So you want to try woodturning do you? Well I can tell you that it can be a wonderful and sometimes exasperating experience. So who am I to talk about woodturning you say? Here's a little background on me. My name is Joel Gulker, I'm 32, and I farm and ranch full time in North Central Texas. I have been turning wood for about 5 years now. My turnings have become somewhat more advanced in the last year or so, and I seem to be partial to segmented turning, which involves cutting the wood into segments, and then gluing them together to form patterns in the wood. I have dabbled in most of what turning has to offer in

One of my segmented bowls.

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one way or another, but some turning requires special tools that sadly I do not have the money for right now. My experience obviously doesn't make me an expert at it, and I am continually learning new things every day. But what I can share with you is my experiences with getting involved in woodturning. Many times I've read articles or books written by "old pros" who may have forgotten what it is like to be just starting out. And while their advice is always good, it is sometimes out of date, or a little too advanced for someone who knows nothing about woodturning, or in some cases about woodworking at all.

I got involved in turning because of duck hunting. Now I know many of you just went "huh?", but let me explain. My older brother decided about 5 years ago to carve some realistic decoys, and since he managed to get all of the artistic talent in my family, he was able to create some absolutely beautiful pieces. This got me thinking about what I could do to enhance my love of duck hunting. I thought that maybe I could make some duck calls for my brothers and me. My arsenal of tools at that time consisted of a 5-year-old Sears table saw and a few hand tools. I did however have a large shop in the backyard that was built for various reasons that I won't get into right now. So in a nutshell, that is how I got the itch to spin wood.

Another view of this segmented bowl.

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I should tell you that to get started turning you can spend a little, or spend a lot. And if you really like it like I did, you'll end up spending a lot! Before you buy a lot of tools, first spend some time gathering as much information as you can about woodturning. You don't have to buy every book or video out there, though. My experience is that most of the books cover the same material in a different way, and some of them cover things I didn't care about when I was first starting out. A video might be nice so that you can see someone using the tools properly. You can also get some ideas from videos on how to turn things. I don't have any videos, and I can't speak for the quality of them, but if they are worth a dime they'll at least show you the basics. In some places you can take a course with the fore-mentioned "old pros" and this would be invaluable. If I ever have the opportunity, even now, to do this I probably will. Also look to see if there is any woodturning clubs in your area. If this is something that might be of interest to you, than it might be a good source of information. You might notice I said 'might be' because it all depends on the people in your club. There is also a lot of stuff on the web about woodturning, and by doing a simple search you can find a whole host of sites dedicated to the craft. Many people like myself have web pages that at least can give you some ideas about projects to make. Some sites even include general information about how to build and turn projects. You should also decide what it is you want to make with your lathe. This will help to determine what kinds of tools you will need. Obviously I don't recommend starting with a 300 piece, 14 inch segmented turning, but if you want to make pens then you will need a set of tools that works better for turning pens.

So what kind of lathe will you need? Well if you only want to turn pens you might think I'd recommend a mini lathe of some kind, but I don't. Pens can be turned on a larger lathe just as easily in my opinion, and if you decide you enjoy it and want to turn larger items, you won't have the added expense of having to purchase a larger capacity lathe. Also I wouldn't recommend buying the most expensive lathe out there. In many respects, you get what you pay for in a lathe, but you can get a good lathe at a reasonable price. My current lathe is a Teknatool Nova 3000. It is a good, high quality bench mount lathe, and I paid a considerable, or at least what I considered a considerable, amount of money for it. I suggest you look into a good mid-priced, medium capacity bench mounted lathe. My first two lathes were Craftsman lathes, the first of which was a pretty good unit for what I paid for it, and it lasted several years. The second was also a reasonably good unit for the money, but it didn't suit my needs properly, and didn't stand up to the amount of work I did on it very well. Okay, so no, I didn't like the second Craftsman I owned, and sold it 6 months after I bought it and purchased the Nova lathe I have now. When your shopping for a lathe, look at all the quality manufactures (Jet, Delta, Grizzly, Powermatic, Teknatool, Oneway, Woodfast, Vicmarc, and Craftsman to name a few), and if your lucky enough to live in an area where you can get to see them first hand, definitely do that. Read some forums on the web about them and get first hand opinions about them all. I don't suggest you buy a cheap model either, like the ones at say, Harbor Freight. The ones that I've seen there are nothing more than junk and you would be unhappy with them. And you probably couldn't turn anything worthwhile on them anyway. If you're strapped for money you might want to look into a quality used lathe, but buyer beware.