Awesome Lathes

There’s something so satisfying about woodturning and lathe videos, watching artists carve away at a solid block of material to reveal smooth shapes and interesting patterns. Watch as woodworker Olivier Gomis turns sticks of lumber into what he refers to as an “average size” bowl.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from makers is that you can create all kinds of things from items bathed in resin and cut into shape. In this video, Peter Brown takes a bunch of shredded CDs and turns the shards into a large iridescent bracelet.

Woodworker Jack Mack shows us how a bunch of wood veneer strips can become a beautiful piece of functional art. He started by placing the colorful wood strips into a bucket he filled with resin, then carved the piece by hand on a lathe into a vase. It’s not until it’s close to its final form that its eye-catching patterns are revealed.

Combination padlocks aren’t necessarily the most secure locks, but there’s a certain appeal to not needing a key to unlock them. In this video from Maker B, they show us how they machined pieces of stainless steel bolts and assembled them to form a working combo lock that looks like it came right off the store shelf.

We’ve seen how colored pencils can be turned into some cool objects, and here’s another one for the collection. Sit back and enjoy as artist Andy Phillip takes hundreds of the pencils, bathes them in resin, and then turns them on his lathe to form a colorful torus. We rather enjoyed watching those resin threads go flying.

Artist Olivier Gomis shows off a neat woodworking technique that allows him to make round vases with squared-off edges on a lathe. By placing multiple wood blocks on a custom-made jig, he’s able to carve the unusual shape while also getting four pieces done simultaneously.

This modular tabletop machine gives makers the tools they need to drill, grind, saw, turn, mill, and lathe objects. Its tools work with wood, metal, and engineering plastics and is ideal for DIYers. The base kit includes sawing, grinding, and drilling modules, while milling, lathing, and wood-turning are add-ons.

After working with some black palm wood and seeing its unusual end-grain pattern, artist Andy Phillip wanted to make a piece of art from it. So he cut some slices of the wood, attached them to a plastic form, covered them in resin, then turned the whole thing on his lathe. The finished piece looks like it could make a cool bowling ball.

After seeing a bowling ball with a square center, Ben’s Worx was inspired to make his own colorful sphere. So he submerged a Rubik’s Cube in a vat of resin, removed the bubbles in a vacuum chamber, then turned it on a lathe. The refraction of the clear resin makes it look like the cube’s corners were rounded inside of the sphere.

Mixing objects in resin holds them together so they can be worked like a block of wood. Preston Miller shows how he took a pound of Peet’s coffee beans, soaked them in epoxy resin, and then turned the block into a truly unique coffee mug. If you like how it turned out, he’s selling them on his Etsy store.

Artist Olivier Gomis paid tribute to The Lord of the Rings by creating a larger-than-life replica of The One Ring. He started by assembling wedges of wood into circles and smoothed them on a lathe. He then carved its engravings and added curly maple veneers so its lettering only appears when its hidden LED lights are switched on.

Woodworker Olivier Gomis shows off his build process for a really amazing sculptural piece. By arranging and gluing boards into funnel shape, then lathing out its center, he created a wooden vase that approximates the oft-seen images representing the curvature of spacetime.

Artist Olivier Gomis shows how he took hundreds of colored pencils and turned them into a cool looking wood vase. Rather than encasing them in epoxy resin, he sanded and glued together layers of pencils, twisted them into a tower, then turned that structure on a lathe.

We’ve always enjoyed watching videos of wood being turned on a lathe. However, the carving part is usually done with metal tools. The guys from the Waterjet Channel wanted to see if the powerful high-pressure cutting tip of their waterjet could be used to smoothly sculpt a spinning piece of wood in the same way.

A hockey fan asked woodworker Cameron Porter of Cammie’s Garage if he could craft a wood version of the iconic Stanley Cup. He quickly rose to the challenge, and crafted an impressive mini replica of the trophy using his talents and his lathe. He hopes to get the commission to build the full-size version soon.