A few days ago, I purchased a tool I’ve wanted for a long time, a full-sized lathe. I was at a used-goods store and saw it going for a good price, so I bought it and shoved it in the back of my car and brought it home. I managed to get it down the stairs to my basement workshop and dumped it on the floor (which is its current residence, as seen in the picture).

I have great plans for it. First, I will need to make a stand of some sort and find a good location for it amongst the other stationary tools. My workshop is getting more and more crowded as the tools I want move in and get set up. Unfortunately, the room itself is not getting any bigger.

Incidentally, I already had a lathe, but it is small. It cannot handle anything longer than 12 inches and I can easily stop it from turning by grabbing the stock with my hand. I have used it to make a couple of things, though. I made a very short (very very short) candle-stand-type table to put next to a very low (very very low) chair that was in my living room. Unfortunately, the chair is no more but the tiny table (dining table for Smurfs) is still somewhere around here.
I also used the mini lathe to make some chess pieces. I did not make a complete set, though. It was more of an exercise. Or rather, it was more of an excuse to use the lathe.

And I wonder what I will ever make using this new lathe, once I have it set up. When I was in high school, the shop-class lathe was used pretty much exclusively for making baseball bats (although more than one person made billy-clubs). I only ever made one baseball bat, but I didn’t have a lathe at my disposal. Having a keen desire to play some baseball, I cut down a birch tree and hacked a bat out of it using a hatchet. It was not exactly the most practical of bats, since it weighed somewhere around 10 pounds, but it really hit the ball far. It was also a little uncomfortable on the hands, since it wasn’t really round or very smooth. But that’s what you do when you’re young: you have fun with the stuff you make.

Now, I wonder if maybe I am acting on a deep-seated desire to have the implements necessary to make all the things I ever wanted to make, and so I go get them. I resisted the urge to get a band saw but was given one by my brother last winter. (You would likely recognize it as his Modified 9-Inch Bandsaw.) Practically, I can use that to resaw wood, but somewhere deep in my mind is the idea that I can finally make that crib board in the shape of 29 that I’ve always wanted, especially since I also have a drill press.

Of course, many would argue that any use of such a tool, as long as it generates something, is a good use. I more or less agree. I am a firm believer that people should endeavour to be creative whenever possible. I believe that a person’s life should result in artefacts, useful or not. So, purely artistic activities or purely practical activities, something should result from what you do. That is not the same as what people are currently harping on about materialism and the endless collection of junk they end up with. You don’t need to keep the products of your activities, but there should be something that results from how you spend your time.

Anyway, I worry about the proliferation of tools in my basement and that they may actually prevent the creation of anything. I currently have to move things out of the way to get in and out of the place. But that is more due to my own rather pathetic ability to organize. But one who cannot organize his stuff probably should try to have less stuff, not more.
So the lathe will stay where it is for a while. I have a few other things to do before I can turn my attention to it. But once it’s set up, I will finally be able to make a taller candle-stand. But I’ll probably end up making a full set of chess pieces.