Paperback 8 X 10 in. 192 pages, with color photos and drawings
Published 2001 ISBN 978-1-56158-416-1 Product #070541
No other book gives you such valuable information on the essential turning tool. Completely revised and updated,
The Lathe Book is the comprehensive guide to woodturning machinery, incorporating the many innovations in the lathe and its accessories.
This book covers every aspect of the lathe, including how to choose one, how to select tools and accessories, how to maintain and repair the machine, and basic techniques.
You will get:
- expert advice on choosing a lathe
- tips on maintaining a lathe for optimal performance
- easy-to-follow basic techniques that help build lathe skills
- more than 220 color photos and illustrations
"...a comprehensive guide to wood lathes..." --
Woodshop News
In this book, I will share with you my love of the woodturning lathe. This is a book with a difference because it doesn't focus on the lathe to the exclusion of all other woodworking. Rather, it treats the lathe as another essential tool in the woodworking shop -- a tool that can expand your woodworking horizon and add pizzazz to your work. All woodworkers need to be more familiar with the lathe because at some point your woodworking projects will require turned parts.
When The Taunton Press asked me to do the second edition of The Lathe Book, I was delighted, but I never realized that rewriting is much more difficult than writing. Much has changed since the first edition, so there are many new machines, accessories, and gadgets to share. Turning is becoming gentrified, and there are now tools and accessories that had never before been dreamed of. While the philosophical side of me laments the simplicity lost, the tool junkie side of me opens each "absolutely indispensable" new piece of hardware with childlike enthusiasm. My wife, Susan, appropriately bought me a T-shirt claiming, "He who dies with the most tools wins." I am in serious contention for the grand prize.
I am also a better turner today than I was eight years ago and have taught scores of people to turn, so I can tell the story better. Because I have also written Turning for Furniture Makers (a detailed spindle-turning book with an accompanying video) and Turn a Bowl with Ernie Conover (an action manual for bowl turners) since the first edition of The Lathe Book, I decided to drop some of the techniques and concentrate more on the lathe and it accessories. The tool chapter is much more readable and the illustrations are better. Photography is entirely new and in color.
Turning books generally speak to dedicated turners who pursue turning to the exclusion of all other forms of woodworking. But most woodworkers are interested in turning only enough to use the lathe in their general woodworking. Additionally, most turning books miss the mark because they never really teach you to turn. They talk about equipment, philosophy, and history, but they never truly teach turning. With that in mind, I've tried to keep this a woodturning book that speaks to all woodworkers and gives the information necessary to be able to employ turning in furniture making. This book also offers much to the pure turner. A second objective is to offer advice on buying, maintaining, modifying, and repairing lathes. A good part of the book is devoted to the intricacies of lathes and their accessories.
I grew up at the lathe, and I've been turning both wood and metal since I was 12 years old. I understand lathes and how they work. For many years, my father and I owned a company that produced a lathe we codesigned -- the Conover Lathe. An outgrowth of our lathe-manufacturing business is Conover Workshops, a woodworking school that my wife and I now run year-round. In 24 years of running the school, I've taught hundreds of people to turn and have a fair sense of where the hurdles are in the learning process.
It's my firm belief that most people have the ability to turn, but this skill has been buried deep inside during the process of growing up. In many cases, it has been masked by fear and dull tools. If you read through the next 180 or so pages, I think you'll be able to regain your instinctive turning skill and have some fun in the process. I look forward to this book starting a revolution in your workshop.
Customer Reviews from Amazon
Average Customer Review:
The Lathe Book, November 7, 2009
It is a good beginners book. All of the parts, basic tools, and basic operations are explained.
Book Provides Good Overview, June 13, 2009
Despite what "the most critical review" asserts (and, consequently, mistates) is that Conover "states that a minimum entry level lathe will cost you over $1,000." Page 29 of the book states that "a new entry-level lathe costs from $500 to $1000." Conover also provides tips on purchasing used-lathes. Also, the same reviewer implies that Conover is pushing Canadian products (which, as an aside, are frequently quite good). However, the cover pictures a Nova lathe, from a New Zealand-based company. Conover also describes Jet, Delta, and many other lathes from non-Canadian companies. The reviewer seems to have a problem with actual facts. My impression, Conover has written a good, easy-to-read book with a good overview of the subject. Although many topics are not covered in great detail, there simply is not enough room in one book for the myriad of topics possible under the broad heading of wood turning.
An INCOMPLETE Guide, April 23, 2009
If you just bought a lathe and are looking for instructions on how to turn a spindle, find another book. One of eight chapters is on technique. Cutting a cove, the most basic technique, gets two pages. Not included in this instruction is where to place the tool rest. In a "complete" guide, I expect some step by step instruction. I own at least a dozen Tauton books, and this is the first real disappointment.
My first Lathe Book, March 26, 2009
Very nice format for a starter like me! Terms & Techniques I found very helpful.
The Lathe Book, October 2, 2007
Ernie Conover is one of the best(if not the best) writer of books on using the Lathe in the United States. I have all of his work and could recommed any or all for the serious wood turner. The only other writers who would come close to Mr. Conover are two gentleman from Australia. My wood turning library exceeds 24 books, Ernie is the best.
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