Valewoodturner

Celestion Ditton 442 Vintage Speakers and Handmade Oak and Mahogany Stand

2012-01-21T22:08:00.001Z

Quality 1980's high end Celestion Ditton 442 Vintage Speakers with a totally unique

Handmade Solid Oak and Mahogany Stand.

The Stands are made of solid Oak bases with Oak outriggers, re-turned Snooker table Mahogany legs as the uprights.
Underneath the speakers are turned solid Oak plates to distribute the weight under the cabinet across the base.
The uprights are dowelled into the bottom of the cabinet on the balancing point of the speakers and can be rotated to any angle for the perfect stereo effect.
Finished off with A wax polish containing a Jacobian stain.

The speakers are a classic from there period ( Late 70's early 80's ) with a very clear full range sound and perfect bass reflex (12" drivers) for a a medium to large size living room.

These speakers are very rare now and for most people who own them they stay in the family for many years and never get replaced due to the high quality of sound reproduction from them.

" I do hope i have made them look ok, Now they are off the ground they sound awesome"

The famous Pine Headlight build

2012-01-20T14:16:00.000Z

Click on the pictures for a better view

Early 2009 and life was pretty quiet in the woodturning about a year after i started to learn to turn until one day i got a message from an aquaintance from a Biker forum use.

Well being a biker myself and because I love working with wood and always fancied the idea of marrying wood and metal in some form jumped at the chance.

Could we pull it off ??

"There was only one way to find out.."

After a few discusions and my friend was coming down to Marston from Leicester with some headlamp parts i set to work firstly finding a piece of wood big enough and woth the right look, So off i trotted to my Aladins cave called the Bedford Saw and Tool Centre ( I have a link on my Page on the right).

I found this piece of pine sitting there that was perfect for the job.

"I have only ever bought one piece of wood for a big project and this was it".

Once we had agreed the main design i started to turn the outer shape, This is were my inexperience as a turner hit me like a ton of bricks, Instead of turning the inside of the bowl out first i went straight for the outer form.

Thinking back i say

"What a plank lol"

I knew i was going to be needing to cut off a rim from the front of the work as part of the design so getting the asthetics right was quite a challenge to start.

After i had sorted out how to safely mount the work on the lathe so i could turn the inside of the bowl it was pretty much plain sailing until i got to shapeing the rim to suit the headlight parts and working out how i was going to attach the rim to the main body without any joints or clues it was a 2 piece headlight.

First job next was to shape and perfect the rim, i had to do this while still attached because once i had cut it from the main body it was going to be a while before i was going to be able to tweak it, My main concern too was to make sure that the grain on the rim lined up with the grain on the main body too, my friend had made up a fixing bracket so he could fix the light to his bike so that was good giving me a guide were to turn out the inside and make sure it was sunken into the body enough.

This was my one and only messup, The bowl flew off the lathe and broke the lipping around the edge so i was going to loose about 4mm putting the grain line up slightly out now but hey prototypes and one offs never are without a bit of risk.
I could work around this without loosing effect later on.

This was the first fitting of all the internal workings of the lamp inside the unit making sure everything fitted, the lip was over the metal bracket, The rim would fit ok without the glass sticking out too much etc. I had been doing things bit by bit but still it was a very nerve racking time i couldnt go back at this point and try again.

Looking good at this point, the only snag after the accident earlier was to be the rim was wider than the bowl now by a couple of millimeters but that was an easy fix, just mount it on the lathe bolted all together and turn it down to match.

Looking good so far, everything fits and lets now see if the rim fits and lines up with the rest of the body and the grain matches enough to get away with it.

One concern was to find a way of hideing the join between the rim and the bowl so what i did was to cut 3 grooves in the side and have the join in the bottom edge of one of the grooves, once i had blackened the grooves the joint would be just about invisible, Cunning plan i thought.

About half an hour of sanding down and quite a few coats of laquer later to make it all weather resistant it was finally together. The grain was passable and it looked ok.

The grooves look a little rough but at least the join was invisible and the glass didnt stick out like a saw thumb.

Here is the finished bike and sidecar outfit, It was completed about 18 months after i had built the headlight and as you can see he has addaed a couple of colour co-ordinated touches to go with the light and set it off just nicely.

The Seat and rear numberplate surround. In my eyes thats the best tribute a man could possibly make to his Father.

My Sincere thanks to (Richguzzi Of the Britchopper forum) for the opportunity to make something like this.

Definatly an experience i would love to repeat again one day perhaps.

"Keep me fingers crossed hey"

Random thoughts . . . .

2012-01-12T11:49:00.001Z

It’s easy for those of us who are a little bit creative to start taking ourselves too seriously . . . .

So, hopefully avoiding that one, just a few thoughts about my stuff :

Every piece of timber has its own intrinsic beauty, and tells a story. Passing years, seasonal and climatic changes, fungal attack and other events are recorded in the growth rings, grain pattern and colour . . . . and that’s before we start messing with it.

I’ve always been fascinated by form in Nature, and this has inspired me to show the beauty as I see it.

George Herbert, an early 17th century metaphysical poet and philosopher, put it pretty neatly :

A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye,
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heav’n espy

He says that Nature is like a window : you can either simply look AT it, admiring its incredible beauty, complexity and variety, or you can look THROUGH it towards the greater Reality it reveals . . . .

" I couldn't have put it better myself there is a beauty in wood that's unique "

Thinking of learning to turn wood ?

2012-01-06T11:44:00.000Z

So you want to start Woodturning?

Woodturning is a wonderful pastime, one of life’s pleasures and not to be missed. It is just as fascinating to watch an expert turner at work, as it is to see a potter throw a pot on the wheel. The turner magically and effortlessly shapes a rough piece of wood into a useful and attractive object in a matter of seconds. Woodturning is great fun and easier than it looks. It comes close to being the ideal hobby and if you want, it can lead to a money spinning sideline or full time career.

Choosing Equipment

A pole lathe turner of the old school could set up woodturning in the middle of a beechwood with little more than a gouge, a chisel, some rope, and an axe! He would construct his primitive wooden lathe on the spot from the materials around him. However, I am a lathe and tool dealer and want you to buy a lot more than this! Seriously though, I will try in the following pages to give you an honest and unbiased guide to buying equipment on your limited budget. Experts will seldom agree on what is really essential but I suggest that the following will set you up nicely to start with. You will soon be in a position to bribe the accounts department (with suitable decorative offerings) into financing the purchase of some desirable extras.

You will need . . .

Lathe and Bench.
Set of Tools.
Safety Equipment.
Sharpening Equipment. Grinding, jigs etc
Selection of Abrasives & Polishes
Wood to Turn.
A workshop to keep it all in.
All the information and help you can get

Sources of Information

You can read lots of books, watch woodturning videos and talk to any knowledgeable friends. Better still, you can go on a short woodturning course. This is a good way of finding out for yourself desirable and undesirable features on a lathe.
Try contacting your local woodturning club for information. It is likely that they will be very helpful. You may even find that you can go to their demonstrations for a small contribution to club funds.
Your local library may have books on woodturning and know about local woodturning clubs. Your local schools and colleges may provide evening classes.
Buy a few woodturning magazines. Reading a selection of these will give you lots of good information on sources of supply, local club events, dealers and demonstrations to see. Look at the small ads for second hand equipment.
Last but not least check out the internet! There are club sites, dealer sites, tool manufacturers sites, news groups and woodturning associations on the web. See our links page

Sources of Supply

Specialist woodturning supplier
Your local tool shop/ DIY store
Woodworking exhibitions
Mail order supply house
Second hand ads

Apart from the lathe what do you need just to get started?

You need to budget for the following extras . . .

Safety equipment.

You will need a faceshield to protect your face as well as your eyes. Safety glasses are not enough.
Dust extraction is very important but there is insufficient space to cover the subject here. As a minimum, wear a mask while sanding.

A good tool set.

3/4" Roughing gouge
3/8" Spindle gouge
3/8" Beading tool
1/8" Parting tool
3/8" Bowl gouge
1" Square end scraper
1" Round end scraper

The tools should be of good quality by a reputable maker and be of high speed steel (usually abbreviated to HSS). The set will not be cheap as it includes the expensive roughing gouge and bowl gouge. This set will do 95% of all woodturning cuts at a realistic price. You can always add to the set later if need be. I have left out the skew chisel because I consider it to be a desirable but non-essential tool at this stage. I use the 3/8" beading tool for my chisel cuts and find it handier but many teachers would disagree and you could always go for say a 1" oval skew chisel instead.

Sharpening equipment

As a minimum you should have a 6" bench grinder preferably fitted with at least one good quality wheel, ideally at the left hand end. You will need to buy or improvise an angle guide to help you sharpen the tools at the correct angle. There is lots of extra information on grinding wheels and sharpening jigs in A good grindstone dressing tool is essential to keep the grinder in good condition.

Lathe bench

If your new lathe is not supplied with a bench you can buy one or make one cheaply from chipboard.

Multi-purpose Chucks

Lathes are not normally supplied with a chuck because a multichuck is an expensive serious investment. A chuck will grip bowls without the need for woodscrews. A chuck will also grip the end of a cylinder of wood firmly so that you can drill and hollow such projects as peppermills, containers with lids and vessels or vase shaped pieces which are difficult to grip any other way.
The best and most costly chucks are scroll chucks with one-handed T bar tightening similar to engineering chucks. There are other types designed for economy of manufacture which will do the job well but with the sacrifice of some features.

Drillchucks

A drillchuck is important and enables you to use different kinds of drill bits to drill accurate and true on the lathe.

Faceplate

In my opinion a small inexpensive faceplate is essential. Even if you do not at first buy a chuck make sure you have a faceplate. One 3" diameter is fine.

Revolving centre

Often called a "live centre", this fits into the tailstock morse taper socket and supports the work. It usually has a conical point which spins in ball races so it does not burn it's way into the wood like the "dead centre" tends to do. You will need one if it is not supplied with the lathe.

Useful small workshop tools and materials

Cheap vernier calipers for measuring internal and external and depth dimensions.
A pair of strong compasses or a centre finder to help you mount the blanks accurately
A small quantity of industrial grade cloth abrasive in grit sizes 150, 240 and 320.
Some webrax for rubbing down polish etc.
A small tin of cellulose sanding sealer.
A tin of wax polish of a stick of hard wax.

Wood blanks

You can buy blanks from your supplier but a good idea is to get hold of some small logs for Practice turning. Branches pruned off an apple tree for example would be perfect. Don't try to make anything - just practice your cuts.

Textbook

It is wise to do some armchair woodturning before you switch on in earnest. An excellent book to start with is Woodturning - A Foundation Course. This is written by Keith Rowley and published by GMC.

General hints

Always buy the best tools and equipment you can afford. Quality is better than quantity. Woodturning lathes and tools are easy to sell secondhand in the small ads in the local paper if you make a mistake.

(c)PeterChild.co.uk

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Another great introduction to turning and instructions on everything is at

http://www.turningtools.co.uk/wtintro/wtintro.html

Written by Brian Clifford in 1999-2000

What next ??

2012-01-04T19:31:00.000Z

"I seem to have the site up and running now after allot of messing about, All the links work and can be updated as and when. I hope for every day now which is a massive positive."

There is a very long road ahead, One day at a time, One step at a time, One Breath at a time.

Thanks for now

Steve