Automaton – The Pole Lathe Turner

Colwin Way takes the mechanism made by Richard Findley and adds his woodturner automaton

Wooden automaton figure using a lathe.

I could see how this project would appeal to both our turning brains and immediately got to work thinking what to do. My first thought, after discussion with Richard, was of a turner using a skew and getting catch after catch. Although this would be a humorous creation, I thought it may be a little difficult to create so many movements into one piece. My second idea was for a dragon, with a flying movement, which would be cool but had no connection to Richard or myself. So my final choice was based on movement and relative ease of how to create that movement.

I opted for a pole lathe turner operating the lathe with his leg, turning a bowl. Now, I have no experience with pole turning but have watched a lot of people do it, so by memory, plus internet research, plus artistic licence, have come up with this. As I have a great face for radio, this piece has some wonderful movement with the pole flexing up and down, the turner’s leg generating the flex – you can only take my word for that, as at the time of writing, magazines don’t have moving pictures. You will, of course, see it peppered all over social media by Richard, myself and Woodturning magazine.

Plans & equipment

Tools & materials

  • PPE & RPE as appropriate
  • 8mm drill bit
  • 3mm drill bit
  • Sanding disc
  • 3mm parting tool
  • 6mm bowl gouge
  • 10mm spindle gouge
  • 12mm round nose scraper
  • 12mm skew chisel
  • 1 x kebab stick
  • 400mm nylon string for pole lathe
  • Epoxy glue
  • Pin jaws
  • Power sanding pad
  • 3mm wire for joints
  • 3mm steel rod
015_WTUR_400Download

The making

Person assembling wooden instrument with screwdriver.
1. First of all, having received the base that Richard had made, I pulled myself out of an imposter syndrome moment staring at this amazing construction, and set to work dismantling the piece, while thinking ‘where’ to start. I don’t know about you, but I find staring at a problem a big part of my creative technique. My wife laughs at me when I’m doing this and often gives me a nudge and asks: ‘You having the stares again?’
Wood blocks with drilled holes on green mat.
2. This project is a fairly straightforward automaton, however for a magazine article it’s still complex to get into just a few pages. What I’ve done is given you a few pictures but hope to explain each individual piece in all the drawings and through words. To start with, here are the parts of the lathe from the bed down. I drilled the holes for the legs 8mm diameter and with roughly a 10° angle. All dimensions are in the drawings
Woodworker using lathe for precise shaping
3. Each of the four legs needs to be turned down to give a 8mm tenon for joining into the bed, but just take the corners off the rest of the length. This is so we can make the legs look riven instead of turned, which will be a little more authentic than neatly turned pieces
Woodturning process on a lathe machine.
4. Using a disc sander, create a series of facets around the leg to give the impression of the riving knife. This is your chance to make the piece look real – be completely random here, in fact the more uneven the better. But remember to leave the tenon alone
Hands crafting with wood and epoxy in workshop.
5. Now let’s jump forward to the first gluing stage. You can glue up the A frame foot pedal and the lathe from the bed down. I know this isn’t the norm for a ‘how to’ magazine article, however once again follow the line drawings to make the pieces of your lathe and you’ll be fine. Each piece, when looked at as individual, is a ‘simple’ piece of turning or woodwork. I have included all the measurements
Wood lathe with attached wooden block
6. Our ‘turner’ is going to be making a bowl. I’ve got a piece of ash, cut to a baby bowl blank and, using a long wood screw, held in a set of pin jaws, screw the blank on like a normal screw chuck. This is a great tip to hold small pieces if your screw chuck is too big. Just be careful to use a good-quality screw and don’t load too big of a piece on it
Woodturning on a lathe machine
7. Make a foot on the back of the bowl, as you would with a regular one, and hold in a small set of jaws to allow you to hollow. The bowl was turned in the normal way with a small bowl gouge. I used a 6mm for the outside and for the inside I decided to simply use my 12mm round-nose scraper
Wooden hand drill on green mat surface
8. On to the next gluing stage, which will be to insert the metal 3mm centre shaft into the pre-drilled head stock, through the bowl and drive, then into the pre-drilled tailstock. Use a clamp to keep it from moving and I would advise using a quick-setting epoxy glue to allow you to keep going instead of having to wait for the glue to dry
Hand assembling wooden mechanical parts on circle base.
9. The A frame is an essential part of this lathe and allows the turner to generate the momentum to turn. This has been glued and is now dry. The piece of timber I’m holding is to be glued into position and will allow the A frame to be fixed in position while still being able to move up and down at the front
Diagram showing pole string mechanism with labels.
10. The way I’ve decided to give the automaton movement is a very basic one, and really revolves around one key turned component, a 50mm cam wheel. This, when 10 turned will push down the pole string and push up on the leg plunger, to give the impression that the leg is driving the lathe
Woodturning on a lathe with dust collection
11. I found it easier to cut a rough disc out of a pre-machined flat board before turning between centres, using a push plate and ring centre, as in this picture. When making this one, I thought of putting a groove in, in case I needed it later. However, it wasn’t necessary so you could just make yours smooth
Interior view of wooden banjo structure
12. Here’s what the mech looks like at this stage. I’ve drilled the cam hole at 8mm to go onto Richard’s threaded bar and at 10mm from centre. You’ll see another hole in the picture, but this was also a ‘just in case hole’ that I drilled in at 15mm, in case I needed more movement, but ended up not being used
Wooden automaton model with design sketches on paper.
13. You can now glue the lathe in place. Glue the ‘A’ frame clamp and screw on the kebab skewer pole and holder. Let’s draw our attention to the woodturner. Start by cutting out all the pieces, again all sizes are on the line drawings. It really helps to get your proportions correct first on paper before cutting, so I checked online for the correct body proportions then sketched it out to scale before cutting. In this picture, the timber man is bigger than the drawing, only because I’ve allowed a little extra for trimming away the centre marks
Hand holding handmade wooden chess piece.
14. The body and waste have been turned on three centres, equal on both sides to make them oval instead of barrel round in shape. This is a neat little trick to get an authentic shape, don’t forget to sand on each centre, which I’ve done up to 400 grit
Wooden object being shaped on a lathe.
15. Moving to the head and other shapes, try to keep to your drawings and leave a little waste to clean up later as this eliminates any unsightly centre holes. Every piece needs to be sanded before coming off the lathe
Woodturning on lathe with hands crafting.
16. When turned and sanded they can be removed from the lathe by using a disc sander and the nibs can be removed to a good finish. If you use your power sander heads you can travel through your grades of abrasive
Wood lathe shaping wooden whistle with shavings around.
17. For arms and legs we’re going to use a simple hinge system. To do this you will need to make a mortice and tenon either by Japanese pullsaw with the blanks held in a bench vice or a bandsaw but with the blanks held on a V-block. This was my chosen method, but caution needs to be taken here as fingers need to be kept well out of harm’s way so I advise cutting the joints before turning and then using a ring centre to drive
Hand holding crafted wooden jointed doll figure.
18a. Here you can see the leg movement with the same joints to be applied to the arms. The great thing about this is that the movement is good while the joint helps to keep things in line, but the negative is that there isn’t a lot of adjustment able to be made. Later I decided to add the same jointing system to the foot and hip with a tenon made separately and glued on, and a further mortice cut to the top and bottom of the leg
Hand holding wooden jointed mannequin part.
18b.
Craftsman shaping wood on a lathe machine.
19. Shaping can be done via sanding on any areas that need it – for instance, here’s the hand being shaped. I also like to clean up hold points and glue areas when required with the same method. The sanding pad is straight out of my rotary sander and used for power sanding – it can be held in the jaws of your chuck which gives you full access to all your power sanding grades
Wooden leg sculpture against green mat background.
20. The support leg is ridged and is actually the main support for the whole body, this is an easy make but starts life as one turning excluding the foot. Once turned, cut the leg at about 80° then turn one half back to front and glue back together to give the impression of a slightly bent leg
Woodturning spindle on a lathe with hand tool
21. I found the best way to join most of the parts together was 3mm silver steel. In this example the hole is drilled in the top of the leg and, holding the silver steel in a four jaw chuck, cut the silver steel to length. This can be done to all the parts that use this method, the four jaw chucks make great work clamps
Wooden mannequin on graph paper with tools.
22. Here are all the turner pieces made with all the jointed arms and legs together. There’s still a bit to do and, to be honest, worked out as I go, as I can almost guarantee that I couldn’t repeat this project and have the same outcomes
Turning wood on a lathe with hand tools.
23. So far, the mechanism to move the pole is working fine and driving the lathe and moving the A frame. But we do need to create movement for the turner’s leg, which is the up and down knee action which will be done using the top of the cam disc
Wooden structure with measuring tape on round base.
24. You will need to make a plunge disc to lay on to the cam disc. I’ve done this with a slight arc on both faces to make sure the discs don’t stick
Hand holding wooden button with metal shaft.
25. This plunge disc will be connected to a piece of silver steel which will locate through the floor of the automaton and on to the foot of the turner
Woodturning on metal lathe with hand saw
26. The next part is the securing clamp for the string on to the pole. I did think of simply tying the string around the pole but it kept slipping down, so I decided to turn this little slotted holder
Wooden spinning wheel part on workshop table.
27. On one side drill the holder to slot on to the pole and the other side a small slit cut with a Japanese pullsaw to enable a string to be fed through and tied off
Woodturning with a lathe and chisel tool
28. Just a few finishing touches now and on to the lathe tools. Like I said at the beginning, I’ve never done any pole lathe turning so I had to look up pole lathe tools and found a hook tool that looked the part
Hand holding wooden-handled hook tool.
29. After turning the handle, bend a piece of wire to a hook shape and insert into the handle after drilling a small hole
Hand holding a small carved wooden object.
30A/B. Here you can see how the mechanism is designed to move the leg through its mortice and tenon joints. It has a very pleasing movement, even making the shushing of a pole lathe
Close-up of wooden puppet gears and mechanism
31. And the final crowning glory is the turner’s hat made from a piece of walnut – I’ve made many mini hats for German smokers and nutcrackers and this one is done in the same way. Starting with a 50mm blank held in the chuck, turn the underside of the hat including the races to take the top of the head before moving the top of the hat and finally parting off and sanding the section just cut
Wooden item on lathe in workshop setting.
32. I hope you enjoyed the development of this project. Look out for it on our social media channels to see the piece finally moving and I’m going to try to do a little needlework and make him a pair of shorts and a woodturning smock
Wooden puppet using a lathe in workshop.

Thanks for the opportunity to collaborate with you Richard, it’s been a blast.

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