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Bowl Blanks - Getting Them Dry
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] One challenge to turning bowls, especially larger ones over eight inches in diameter, is that of drying them. As wood dries stresses in the wood fibre due to uneven water losses tend to cause warping and splitting. Since an eight inch bowl is likely to be at least two inches in thickness, there is likely to be quite a problem in drying the blanks. Each wood turner develops a personal technique for success.

Other Tools For the Woodturner - Getting Bowl Blanks Ready
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Once the lathe has been set up ready to go and the general turning tools sharpened, there are still some tools that the woodturner needs before getting started. In particular, for making wooden bowls a chainsaw and a bandsaw are suggested. In order to turn a bowl, a bowl blank is needed and for that we turn to these familiar tools.

Quick Wood Lathe Chucks - Wood and Glue
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood lathes have been around so long that pictures of them can be found on the walls of Egyptian pyramids. During the thousands of years that we have been using them, various ways of holding work on the lathe have been developed. One such for faceplate work is the glue and paper joint but modern glues have made it even better.

Screw Chucks on Wood Lathes - We Always Did it That Way
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] When wood turners speak about lathe chucks these days they usually mean the expensive four jaw style. However this is a recent innovation developed from the self centering chucks of the metal lathe industry. Woodturning has been around at least since the days when the ancient Egyptians put their pictures on the side of pyramids. The old timers often spoke of the screw chuck when they mentioned lathe chucks and the often made their own quickly and cheaply.

Wood Bowl Blanks - Easy Templates Help You Cut
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Bowls are round so bowl blanks are easiest turned on the wood lathe if they too are round. When cut from the log they are rectangular when seen from the top and are awkward to mark round for cutting. A few, simple, homemade templates make the process of marking and cutting easy.

Wood Bowl Blanks - Wet and Dry
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wooden bowls are the mainstay of many woodturners and an expectation of anyone looking at the work of a woodturner. In order to make a bowl, one needs a piece of wood called a bowl blank. These are either in wet or dry wood and need different techniques to finish the piece.

Wood Lathe Chucks - Not Necessary But Very Nice
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] Woodturning has been around since at least the time of the great pyramids of Egypt. In all that time there have been very few innovations in the craft. However, in the last few decades, the four jaw, self centering, wood lathe chuck has come into its own with myriads of jaw sets and sizes as well as competing manufacturers. While the chuck may not be necessary, it is certainly nice to use and makes some tasks easier and more enjoyable.

Woodturners and Band Saws - Good Friends in the Shop
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] Woodturners need wood to turn. This obvious statement quickly leads to the question of where to get the wood and then how to get it ready for the wood lathe? For most woodturners it begins with a chainsaw and then the band saw. Band saws are certainly the woodturner's friend in the woodworking shop.

Compost Bins - Make and Use Them With the Rule of Three
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost bins remove the mystery from composting for many people. For many years organic gardeners have known about the number three for composting. Here are a few ways that your composter can respond to the number three.

Compost Bins - Where to Put Them For Best Results
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost bins range from simple wire loops to quite elaborate constructs. Especially in the case of hot composting, they can take up a fair amount of room as a compost maker will generally have at least three bins, each of which will hold at least a cubic yard of compost. The question then is where to place the bin so as to make the best use of it.

Composting Bins - Keep the Sides Open
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Composting bins are a great help in developing a good composting system whether it be slow or fast composting. Composters know that three things are needed for a good system; food, water, and air. Do not let your bin sides ruin that for you.

Composting Machines - What Do You Really Need?
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Composting is the process of helping organic matter rot. Some machinery is necessary even if it is only a fork or shovel. What tools or machines are really necessary to produce good compost?

Home Composting - Making Use of the Fall For Spring Planting
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] The fall season brings in a lot of work for the home gardener. There are garden beds to clean up, harvest to accomplish, tools to make ready for winter storage and so on. At the same time, composting should not take a back seat to anything. After all, it was compost that was largely responsible for all that harvest bounty. Autumn is still a great time to make and use compost.

Home Composting - Taking Charge of the Fall Bounty
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] In the midst of fall harvest and cleanup, even the organic gardener can find him or her self neglecting the compost pile. However, this is one of the great seasons to compost with a rich bounty of materials available. In fact, once the last of the finished compost is distributed around the garden, there is now both need and space for making compost once again.

Homemade Compost Bins - Better Than You Can Buy
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost bins come in a myriad of styles from many suppliers but most if not all suffer from at least one problem, size. Yet a compost bin is not hard to make. A bit of time spent in the shop or garden can solve a lot of frustration from happening.

4 Favourite Tools For Composting
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Working a composting system, especially a quick one, takes a bit of work. Like most types of work, the proper tools make the composting go faster and more enjoyably. Here are four tools I use to get the job done.

Weeds in the Compost Pile - Should You Worry?
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Should weeds go in the compost pile, especially those with seeds? This question is bound to arise in midsummer as a bumper crop of weeds hits most gardeners. Here are some thoughts on the matter but you have to make up your own mind.

Your Garden Compost Bins - Sports Car Or Utility Vehicle
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Garden compost bins allow for the making of compost that will keep the home garden rich and productive for years to come. In fact the garden of a good composter should be in far better shape when it is left to the next landowner than when it was first acquired. While composting is a very natural system of helping things rot, home composting bins are frequently characteristic of the people who own and often make them. As we consider compost bin construction, we might consider if it will be fancy like a sports car or more functional in its simplicity like a utility vehicle.

Garden Compost Bins - Pitfalls of Recommendations
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Garden compost bins are one of the great assets of gardening. They provide an on the site source of fertilizer and soil amendments that will only increase the productivity and overall health of the garden as well as its fruits and vegetables. It is only right then that the garden composting bins themselves are made to be used.

Gardening With Compost - Dig it and Lay It
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] A good composting system can produce lots of ready organic matter for the garden, but what is a beginning gardener to do with it? So much is said about the warranted value of this black gold that there can be a quandary as how to best use it. Two of the basics are simple to dig it in and lay it down.

Home Composting - Keep it Going in the Fall to Be Ready For Spring
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Fall is the season with a lot to do for the organic gardener and in the midst of preparing garden beds for the winter sleep, final harvest, and putting away all those tools, composting can take a back seat. Exactly the opposite should be true. This is the season to put the effort into the compost piles so that next spring sees a great garden starting once again.

Woodturning Tools - Chainsaws and Bowl Blanks
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] In order to turn a bowl a woodturner needs a bowl blank. While they can be purchased from many suppliers, if you have a chainsaw it is cheaper to cut your own and more sizes are available. It also gives the satisfaction of proceeding from the log and finishing with a completed bowl.

Used Wood Lathe For Sale? Is it a Bargain Or a Bust?
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] So you have seen an add for a used wood lathe and you are on your way to see it. Will you find a bargain or a bust? What should you look for before parting with your hard earned cash?

Wood Lathe Tool Rests - Upkeep is Easy
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] The tool rest on a wood lathe is used just as the name implies, a tool shaft rests on it while the wood-turner moves the tool into the work beyond the rest. It is a simple looking device consisting of a welded T that fits into a movable base called a banjo. Yet even this simple device requires a bit of maintenance from time to time.

Wood Lathe Tool Rests - Use Them Safely
[Home-Improvement:Tools-and-Equipment] The tool rest on a wood lathe is a deceptively simple looking piece of work. It looks generally like a T held in a movable base called a banjo. Even such a simple accessory has its safety issues and they are easy to work with.

4 Things to Keep Woodturning Projects Safe
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning is safer than most style of woodworking but all work with power tools has its safety concerns. At all times, safety in the wood shop is the responsibility of the woodworker and standing at the wood lathe is no exception. Here are 4 things that can make the woodturning experience safer and therefore more enjoyable.

Bowl Blanks
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Bowl blanks are the heart of woodturning a bowl, whether salad or soup. While they are often for sale, they are simple to cut for yourself. Here are a few things to look for when looking for a bowl blank.

Bowl Blanks - Cutting Your Own
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] With a full log in front of a woodturner his thoughts turn to bunches of bowls. The question is how to get from the log to the lathe. With a chainsaw, it is easier than one might think.

Buying a Used Wood Lathe - Do You Want Accessories With That?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] When buying a wood lathe it should be remembered that there is a lot that is seldom included with the purchase. The lathe will generally be accompanied with one or two face plates for faceplate turning along with a spur center and tail stock center for spindle turning. Other tools and accessories are most often not included but are necessary to turn wood. The buyer of a used lathe is often able to get some good bargains at the same time as the lathe is purchased.

Wood Lathe Chucks - Do Not Forget the Jaws
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] These days when woodturners speak of wood lathe chucks, they mean the new style 4 jaw chuck. Most of these lathe chucks come with a set of middle size jaws and many others are for sale. Extra sets of jaws can make a versatile tool even better.

Wood Lathe Chucks - Is One in Your Future?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] The 4-jaw wood lathe chuck is one of the innovations in woodturning in the last century. For many of today's turners it has become a necessity. Is it in your future or is it a luxury that can wait?

4 Reasons to Make and Use the Versatile Oland Tool
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodworking tool suppliers have risen to the challenge of the woodturner's desire for more and better tools. Most woodturners are self taught with the result that beginners are not sure what tools to use and can become convinced that a new tool will greatly increase their woodturning ability. Quickly they realize that a great deal of money can be spent on tools and in fact many turners own tools with a value greater than that of their wood lathe itself. The Oland tool is a change from this position with its value and versatility.

Oland Tools - Make Them and Use Them For Woodturning Pleasure
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturners are compulsive tool buyers for the most part and tool suppliers are more than ready to cater to the impulse as evidenced by the vast arrays of tools in the catalogues. Some years ago, the late Knud Oland, a fine woodturner in his own right, developed a tool with the understanding that most turners would be able to make the tool for very little cost in the home shop. You can easily learn to make and use this versatile tool.

4 Things to Look For in Wood Turning Projects
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turners are continually looking for new challenges in the form of woodturning projects. However, not all projects are suitable for all turners. Here are 4 things to look for when choosing your next project.

Woodturning - Going Green From Start to Finish
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning is on the cutting edge of the green movement and is one of the hobbies most likely to stay there. Among woodworkers of all kinds, woodturners find it easiest to be a strong part of the ecologically friendly movement.

Woodturning - How Green Can it Be?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning has become a popular hobby at a time when we question how everything affects our ecology. The question arises as to the impact of woodturning on our environment. In other words, is woodturning a green activity?

Woodturning - Keeping it Safe
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning is one of the safest methods of woodworking in these days of power tools. However, there are always dangers when working with power tools and a few simple rules keep things safer and more enjoyable.

Woodturning - Sanding Has to Be Done, Efficiency Counts
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturners like to turn wood, look at wood and talk about wood, but very few like to sand wood. Yet it is a compulsory part of preparing a piece for a finish and has to be done. Therefore it is best done well and quickly.

Woodturning - Understanding Sandpaper
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturners use sandpaper to bring the surface of a turned piece into shaper for final finishing. In some cases a very fine sandpaper may be used to complete the finish itself, particularly if a lacquer finish has been applied. It helps to understand what sandpaper is in order to use it well.

Dust in the Wood Turner's Shop - Some Things to Consider
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Sanding woodturnings on the lathe creates a lot of dust, which can be a risk for the lungs and general health. There are some things one can do that can help the problem.

Wood Turning - After the Basic Tools, What Then?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Most of the basic woodturning tools such as cutting tools and the wood lathe itself have not really changed since the craft began. At the same time the tool catalogues are full of a bewildering array of accessories, add-ons and gadgets. Here are some thoughts on what may make turning more enjoyable.

Wood Turning and Dust - Stop it Before it Hits Your Lungs
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Like all woodworking participants, woodturners like to sand a piece before it gets a finish coat. This creates wood dust, often called sawdust even when it is not made by a saw, which can be a serious problem for the respiratory system, especially over time. While a lot of it can be collected at the source with a good dust collector, it is only reasonable to stop as much as one can before it hits the lungs.

Woodturning and Gardening - The Natural Hobby Blend
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Woodturning develops a problem that is easily solved, what to do with all those wood shavings? While some would say that the easiest answer is a snow shovel filling garbage bags for local pickup, another hobby, gardening, is a better solution. In fact it is better for both community and environment.

Wood Turning - Getting Started With the Basics
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning is becoming a popular addition to the woodworker's arsenal of skills. However, it can be a puzzle for the beginner as to what is needed to start with the wood lathe and what may already be around the shop. There are just a few basics needed to get started with this wonderful hobby.

Wood Turning - Reclaiming the Child Within
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Children have a great way of looking at the world with everything new and exciting. Woodturning is the sort of hobby that lets one reclaim that wonderful period of adventure and creation.

Woodturning Project - Is a Potato Masher in Your Future?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning requires some skills to be acquired and later mastered in order for lots of enjoyment at the wood lathe. Making an old style potato masher is a great way to learn many of those skills.

Wood Turning - Creation is Possible in the Midst of Recreation
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning is a facet of woodworking that not only encourages creativity but tends to develop it in people who thought that they were not creative. The wood lathe allows the creative juices to flow and lets the effect carry over to other parts of life.

Wood Lathes - What to Look For When You Buy Your First One
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Supplies] Purchasing your first wood lathe can be a confusing prospect but a few pointers can help with the selection. That first lathe can be the deciding factor as to whether a person continues with the craft and careful choices are a must.

Sharpening Woodturning Tools - Freehand Or Jig?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Supplies] Woodturners are divided over sharpening as to whether it should be done freehand or with a jig. Some thoughts are presented on both sides of the argument. Which ever side is decided upon, sharp tools are a must.

Sharpening Woodturning Tools - Brace Yourself For a Good Edge
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] The essence of woodturning finds the woodworker in front of a wood lathe with tool in hand, removing shavings of wood with various tools to leave a pile of shavings on the floor and a round, decorated item on the lathe. The nature of the wood and the speed of the lathe determine that tools must be sharpened often. While this is difficult for the new turner, a few tips are a great help.

Woodworking With the Wood Lathe - A Change of Pace
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood lathes can change the way that traditional woodworkers approach the work in the shop. Woodworking basics allow for an easy transition to the lathe while opening up new opportunities. There is also a more relaxed feel to woodworking on the lathe as compared to other power tools, allowing for even more stress relief in the wood shop.

Woodworking With the Lathe
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Traditional woodworkers are challenged by the wood lathe. Woodturning presents a new approach to woodworking that can be grasped by the traditional woodworker easily and open a door of opportunity to explore wood in a whole new way.

Wood Turning - Recreation and Creation Reducing a World of Stress
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning is a unique hobby allowing for a release of stress while making piles of shavings. It also allows for and encourages an attitude of creativity that increases the depth of recreation and develops a relaxed lifestyle.

Woodworking With the Wood Lathe - Learning to Relax
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning is a dramatic change for most woodworkers as they move from flat work such as desks and tables to the round world of the wood lathe. One of the things that is needed to be learned in the transition is the relative safety of the wood lathe as opposed to most other woodworking power tools. With tool in hand, the new woodturner now needs to learn to relax in the wood shop and let the shavings flow from the tool with a gentle swish.

Woodturning Tools - What to Look For
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Beginning woodturners have a difficult time deciding what tools are needed to begin the woodturning journey. While the catalogues from tool suppliers tend to have an overwhelming selection, only a few general tools are necessary to begin work at the wood lathe and for many wood turners the selection will not vary over their lifetime. Here we take a look and the basic tools needed by the vast majority of wood turning woodworkers.

Woodturning Tools - Learn to Use Them With a Project
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturning is a new venture for many woodworkers and requires and new skill set with new tools. The practise needed to acquire those new skills can be boring in its repetition or it can be interesting indeed. All it requires is to select beginner woodturning projects that use basic tools to accomplish the task while at the same time developing required skills in an interesting fashion.

Woodturning - The Magic of Three
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Prospective woodturners looking at most turned wood objects can be overwhelmed at the seeming complexity of the forms. Yet, like many things in life, the complex can be reduced to a few simple things is taken in small doses. The law of three makes the complex notions of woodturning simple and makes the wood lathe accessible to most any woodworker.

Woodturning - Getting Started With the Right Tools
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Most wood lathes are sold as just the lathe itself and it is still necessary to purchase the tools for making whatever projects are in mind. The choice of tools in the catalogues can be overwhelming but really only a few are needed to get one started at woodturning. Here the basics are introduced to aid the first time buyer.

Woodturning Projects - Why a File Handle is a Good Place to Start
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Choosing a woodturning project can be overwhelming for a beginning woodturner seeking to learn new tools and develop and new skill set in woodworking. A file handle is a simple project that introduces the basic tools of spindle turning while at the same time generating a valuable asset for the woodworker's tool shop. The very simple need for many handles encourages repetition of the project with the appropriate development of basic wood turning skills.

Woodturning Projects - Four Things a Beginning Woodturner Should Look For
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Beginning woodturners can use projects to develop needed and desired skills. The question is what projects will be most useful to the often confused beginner, overwhelmed with new tools and seeking many new skills. Here are four easy to follow criteria to select a basic wood turning project.

Wood Turning Tools - Getting Good Ones May be Beginner's Luck
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] As wood turning has become more popular in recent years the manufacturers of wood working tools have developed a bewildering array of tools for the wood turner. This already bewildering array has become even more confusing for the beginner than for the experienced turner who has a few special tools that are used all the time. Beginners have yet to discover what direction their turning will take them and what tools to use on the journey. Here are some recommendations to remove the mystery.

Turning Green Wood - Wood Turners Do What Other Wood Workers Do Not
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Turning green wood is the forte of the wood turner. Realistically speaking, it is easier for the wood turner to use green wood than for most other forms of wood working. The reasons are simple and the results are spectacular.

Wood Turning Projects - Look For Direction
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects become a directive for the beginning turner. Often, a wood worker has an idea in mind for the use of a lathe before acquiring it, usually a table leg of chair rung or two. Once that is done a few simple skills have been gained and the lathe generally has exerted its quite addictive nature. The question is often what to do next.

Wood Turning - Yesterday's Hobby Today
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood working in general is becoming one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world and wood turning one of the fastest growing types of wood working. This is of course in keeping with the growth of leisure time in industrialized countries along with the need to fill that leisure time. As people become less satisfied with pursuits such as watching television and seek productive work with their hands, wood turning has for many become the activity of choice.

Compost Maker - You and Your Equipment
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost makers are where you find them. They may be either the people who make the compost or the equipment they use.

Organic Compost - It Is All in What You Add
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost by definition is organic. It is the decayed remainder of flora and fauna and thus is processed organic material. That said, additives both known and unknown can add inorganic material to the mix.

Compost Tea - A Quick Boost For The Garden
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost tea is a quick "pick me up" for the garden in much the same way a nice cup of hot tea is for most gardeners. It is simple to make, easy to use, and great for the garden.

Homemade Compost Bins - Ready for the Garden
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Homemade compost bins allow one to fit the bin into the general aspect of the property and to tailor the bin or bins to the needs of the gardener and property. They are neither tedious nor difficult to build and may be made from a variety of materials.

How to Make Compost - Some Like It Hot
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost is easy to make. Nature does it every day on the forest floor just by letting leaves and such accumulate and rot. However, most gardeners want it in fair quantity and good quality which requires some planning and forethought. The results are more than worth it.

Making Compost - Is It Ready?
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost may or may not be ready for use. In fact, compost that has been only partly prepared may harm the growth of plants by leaching nitrogen as it continues to decompose in the soil. How is one to tell when the compost is ready and to what uses may it be put?

Compost Pile - Building Tips
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost piles may be contained in bins or other enclosures or simply piled on the ground. Whichever you choose there are some simple things to consider before the pile is established.

Compost Piles - Feeding the Farm
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost piles are feeding centers for billions of microorganisms. While it may be said that inside every gardener is a farmer waiting to get out, in reality every gardener with a compost pile already has a huge number or plants and animals under his or her care, grazing and growing in the midst of the pile.

Compost Piles In Winter- It Can Be Done
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost piles generate a fair amount of heat. Some composters record temperatures in excess of 160°F in a fast compost pile. However, the cold days of winter can force the heat to drop and the composting action to stop. How then, might one keep a pile active over winter?

Compost Accelerators - Use The Ones At Hand
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost piles are a feast for millions of microorganisms. Once the proper mix of food, moisture and air are available, the parties come to the feast and do their work. However, most of those who compost want it as fast as possible and some suppliers of garden materials tell us we need an accelerator or starter for the pile to make it work faster. They are only half right when it comes to an accelerator for the compost pile.

Compost - Great Addition For Raised Bed Gardens
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost is the great addition for all those organic gardeners who have moved to raised beds instead of the traditional row garden. Raised beds allow for a greater concentration of plants per square foot which in turn allows for a greater harvest whether of blossoms or vegetables. Compost rises to the challenge.

Compost - Magic Mulch
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost can be too much of good thing when the pile is ready when all the garden beds are full. A little can be used for compost tea but what is one to do with the black gold when all the flowers are blooming and the veggies are growing to beat the band? If you do not want to dig up the soil, why not leave it and have your compost too?

Compost - Making it Fast
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] There never seems to be enough compost for a busy gardener. That being so, there are two things for a gardener to do, either make more compost piles or have the present ones work faster. With space being at a premium in many yards, the former is generally the better solution.

Composting a Raised Bed
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost can be the simple answer to how one can make a raised bed for plants that are already growing. Just skim and fill.

Compost Sieve - the Readiness Tool
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost: is most of the pile ready but some you are not sure of? Reach for the compost sieve and get the best of the pile and work on the rest for later.

Wood Turning Projects - Skills Are Us
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects approach the central theme of many wood turning activities, the learning and development of new skills. Like many if not all of the arts and crafts of the world, wood turning is an activity that knows of no bounds to learning. There are always new things to master.

Wood Turning Projects - Try Before You Turn
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects are a great way to contemplate and prepare for that great, new, epic piece you have in mind to create. As you consider all the moves and cuts that will be necessary to get it from the log to the lathe to the display stand it is likely that some old skills will need to be refreshed and some new ones developed.

Wood Turning Projects - Three Ways to Dress Them Up
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects are a great way to learn new skills and to refresh old ones. They generally come with instructions from start to finish and hopefully with lots of pictures to give further guidance. However, the very nature of wanting to learn a new skill determines that the project needs to be repeated several times until the skills are developed. Often it is the case where the first is fascinating, the next couple are fun, and fourth is a challenge and rest are boredom but should be done. Since most of us who turn are hobbyists, boredom can be a killer to the craft. Thankfully, there are three simple ways to dress up a project, each or which may add its own challenges and interests.

Wood Turning Projects - Not Only for Bowl Turners
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects, well chosen, are wonderful learning tools for refining or developing new skills at the wood lathe. Most people who take up the craft of wood turning begin with spindle work, turning pieces of wood held between centers with the wood grain parallel to the bed of the lathe. After some time at this aspect of the trade, they move on to faceplate work with the wood held in a chuck or faceplate and the grain running perpendicular to the bed of the lathe. While the skills are similar in each case, there are enough differences that the face plate turner may begin with a series of projects to develop the necessary skills.

Wood Turning Projects - Not Only for Spindle Turners
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects books, articles and web sites tend to start with spindle turning exercises. Probably this is because most people begin wood turning by turning spindle shapes such as chair rungs, table legs and candle sticks. This in turn tends to happen because the easiest way to begin with a lathe is to mount a piece of wood "between centers" and to turn it round. However, many wood turned objects such as bowls and clocks are wider and flatter than a stick. These are turned with the grain of the wood perpendicular to the bed of the lathe and are termed "faceplate" turnings.

Wood Turning Projects - Sharpen Two Ways
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects aid in teaching a newcomer to the craft two different kinds of sharpening. One is simply the idea of sharpening wood turning skills and the other different skill needed in putting a sharp edge on the turning tools.

Wood Turning Projects - Three Steps for Success
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects give ideas for what to make and contain information as to how. In order to say if a project is successful, one must first ask why it is being made in the first place. If the object of the exercise it to make a maple what not and a maple what not results then all is good. On the other hand, many projects are done to learn a new skill so as to be able to progress to other, more complex pieces. In this case, there are other considerations for success.

Wood Turning Projects - Beginner's School
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects help to build two things every wood turner needs, skills and confidence. When the lathe is turned on for the first time, the speed of turning wood and the change in normal wood working practice can be a bit daunting. The skills developed in wood turning projects eases the transition to more difficult turning.

Compost Pile
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost piles may be planned or they may just happen. In one very real sense the forest floor is a compost pile. Dig below the top half inch or so and you find compost formed and forming. What we think of as the compost pile is in its best form the carefully thought out imitation of what has been going on in nature since before the beginning of time.

Compost Pail
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost pails are one of the most neglected parts of the whole composting process, yet they are an integral piece and one that is visited quite often. A few simple considerations make their use more satisfactory to the kitchen user and the composter alike.

Organic Compost
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Organic compost is a redundant term. Compost is the decayed results of organic matter and is by its very nature organic. What is important to the organic gardener is the possibility of additives to the compost itself or to the materials that went in to making it.

Worm Compost
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Worm compost or also called vermicompost, vermicast, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure is an effective and efficient source of nutrients for the garden. Making your own can be a rewarding form of recycling and composting and an educational experience for yourself and your children, if you have any.

Compost Tea
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost tea allows the organic gardener to give his or her plants a great boost in growth. Plants get the majority of their food through their roots and always in a liquid form. Those dry compounds people use for fertilizers and for that matter, compost itself must have its nutrients liquefied to be available to the plants. Rain on the compost in the ground will work time and again but compost tea gives a lot more control.

Compost Tumbler
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost tumblers can speed up and eliminate at least part of the harder work of fast or "hot" composting. The microorganisms that do the actual composting work can be considered the livestock of the compost ranch. Like all living creatures they have three requirements for survival, food, water and air. The compost tumbler allows for easier supplying of all three.

Compost Bins
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost bins make the whole concept of composting into a neater and more organized system. This may not be for you, but if it is then it is both simple and inexpensive. First consider the alternatives.

Compost Maker
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost makers are where you find them. This rather facetious statement refers both to the people who make compost and the methods they use to do so. People who compost can be thought of in three general categories, although they overlap significantly.

Homemade Compost Bins
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Homemade compost bins can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. In fact it is not necessary to build one at all. Compost can be made quite well in a pile or a series of piles. On the other hand there are advantages to a bin or system of bins. They allow for a more organized systematic approach to composting, they look better than a loose pile and may be mandatory in some municipalities.

How to Make Compost
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] How to make compost is a central part of good gardening. Compost acts as a soil amendment loosening clay soil and allowing sandy soil to hold moisture while increasing fertility. It seems to have an influence on plant growth that is more intense than would be expected from its nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium balance. So the question is not if compost is good but rather how to make good compost.

Compost Containers
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost containers come in several general formats, compost pails, compost bins and compost tumblers among others. Each has its place in the composting process.

Wood Turning Projects - Learning while Producing
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] One of the first things a wood turner in the making does is put a piece of wood on the new lathe and turn it round. After a couple of tries there is an ease to getting a round piece of wood that is only equaled by the ease of getting piles of satisfying shavings around one's feet. Then the question arises, "what next?" Most wood turners begin turning on their own without instruction except for a book or a video and perhaps a web site for inspiration. Soon they find out about wood turning projects.

Wood Turning Lathe - the Heart of the Hobby
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning has swept the wood working world as the fastest growing part of its methods. This of course has meant the growth of the wood lathe manufacturing industry as more and greater styles of lathe are being made. While this has meant a great deal of choice for the advanced turner with some idea of what he or she may desire in a machine, the buyer of one's first wood turning lathe may be in for a shock and a quandary over what lathe to buy.

Wood Turning Lathe - Is Bigger Better?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning lathes seem to be machines on steroids some days. They are getting bigger and more massive all the time. This is likely in response to two trends in the wood turning world. First is the response from manufacturers to a tendency among turners to make bigger and bigger pieces. Second is the prevailing idea that bigger is always better in almost every part of life. Sometimes it is just not so.

Wood Turning Bowls - So Common We Forget They Are Sophisticated
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Bowls have been part of the human existence since we began to hold things and want to keep them. Wood turning bowls has been part of life ever since someone realized that a piece of wood could be hollowed to hold water, food or other treasures. Some of the first indications we have of wood turners are pictures of Egyptian turners on the side of pyramids where one turned wood while another made the wood move with a bow. They were making bowls.

Wood Turning Bowls - A Lifetime of Learning
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning bowls seem to be a simple thing, After all, people have done it since the beginning of time. The first lathes appear to have been someone sticking a log between two points of wood or rack, wrapping a rope around the log and pulling it back and forth while someone else cut the inside and out with a sharp rock. In fact the same technique has been observed in India and certain primitive areas although most use tools made of scavenged steel now. While our tools are somewhat more sophisticated now we still turn a bowl that needs to hold water or salad or what have you. Some things do not change.

Compost Dryer Lint and a Host of Other Stuff
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost can be made from anything organic although most of us avoid animal waste with the exception of manures. You can even compost dryer lint and vacuum cleaner accumulations.

Advantages of a Compost Pile
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] A hot compost pile can be a lot of hard work, so what are the advantages of a compost pile? There must be quite a few or they must be important because most gardeners have at least one on the go all the time. In fact, gardeners consider compost to be "black gold."

Building a Compost Bin - The Number Three
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Building a compost bin is as easy or as complicated as you would like to make it. In fact the simplest bin is none at all. Just pile up organic matter and let it rot. If if sits for a couple of years it should be finished compost. A compost bin is just a means of making measuring a finished pile easier and keeping things neat and tidy. It also makes it easier to keep out vermin and in certain area this is almost a necessity. Town bylaws or property covenants may also make it mandatory to use a bin for the neatness and appearance of the community. Some consideration needs to be given, however to the nature and number of the bin.

Compost - Do It in the Garden
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] So you are considering a new garden plot. If you plan on a 25 by 50 foot garden with 3" of compost to get it started that is going to require 312.5 cubic feet or about 12 cubic yards of compost. Realizing that a third of a compost pile can be lost due to moisture and carbon dioxide loss while it is being made, about 18 yards need to be produced which means in turn a pile 3 feet by 3 feet by 54 feet. This is a lot of material and a lot of work. While there is still work involved, the material can be home grown.

Fall Compost - Why Move it Away From the Garden?
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Fall is a great time for composting but not many gardeners do it. In the let down after the work of final harvest, it seems that all the energy left goes into putting the material in the compost bin and forgetting it until spring. Instead, this is a great time to plan ahead for the next summer's crop.

Compost - Why Make it Anyway?
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] As anyone who has composted will tell you, it can be a lot of work. Most commercial farm efforts have moved away from composting with animal manures, leaves and straws and have moved instead to the easier chemical fertilizers. However, these do not improve the soil and year after year plants remove materials that are never returned and the soil is less healthy each time.

Compost Tumblers - Is There One in Your Garden's Future? (Part 3 - Operating)
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Every compost tumbler has individual quirks that make it a good or bad design within its own category, lever action, center-axle, rolling or sphere. Here a few things to look for when buying one.

Compost Tumblers - Is There One in Your Garden's Future? (Part 2)
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you have decided to compost with a compost tumbler, the next question is "What kind would you like?" There are four types based on construction and each has their own pros and cons.

Compost Tumblers - Is There One in Your Garden's Future? (part 1 Why Buy?)
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] f you have a garden you likely know the value of "black gold," compost and the adds for the compost tumblers all seem to scream that "Now you cam have all the rich, dark compost you need in just a few short weeks!" Actually most claim that a compost tumbler will give you finished compost in just two weeks with a turn of the crank or a roll of the container. Little work but lots of return. One might say that the compost just keeps tumbling out.

Compost - Building the Pile Big - Collection for Gold
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Organic gardeners consider compost to be black gold, the ingredient above all for healthy soil and healthy soil means healthy plants. It is fairly simple to acquire the materials for a good sized backyard composting system, but what if you are preparing a new, large garden in poor to nominal soil? In such cases a layer of compost 3" thick is desired and in some cases 4".

Compost - Bins of Black Gold - Looking to Buy
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Gardeners and organic gardeners in particular call compost "black gold." It is simply that good for the garden. However, even after realizing that compost piles do not have to smell bad nor attract vermin, some homeowners simply do not like the look of a compost pile or three in the back yard. This becomes even more obvious in a suburban setting with the smaller lots so many seem to have. Besides which the neighbors likely see every thing that goes on in the back yard and the neater it is the better. Enter the compost bin.

Compost Bins - Make Your Own
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Unfortunately not everyone is a gardener and not everyone appreciates a compost pile in the back yard. When it grows to the three or four piles that the typical fast composter likes, the problem grows. Besides, not every hardened gardener wants three or four piles in the back yard. The solution is simple, buy or make compost bins. While buying is expensive, building is as quick and simple as you wish to make it.

Compost - Top and Bottom for the Best Growth
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] What is one to do in mid season when the crops and flowers are growing and the compost is ready? You could store it but rains would leach out some of the good and besides, this is the time of year when there is a lot of green material begging to be made into compost. Consider the forest floor. There the compost is made on the top of the soil and used by the roots below. Prepare to mulch.

Compost - Dry Material? Make a Wood Turner Your Friend
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost is best made with a formula of green and brown material mixed at equal volumes. This usually gives a carbon to nitrogen ratio that allows for good decomposition and lots of heat to be generated. Green material is usually quick to hand, especially during the heavy growing season. For the dry material, sometimes it is a good thing to have a wood turning friend.

Composting - Doing it in a Big Way
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Three is the magic number for a compost pile, especially in a quick compost system. In order for it to work well it needs to be three feet, three feet wide and three feet long. For most people this translates into a compost bin three feet on a side or a pile three feet in diameter. What about the times when you simply have too much material for a small pile?

Making Compost Piles - You Can Use the Heat
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Hot compost piles use the heat of the pile to make compost faster. This simple system can generate finished compost in as little as two weeks. The secrets are really common sense and easily learned for more great garden compost.

Compost Tea - the Gardener's Tea Bag
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost is known to be a good source of readily available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the big three of fertilizer nutrients. However, the nature of compost as it comes from a vast array of plant materials determines that it is a fantastic source of the micronutrients that are needed for optimal growth. Plants fed on compost tend to be healthier, tastier and better looking. So how is one to get the benefits of compost coupled with the benefits of liquid fertilizers? Quite simply, make tea.

Make Compost Piles - Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] The easiest way for the home gardener to grow healthy soil is to add compost. When the season is not yet begun, layer it on the garden and then dig it in. Soils vary but about 3" the first year for a garden and 1" each year thereafter is often used as a rule of thumb.

Compost Pile - Water Saver for All
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost is a great aid as one of the difficulties facing us today is the growing lack of water. It is not sure what differences global warming will bring to our water supply but it will change, and not for the better it seems. Be that as it may, it merely raises the challenge for the home gardener to use water well and wisely. One of the first places to look is the soil and this means looking towards the compost pile.

Compost - The Big Feast for the Garden
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost succeeds in feeding plant and soil where the commercial fertilizers fail. Long term use of chemical fertilizers will ruin the land while the compost feast will feed soil and plant alike. Healthy soil, healthy plant and wonderful harvest. Compost rules.

Making Compost - Turning the Pile
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Why turn over a pile of compost? For some of us it is the wonder of looking into an ever changing world in the middle of the pile. Plant material gradually changes as the compost works. As the pile progresses, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish the original material. Smells change and become richer and more earthy. Others are more concerned with getting the material quickly ready for the garden and turning the pile makes composting faster.

Making Compost - Remember the Number Three
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] For quick compost the number to remember is three. There was a joke in the old Peanuts comics where Peppermint Patty would be falling asleep in class. Abruptly she would wake as the teacher called her name and shout, " Three, the answer is three!" If the question dealt with quick composting she may well have been right.

Composting - From Kitchen to Garden
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Composting is a mystery for many and it does not need to be. Waste from the kitchen can be a slimy mess or, with a bit of help, it can be black gold in the garden.

Making Compost - Alchemy at its Best
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Compost is the answer to problems a gardener faces every day or seeks not to face at all. I will let sandy soil hold water and clay soil drain water. The great water holding source will open the soil and let in the air so necessary for good soil and plant health. Sick plants will often recover in a "hospital plant bed" consisting mostly of compost. Just what is this magical material and how does one get it?

Wood Turning Lathes - Keeping Them Safe
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning is one of the fastest growing hobbies in North America as well as many other parts of the world. Wood lathes are making their way into garages and basements in record numbers and bring safety concerns along with them. Here are four safety area to consider.

Wood Turning Projects - What Is a Beginner Wood Turner to Do?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] What should a beginning wood turner do to learn wood turning basics? Here are four things to look for when seeking a wood turning project.

Wood Turning Projects - The Way We Learn And Have Fun
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects can be the great learning tool for the beginning wood turner. While the basics can be learned on scrap pieces that end up in the kindling pile, the satisfaction and pleasure increases dramatically when a pretty and useful object appears at the end of practice.

Wood Turning Projects - Not Just for Beginners
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning projects are a great way to learn turning techniques and have a pleasing product at the end. The can also be a source of inspiration and direction for the more advanced wood turners.

Wood Turning - The Hobby Where You Can Not Make a Mistake
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] I think that if you were to look for the most expensive wood in the shop as far as woodturning supplies are concerned, you would have to stop at the pen blanks. Per square foot or board foot they are some of the most expensive woods you can buy in North America. They come from all over the world and display some gorgeous grain and color. On the other hand, so do the domestic woods I have around and most of those cost next to nothing. This makes them great for play.

Wood Turning - Four Great Reasons to Turn Green Wood
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] One of the things that surprises an old hand in wood working when he or she becomes a wood turner, it the realization that many turners of wood prefer turning green wood to dry. There is a great deal of science as well as art expended in making sure that wood for the carpenter or cabinet maker is dried to a moisture content of less than 12% while many wood turners will work with wood that throws sap around the shop. The simple questions involved are why and how is this so?

Where Did that Salad Bowl Come From? A Wood Turner's Answer
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wooden bowls are special and those turned by hand more special yet. Too many of our crafts that once were made by skilled artisans often working alone in small shops have been assumed in recent years by robotic machines in factories, turning out repetitious copies without the subtleties that make hand work so remarkable.

Wood Turning - Green Wood is a Treasure
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turners like to work with green wood. No, it is not colored green, it is wood that is freshly cut so uncured or "green." In fact, for some turners the ultimate in wood turning fun is cut a tree down and immediately mount a piece on the lathe. It is like turning in a rain storm. Some wood turning shops will have a streak of stain from the sap running up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall and across the floor to the lathe

Wood Turning - Keeping the Wood Healthy
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood starts as a living material and should really be treated as such once it gets to the shop. We are becoming continually aware of the need for ecological soundness in our life practices and wood turning is no different.

Wood Turning - Beginning by Choosing a Lathe - Seven Points to Consider
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Obviously, to begin to turn wood you will need a lathe. These are not complicated machines when it comes to wood lathes and have been around for at least three thousand years. The first lathes were simply two points that held a piece of wood in place while the assistant to the turner used a rope to make the wood rotate and the turner cut the shapes. Today's wood lathes are made of steel or cast iron or some combination of the two and are powered by electric motors. They still use two points to hold the wood although some other attachment devices may be used. Here are seven points to look for when choosing a lathe.

Wood Turning - Sanding Can Be Made to Go Better
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] One of the maxims of wood turning is simply that a good finish makes for a good product. Another is that a good finish requires a good surface. The way for most of us to get that surface is through sanding. Occasionally a good surface is gotten from the tool but that is rare. Unfortunately another facet of turning work is that most if not all wood turners prefer not to sand. Therefor it is good to have an established protocol for sanding.

Wood Turning - Getting Started With Tools
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Once you buy a lathe you quickly realize that you have done exactly and only that, bought a lathe. Unlike most table saws that come with a blade to use, lathes seldom come with tools. It is necessary to have a set of tools in order to begin to turn wood. Unfortunately the array of available tools for wood turners is complicated for the professional to understand in its seeming complexity and is doubly so for the new amateur.

Wood Turning - It Is Not Just for Looking
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turners of today are known for the artistic beauty of their work. Does and should that beauty extend to the ordinary things of life and if so, what difference would it make?

Wood Turning - Three Little Cuts Do All The Work
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Many wood turnings are complex in the design of beads and coves making finials and decorative items. Yet with all of the decoration, every turning no matter how plain or how elaborate, consists of a grouping of only three cuts. That is right. Every design that comes off the lathe has only three design elements.

Wood Turning and the Compost Pile - A Problem in the Shop is Gold in the Garden
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning generates shavings. This simple rule seems to escape many who take up the craft of wood turning, however, it quickly becomes apparent as the floor disappears under the growing mound. Stage one of removal is obvious and many simply resort to a garbage can and snow shovel to restore the floor space. The problem is, a couple of twelve inch bowls later the garbage can is full and more shavings come quickly. Assuming the yard is large enough, a home composting station is the answer.

Wood Turning - The Dangers of Sanding are Easily Controlled
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] While sanding is one of the aspects of wood turning that no one seems to enjoy, it is also one that needs to done to almost every piece that leaves the lathe. Most people regarding a piece of wood turning, be it bowl, box or spindle, do not appreciate to much the work that went into the object as they do the feel and appearance of the finished work. Since the dust raised by the sanding process can be a danger to one's health, for a good texture and appearance sanding is a necessary evil that must be treated with respect for one's health.

Wood Turning Tools - Old Becomes New
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] The world of wood turning has been with us for a long time. Historians tell us that the ancient Egyptians were wood turners and even left painted carvings of wood turners on the pyramid walls. One would think that the advent of higher technology would have greatly changed the wood turner's arsenal of tools, but it just has not happened. Every cut of a wood turner's tool is a touch with history.

Wood Turning Safety - Essential for Enjoyment
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning is one of the safest of techniques in the work shop, however, it deals with rapidly moving, often unbalanced wood and sharp tools. For the greatest enjoyment it is necessary to have good safety practices.

Wood Turning for Summer - Planting Tools of Yesterday and Today
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Many gardening tools of today have some wood in the handle but this loses some of the beauty of wood both to be seen and felt, a beauty that is evident to many gardeners and lovers of the plant world. The old garden tool called a dibber, made on the wood lathe by wood turners, deserves a renaissance in our gardening world.

Wood Turning – Aerobic Exercise at its Most Productive
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] To look at a wood turner today, one sees a person standing before a fairly sophisticated piece of machinery with an array of tools to hand, making wood change before one's eyes into things of beauty. Listening, there is the sound of electric motors whirring belts around pulleys that pull shafts holding various implements to move the wood around in circles as the tools trim shavings off in whispers and whistles. Yet in some areas there is even more quiet as some turners return to the days of yesteryear and the physical exercise of wood turning.

Wood Turning - A Sign of Lost Education
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] One of the frequent responses to wood turnings which are seen at craft shows or homes is the familiar sentence, "I did that back in high school." This is usually followed by a musing on how close that was to twenty, thirty or more years ago. Unfortunately this is being lost for the students of today as the number of industrial arts programs dwindles from our schools.

Wood Turning and the Garden
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] In the spring many a wood turner's thoughts turn from turning wood to gardening. Here is how the two may be combined in decoration, planting and summer enjoyment.

Wood Turning - Hobby for the Environment
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turners work with wood and may be considered to be a hazard to our trees. A simple look will show that wood turning is instead a benefit to the environment.

Wood Turning - It Can Be A Small World
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] One of the things that we have seen change in the wood turning world over the past decade is the growth industry in small or "mini" lathes. What is the appeal to the modern person of these small machines? Are the answer to creative needs in the present age?

Wood Turning Gifts - Hidden Money In Your Hobby
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turners have the pleasure of working with materials that others find a mystery. Cast off logs and strange burled lumps become treasures of great beauty. Also hidden within those pieces of firewood and landfill is another treasure, a monetary one for those who seek it and yet still a gift for those fortunate enough to receive.

Wood Turning ‘Almost’ Free Wood
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] In the hands of the wood turner, firewood becomes a thing of beauty. No fancy boards here, just a tree from the back yard.

An "Almost" Free Wood Turning Tool - Under $10 for $75 Results
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning gouges get more expensive all the time and making a gouge is a difficult proposition. However, a simpler tool is easy to make and works as well or better. Are you willing to follow in the footsteps of a master turner and make your own Oland tool? Bowls are waiting for you to try.

The Woodturner's Edge: Sharp Tools Give Greater Enjoyment
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] The most frustrating part of woodturning is trying to turn wood with dull tools. Here are some hints and tips to getting tools sharp and keeping them that way for your turning pleasure.

Woodturning Design: Where Can the Turners of Today Find a Voice of Their Own?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Woodturners follow in a long line of craftsmen and artisans. Is it possible to achieve one's own "voice" in articstic excellence in wood, or is everything merely a copy of what went on before? The author gives ideas for design development.

Woodturning Magic - From Firewood to Fabulous
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Firewood escapes the flames and ashes to become a thing of beauty. To the turner, trashwood is buried treasure waiting to be opened to an appreciative audience.

Wood Turning: the Great Stress Reliever
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Wood turning is not only one of the fastest growing hobbies in the western world, it is also one of the great stress relievers of our day. For fun, relaxation and an impressive product, it is hard to beat.