If you are a member of the Society of Ornamental Turners you'll probably already have seen this, but for those who haven't:

John Edwards (President, and acknowledged expert) has written a very comprehensive series of illustrated (pictures & line drawings) articles on the subject.

Being the sort of bloke he is, he has allowed them to be posted on the SOT site, where they are downloadable in .pdf format.

Link to SOT site

Please be advised that you only need to click on the left most picture in each row - the other two pics are pages 2 & 3 of each .pdf.

Enjoy

Ruaidhrí

BTW - in case they have to be removed for space reasons, I have copies

I've just combined these into a single doc (23 pages, 2.74MB).

PM if interested - please include email address, don't want the site clogged up

Regards,
R

As it Turns out (pun kinda intended...) there is one of these ornamental lathes on ebay right now:

ebay #280181812858

opening bid is only $38,000

Not from the Benz collection is it?

(actually quite a stunning piece of kit)

Nic

Nope - looks like the real thing

BUT - a lot of fixing-up to be done, and there's no sign of VCF, HCF. EFC etc.
Also these came with a chest of cutting tools (see the pdfs I mentioned earlier) and usually a goniostat.

Lovely thing though, if only I had the money to throw at it

Cheers,
R

Looks very much like a repeat of some of the info in TD Walshaw's book 'Ornamental Turning' ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ornamental-Turning...0529&sr=1-4 ). Good stuff, nice to see it available for free too.

Regards

Richard.

Yep - but some of the pics are much more informative.

The gallery on the site is also a mine of information.

For what it's worth I have copies of the following if anyone needs to check anything out -
Ornamental Turning - T.D. Walshaw (1990)
Ornamental Turning - J. H. Evans (1886)
Turning ...(five vols) - Charles & John Jacob Holtzapffel (1846 et seq)
Manuel du Tourneur - Hamelin Bergeron (1816)
Both of Fred Jones' Notes from...
and the usual Cleeve, Sparey, Hall, Smeed, Chapman, Thomas & Chaddock books.

Some of the earlier ones are well out of copyright so scans can be done and I can check the others if anyone has questions - withing reason please
Fred Jones (a thoroughly decent bloke) has given me permission to scan bits of his books - thanks Fred if you ever get to read this

Regards,
Ruaidhri

Just a silly query.

Why is it called 'Ornamental Turning', when it would be more accurate to call it 'Ornamental Milling'? Much of what's done under 'Ornamental Turning' is just clever ways of using a lathe as a mill, and in lots of the techniques I'm sure a mill, rotary table & fly cutter would be both simpler & easier to use.

Regards

Richard.

Firstly - I am most definitely NOT setting myself up as an expert here. Merely someone who's been dabbling around for a number of years
So, on to answer your question:

Simply - usage

It was originally called Complex Turning, but that seems to have fallen into disuse.
Walshaw's explanation I find whimsical - "...when the art was revived just after the Second World War, it was felt that a 'Society of Complex Turners' ... might well lead to misunderstandings..."
Basic difference is that 'normal' or 'plain' turning involves solids of rotation, OT doesn't necessarily.
You can have a hugely ornamented piece of plain turning which is just that, but something like a simple hammer handle with it's oval section would be considered OT.
My own feelings are that it doesn't matter too much so long as we are making shavings and having fun. Life's too short to get myself hung up on any particular discipline

To a certain extent I agree about the use of a milling machine, but a lot of OT stuff needs it's lathe - and with a couple of simple mods any normal machine lathe can do the business.
These came off a normal Record No 4, with a few mods - it would be tricky on a milling machine - and Yes! I'm thinking of buying a milling mach. and some lessons in photography )





Cheers,
Ruaidhrí

Ruaidhrí,

As always happens when I see such photos, I'm in absolute awe of your skill.

Regards

Richard.

Richard,

Thank you for the compliment but very honestly there is not all that much to any of those.

Sometimes I tire of the mystique that surrounds (deliberately or not) a lot of turning NOT DIRECTED AT ANYONE IN PARTICULAR!!!
To listen to some, usually beginners who have 'discovered' turning, you would think it was almost a magical art

I think you'll agree that the main ingredients are a ton of reading and the brass neck to just have a go. Add in plenty of practice and it starts to come together easily enough. The one, in particular, that really gets me going is all the claptrap about using a skew! When I bought my first lathe - back when the world was still flat - I picked up what I considered the simplest tool to try out - the skew!
My reasoning at the time was that the "curvey ones" looked a bit suspicious, but this at least looked like an ordinary wood chisel. Fortified by my ignorance and unencumbered by years of reading how tricky it was, I waded in and found it quite OK. I have since come to believe that most of these problems are caused by people calling them problems.

If anyone is interested I can post a bit about the making of those whatsits. Doesn't take fancy tooling other than be easily made in a normal workshop, and it might encourage others to have a go ??

Fond regards,
Ruaidhrí