What's your oldest tool?

My lathe is 40 years old. That officially makes it older than most of the people I teach. 

It's rusty and worn, and so many of the parts are broken (and unavailable) that it's a little embarrassing when I pull it out to turn something. Still... there's something about that old Rockwell that makes me proud. 

At the time, it was one of the most expensive tools I'd ever purchased, and over the past 40 years, it has more than paid for itself. I've made hundreds of rolling pins and bowls, and salt shakers and handles for broken tools. Not to mention table legs, stool stretchers... you name it, I've probably made it. 

The patina is gnarly, and I've had to substitute parts from other machines, just to make it work. Still... I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of it. It's kind of like an old pair of shoes or a belt that are so comfortable, you just can't bear to toss them, even though you never wear them anymore. Yes, that's my lathe. 

Someone sent me this picture, asking if I could make a paddle similar to this. But - they wanted a turned handle, not a flat one, like the picture. 

Turned like a baseball bat handle, they requested. 

 Well, I can cut and paste with the best of them, so I put together this picture, to ensure that we were on the same page.

 My plan was to make it out to two pieces - the handle and the flat part -  and join them. But they were dead against that, worried that the joint would break over time.  The tricky part in my mind was turning the handle while it was attached to the flat part. The vibration could be epic, especially on my tired lathe. But I worked out a few dimensions, and asked my buddy Denny to cut this sample on his CNC. He came up with this sample  - perfect for what I was trying to accomplish.  

I found a suitable piece of wood,

 and he cut the shape perfectly. 

To lessen the chance of the edges chipping off, I rounded over everything with a router, 

and then pulled out the trusty old Rockwell to get this party started.  

This front plate reminds me of pictures I've seen of the Titanic, where rusty parts abound. 

Since my customer requested the baseball bat handle, I pulled out a bat I had hanging around the shop. 

And started cutting. I'm sure there's a name for this knob on the end of a bat. 

Oh wait -  

it's called a ... KNOB.  

Who knew? 

The part that I worried about most was the transition between the handle and the flat part. One little slip of a tool and the tool could make this piece go flying out of the lathe, and well, that's dangerous AF. I had a rolling pin fly out of this very lathe many years ago, and I had a black eye for a month. 

Luckily, the transition went perfectly, 

and once it was sanded and blended together, it was perfect. 

It's sort of corny, but I like pulling this old relic out once in a while. 

The battle scars could tell a few stories, 

but in the end, it can still produce some nice work.

 Batter up!