Wood Lathe For Making Model Rocket Components

I recently purchased a used wood lathe. It's a nice variable speed Jet lathe.

I've seen discussion here in the past related to folks making their own nose cones, conical reducers, etc.

Seems like this would also be ideal for turning other items too.

So for those of you who have done this could you share any tips or tricks you may have learned?

And maybe share some good links in regard to video's or websites that might be helpful?

There's tons of information on You Tube, but not for making small parts from fragile materials such as balsa.

Thanks in advance!

John

A selection of face turning plates and a spigot chuck like a Teknatools Nova are useful as turning between centers for nosecones works, but its much easier to turn the tip with a chuck. I revommend a 2" and 3" face plate from like Pen State Industries. Balsa can be rough shaped with turning chisels and finish shaped with various sand papers and sanding blocks, balsa also works best when glued to a block of harder wood that is attached to the face plate. A morse taper mounted drill chuck and selection of forstner and brad point bits is useful for center drilling nose cones and tailcones.

Get some decent turning tools. Sorby and Crown have very high rankings and I have what I need in Crown tools. A good gouge, a fingernail gouge, a parting tool and a skew, and you're set. There are a great many other types, but I don't need them all. Foam sanding pads are great and you'll want a variety of paper grit also. Get some calipers too. If you have or want to get some chepie turning tools, Horror Freight sells a kit around $20. That's what I started with. They work OK I suppose and they might right for you. But since I turn honey dippers, drawer knobs, I even made a knob for my favorite grits pot....hahaha. And use harder than balsa woods, I figured a good set of tools was in order.

I have the slightly upgrade kit of tools from Harbor Freight. They work well for occasional turning, but do need frequent sharpening if you turn hardwoods. On pine, basswood, and other soft wood they work fine. For a hobby wood shop, HF is fine. I wouldn't buy tools I need to make a living from them, but they have a lot of toys.

https://www.harborfreight.com/professional-high-speed-steel-wood-turning-set-8-pc-61794.html

For fast cutting on balsa I've used a fairly-coarse and very rigid saw blade. Not perpendicular to the axis, held at about a 45 degree angle. That's from one of Peter Alway's books.

Pretty amazing that a good quality set of 5 chisels cost just about as much as the lathe I bought.

But after looking at some reviews on Amazon of the cheaper sets, where they chisels actually broke into pieces, buying quality seems logical and proportional.

You know, that saying about "The Bitterness of Poor Quality remains Long after the Sweetness of Low Price is Forgotten".

prfesser said:

For fast cutting on balsa I've used a fairly-coarse and very rigid saw blade. Not perpendicular to the axis, held at about a 45 degree angle. That's from one of Peter Alway's books.

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I bought one of these at Klingspore and it's the best hand saw I ever used on balsa. It's a "back draw" toothed saw where you get the cut by pulling rather than pushing. I didn't think I was going to like it until I tried it out. Bought that saw on the spot.

prfesser said:

For fast cutting on balsa I've used a fairly-coarse and very rigid saw blade. Not perpendicular to the axis, held at about a 45 degree angle. That's from one of Peter Alway's books.

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Just to clarify I was talking about fast-cutting on a lathe or drill press.

Also: when sanding balsa or foam on a lathe, don't press the sandpaper hard against the work, at least not at first. If the work is out-of-round, pressing hard tends to keep it out-of-round. Instead, hold the sandpaper so that it hits the high spots only, and wears them down, until the work is round.

Best -- Terry

Thanks for all the advice!

Ended up ordering a set of Sorby turning tools...

I did get some input over at the NAR Facebook Site... which I'll share here in case it helps others:

Patrick Hickey Been turning cones ,transitions and boat tails for a while. Here are some. Many more on finished rockets. Turned mostly on a micro metal lathe. Drill block with drill press , insert /glue dowel, rough shape , chuck in 3 jaw chuck marking position at jaw #1. Mount with small cut off piece of B T to ck diameters needed. Use X / Y tool traverse ,sand paper , dremel tool with drum sander. Have fun , lots of dust.

When working with balsa the hardwood dowel or block is important as most balsa is too "squishy" for either chuck turning, turning between centers or for face plate screws to hold well.

rharshberger said:

When working with balsa the hardwood dowel or block is important as most balsa is too "squishy" for either chuck turning, turning between centers or for face plate screws to hold well.

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On that note, I had the same problem with my chuck chewing one end of my turning block and the spindle wearing an oversized hole in the other end. My solution was to repurpose some firm dense cardboard (much like what most small appliances come in) and glue a section to both ends of my block. I clamp mine insuring a solid grip. I usually have to trim off the outer excess cardboard if it was bigger than my stock, but this method will make turning balsa a breeze.

rharshberger said:

When working with balsa the hardwood dowel or block is important as most balsa is too "squishy" for either chuck turning, turning between centers or for face plate screws to hold well.

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Yes; and generally speaking, the larger the diameter of the dowel (and the longer it is) the more concentric the work will be.

Skip Balsa and go to Linden (Basswood) Nearly as light and MUCH stronger and easier to turn. Much easier to source as well. Whenever I'm trying to teach someone to turn, I let them loose on a block of Linden.

Gary Byrum said:

I bought one of these at Klingspore and it's the best hand saw I ever used on balsa. It's a "back draw" toothed saw where you get the cut by pulling rather than pushing. I didn't think I was going to like it until I tried it out. Bought that saw on the spot.

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I've been wondering what kind of saw would work well on balsa. I recently turned a nose cone on a drill press (see here), and had to cut off the excess length with what I had on hand. I think I used a cross cut saw which came with a cheapo mitre box, and it just tore the heck out of the wood, while also being hard to use.

Do you use this for cutting wood to length, or taking off excess while turning as mentioned above - or both?

Primarily to cut turning blocks to length. My shop is tiny so I can't buy any hard core power tools (drill press, table saw...etc.) I found it difficult to trim nose cones with that saw because they are no longer flat/boxy. That's when I break out the hand coping saw.