The_Woodworker_and_Woodturner_-_October_2019

http://www.getwoodworking.com October 2019 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking 65

7 Make yourself a jig. Tape the coat rack to it and drill

the holes

8 Turn one end of each peg flat, using either a parting

tool or a small skew chisel

6 Split the workpiece along the glue line and clean
off the paper with abrasives

a sheet of newspaper in between. Use as many
clamps as possible, and leave the piece to set
for a day or two. When dry, put the workpiece
on the bandsaw and square up both ends.
To mount the yew on the lathe, I used a
Steb centre with a revolving cup centre in the
tailstock, both of which help to hold the piece
together whereas a standard revolving centre
would force the turning apart along the glue

line, which would obviously be dangerous.

Having checked that the piece was secure,

I set the lathe to a speed of around 1,500rpm,

which was fast enough for a lump of this size.

Roughing down...

Start by roughing the piece down to a cylinder.

It may well vibrate to start with, but this will

be short-lived; the quicker you balance it up,

the quicker you’ll get rid of the vibration. Next,

turn a spigot on both ends with the parting tool;

these are for the end caps, and only need to

be 6mm long and 32mm in diameter. The small

concave in the centre is the only decoration as I

find that yew doesn’t need a lot of embellishment

because the grain itself provides plenty of interest.

Now you can start to turn the taper, which should

be the same on either side of the centre point.