As a retired machinist/tool and die maker I was very interested to see how you would do this. I've made tons of aluminum chips with both carbide and HSS so I see no reason why wood turning tools wouldn't work as long as the lathe will turn fast enough.; speed is essential for aluminum. You did everything correctly in IMO. The bowl turned out quite nice. What I like about your videos is you are always trying something new and unusual--outside the norm so-to-speak. Keep thinking that way, please!

This was like a crossover episode I didn’t even know I needed. It’s fascinating because generally makers will stick to their wheelhouse but it didn’t really occur to me that a woodworker uses such different tools and techniques so it’s awesome reading the discussion and advice between the two worlds of metal and wood workers.

Mike, being a retired toolmaker I must say I was rather impressed by this project, and how nice it turned (no pun intended) out, the final polish looks good, you can easily find other polishes that would do the job, such as Brasso or Silvo, any fine polish (including toothpaste) will do the job, as for keeping the finish, a fine coat of clear lacquer will suffice to keep it bright for years with an occasional wipe to remove dust and prevent oxidisation....

I love that you are not afraid to try different things.

WOW... That was an experience, opens up a lot of possibilities. Only mike would try this.. Brilliant

Brave man to try turning an aluminium bowl. Very well done. Quite the work-out. No marking on the metal. This may be 6061 T6. 6061 is the alloy which is a very common alloy, and T6 is the temper. An annealed piece of aluminium would have been easier to turn, but you would have to search for someone selling annealed aluminium. Not common even in the US. Most folks turn aluminium finials. You can now appreciate why a small project like a finial is so much easier than a bowl. A couple of members of my local turning club have turned aluminium finials. One member purchased a mag/alloy wheel polishing product which was stated to work well for aluminium. He got a mirror finish on the finial. Looked terrific. He sanded to much finer grits like 2000 prior to starting the polishing. If you want to avoid finger marks I think you would need a coat of a clear lacquer which would also help to keep the polish from tarnishing. As you experienced the polishing is messy. I machine a lot of aluminium, but on my metal lathe. Metal lathe tools normally cut on the point. I normally take 10 or 20 thou cut at a time. I can go deeper cuts, but then not as good a finish. Machinists hate to sand. If you see a block of copper and feel tempted to turn this, but I recommend you avoid the temptation. Copper work hardens fast. A couple of cuts and the metal surface will get hard and harder as you continue. You would need to anneal the copper often. Once annealed it will turn easily, but not for long. Brass is very expensive, but some brass alloys do not machine well some just have awful finish, some work harden. If you see a brass alloy referred to as "Free Machining" it does not mean it will be machined free of charge at a machine shop, rather the metal will machine without hardening. In the US brass 360 alloy is "Free Machining". If I had that piece of aluminium, I would have machined it into a face plate. If you do a lot of drilling in aluminium, keep an eye on the end of the drill bit. It is easy for aluminium chips to cold well on the drill bit which then means the drill does not cut well. I have personally experienced this on my carbide metal lathe tools. Normally easy to clear the cutter with a carbide pick. The awful finish is normally the hint of cold welding. Dave.

Nifty! Fun to watch! Thanks!

Outstanding job!! Beautiful!

BRAVO!! Great job and project!! Very impressive!!

Absolutely amazing Mike, brilliant job. 👍

Fascinating! Great outcome for an experiment

Crazy idea and great result

I've seen a lot of makers that use a metal lathe to turn wood, but I've never seen metal turned on a wood lathe. Such a cool piece! I wonder how brass would turn on a wood lathe?

Hi Mike Wow I would never have thought of turning an aluminium bowl on a wood lathe. But having seen this it opens up a whole new lot of possibilities for the future. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Who'd a thunk! You just proved "only your imagination will hold you back" ! Great job. Very interesting! Thanks Mike! Take care. Dave

I'd love that bowl, beautiful

awesome proof of concept

It turned out nice Mike! I don't see me ever wanting to tackle a job like that. I have hard enough time trying to keep my tools sharp! Great job Sir! Jim

Interesting turn, looks good.

love the real rime experiment and the varied tool approach

I'm so glad I found your channel. What an adventurous soul you are?

Wow, would never have thought it was possible, much less likely to produce a lovely end product. I like the simplicity of the bead detail.

All I can say is wow you're simply amazing 😮

Cool bowl.

Nice job and a great well presented video. I am going to try and make some tool handles out of aluminium and anodise them wish me luck. Thanks again for the video.

I've done this in tradeschool 50 years ago with tools made from mill files. The aluminum shifted on the scrap wood because the point of the live center I not lined Up with the center of the woodworm screw. Love the chanel.

Well this was indeed interesting! Now I know how springs are made. LOL! Cool!

I would have thought about this but it's industrial art and you did a fine job with this litte Aluminum bowl 🎉👍👏

Another out of the box next level project Mike. Aston @IWMS

Retired aerospace engineer and licensed aircraft mechanic here... Polishing aluminum on airplanes is a common thing, so I've been involved more than a few times... Getting a perfect mirror finish on Aluminum isn't possible as the material has a slight milky haze in it. You can, however, get it pretty darned close with the right polishing abrasives (and yes, toothpaste can work, and it will leave your bowl minty fresh, but please don't use of on your airplane). To keep that mirror-like shine on your new bowl would depend on the bowl's use. If it's just going to sit around on a shelf being pretty, a coat of clear lacquer would do the trick. However, lacquer isn't very durable and unsightly scratches are ungood... If the bowl will get handled a lot... maybe a place to toss your car keys at the end of the day... I would forgo the lacquer and use a chemical coating such as Alodine 1001. You can get that at Aircraft Spruce and Specialty Co. It's not cheap, but hey... It's aerospace grade stuff. Don't use the only slightly less expensive Alodine 1201 as it will leave a slight amber tone on the metal... unless you like that sort of thing.

Hi Grüße aus Hessen Ein Super Projekt Ich finde es hat sich gelohnt.

Interesting.

I had my doubts at first but beautiful result !

I've had some thoughts of trying something like this for some time. I've been collecting scrap aluminum, brass, copper, and bronze for years and a while back I got the furnace to melt them. I wanted to incorporate the metals into wood turnings but this looks fun also. Thanks for the video. Great job!

Nice work! I've turned some aluminum on my wood lathe. I used 1.25" bar stock to turn some Hosaluk style ferrules. It was a beating. I found I needed to turn at 2000+ revs to be able to take decent-sized cuts. I primarily used carbide tools, with a bit of spindle gouge and skew work. They're not pretty, but they work great.

It is a nice plate to put you loose change in. Good job

Wahnsinn,was man alles machen kann😁👏 sieht auch noch gut aus .

Great experiment! 😊When it comes to aluminum, we’ve always had success with lacquer

I am IM.PRESSED !! Never thought about how any kind of metal would work. I expected to hear a horrible screeching metal scraping metal noise, but this wasn't bad at all. Turned out real pretty!!

bold move dude, well done

Well I guess it can be done! nice work bud!

You're crazy. Well done.

I’m super happy I came across your video! I’ve wanted to try stuff like this myself but was hesitant. I think I might try to make a carving hammer all metal.

WOW , I remember a comment by you saying you like shiney things , this takes it to another level ....😂 very nice piece 👍

Great to see you publicise this technique. Lovely work on the bowl. As a scratch builder of sailboats and racing cars I used a wood lathe for years to turn aluminum pieces like winches, binnacles, wire wheel rims etc. I bought cheap wood carving toolsets with different shaped HSS ends and custom shaped them for special needs. It was much easier to manually shape a complex curve by hand-held tool than it is now on my mini-lathe. I never realised that I was doing something so unusual! Ignorance is bliss as they say.

Sick ashtray

Awesome.. I've been wanting to try basically the same thing.. maybe with brass or copper

Made a few things from ali but on an engineering lathe so was really interested to see how this worked thought it was brilliant.

Interesting project. Nice bowl for keys maybe?

Absolutely fascinating! This is something I have long since wanted to try myself, but I have never been brave enough. A great finish too. How much sharpening did you have to do with the HSS tools? I suspect they would go dull quite quickly? Thanks for sharing Mike, a very informative video. 👍

Very interesting and ended up very nice but had to watch with the sound down as the pups hated the noise. Good job.

Hi Mike, a really nice experiment! I think that you would have great results finishing the piece with clear lacquer followed by a fine automotive polish.

Cool! You are giving me ideas…😊. Wife may not approve, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I would use clear lacquer to protect it. Several thin layers as always. Nice wee experiment,

I've turned some oak that was pretty hard but not sure I'd want to tackle a chunk of aluminum but it was fun to see it done 👍

Um es zum glänzen zubringen eignet sich sehr feine Stahlwolle super!😉

when i saw the title of the video i just had to watch it just to see the challenges you faced. ive done a lot of projects with aluminium and have found it a nightmare to work with, especially that cold chip welding on things like blades and sandpaper. one very helpful hint i found ,was to prime the bandsaw blade with candle wax first, and repeatedly during cutting. it's only today , ive used my first carbide tools for wood turning so i'm definitely now challenged to try turning some aluminium. thanks for posting this video, and the end result is amazing! i;d like to know where you sourced the blank, can you post a link please? p.s. one could easily spend the same amount of time turning a gnarly piece of wood. well done!

Hi Mike, A clear anodise would keep the finger prints off, it would stop oxidisation,but would be a less shiny finish.

Looks great. Titanium next 😂

Amazing work. Did it kill all your tools?

Nice work, Mike. How much of that time was spent sharpening your tools?

Mike you are truly a trailblazer. I would never considered turning aluminium.If I may comment .I have worked a lot on ali shop fronts and always used a cutting .lubricant when cutting aluminium f Wattyl paint products are available In your neck of the woods they will have a product called Incralac.This is a clear spray used for protecting polished surfaces Hope this is of some use.Terry downunder

Beautiful! Have you ever tried copper? It would be neat to have a series of "Turned Metals" or "Turned Éléments"! One other idea is to "turn" your way through the periodic table! Then maybe alloys? 😊 Lol, my inner dialogue says, "it's easy to generate ideas when you don't have to pay for any of it!" 😅 14:05 the sound this makes sounds like an engine of a UFO or a future rocket spinning up to leave off planet or an emergency alarm! It's really cool! Thanks for sharing!

Haha the sound is horrible. I can't imagine having to listen to that while turning. XD Turned out amazing!! I like how you got it so smooth that it didn't even look like it was spinning.

That was probably more fun to watch than do lol but thank you for trying new and interesting things 😁 Never a boring video from you. I loved the result, very well done.

I’ve turn brass bushes successfully using woodturning tools. The shavings are called swarf. Took ages to get it out of the chuck! Looks good though. Brasso will polish it well.

Just started experimenting aluminium on a wood lathe myself, it's very interesting, especially how despite how clean it looks, as soon as you get to the abrasive pastes, looks dirtier than a 20 year old van. One thing I noticed though, at several points, your carbide tool tips shifted while cutting, luckily they stayed on, but could result in a flying carbide tip... 15:05 is a more noticeable one. In terms of finishing, have you considered anodizing it? Would make it much more resistant to scratches and such, as well as the potential for different colours.

Can you do metal spinning on the wood lathe?

Hi Mike Ive heard using carbides gets better results Watched a you tube vid ,can not remember which one, but they got better results with carbide for some reason

Anodizing will harden the surface and protect against corrosion.

only 1 word SICK

Great job Mike. I turned some brass, (After watching a Harry Smith video), but never thought of Aluminium. Make a great cigar ash tray.... Just a thought, but did you think of using a metal polish, such as autosol whilst on the lathe...

I have a morry thou wants a an engine rebore, do you think you can book her in.... .....because you have amply demonstrated that it is possible. What a fascinating view of metalworking from a woodworking perspective. The final piece looks really interesting, I am slightly reminded of ash trays from the 1970's and bits of the set from Blake's 7 as well though, in a good way. With metal which is very strong and uniform I would have expected very thin walls, yet you left this really solid which I guess pays homage to the original billet (dunno is that what blanks of metal are called?) I wonder if with a car battery and some bicarbonate of soda you could have anodised it? I don't actually know how that process works either... Superb as ever.

Have you done alabaster?

I have managed to turn a few items on the wood lathe for my camper. It really is a time consuming exercise and for finishing I take the sanding with emery cloth 180 to 600 wet and dry with a drop of thin oil for the last couple of grits. Then for the final polish I use Brasso with a small piece of teashirt cloth. It leaves a very shiny surface that does seem to keep it without finger marking. Nice job though

You can also drop inlays with soft metal, brass, Cooper ,etc.

That was great and surprising that it only took about 3 hours. I turn a lot of small aluminium and brass things and some of those can take an hour or two. I'm thinking that it didn't run right when you mounted it to the waste block is because you didn't turn the face of the waste block. If there is a local wheel repair/refinish shop near you, they might be good enough to clear powder coat it for a reasonable price or give you advice on a finish at least.

copper and brass-next,, ideas, might chuck up a buffing wheel in a hand drill to use for buffing,, good looking bowl

Hi Mike, I was sure you had dark hair when you started that, That did polish up really nice, did you keep count of how many times you had to sharpen your tools, and what about spray on Lacquer, wouldn't that give you a good protection and finish to the piece, whatever it did look very nice and something completely different. Take care Steve

That's beautiful, the only thing I can't get past is that it seems like your tailstock is all sorts of out of center

your poor tools! glad to see you wearing heavy gloves, smart man! all in all, it is a lovely little bowl. keep up the excellent work.

You can use an aluminum polish then spray it with a clear finish like krilon or Rustolium

what is the aluminum doing to you tools?

A fancy smancy ashtray. Or a change bowl

A demonstration of wood lathe torture! When you started hollowing I turned off the sound. I figure that I don't need to be tortured as well! That said you get a big 👍 for having the perseverance to see it through! I know full well it wasn't fun. Live long and prosper. 🤘😋 Wakodahatchee Chris

I suspect you could use the woodworm screw, but since aluminium is somewhat harder that pine, you'd need the pilot hole much bigger so the threads only need to cut in around 0.1 or 0.2mm

Very cool. And I've never seen anything like that on KZfaq How many carbide cutters did you use? And for keeping the finger prints off WD40 😂😂🙈

Could have tried some Talcum power to finish it off forthe polish

Al-u-minium :)

Interesting concept thoroughly enjoyed it. A little wd40 would have aided in turning it and perhaps the finish of the cuts however with added mess.

Did you keep changing tools because they were blunt

I was really puzzled how the original punch mark didn't ensure it was centred properly. I think I figured out what happened. The two flat ends weren't perpendicular to the sides. So the punch mark was centred on the round face but when you mounted it on the block the rest of the cylinder was at an angle so only the very front was centred not the bulk of the cylinder. It's also possible they were not parallel with each other or that the wooden block wasn't flat.

Just a thought.. Why not inlay with wood.?

Nice work! (But I would have ALWAYS have gloves on when turning metal.)

🆒😎👍!

You must know that metal lathes have been carving not just aluminium but most other metals. Aluminium is probably the easiest because it is softer. You can get a small metal lathe for a very reasonable sum and it would be surprised how much they can do including turning threads on screws. I would suggest for polishing that you use emery cloth rather than sandpaper.

I would have used a diaper type cloth. It is better than paper towels. You can get it at either an auto parts store or a good fabric store it is much softer, provides a smoother, and much clearer finish when using abrasive pastes, waxes, and polishes.

Drill a hole in the center and tap it. Then put a big bolt, like 1/2", in and cut the head off. Put that in the chuck like a worm screw. And also, you can probably make the aluminum softer by annealing it. Might help the turning process.

IIRC Al rots steel tools by causing de-alloying. But I generally don't recall correctly.

The guy who taught me wood turning, when I was a little lad, had a lathe that was apparently originally a metal working lathe. With a hand rest and a foot treadle to power it. I don't think he had ever turned any metal on it though. He had converted it to electric power, with a washing machine motor though.