karlkuehn
Banned
For those that are interested, here's my experience of buying a new lathe (A little peek into Ron's world, from an outsider's point of view):
I just got home from a pleasant drive through the Pennsylvania countryside on my way to pick up Ron in Drums PA's Jet 1236, er...
...I mean MY new 1236, well, new to me, at least, and it's been maintained really well, not to mention having been used to build some beautiful stuff. I feel like I just bought Babe Ruth's bat or something. heh...I just hope the lathe is patient with me as I learn on it after the masterful hand that has been using it for years. I imagine that for the first few months it's going to be wondering why in the world it has to work its way through all of the basic stuff I'm going to do with it. "Oh...yeah...neat...another fancy stick...great, no really...*sigh*" It's a great lathe, and I got it for a really great price, due to my constant site lurking and advanced swooping technique.
It was a real pleasure to talk with Ron and see his workshop. It's nice to know that my 'out of the box' thought process actually has a future in this whole turning religion, and I take great comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one who saves almost every little piece of interesting scrap wood that may eventually become a cabochon or pen finial. The experience level sticks out, though, in that I'm saving hunks of plain oak and maple, whereas Ron has small pieces of wood that are probably worth more than any bowl blank I have laying around!
I got there, and Ron was just casually, you know, fabricating his own vacuum chuck for his new Powermatic (which still has me wiping the drool off my chin...I'm drooling over the lathe, not the vacuum chuck - the entire premise of those things scares the hell out of me!).
I think (er, hope), given a few years, my shop will look much like Ron's. Where I have a few botched pen blanks adorning my shelves in no particular order (but don't mess with them, 'cause I know where and what every one of them is!), Ron has scattered projects in progress, gone slightly awry, or well on their way to wondrous completion, and to my amazement, he was able to pull out several different things to show me - all randomly placed, yet sorted as only us eccentric wood nerds know how to catalog. I also got to see one of his finished turned boxes with a beautiful ebony cabochon with an inlaid fleur de lis. A stunning piece of work that I could only imagine being able to make. Someday!
He showed me his some of his handmade turning tools with unique shapes that he just simply (gah) made out of some HSS rod and a hunk of wood with a copper tube ferrule. Great stuff, all of it! Just being able to look around and nod knowingly allowed me to learn more in that one hour of 'shooting the poo' than I could learn in weeks of my own bulldogging through my own dumb learning process.
Anyhow, rather than the whole "here's your cash, where's my lathe" experience that I was expecting, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to spend some time with Ron in his shop. It makes me want to do a cross-country trip and visit every one of you on the way to steal...er...learn new ideas just by observing your workshops!
I don't know, though...you may become the subject of one of my little exposés, so many of you would probably hesitate letting me in your little world!
Thanks again, Ron! It was definitely worth the trip, and I got a lathe thrown into the deal! Although, I did have to help lug it out of the basement and through the snow. You'd have thought that he'd at least made his daughters haul that thing out of there, since he made such a huge profit on the sale! Ahhh, the price of tuition! []
I guess that's what I get for shopping at Ronmart. heh
I just got home from a pleasant drive through the Pennsylvania countryside on my way to pick up Ron in Drums PA's Jet 1236, er...
...I mean MY new 1236, well, new to me, at least, and it's been maintained really well, not to mention having been used to build some beautiful stuff. I feel like I just bought Babe Ruth's bat or something. heh...I just hope the lathe is patient with me as I learn on it after the masterful hand that has been using it for years. I imagine that for the first few months it's going to be wondering why in the world it has to work its way through all of the basic stuff I'm going to do with it. "Oh...yeah...neat...another fancy stick...great, no really...*sigh*" It's a great lathe, and I got it for a really great price, due to my constant site lurking and advanced swooping technique.
It was a real pleasure to talk with Ron and see his workshop. It's nice to know that my 'out of the box' thought process actually has a future in this whole turning religion, and I take great comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one who saves almost every little piece of interesting scrap wood that may eventually become a cabochon or pen finial. The experience level sticks out, though, in that I'm saving hunks of plain oak and maple, whereas Ron has small pieces of wood that are probably worth more than any bowl blank I have laying around!
I got there, and Ron was just casually, you know, fabricating his own vacuum chuck for his new Powermatic (which still has me wiping the drool off my chin...I'm drooling over the lathe, not the vacuum chuck - the entire premise of those things scares the hell out of me!).
I think (er, hope), given a few years, my shop will look much like Ron's. Where I have a few botched pen blanks adorning my shelves in no particular order (but don't mess with them, 'cause I know where and what every one of them is!), Ron has scattered projects in progress, gone slightly awry, or well on their way to wondrous completion, and to my amazement, he was able to pull out several different things to show me - all randomly placed, yet sorted as only us eccentric wood nerds know how to catalog. I also got to see one of his finished turned boxes with a beautiful ebony cabochon with an inlaid fleur de lis. A stunning piece of work that I could only imagine being able to make. Someday!
He showed me his some of his handmade turning tools with unique shapes that he just simply (gah) made out of some HSS rod and a hunk of wood with a copper tube ferrule. Great stuff, all of it! Just being able to look around and nod knowingly allowed me to learn more in that one hour of 'shooting the poo' than I could learn in weeks of my own bulldogging through my own dumb learning process.
Anyhow, rather than the whole "here's your cash, where's my lathe" experience that I was expecting, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to spend some time with Ron in his shop. It makes me want to do a cross-country trip and visit every one of you on the way to steal...er...learn new ideas just by observing your workshops!
I don't know, though...you may become the subject of one of my little exposés, so many of you would probably hesitate letting me in your little world!
Thanks again, Ron! It was definitely worth the trip, and I got a lathe thrown into the deal! Although, I did have to help lug it out of the basement and through the snow. You'd have thought that he'd at least made his daughters haul that thing out of there, since he made such a huge profit on the sale! Ahhh, the price of tuition! [
]I guess that's what I get for shopping at Ronmart. heh
