Comments on: Turning a Large Tabletop

By: Steve Shanesy

Steve Shanesy — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:20:53 +0000

Tom, the primary reason for setting it up on the lathe is not to make the blank round to but to create a shape from the outside edge inward about two inches then dish out the blank from there to the center to a depth of about 5/8″. I’m also thinning out the outside edge on the bottom to about 1/2″ and back about three inches. Lot’s more trouble using a router and you can’t get the profile. Besides, turning is a lot more fun than running a router, even if you could get the same results.
I finished turning the top this past weekend and will get a bit more video up in the next couple days. Then you’ll see how the finished top looks.

Steve

By: tms

tms — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:10:18 +0000

Hey Steve,

Why on earth would you want to turn such a thing, when you could easily and safely make it round with a router and trammel?

Tom

By: SpenceChicago

SpenceChicago — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:16:33 +0000

Roger,
Surely you have better things to do!
Just because the ‘s’ is at the end doesn’t mean we are implying what you said… we know it isn’t Revs per Minutes. It doesn’t sound right to say to ‘increase the RPM’… and there is no other way to express it. The added ‘s’ goes wherever it is appropriate, and you’re right, it is appropriate to mentally insert it to indicate an increase Revolutions per Minute, even if though it is already “revolutions per minute”. “RPM” is a number and the intention is to increase the number. The rpm abbreviation appears as if it were singular and the sentence says we want more of them and that implies we want to pluralize it.

The most important thing is that everyone understands the intention without causing confusion. We hope you weren’t badly confused!!

BTW, I notice you didn’t use the abbreviation in your explanation… so how would YOU write it using the RPM abbreviation?

By: ROGER H Phebey

ROGER H Phebey — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:06:40 +0000

Can someone explain to me why Americans talk about RPMs, you did Steve & Craig Jackson at Easy Wood Tools does it? You simply increase or decrease the Revs Per Minute NOT Revs Per Minutes as both of you imply!

By: Phil Spencer

Phil Spencer — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:32:06 +0000

I found when turning large table tops(36″ dia) there were other considerations to take into consideration. My table tops were usually made from jointed pieces of wood, In Australia very wide boards are now unavailable, I found that I had to check the weight of each piece before I glued up the boards to make top. The reason i found that the timber density changed from board to board even the same species the only reason I could fathom was if the board came from the center or outside of the trunk. I found that if I did not do this and try and get some even weight distribution across the table top I could not stop the top from vibrating when I weighed the timber and achieved a balance across the table top I had virtually no vibration. Just a thought!