Olde Tool Workshop

A few weeks ago, I posted some pictures of my spring pole lathe and the great progress I was making. Well, as always, life happens, and manages to alter the best laid plans of men. The lathe was to a point where it was looking really good. After chopping out the mortises, I noticed a bit of stiffness in my arm. I stopped working for the day and rested for the night. My arm was very swollen and I could not fully flex it. Where does the “Spring Pole Bookshelf” come in you may ask? Please bear with me and I will explain.

There are times in-between the major projects that I do small side projects just to see if I can get something cool to work. One of my interests is primitive fire starting techniques. There is some good overlap with this interest and my traditional woodworking. Well, a Pump Drill is definitely a project that has both aspects. It can be used as a drill or a fire starting tool.

As I mentioned in my first entry for the Spring Pole Lathe, I will be making regular updates on my progress for this project. We had company this weekend and I had the pleasure to share some shop time with my new friend who’s name is also Aaron. We had a blast and I hope he had as much fun as I did. After our guests continued on their vacation, I decided to go to my favorite lumber store, Capital City Lumber, and purchase the southern yellow pine, or “SYP,” for this project. Much to my dismay, they do not carry dimensional SYP. I could not believe it, then I remembered I bought some SYP at my local Home Depot for our raised bed garden last year. Armed with this information I headed straight for the nearest Home Depot.

You know the saying: “Every journey begins with the first step,” well this is true for my woodworking projects as well. Last month I attended the MWTCA tool meet in Hillsborough, NC and I purchased a old loom shuttle for $5.00. If you are not familiar with loom shuttles, they are used to pass the horizontal thread through the vertical threads and they have steel cone shaped points in each end. It is these points that I am interested in as centers for my upcoming project - a Spring Pole Lathe. These points make excellent dead centers as they are perfectly round and smooth. I did not mind destroying this particular shuttle because it was made out of some sort a laminate and was not very old. I would have had a much harder time bringing my self to destroy a wooden antique, even for a good purpose. One other plus, I was able to re-purpose the spool in the shuttle as a leather burnisher. It works great for this task.