Welcome to my shop, studio, workplace, playspace, or whatever you want to call it.

My name is Ken Grunke, and I'm a woodturning fool, and just a lathey guy.

My wood lathe is a small, but massive chunk of cast iron. It's a short-bed Spinmaster metal-spinning lathe, adapted for wood. I am constantly removing or installing the tailstock, which is tucked under the lathe, when going between center turning and facework--I can't just slide the tailstock down out of the way as with a regular long-bed lathe. The lathe has only 13" between centers, 8" swing over the bed, and 12" swing over the gap, which is only about 6" in length.

But it's a solid, well-built machine, and I will never get rid of it, so I'll quit knocking it, 'cause I love it!

I enjoy making my own tools and accessories, and metalworking is another valuable hobby to partake in. On the other side of the window in the above picture is a small room addition containing my "machine shop", with an Emco Maier Compact 8 machinist's lathe and a Sherline tabletop milling machine, which also gets put to work occasionally in woodturning mode. I bolt a small toolrest to the mill's worktable and swing the headstock to horizontal, and can adjust the spindle easily height- and distance-wise in relation to the toolrest, without wrestling with wrenches or locking levers. It's a great setup for teaching beginning woodturning, especially for kids. You can see details of this on another page, linked at the bottom of this page.
Back to making tools and accessories, here are some recent additions to my selection of accessories I have made:

These are lock-pin spindles, a set consisting of 1/2" (on the lathe spindle), 3/4", and 1" diameter. I use these to turn vases with glass tube inserts in them. A hole is drilled into or through the wood blank, which is held on the spindle by the action of a small pin wedged between a flat surface on the spindle, and the inside of the hole in the workpiece.

Here is my heavy-duty long-reach scraper bar, 3/4 in. square and 24 in. long, with an inserted tool bit made from a small piece I cut off of a HSS planer blade. I have a few different shapes of these bits to meet any circumstance. It has its own dedicated toolrest, which holds the bar steady and vibration-free even with an overhang of 12 inches or more.

I can use other scraper tools in this toolrest if I adjust the brace, which is the round bar that slides vertically on the two upright precision axle bolts screwed into the base plate. The brace is adjusted to allow the tool to slide freely with a minimum of play, then locked in place by a small setscrew on each end. Then the toolrest height is locked to put the toolbit exactly on center. But I keep it set for this heavy-duty scraper bar, which I use to finish-scrape 99% of the inside of all the bowls and vessels I turn. The rest goes on the lathe at the correct height every time with the help of a setscrew collar locked on the toolrest shaft.

Here are some detailed drawings