8-9k rpm loaded in cut. (Unloaded 13k rpm, tuned a little rich to run a little cooler for milling.) After short milling cut: Idle speed 2.5k rpm, temp: 171°C (Max temp after 5min mill cut: 200°C, Idle temp after few mins about 130°C.) Sensor in fins above exhaust port. I can't take any credit for the use of these sensors, I've just copied an Australian chap, - to compare and monitor how my saw runs during milling. FYI this is a cheepo tach no good for tuning, refresh time is far too slow. I used a wireless Fast Tach for that.

Where was this back in Feb... STIHL LATER VERSIONS MS880 CYLINDER & PISTON ASSEMBLY (60MM) NEW 1124 020 1209 | eBay -anyone used one of these yet?

I would imagine it's a DIY'er, 3/4"/19mm round bar with a flat on one side, bit of an additional recess to clear the chain, and a couple of tapped holes to fix it to the saw bar. I could make you one for a price

-like 7th' says, should be fine, keep the speed down, and clear the chips from the bore, the only time I stalled my 2kW lathe was when the chips backed up in the hole. N.B. the self feed cutters, (dewalt ones) say not to use them in a drill press. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe because the screw could pull the morse taper out of the quill - so perhaps drill a pilot hole 1st if using this type of cutter.

-you could use your alaskan to make the 1st cut, then use a mini-mill setup to cut the side profile with a bit of a guide curve. You could then cut the top profile in a similar method using the off as a flat surface to run on (and cut through). Using milling in this way would save a lot of time in carving I would have thought.

It is true that a rotary phase converter might be more servicable, but they are very costly to run, as its convertor motor has to run continuously which wastes energy, I would imagine the the energy cost would go a good way to paying for a replacement inverter over say a 10 year life span. Having said that I have been running a 4kW TECO inverter, (stand-by power 20W) for over 8 years without fault, and it has stopped me burning out my machines motors several times (wireless overload protection). Also don't overlook an inverter is very compact (mine's about the size of a toaster), and typically have a whole host of other advantageous functions too. Sorry of I've miss understood your statement about "inverse connection to the torque value" but I think what you've said is wrong, - (simplistically) a VFC induction motor will give you constant torque up to the rated speed, and then constant power above the rated speed. This is what you would want in most mechanical applications. Some good examples here: Drives Direct - Digital Phase Converters - Home Page -and google...

'drives direct', see on ebay, an inverter is by far the best way to go!

no worries, took me a bit of googling to find what I wanted, and I already had a smaller set of 'self feed cutters' Also check this out (find courteous of delabodge): [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWb_a5mIX88]Drilling with Chainsaw, Special Tool Stihl www.bsjw.ch - YouTube[/ame]

Could it be turner and textured Tony? What's your time scale? -and how big do you what it? Tom

-enough -true you wouldn't want it to fall on you, but as it's heavy and with it's 16" wide base it's quite stable. In fact a child would need to push/pull it with a force of more than 20kg at about 700mm from the ground before it would start to tip, and then it would need to move more than 15 degrees before it would start to fall under its own weight. I know I thought that too..., but actually the alcoves are 2 bottles deep, so that's 9, and if you lay bottles on their side, you could get get 13 in, but this thing is for show not function. Bit is a Dewalt 92mm diameter self feed cutter, bought via amazon. Ian's right Rob, it's mounted in the lathe chuck. My lathe uses a 3hp motor, 2:1 transmission, driven at about 700rpm. Thanks for reminding me, I still need to get that form in Thanks for all the +ve comments chaps, and sorry some of the pics came in at 90deg, couldn't understand why, but think I know now.

A new addition to my DIY mill family: a mini mill. A few pieces of wood and a piece of old mill... worked really well, accurate and fast. (thanks for the ripping chain Rob D) (see more here: )