20 Beginner-Friendly Wood Lathe Projects (That Sell)

A lathe is a tool commonly used to shape metal or wood. It works by revolving the workpiece around a stationary cutting tool. The main goal is to remove the undesirable components of the material, leaving behind a precisely shaped workpiece. With the help of lathe machines, we can make many homemade products, and by selling these, we can get the highest net return and maximum profit. 

Wood lathes are frequently employed for small-scale projects involving platters, bowls, and furniture. Even though using a lathe initially seems intimidating, once you get the hang of it, they are enjoyable and addictive. Spindle turning and faceplate turning are the only two fundamental turning techniques used with a lathe.

Wooden Lathe Projects

In this topic, we’ll discuss 20 cool things you could craft on your wood lathe while relaxing at home with your loved ones. These crafts make beautiful presents, or you can sell them to make money!

Wooden bangles:

Making wooden bracelets is one of the most straightforward projects for beginners using a wood lathe. They take little time to make and look great, unfinished and stained. You can experiment with designs and colors to see what sells the best. Most Etsy sellers offer wooden bangles in lots of 5 or 10, depending on the thickness.

Bangles make excellent gifts. So, whether you want the bangles for yourself or someone you love, you can always make them on your wood lathe to make them more unique. 

Description:

• Wooden bangles come in various shapes, colors, and embellishments, and it is a beautiful ornamental structure used by girls.
•  Additionally, they are available in unusual patterns like the sun, star, spiral, and bangles made of wooden beads strung together and then fastened with another wooden piece, hexagonal, octagonal, and a variety of other strange shapes and colors.
• Wooden bangles can be worn on various occasions and are durable and robust. They are also simple to decorate.
• Even children can complete the process because it is so straightforward. 
• The solid wooden bangles themselves are pretty strong. 

Additionally, you can make it incredibly distinctive while turning the bangles on your lathe by choosing different designs to be burned into the wood.

Wooden Pots

Making pot crafts, especially wooden pot crafts can be very adorable. Wooden pots are tiny vases for preserving and showcasing various flowers. The hollowing out of the space in vases, as opposed to drilling it in wooden pots, is the primary distinction between a vase and a wooden pot other than their differences in size. 

Description:

• Wooden pots can hold the displayed plant for a brief period precisely because of this.
• If you’re short on space, a wooden pot is a great way to make a bed to grow plants or weeds.
• Your wooden pot can be modified to fit any corner, depending on your needs.
• Additionally, because it is made of pressure-treated wood, it is rot-resistant and can be stained in any color.
• You can create a wooden pot in a single day using treated wood.
• Calculate the size of the space you require, cut the wood to size, and then adhere to our instructions to assemble the planter.
• These pots are a beautiful way to show off the flowers that your loved ones might bring home randomly out of affection or even to display origami flowers.

Wooden Forks

A wooden spoon is one of, if not the most valuable and significant item in any kitchen. A metallic spoon is known to change the flavor of acidic foods like pasta when prepared, and an object made of wood is highly resistant to this.

Description:

• For those who love organic or natural products, wooden forks are a great option.
• Cooking forks made of wood look lovely in the kitchen.
• It is mainly used as a kitchen accessory for eating, making food, and other uses.
• The three-pronged wood fork’s unique versatility adds to the standard spatula and stirs tool designs, making handling pasta easier.
• They are handcrafted from premium-quality, traditional beech wood with love; for your meal, perfect.
• Serving and mixing are ideal uses for wooden cooking forks.

This project can be used to teach beginners and young people how to operate a wooden lathe. In other words, it takes fewer skills to achieve better results because making elaborate spoons on a wood lathe is very simple and can even be done at the beginner level.

Candle Stool 

Making a candle stool on a wood lathe is an efficient task. This is the quickest and simplest item you can make on a wood lathe, and it is composed of 4 essential components.

Description:

• This tiny three-legged stool can hold a candle or a small plant.
• This one was constructed using a drill press and a lathe and is made of maple and walnut. 
• It is 5″ in diameter and 4″ tall.
• Wooden candle stools are simple and easy to operate.
• These tiny stools, around 13 cm wide by 10 cm high, are frequently referred to as antique candle stools.
• These tiny antique tree stools were made from whatever wood was available, so frequently, the legs and top of the chair were made from different types of wood.

This is one of the best beginner wood lathe projects available, provided it could potentially guarantee a lot of practice space for kids. Additionally, you can make it in different sizes to use as a doll stool for your daughter or a raised wooden pot stand.

Table Legs

Turning a spindle is less complicated than turning a faceplate. Any small wood lathe with a good center swing will work for this, and it works with any 1/2 HP variable speed motor lathe.

If you are confident using a wood lathe, you should attempt this project. 

Description:

• Wooden legs are the base where a table rests on it.
• It should be the proper shape and size according to the table.

Additionally, the ones made of wood can be incredibly stylish and precisely customized to your tastes when they are made on a lathe.

Owning a wood lathe and using it to create a chair lies in its beauty. If you want, you could even build a deck chair and install it in your backyard so you can unwind on the weekends while reading a book outside.

 Three-Legged Stool

A three-legged stool is one practical item you can create on your wood lathe. These stools are typically helpful and sometimes stylish as well. Typically, these are very versatile pieces of furniture that can be placed anywhere in your home.

Description:

• You can move around and sit on a stool or saddle seat while working.
• Since the pelvis and lumbar (low back) are in a neutral position thanks to the higher seating position provided by a stool or saddle seat, the spine can adopt its natural curve.
• This can lessen aches and pains from poor posture for people who experience back pain.
• Sitting on a stool or saddle seat also promotes “Active Sitting,” which works your back and core muscles and can increase your comfort and productivity at work.
• It is better to connect the stool’s legs with these tolls, which should also have a footrest. 
• If you intend to use it for sitting at your kitchen counter, keep in mind that you should make it a little higher.

Wooden vase

A wooden vase can be incredibly effective for creating a charming effect in your home’s decor. A wooden vase you turn on a lathe will also be used to hold flowers, as is the case with all vases.

Description:

• A wood base is an open container is a vase. 
• Vases have even been made out of wood by coating regular wood or plastic with a protective layer or using tree species naturally resistant to rot, like teak. 
• Vases are frequently adorned and used to hold cut flowers. 
• Vases come in various sizes to support the flower they hold or secure.
• Vases typically all have the same shape. 
• The foot or base may have a carinate, flat, bulbous, or other shapes. The majority of the piece is made up of the body. 
• Some vases have a lip, where the vase flares outward at the top, a neck that adds height, and a shoulder where the body curves inward. Additionally, some vases have handles.

The project for the wooden vase might differ slightly. Almost any shape can be created for your vase. The challenge with creating a natural vase is that you can’t just drill a hole in the middle; you must hollow out the center. Making a wooden vase on your wood lathe can be a good idea.

Cutting board/surface

This is most likely among the things that can be made from a most helpful wood lathe. Cutting boards are necessary for every household, and cutting boards are handy and straightforward.

Description:

• Cutting and chopping raw food is one of the most fundamental kitchen tasks, and a chopping board is the tool of choice.
• A cutting board is used to cut or chop vegetables and fruits for a stir fry or leafy greens for a fresh salad.
• Cutting bread, cheese, fruit, vegetables, and other foods ready to eat is best done with wooden cutting boards. 
• Fish or raw meat can both be cut on wooden cutting boards.
• For wood cutting boards, hardwoods like maple work best.
• This hardwood is capable of withstanding any required cutting or smashing.
• Cutting boards made of wood should remain durable for many years if properly cared for.
• Cleaning wooden cutting boards is simple. Etc. Use soap, water or detergent, or dishwasher soap to clean it.
• Afterward, the board must be rinsed with hot water and dried upright.
• Since most of our food items come into contact with the cutting board, you must replace them after a year.

Your efforts in the kitchen could become very simple as a result. Giving a cutting board that you made yourself as a gift would also be nice for the two of you.

Box Shelves:

We have a lot of boxy designs today because you can create so much home decor using a straightforward square design.

For example, you can make varied designs, and if you do it well, you can quickly sell them.

Description:

• They are reasonably priced, adaptable, and can be made into almost anything you desire by scaling them up or down to any size. 
• Like Woodsnap prints, you can scale them down and place them on tables and countertops. 
• You can strategically place them on your walls, under your bed, table, or couch.
• Let’s look at how box shelves, like open shelves, can enhance your home’s decor.
• Box Shelves are used for storing your products in the living room. To create geometric patterns, hang the units from the walls at various heights.
• Since the living room rarely requires a lot of storage, box shelving is a great choice. For instance, you can choose these over a sturdy bookcase.
• You could also create a modular system for your living room and gradually add more shelving as needed.
• A discrete piece of furniture can be created by neatly assembling the box shelving units.
• Make your box shelving out of used luggage and shipping containers if you prefer custom and distinctive designs.

Storage Box

If you pardon the expression, owning this furniture can be very useful. In this box, you can use it to save items or cash. Additionally, your wood lathe can be used to create such a box. Storage boxes serve a purpose in addition to being decorative, like a ladder quilt rack does, just like building a wooden crate from pallets. 

Description:

• The best boxes to store things in are wooden ones.
• Small boxes can be used to store jewelry or priceless trinkets safely.
• At your next tea party, put both domestic and foreign tea bags in a tiny wooden box and display it.
• Use larger boxes to store items like clothing or bedding under a bed or in a closet. Children can keep their games and toys in wooden boxes, which is ideal.
• Keep craft materials in a wooden box, and let kids paint the box however they like.
• Use wooden boxes to adorn your house or place of business. Purchase a wooden box to use with your current decor, refinish, or paint an old one.
• Use wooden boxes to keep things organized at home or the office.
• Essential documents should be stored in a wooden box placed on a shelf and labeled with the contents so that it is simple to find them when needed.

It can be an excellent replacement for cardboard boxes that aren’t as sturdy and long-lasting as a wooden box. You could even personalize this box by adding decorations as you make it.

Wine Rack

Wine consumption has evolved into a pleasant art. You take a deep breath and savour the taste of a deep, rich red as you inhale the tannins. If you know how to build a wine rack, you can keep these bottles of delicious liquid in your house. They are simple to make and don’t need a lot of equipment or expertise. All you need to get started on your new pallet wood project is some scrap wood, possibly some pallet wood, and a few ideas.

With woodworking projects that sell like this, you can give your house a little bit of individuality. You might need some wood glue to build a rack, so be sure to stick to the plan when beginning your woodworking project.

Description:

• You can store wine safely and conveniently in one place with the help of wine racks.
• When kept horizontally, the cork will remain moist, which is essential to avoiding drying out and crumbling.
• Wooden racks are different in size, shape, height, wood material etc.
• Wine racks provide a way to store wine bottles safely and correctly, whether you have a collection of 10 or 1000 bottles.
• The best and proper way to store wine bottles is in wine racks with an appropriate arrangement.
• The days of haphazardly stacking cardboard wine boxes throughout your house are long gone!
• To fit your lifestyle, wine racks come in various designs, aesthetics, and options.
• They are a popular and effective method for storing wine bottles in residential and commercial settings.

Wooden Bowl

Making a wooden bowl on your wooden lathe is a convenient task. Additionally, you could even make a bowl with kids since it’s simple. Also more durable are wooden bowls. Fruits, food, and water can all be stored in this. 

Description:

• New Hampshire Bowl & Board recommends woods like cherry, maple, and walnut for their inherent beauty and colour. Because of its strength and attractive grain, acacia wood is also widely used.
• Use a wood bowl for food preparation, ideally one made of hardwood like Cherry, Maple, or Black Walnut. 
• Wooden bowls can be stacked together to save space and are surprisingly durable. Open shelving is an excellent choice to display a beautiful bowl.
• For salads or popcorn, wooden bowls are customarily used. However, serving drier foods like stews, chilli, pot roasts, and meat won’t harm your bowl. 
• It works well with sides like coleslaw and breakfast cereals as well.
• A solid wood bowl will withstand damage from cutting edges. Salad dressing can be prepared directly in the bowl without causing any damage. But you can permanently repair it if it gets scratched or marked.
• You can serve both hot food and fabulous foods in the wooden bowls. 
• A natural insulator, wood. Therefore, wooden bowls keep your food warm while shielding your hands from the scorching heat.

Turning a wooden bowl on your lathe is a very straightforward yet practical project.

Shakers for salt and pepper

Making your own salt and pepper shakers is an enjoyable small wood lathe project. With the aid of salt shaker and pepper mill hardware kits, you can choose to keep things very simple or even create your salt and pepper mills quickly and easily.

Description:

• As the name implies, these shakers are the most well-known and widely used.
• These shakers have a lid with holes on top that can be used to dispense salt or pepper, respectively. Wooden shakers are typically more compact, have a plain appearance, and match the tableware and décor. 
• These shakers are straightforward to use and reasonably priced. 
• The only drawback to these shakers is that they can only dispense pre-ground ingredients, which may make the food taste less flavorful.
• These shakers are made of wood and also contain metal parts.
• This shakers’ use of wood gives them a natural, rustic appearance that fits in with various settings.
• They also add to the aesthetic and are very durable.

Rolling Pins

A helpful kitchen tool for rolling out the dough for pies, pastries, and other items. You can use a wood lathe to create your rolling pin; these are typically made from maple, beechwood, or cherry.

Rolling pins in many bakeries and kitchens are used to evenly flatten doughs, including pie and pastry doughs and cookie and pasta doughs.

Description:

• The wooden rolling pins can be made from various materials and come in multiple sizes and shapes.
• The traditional hardwood rolling pin, also known as an “American” or “baker’s” rolling pin, is the most famous bakery industry.
• It is a wooden barrel with a rod running through the middle, frequently equipped with a ball bearing tool attached at the product’s top end.
• Barrels can be made from other materials, though wood is the most traditional, depending on what the baker or cook needs.
• Different types of wood, like maple and hardwood, are often used to make a rolling pin. 
• Many bakers prefer this kind of rolling pin because they can better “feel” the dough in their hands as they handle the pin. 
• Dowels are typically made from a single piece of wood or metal. Rolling out Chinese dumplings and bao requires using extremely tiny, tapered pins, no larger than a few inches in length.

Honey Dipper: 

In our daily life, the honey dipper has an essential part of our breakfast. Using a honey dipper eliminates the potential mess of using a regular spoon when adding honey to anything.

These are simple to make; you must start with a blank piece of wood, notch out the grooves, and turn the handle base to the shape you want. Different sizes of honey dippers are available in the market, which is easy to afford and use.

Description:

• A honey dipper is a kitchen tool that extracts viscous liquid, usually honey, from one place and deposits it in another.
• It frequently consists of turned wood. The tool is made up of evenly spaced grooves apart from the handle.
• On each new groove, the circumference of the tracks frequently decreases.
• One technique to prevent dripping while transporting the tool is to dip the grooved end into the liquid and then slowly twirl the handle between the thumb and fingers. 
• Honey is frequently drizzled over bread, biscuits, and similar foods.

Book Racks

Book racks are exquisite and sophisticated, especially those hanging on the walls. A book rack would be very valuable to a bookworm. While book racks are great for keeping your books organized stylishly, they can also be used to display different showpieces. 

An item of furniture with horizontal shelves, commonly found in a cabinet, is referred to as a bookcase or bookshelf and is used to store books or other printed materials. In private homes, public and university libraries, workplaces, educational institutions, and bookshops, bookcases are used.

Description: 

• Bookcases come in various sizes, from small, table-height models to tall, ceiling-height models.
• In this case, shelves may be fixed or moveable to multiple positions.
• To shield the books from dust and moisture, a bookcase may have glass doors that can be closed.
• Glass is almost always used to cover bookcase doors so that the spines of the books can be seen.
• Rare books that are particularly valuable can be kept in locked cases with glass or wooden doors.
• Small bookcases can also be supported by other pieces of furniture, like a desk or chest.

If you own a wooden lathe, there is good news because you can create a book rack on your lathe.

Wooden frames

Everybody’s emotional response to photographs is different. And it is natural to show off your best pictures with your neighbours, friends, and others, mainly if they capture a memorable moment or an exhilarating experience.

With a wooden photo frame, especially one you made yourself, you can give these pictures a unique touch.

Description:

• A wooden picture frame is an ornamental and protective border for a picture, such as a painting or a photograph.
• It also distinguishes the image from its surroundings while aesthetically integrating it with them, making it safer and more straightforward to display the work.
• That is a task that can be accomplished thanks to wooden lathes. 
• Making wooden photo frames in wooden lathes is relatively simple, provided that a certain amount of patience is maintained.
• They are made of hardwood, maple wood etc.
• Maple wooden frames are attractive and durable and also easy to afford.

Wooden Beads

Also lovely and having a sophisticated appearance are wooden beads. Additionally, they might make a thoughtful gift for your mother, sister, or significant other. By turning it on your wooden lathe yourself, you can take it a step further by giving it a unique touch.

Another lovely item you can create on a lathe is wooden beads, which are particularly lovely because you can use a wide variety of woods, including exotic woods! 

Description:

The beads can be used to make necklaces, jewellery, beaded curtains, or even sold in sets to other crafters. Much more than we typically realize is possible with those tiny wooden beads from the craft store. Since wood is an excellent material for crafting, I’m especially thrilled to see these creative takes on the simple little wood bead.

There are different types of wooden beads like-

• Wood-bead dolls
• Towel ring with beads
• Hair twists with wooden beads
• Wood keychains with beads
• Wood bead necklace

You’ve been waiting to buy a mini-lathe; if you have a small woodshop it might just be wooden beads!

Phone Cover

Are you sick of repeatedly using the same phone covers and in the same style? You could, however, spice up your phone cover game by creating a custom wooden phone cover on your wooden lathe.

Phone covers benefit our daily lives, and we can’t live without our phones. So, how to protect it?

Phone covers are the protectors of your phone. A phone cover can be made of wood, plastic, fibre, rubber, etc. Even if you drop your phone, the phone cover protects it from mechanical damage and saves you from water, dust and external scratches.

Description:

• Different types of wood are used to make wooden phone cases, which impress with their classic and practical style and distinctive feel.
• The 100% recyclable TPU frame protects wooden phone cases, and we have a programme that gives these cases a second chance at life.
• A wooden phone cover offers the same level of protection from dirt and damage as a house for its users.
•  It protects the outer and inner sides of the mobile from scratches, breaks, water and other mechanical damages.
• Easy to use and eco-friendly.

Baseball Bat

A baseball bat may seem complicated, but making one is pretty straightforward. A baseball is a smooth rod-shaped bat to hit the ball after the pitcher has thrown it in a baseball game. The maximum diameter and length allowed by law are 2.75 inches at the thickest point and 42 inches, respectively.

Description: 

• The kind of wood you use when crafting baseball bats is a factor to take into account. Additionally, some woods may be more robust than others, so different types of wood will produce varying weights.
• The baseball bat is a smooth rod-shaped wooden or may be made of another material used for batting or hitting the ball in the baseball game.
• Using a wooden bat to hit with is one of the best ways to impart that “feel.” A wood bat’s sweet spot is much smaller than an aluminium bat’s, which forces hitters to feel the barrel’s sweet spot more and aids in improving mechanics and approach.
• Additionally, using a wood bat teaches better plate discipline and highlights uncoordinated swing movements.
• When hitters swing at an inside pitch with a wood bat, they frequently get “sawed off” and suffer from either a broken bat or a sweet hand sting.

A wooden bat provides:

1. Improved Balance
2. Less Power
3. More Feedback
4. More beautiful Pitching
5. Improved Barrel Consistency
6. A better
7. A perfect Sweet Spot

FAQs:

Q1. Is a metal Lathe Capable of Turning Wood?

Ans: Yes is the clear-cut response. 

On a metal lathe, wood can be turned. An excellent machining tool, a lathe will assist you in shaping a variety of materials, including wood, metal, and others.

It’s important to realize that wood lathes are explicitly designed for turning wood. It’s essential to remember that inexpensive wood lathes can work with much larger stock than affordable metal lathes, even though you can turn wood on metal lathes.

Q2. What is the machine’s operating principle?

Ans: The lathe is the most versatile and creative machine tool available for metal. The piece is rotated on a static cutting tool to operate the lathe, and the following operations assist it in doing its job.

• Connect the item to the lathe’s machine.
• Push it in the direction of the cutting tool while rotating it.

Q3. Various applications for lathe equipment?

Ans: The “mother of all machining tools” is the lathe. Drilling, grooving, recessing, forming, boring, shaping, knurling, cutting, turning, sanding, deformation, chamfering, and tapping are just a few of the various operations these can perform.

Working with a lathe requires extreme precision. As a result, they are the tools of choice for cutting and shaping metal and wood.

Q4. What factors affect lathe pricing?

Ans: The factors which are very important in buying a lathe.

When a person or business feels using a lathe machine, its size, functionality, and output are all essential considerations. Making good decisions is made easier with this knowledge.

Q5. How Can A Lathe Earn Money?

Ans: You can turn your safe and affordable craft hobby of wood into a successful business. With the help of lathe-made products, you can earn money, giving you the maximum net returns. Numerous woodturning ideas for craft shows or online marketplaces.

Conclusion

The list of cool things you can make with your wooden lathe is complete. Other projects, as opposed to some of the ones mentioned above, might appeal to you more.

It would be best if you started attempting to make things on your wooden lathe, which can be a very beneficial pastime habit.