In our January blog post, we encouraged wood turners to set themselves some new goals in 2025, whether that be by turning new items, mastering new techniques, or exploring new venues to share their talents. You might be excited to dive in and see what you can create this year!
However, as you embark on these new projects, you might encounter some setbacks. This is to be expected; no one does something perfectly on their first try. To help you as you work on your projects this year, we thought it might be beneficial to explore some of the most common woodturning mistakes and offer suggestions about how to adjust your techniques or your mindset to avoid or embrace them.
The main kinds of woodturning mistakes you might run into are slip-ups in your technique. It is no secret that different wood-turned items require different methods or skills when it comes to managing lathe speed, adjusting tool positioning, or manipulating the grain of the wood.
The first error you might make when turning a new piece is starting the lathe at the wrong speed. As a general rule of thumb, you should not exceed 1000 RPMs when turning wood. And in fact, you should often turn at much slower speeds, but it is hard to know what speed is best, as many wood turners will just say, “turn at a speed that feels comfortable to you.” However, if you are just starting out, you may not know yet what speed is most comfortable for you.
One thing to remember is that the larger a piece is, the slower it must go, because the outside edge is traveling faster than the inside of the piece. Smaller pieces, like pens or handles, can turn much faster.
If you want more specifics, though, there are several formulas that wood turners use to determine how fast to turn each wood blank. One wood turner (source no longer available) puts it this way, “the diameter [of the wood blank] x RPM should fall between 6000-9000. Example- A bowl blank is 8 inches in diameter. 8″ X 750 = 6,000. 8″ X 1125= 9,000.” Therefore, for an 8” wood blank, you should set you RPM between 750 RPM to 1100 RPM. These speeds are dependent on the piece being mounted correctly so that it remains balanced while turning.
It’s also important to remember that if you are a beginning wood turner, you may not find the above speeds a good fit for you. This is where the earlier advice of “turn at whatever speed is comfortable for you” comes into play. Don’t push yourself to turn a 4-inch blank at 1500 RPM if you are unsure of how to use your tools or are just getting familiar with your lathe. Start at a slow speed, like 600 RPM, and gradually increase your speed to find the optimal turning speed for you, your wood blank, and your tools.
Another mistake that wood turners might make, especially those who are just starting out, is not using tools in the correct position. The most important piece of equipment to help a wood turner maintain the optimal position for his or her tools is the tool rest.
A tool rest is a piece of equipment that allows a wood turner to balance his or her tools as he or she uses them to shape the wood blank. Most lathes will come with at least one tool rest, but you can also buy tool rests separately. This is handy when you want a smaller tool rest, one that is curved or straight, one that is made of steel rather than cast iron, etc.
Each tool and each piece you are turning will require a slightly different position for the tool rest, so some of the advice here is not an exact science; it really just depends on what is comfortable for you at a certain point in time.
That being said, there are some definite “dos” and “don’ts” that can help you maintain a quality technique.
First, the shaft of the tool should always maintain contact with the tool rest to ensure a consistent and even application of force from the tool to the wood blank. The tool rest itself should never touch the wood blank, so leave about a centimeter of space between the tool rest and the spinning wood blank. If you back the tool rest up too far, it will cause your tool to vibrate and skip as you apply it to the blank you are turning, so you will know that you should move the tool rest closer.
Secondly, you will want to pay attention to the height of the tool rest. The height of the tool rest will depend on the blank you are turning, but the tool rest should allow your tool to rest at, or slightly above, the center line of the wood blank. If the tool rest is too low, the rotation of the wood can pull the tool down and away from the tool rest, which introduces the possibility of the wood turner losing hold of the tool and the tool being flung from his or her hand. Make sure to adjust your tool rest for each new cut and between every project to ensure that your tool will meet the wood blank at or above the center line.
Understanding the grain of the wood you are turning is also very important to your technique. In general, spindle-turned projects are mounted with an end-grain orientation, while bowls (or plates or platters) are most commonly turned using a side-grain orientation. This means that, for spindle turning, your wood blank is mounted so that the grain looks the way it would if you were to look at the way the original tree grew. For bowls, your wood blank is mounted to the lathe so that the log would rest sideways, as if the original tree was lying on the ground.
Spindle-turned items are often mounted with the grain running parallel to the lathe bed because it is easier to hollow wood this way (think vases or other decorative items) and it also allows for more detail work if you are making pens or handles.
However, if you are trying to create something like a bowl that needs to remain quite strong, side-grain mounting is going to provide more stability. Not only are side-grain bowls stronger, but they offer more variety in looks than end-grain bowls. End-grain bowls also pose problems because the end grain is more likely to get torn out or broken than the side grain, which leads to more cracks and splitting in the finished product. The bottom of end-grain bowls is also more prone to perforation, which is the last thing you want when creating a strong vessel.
End-grain bowls are possible to turn, especially if you are looking for a challenge, but keep these issues in mind. Also, you will need to adjust your cutting tools if you switch from side-grain bowl-turning to end-grain bowl-turning; see the next section for a reminder of which tools are best for the kinds of projects you are creating.
Another error that is easy to make is using incorrect tools or cutting methods. Certain tools are used for certain types of projects, but it is easy to mistake some tools for others because of the language used to refer to the tools or their uses.
For example, there are several kinds of gouges: roughing gouges, spindle gouges, and bowl gouges are the most common. (See our previous post for a discussion of tools and equipment needed for woodturning.) Roughing gouges are used for roughing out a piece of wood and for turning a square block into a cylinder.
However, roughing gouges, sometimes called spindle roughing gouges, are only to be used when spindle-turning and not when faceplate or bowl turning (a bowl blank is mounted to the lathe using a faceplate.) This can be confusing when experienced wood turners use phrases like “rough out a bowl,” as it sounds like a roughing gouge would be the perfect tool, when in fact, what you would need is a bowl gouge. A spindle gouge, which is different than a spindle roughing gouge, is also used when spindle-turning, but is used for detail work.
If you are a beginning wood turner, take some time to get familiar with the most common tools out there and what kinds of projects or wood they work best with.
Once you have selected the correct tool for your project, you will also want to make sure you are using the correct techniques when applying that tool to your wood blank.
The main thing to remember when applying your tool to your wood is to make sure you are cutting with the grain. This is also called cutting downhill or making supported cuts. This language, however, can be misleading or unclear, which is often why beginning wood turners must learn by trial and error. However, if you take a look at our diagram below, you might be able to save yourself a few headaches.
The terms “cutting with the grain” and “cutting downhill” can be confusing, as there are both end-grain and side-grain cuts to be made and the directions of “up” and “down” change based on the position of your wood blank.
Perhaps the better terminology is “making a supported cut,” but this language, too, can be obscure unless you know what is being referenced. When cutting a piece of wood, you always want to make sure you are cutting from the place of the shorter grain toward the longer grain. This is because the portion with the shorter grain will be supported by the longer grain against the pressure of your tool, which results in a clean cut. If you cut from the longer grain toward the shorter grain, the cut is not supported, which means the grain is more likely to tear than produce a clean cut.
The example of a broom is probably one of the most helpful analogies to visualize what we mean here. If you were to use a knife to start cutting from the top of the bristles, you are likely to get a clean, even cut, because the shorter bristles are supported by longer ones underneath. If you were to cut in the reverse direction, starting from the longer bristles in the middle and moving toward the shorter ones above it, you are more likely to break off the bristles than slice them neatly. This is because there is nothing bracing the shorter bristles as you apply pressure from the knife as you slice upwards. The same is true of your wood blanks.
When cutting, though, you can apply the same advice as above — find what works best for you. Do some cutting each way on your wood blanks to see what works, as some wood will respond differently to different cuts, and sometimes an unsupported cut can provide an interesting texture for a more artistic piece.
In addition to making mistakes in technique, all wood turners, even experienced ones, might make mistakes because of their lack of attention. After all, when we’ve been doing something for a long time, it’s easy to go through the motions without checking our work sometimes, which can lead to costly errors.
Make sure your wood blanks are mounted correctly and securely to the lathe, and make sure your tools are sharpened properly. (It is worth noting that carbide tools will not need sharpening, so be aware of the kinds of tools you are using.)
Above all, be patient and take your time! Woodturning is an art, so explore different techniques as you create your one-of-a-kind wooden pieces.
Watch out for these common woodturning mistakes:
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