Woodturning is something I have wanted to get into for a while now. But at the time of this article I don’t own a lathe. It seems like there are smaller segments within woodworking that seem to have people hooked. Scroll sawing and lathe turning being two popular ones. I had the idea to turn my drill press into a lathe a while back but didn’t make much more than cylinders and dowels. When a group of online woodworkers had gotten together to make a chess set for another online woodworker (Steve Ramsey) I wanted to try my hand at making one too. We all picked our pieces and started turning. Looking back on it, I don’t know why I didn’t pick the knights as they could have been done without a lathe. Either way, I had picked the dark bishops. I planned on using walnut but I have never done anything of detail before this on my drill press. I figured I would dive right in and hope for the best out of the only one wood chisel I owned at the time.
If you haven’t seen the video I did on how to use your drill press as a lathe, including all the components you’ll need, I listed that video below as well.
I began with my pieces of walnut chucked into my drill press. I cut the corners off of each piece at the bandsaw to cut down on the work I had to do while turning.
According to the manufacturer of my chisel, it has a Rockwell hardness of 61. This is close enough to high speed steel for me. I also made sure to sharpen the chisel before beginning.
The first piece I did by eye and it didn’t come out too bad. I then used a pencil to transfer some reference lines on to the second piece.
The progress seemed slow but I wasn’t in any hurry. It probably took me 15-30 minutes to get to this point. I only took small cuts each time and made sure to have a firm grip on the chisel. I believe my lathe speed (drill press) was at around 1500 rpm.
Sanding seemed it bit more difficult than sanding a cylinder but that was to be expected.
I finished the sanding up to 600 grit. Most likely overkill, but I was in a sanding zone and super smooth was my destination.
A quick couple slice cuts on the bandsaw for the slit detail and a few shots of spray lacquer and this is what I was left with. Perfect? Absolutely not. But for one chisel and a drill press I was fairly happy.
Do only 2 bishops make up a chess set? Nope. The list below are links to each persons channel that made pieces to complete the set. Have a look, everyone did a great job!
MF Woodshop
Steve Carmichael
Patrick’s Workshop
Carl Jacobson
Mark Christopher
Jason McGinn
Matt Brander
