Turning Crib Spindles



I've got several projects going on right now, but I thought I'd build a post dealing with turning spindles.  Pretty much every woodworker I know loves turning wood on a lathe.  It's very satisfying shaping and smoothing the wood as it spins in front of you.  A customer has a crib that he is re-engineering and he needs four spindles turned matching the originals.   

This project started with selecting some white oak that had a grain pattern similar to the original wood.

Next the stock has to be glued into blanks, squared and dimensioned.

Below the first blank is mounted on the lathe and roughed into a round/cylindrical shaped using a rasp and roughing chisel.

Then the roughed unit is smoothed down to nearly the final maximum diameter.  I've begun to lay out the pattern below.  I do all my work freehand, so I spend a lot of time measuring and checking.





I've cut in the first couple of inches using the actual spindles as my guide.  Turning is an art and a science.



A closer view of the nearly completed section


Now I'm working my way along the spindle matching the cuts on the original.
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Now it's time to sand and smooth the turned spindle, before putting on the matching finish.
























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