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Video on Turning a large log : is it as dangerous as it looks?

Oh my!!!

He appears very determined! Judging from the spindles in the background he's done this once or twice!
 


I watched the entire video. Not once did I feel like I was in any danger ;-)

From the looks of the similar pieces leaning against the wall, this is not the fellows first rodeo. It's a real rush to see something like that take shape right before your eyes (and hands). I've "turned from trees", but not that big! It can be unsettling until the stock is round enough to settle down. Notice how the first cuts were taken, not under power, but on the coast down. I suppose a slower speed drive could have taken some of the risk out of the effort, but again, this is not the fellows first rodeo.
 
Looks like he had all his fingers. He was also only jogging the motor while getting it trimmed and balanced. But yeah he knew what he was doing, lot of weight swinging about.
 
Not as dangerous as it looks but big turning is inherently dangerous. Another pattern shop near here had a guy in the hospital for a couple of days when a big pattern he was turning come apart on the lathe. I had a 36" diameter corebox come apart when I was turning it. It broke 3 1/2" steel bands and ripped about 6 number 12 screws through 2 layers of baltic birch and threw the one piece 25 feet into the wall. Luckily I was standing to the side while starting the lathe. A guy I used to work with was lifted about 3-4 feet turning a 16' dia job when he got a catch.

You want to see dangerous, there is a guy on youtube using a chainsaw as a roughing tool on a similar sized turning. He is cutting with the chainsaw as the lathe is turning.
 
I would imagine it's somewhat dangerous just because anything that large is going to turn pretty fast, but it looks as if he has it pretty well under control. I note that at the start, when the log is very irregular, he scrapes, but once it's gotten round, he pares with a straight chisel, getting a nice fast cut. Some people might consider that dangerous, which it is if you are careless, but safe enough if you pay attention.

It looks like fun.
 
Reminded me of an ancient Looney Tunes cartoon that followed the process of chopping down an enormous tree, floating it downriver to a sawmill, and laboriously cutting it down into a single toothpick.
It was a very funny cartoon.
 
It's too bad someone can't invent some sort of 'carriage' controlled with a ' lead screw' and a fixed tool.......that could
be used for wood working. Sorta like metal working....
:rolleyes5:

Think I would install an overhead trolley to swing down to allow a chain saw to rough in the rough diameter because roughing in seems to waste time and might be most dangerous because out of balance.. Seems some parts scabbed form an old big lathe going to the bone yard might have a mill head on the tool post to rough in some of the form. I wonder how much a turned log might be worth?.

Yes chain saw cuts with the part not spinning.
 
Machine tools no longer have hand cranks. airplanes no longer have propellers, typewriters have turned into computers, yet
wood working machinery looks about the same as it did 100+ years ago. The obvious addition of screws and dials to make
the machinery more efficient, productive, and easy to use has not carried over.
Puzzling....
 
Great example of the "just get it done" approach. I liked the stone walls of the building, looked ancient. Thinking maybe eastern europe or asia. Clearly not a big budget operation, not gonna see a big Oliver lathe or the like. But this is what it's like in much if not most of the world - skill, experience, and muscle.
 
Biggest problem with turning large wood is that wood is inherently inconsistent... so when the piece is roughed to a perfect cylinder, it may still be way out of balance.

Back when I was in high school wood shop, more years ago than I want to remember, the shop instructor was letting another teacher use a lathe to turn a short section of maybe 6" dia. log into a lamp base. When he got it roughed into a cylinder, he turned up the speed. It went whomp, WHOMP, WHOMP, BANG! and left the lathe. The shop had twenty foot ceilings, it acred upward and took a chunk out of the plaster at the corner of one of the skylight wells before dropping to the floor. Luckily no one was hurt, but I think this was an underwear changing event for some.

looking at the piece after the excitement died down, the log had a big knot on one side, which was denser than the rest of the wood. you could see where the dead center had started to excavate a bowl in the end grain before it finally tore out through the side of the log.

Big turning like that is much better if a high speed tool, like a router, is applied to slowly turning work.

Dennis
 
Great example of the "just get it done" approach. I liked the stone walls of the building, looked ancient. Thinking maybe eastern europe or asia. Clearly not a big budget operation, not gonna see a big Oliver lathe or the like. But this is what it's like in much if not most of the world - skill, experience, and muscle.

They're speaking Spanish in the video...
 
You want to see dangerous, there is a guy on youtube using a chainsaw as a roughing tool on a similar sized turning. He is cutting with the chainsaw as the lathe is turning.

Actually, that is one idea I had. Except I would have the chainsaw bar mounted tangentially on a carrige and the stock turning about 2RPM. What this guy is doing is somewhat risky.
 








 
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