Richard Findley - Making fluted table legs – November 2012

Richard Findley was our demonstrator for November. Richard is based in Leicester where he worked with his father and got interested in woodturning during his lunch breaks. He moved to being a full time professional woodturner in 2010. He also writes the Diary of a Woodturner in Woodturning magazine. He does a lot of production turning including the walking sticks that he demonstrated in the 2nd half of the evening.

The first half was taken up with a demonstration of making fluted table legs using some of his own home made jigs. He uses a template drawn onto a thin timber with a ½ shape drawn showing the position and size of the features marked but not cut out.

Richard tends to use 3 main tools – a roughing gouge, a ⅜” spindle gouge, which has the heel taken off to make it easier to get round tight curves, giving him smoother cuts (he makes sure he has the same grind on all his spindle gouges) and his favoured skew chisel is a ⅜” squared beading/parting tool.

He marks out the square part which he turns first to preserve the edges. The 2 pencil lines are drawn using an L shaped piece of wood in order to mark 2 sides at the same time and ensuring the lines are parallel Using the long point of his skew he cuts in a V, working back to the line, holding his tool at an angle with the bevel in line with the cut to get the square corner.

Lines are drawn on the rest of the piece just to make out the main details. He starts with all the sizing cuts first then shapes afterwards. He uses his Vernier gauge to measure the correct sizes but reminded us to file off the points of the gauge in order to prevent a catch. For safety reasons if you are not confident it may be better to stop the lathe before measuring.

Richard Findley - Making fluted table legs – November 2012

Richard marks the position of the bead and then draws a centre line to ensure that the bead ends up equal on both sides. He uses the long point of the skew and an underhand hold, which helps him see what is happening.

The cove is turned with a spindle gouge – it should a flowing shape with a crisp edge. He cuts on the vertical edge with the flute on its side to start, the handle low and then lifting the bevel in line. He suggests making a series of experimental lines so the gouge doesn’t jump back. Richard stands to one side and leans back so that his body doesn’t get in the way of the gouge. He works on one side and then the other moving his body to get the shape.

A sizing cut is made at the bottom in the waste part of the wood. To get the taper he lifts the gouge handle but doesn’t change the position of the tool rest. The skew chisel with a planing cut is used to get a smooth finish. If the wood gets too shiny there is too much pressure on the skew. The piece is sanded to 180 grit.

The next step is the cut the flutes. Richard uses a home- made indexing jig. This is a flat circle of MDF with holes drilled at equal intervals round the edge. The one he used only had 12 holes but 24 would be better because there are more options for the number of flutes that can be cut.

The disc is held in place with a simple latch bolt lock which is mounted on the tool rest.

Richard Findley - Making fluted table legs – November 2012

Richard uses another home-made jig to hold his router at the correct height. The lathe should be switched off when plugging in the router to save accidents. A base to hold the router jig is mounted on the bed of the lathe and held in place with G-clamps.

A wooden collar is fitted over the cutter to the correct drill depth.

A 4-prong drive and ring centre hold the leg at each end. The router in its jig is moved backwards and forwards across the leg gradually getting deeper. If you are not cutting to the ends cutting should be started in the middle and not at the end. It is important to avoid burning the wood, which cheap cutters can cause – Richard buys his from Wealdens (www.wealdentool.com).

As each flute is finished the indexing disk is turned to the next slot and secured, the process is repeated for each flute. The flutes are then hand sanded without the lathe being switched on. Do not attempt to sand with the lathe turning as the crisp edges of the flutes will be destroyed.

Richard Findley - Making a Walking Stick – November 2012

After the break Richard’s 2nd demonstration was for a walking/swagger stick. He has made over a 1000 of these in the last 5 years and as he is only paid £15 each he needs to have a speedy way of making them – taking about 15 minutes each, the fastest being 11 minutes!

Richard uses steamed beech because it is a bit more stable and easy to work with and is fairly straight grained. He doesn’t hold the wood between centres because it puts too much pressure at each end. He first mounts a Jacobs chuck– making sure it is firmly held in place by tapping it with a dead blow mallet which has lead shot inside and then placing the tool rest - to drill the hole in both ends of the wood (this helps later when the stick is sprayed).

The wood is mounted onto a home-made screw chuck. To ensure the chuck is absolutely straight he mounts the screw into the Jacobs chuck first and turns off the wood before turning it round. He has a wooden spacer turned to the size of the stick which saves time on measuring. To support the other end of the wood he uses a Multistar ring centre in the tail stock – this gives the wood more support and has an adjustable point allowing the wood to be just gripped without applying too much pressure.

To avoid using a short tool rest which would have to be constantly moved along the stick, Richard uses a home-made wooden tool rest the full length of the stick – using oak as this is more stable. This is mounted into the tool rest at one end and held in place at the other with G-clamps, mounted slightly higher than normal. It is also supported in the middle with blocks of wood. He waxes the tool rest to help moving the tool along.

When turning a long piece the speed is very important– too fast will set up resonance and the wood will bounce. He keeps the speed low – around 700-900 rpm, depending on the lathe. Richard starts at the tailstock end and having cut in to the correct width for the ferrule with his skew he uses a roughing gouge to turn down the wood from square. He supports the wood with one hand, keeping his thumb on the tool rest, this cuts down the time he would need if he used steadies.

Richard Findley - Making a Walking Stick – November 2012

To take the wood down to the final taper (22mm – 18mm) he works ‘uphill’ as the small taper is not worth worrying about, with his roughing gouge using a smooth body movement from one end to the other in one go. It is important to avoid a straight stick with a small taper at the end as this doesn’t look right. When nearing the finish he still uses the roughing gouge with a slow pass then faster for a better finish.

This is followed by sanding, initially with a long strip of 80 grit abrasive allowing him to correct the taper if necessary. He increases the speed (although you would normally turn it down for sanding) to 12-1400 rpm – it is very important to keep moving. The 1st grit is the most important. Richard then stops the lathe and hand sands the work in line with the grain, this removes the cross grain scratches produced when the lathe is turning. He works down the grits making sure he wipes off the dust in between grits, this removes any bits of remaining grit that will mark the work He sands down with 120, 180 and 240 grit and the stick is finished with fine nyweb. The sticks will have 3 coats of black spray.

Richard also showed us another home-made jig – this time a steady that fits to the bottom of the lathe when he does have time to use one!

Some other examples of Richard’s work: