Making "Dreamery"

[Coop]

If I weren’t for sure, I’d say you were a heart surgeon by trade! Darn fine work! 

[pkinneb]

Awesome journal and piece!! And hey extra points for getting the dog in there  

[Mark J]

17 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

And hey extra points for getting the dog in there  

!  Lately Little Miss Nose It All has been getting in there whether I want her to or not.  

[Mark J]

I completed the sanding and got a nice surface. I think the pointed inside waist line came out well, but time will tell.

And with a MS wipe down

In some ways it’s a shame that a lot of that beautiful grain pattern (and a lot of sanding effort) is going to be cut away, but next up is making the template to guide in removing that wood.

To begin with I returned to Fusion 360, to work out some geometric details. The template is basically a four pointed star. The tip of each star meets the sides of the as yet un-cut basin at an angle. It’s convenient if that angle is a whole number of degrees, and after some minor tweaking 21* seemed to work without changing the location of the center apex. If you recall from the original drawings there is a “slit” in the waist line of the base, which I think will be an important design element. The center apex’s position determines the depth of that slit.

Having worked out the geometry I printed a diagram. Since all four points of the star are the same I only had to depict one of them.

Then square up a piece of plywood on the Incra, mark the diagonals and find the centers of both faces with a Starrett combination square. Find the cardinal lines, again using the combination square.

Now mark off the position of the central apex and mark a line ¼” from the corner (including along the edge of the plywood).

I made a discovery, a piece of ¾” ply fits perfectly between the fence rail and the table on my saw. Convenient for marking the edges.

Carefully draw the line connecting the two points. Confirm the accuracy with a digital protractor.

Rinse and repeat until all eight sides of the four points are drawn. Then do the same on the other face.

At this point I have the cut lines drawn, but there was some debate in my head as to whether to cut the template out on the band saw or whether to use the table saw. I had recently made the 45* drilling cradle on the TS, so I new the trick is to flip the board from the A side to the B side between cuts so that two saw kerfs miss each other.

I decided to go with the TS. The BS would make a prettier cut, but all my miter gauges fit little loose in the BS slots. I could (and should) fix that with a little shimming, then align everything carefully… Or I could go with the Incra that’s already set up and ready to go. I set the Incra to 21* and slid the fence far to the right.

Then I used a stiff plastic ruler (non-conductive; it’s a SawStop) held along the flat of the blade and passing between the teeth to confirm the saw blade was aligned with the cut line and further confirmed the saw teeth would strike the cut line as well.

Then switch on and cut carefully just the right distance

Then flip the board over and repeat the operation on the B side.

You’ll notice that the second cut was ever so slightly off the line. That is a simple graphic demonstration of the fact that the world is not perfect, hence my motto: Be as precise as you can, that way your mistakes will be more accurate. This is as good as it gets and I believe will be good enough.

That operation gets repeated three more times, but the next cuts are a little tricky as some of the side is now missing. So now you see why the star pattern didn’t go all the way out the corner, but stopped ¼” short. First I like what that does for the base’s form, but it also insured there would be enough of a flat left to reference for the subsequent cuts.

With the remaining cuts completed we have a star.

Now the agonizing decision, do the triangle cutoffs go in the garbage or the scrap bin. 

Final step is to drill a clearance hole for ¼ x 20 machine bolt and a recess for the head and washer.

The base piece is taken down from the lathe and removed from the screw chuck. The bolt passes through the hole in the template and up through the hole in the sacrificial block. And the two are secured tightly together.

Recall that the screw chuck uses a 3/8” screw with a 5/16” clearance hole so the ¼ machine bolt has some wiggle room which allows me to correct any tiny misalignment. Which as you can see is pretty good. It also means that the screw chuck;’s threads don’t get chewed up.

 

That’s ready for starting the cutback process, but I’m not, time to go watch TV.

[Mark J]

Here is my band saw follower.

You may have noticed that I made the template to the actual dimensions, i.e. there’s no setback or offset for the follower pin. The last time I used the follower I ran into some problems, Even though everything seemed aligned the saw blade didn’t follow the follower.

Two good cuts and two not so good. So as much as I would like to give it another try, I am reluctant to rely on it to cut to the target line. I am going to use the band saw follower and the ¾” Resaw King to make cuts that will actually be a quarter inch off the final line. This will remove a lot of the bulk, but also gives me an opportunity to see if the performance is different with a wider blade. I am also considering swapping out the wooden follower pin for one made from some tubing I have on hand (it looks like copper). To be really experiMENTAL about this I should also do some of the cuts with the ¼” blade; but let’s face it, who gets a kick out of changing band saw blades.

To mark the target line I am going to use a different technique (which I claim to have invented). A little preamble. I have an accessory laser for the articulated arm hollowing rig. The laser attaches to a large T shaped holder. The upright of the T mounts to the “wrist” of the hollowing rig. The cross bar of the T then suspends the laser directly over the tool tip pointing straight down. When the tool tip is placed within a hollow form, the laser identifies the tool tip’s position relative to the side wall, thus aiding one in the hollowing operation. In other words, knowing where the tool is, hopefully you will not cut through the vessel’s wall.

I figured out I could use much the same principle to transfer a 2D contour line onto a 3D surface. With the tool shaft in the hollowing rig I remove the cutter from the tool shaft. Then position the laser. The blunt tip of the tool shaft can then read the template and the laser projects the corresponding point onto the 3D surface. I make a dot under the laser beam with a pencil, then later connect the dots to mark the target line.

Once I have the target line marked I will use a burr and sanding drum on a Dremel to remove the remainder of the waste wood and shape the edge. I will have to cut back the top edge before I can mark the bottom edge with the laser technique, so this will be two step process.

We all know the part about not looking directly at a laser beam, but I have to say that wood is a surprisingly reflective material, and the graphite in a pencil, black though it may appear, is really quite reflective. I wear sunglasses for this operation, and not infrequently I double up. So, actually, don’t try this at home.

[Mark J]

Before cutting away some of the waste wood on the bandsaw I want to make sure that I have the final target line drawn onto the top surface of the base. The first step is to set up the Laz-a-ma-jig (I’m stealing that line from wtnhighlander). Here the laser is just skiving off the tip of the “template reader”.

The template is positioned at the right height using my, patent pending, reverse Jenga mechanical elevation system.

And right away I noticed a problem. When running the reader along the template the laser dot was not hitting the tips of the base symmetrically. And on investigation I found that the forces of poop had struck. As you can see the sides of the base are not correctly aligned with the sides of the sacrificial plate.

Now I swear the alignment was perfect when I glued this up, but then I swear a lot, as a matter of fact I swore when I saw this. It probably moved in the clamp up; I should have placed a clamp side to side on the joint to maintain alignment.

Fortunately it was easy to address. Since the template is attached by one centrally placed bolt, I was able to able to reposition it to compensate for the error and check alignment with the laser.  

Now to play drop (and connect) the dots. Move the laser, make a dot, repeat, then connect them.

I left one of the triangle cutoffs on the ways so I would have a visual guide as to when the reader was perpendicular to the template.

All four sides marked.

A final check that the apex points are all about the same depth.

Time to cut off some of the waste wood. Note that I have pencil lines drawn on the follower plate that are ¼” to either side of the cut line. Since my target line is also ¼” away from the cut line I was able to use these to line up the cut.

Making the first cut. Straight and parallel.

Turn the piece around for the complimentary cut.

Repeat for all four sides. This was something of a second chance for the follower, and it really came out well. I’m kinda sorry I did not set up the template to take the cut line much closer to the target line.

I dunno here? Scrap wood? I mean you never know when you might need a palm sized curved triangular bit of wood, especially one glued to a triangle of plywood.

OK, I’m only going to hang on to these until the project is done in case I want to experiment with the surface coating. (But I’m almost certainly going to go with Osmo Polyx Oil).

So now I have a minor problem. I will need the template again a bit later, but right now it is in the way. My original plan was to remove the template and re-attach it later, realigning it to the sacrificial plate by matching the points of one to the points of the other. But now those points don’t match up. I could use the laser again to realign, but I had this idea, instead. Recall that I made a recess in the bottom of the template to give the bolt head clearance. As luck would have it that recess is 1 ½” in diameter which is within the expansion limits for my 25 mm chuck jaws.

Now, please note that this mounting has a hundred things wrong with it and is no way suitable for turning, but I only need an alternative to hand holding.

My new carving stand goes into the banjo and the chuck mounts to the carving stand.

The carving stand can rotate on three axes, so the work piece can then be positioned optimally for the next operation, which in this case is going to be sanding/grinding down to the target line.

 

[Mark J]

My New Year’s Resolution is to finish this project before 2023. Believe it or not I think I’m on track to do just that.  

I decided to complete the cutback and shaping work on one side of the base first. Then after seeing how this was going to work out I’d do the other three sides. After a little bit of work with a sanding drum and files I removed the excess material of the top edge down to within a titch of the target line.

Notice that the edge has been left vertical. It will be chamfered later.

Next step is to use the laser again to project the target line onto the bottom of the base. I set up the template reader again, this time just a titch past the end of the tool. Notice that the beam skives off the edge of the top of the basin.

Lay down the pencil dots and connect them into lines.

The sacrificial plate blocks access to the bottom edge of the basin, making it difficult to work on. So it’s time for the plate to earn its name.

The grinder burr is the tool for this task, but even using the coarse (green) burr the BB doesn’t exactly melt away. Eventually it is ground back even with the template.

Using the sanding drum and a rasp on the basin’s edge gets it close to the target line.

The longer sections of edge to either side get worked with a flat file, but before I get too far along I want to get to the point. Specifically I want to create the sharp apex and vertical “crease” in the middle that the design drawings call for. I do this with a triangular file. First I use the corners to make a sharp line then use the flats to broaden the "V" and blend it with the remainder of the edge (top and bottom).

Now begins the chamfering. I have decided that I want the top edge to be vertical at the tip then sweep smoothly into a horizontal orientation by the time it reaches the apex. This is a little different than depicted in the drawings for the simple reason that I don’t know how to make Fusion 360 draw everything that I want. To accomplish this gentle curving contour I used a flat rifler for most of the edge and the triangle file at the apex.

Slowly it takes shape until

Time to work on the bottom edge. I had to grind down the sacrificial plate further, then it’s back to the rifler and file.

Slowly work the problem until

Not bad for two shop days of work. The edge contours will get more tweaking when sanded, but it’s starting to look like the drawing.

 

Now if only elves would come in the night and finish the rest of the base. Absent that unlikely event, I’ll be back here when I’ve given the same treatment to the remaining three sides.

[Mark J]

Gadzooks! I can’t believe three weeks have slipped by since I last posted. I did take several days to make a lathe mount for the carving stand (which has been very useful). And there was some personal business in there, too. But if I’m honest shaping and smoothing the four top edges was a tedious and un-inviting task, and it probably didn’t get as much enthusiastic participation from me as it might have deserved (i.e. it was easy to find “better” things to do). Call it ten days of hobby time. Now I know, “it didn’t happen without pictures”, and I did snap some, but rather than bore you with photos of a lot of sanding how about just one of a lot of sand:

And after shaping and sanding the top edge here is what the base looks like:

I think the smooth sweeping curve of the edge is a strong feature of the piece. I have to keep reminding myself of that because the bottom edge remains to be done.

While the base is still mounted I took the opportunity to go over the outside surface with p1200 and address the inevitable boo boo’s on the surface.

I can’t really access the bottom edge adequately while the base remains mounted to the sacrificial block, so the time has come to remove it. First step is to remove the template and it’s retaining bolt to make more room for the saw.

Then remount onto the screw chuck.

Now a flush cut saw very carefully placed flat against the sacrificial block. Then worked slowly and carefully under the foot until it is released.

Repeat that for the other three feet.

The blue tape held on well and I’m going to “say” it did its job. There was no no visible squeeze out. Maybe there was a tiny bead that was sawn away, or maybe there was none to begin with, but, in as much as there was nothing to clean up, I’m calling that a success. There are some boo boo’s at the edges, and this despite being extremely careful with the saw. I’m hoping that they will clean up with some light sanding.

Next bit will be to bring the bottom edges to final contour and sand them smooth. I have no ready means to mount the base, so at this point I think I will have to hand hold it while doing this work.

[wtnhighlander]

Mark, do you think it is strong enough to hold on a sort of jam chuck? Two opposing cones with a bolt through the center, and one cone having a tenon for your 4-jaw lathe chuck?

Maybe not worth the effort to make, though.

[Mark J]

@wtnhighlander, I think what you're describing would work, and I am going to make note of the idea for possible future use.

[Mark J]

The bottom edges are smoothed. There wasn’t much further shaping needed, and hand holding the piece for hand sanding wasn’t cumbersome at all, and best of all I was able to sit down while doing it. And the boo boo’s on the underside all sanded out with p800 and p1200 satisfactorily.

Next step is to sand the bottoms of the feet to remove the saw marks. Idealy they will not only be flat and smooth, but also in the same plane. The best way to do this is with the piece mounted on the lathe and using a sanding board. Commonly I would use a Longworth chuck (or Cole jaws), but as you can see the Longworth buttons barely touch the piece and would never hold.

Wtnhighlander had a good suggestion earlier for something that one might call a “sandwich chuck”. But this Longworth chuck also has doughnut rings that attach to the base, and the largest of these was a just right fit.

A cushy mat for safe keeping

Fold the mat’s corners over and then place the doughnut ring.

Center as best I can and snug it down

Then mount on the lathe and set up the sanding board as I did before. Now please know that this work hold is quite tenuous and as such is not good enough for any motorized turning on the lathe; I’ll be rotating the lathe by hand. (Just because a machine has a motor does not mean that you have to turn that motor on to make effective use of that machine).

After a little work the feet are smooth. A wipe down with MS to give the bottom an over all inspection.

At the risk of premature chicken counting and angering the wood spirit, I went ahead and put on my brand while it’s already nicely mounted (but not wanting to anger the Fire Chief I decided to wait until the MS evaporated).

First step is to line up the brand on the foot’s center. Here I have the branding head unattached to the handle so I can position it on the foot. I use the box rest, which is like a small table, as my reference surface.

Re-attached to the handle, the brand is heated with a propane torch. I can then lay the flat side of the head on the table and advance it to the wood surface. I have a heavy glove on my left hand so I can better guide the brand. There is a knack to this. You want the brand to land where you intend and do so flat on the wood surface. It needs to be there long enough to clearly make the mark and not so long as to make a hole.

Good burn.

Back to the sanding board setup to clean up the singeing around the hallmark.

Relieved the sharp edges with some p1200 and it’s really done. I will probably give it a once over with p1200 to freshen the surface prior to applying the finish and that will wait for the rest of the project.

Now to turn the block of walnut it’s sitting on into the basin that sits on top.

[wtnhighlander]

That's looking great, Mark!

[pkinneb]

I find this fascinating!! Thanks for sharing.

[Chestnut]

Such an awesome process. I'm excited to see what the basin will look like once completed.

[Mark J]

It’s 56 degrees in the shop, so I’m going to catch you up while I let the shop heater work on that problem. (I know, Ross was out in his shop when it was 18*, but Ross is from Tennessee, so automatically he’s made of sterner stuff than moi).

First an explanation of where I’m going, which is to take a big piece of walnut and make this:

I’ll start with the top face mounted to a screw chuck and work on the outside. But I can’t do the entire outer surface in one go or I will have no practical way to mount the work piece in order to turn the inside. So I will turn some of the outside first, but leave material for a tenon. Turn the inside, then come back to make the pointy bit at the bottom. So my intermediate goal is something like this:

Once I’m ready to turn the pointed bottom I will remount to the top surface. I have a few options to do this. One is a vacuum chuck, alternatively I can use Cole jaws or the Longworth in expansion grabbing the opening, or I may be able to use the Longworth combined with the doughnut attachment. The last idea may be the best, but when I get to that stage I’ll experiment before deciding on the holding method.

You might reasonably wonder why not turn the bottom entirely and then use a vacuum chuck to turn the inside. The answer is that while a vacuum chuck’s hold can be quite strong, it’s a poor second cousin to a 4 jaw chuck. So when you use a suck chuck you want to limit the duration and magnitude of the task.

Here is the block, which was previously marked up with the locations and depths of all the guide holes.

The guide hole’s job is to physically mark out the bulk of the waste material that I am going to remove. My goal is to have them regularly spaced and extending about a ¼” shy of the target contour line. That gets my close with some room for error, the rest of the wood is removed by eye. For the basin I have guide holes along both top and bottom.

So get started drilling these to precise depth.

By the way if you have to drill a series of holes, it’s not a bad idea to go from shallowest to deepest. It’s easy to forget to change the depth stop, but you can recover from that mistake if the hole is too shallow.

Drill the top guide holes and then a 5/16” pilot hole in the center for the screw chuck.

And It’s here that I realized I made a mistake. I had marked up the blank when I first began the project, and I thought it was complete. But for some reason I never marked the margin for the rim of the basin’s opening. Now oddly enough if you’re going to carve out the inside of a bowl, it’s kind of nice to know where the rim is supposed to be. I usually use a compass to draw any circumferences I need to mark, but with the screw chuck pilot hole drilled that was no longer an option.

Thought about the matter for a few minutes and came up with this solution that worked very well. The basin’s opening is 5” so I drew a 5” diameter circle on graph paper. Then took a 5/16” brad point bit and used it to cut out a 5/16” hole in the center of the paper. Placed the drill bit into the pilot hole and slipped the paper circle on top. Traced the circle and voila, more than accurate enough.

The block is on the chuck and the chuck on the lathe. The tail stock is engaged, and the articulated arm is on the standoff with the radius square tool in position.

So it’s time to get started.

When ever possible when I’m rounding a square I will approach the work from the face surface rather go head on into the sides. That way I am primarily removing long grain from a flat surface rather than alternating between end and long grain and simultaneously striking the four corners. Much easier and generally a much smoother outcome.

[wtnhighlander]

Mark, the level of planning that goes into this blows my mind!

[Mark J]

Next up is to remove the waste wood from the underside.

It’s a big job, so best to take it in steps.

Literally.

Finish off the corners preparatory to removing the tail stock

With the tail stock away I can complete the steps and make the tenon.

Now set up to remove some of the waste wood from the top surface by rotating the head towards the back of the lathe.

Then return to the head stock to an inline position to start shaping the bottom contour.

 

At this point I have cut beyond the guide holes. Recall that the guide holes were a quarter inch short of the desired contour line. At this point I am having some success shaping the contour to the desired curvature, but I am not sure that the curve is is developing in the desired location or if it needs to be moved a bit deeper.

Recall that earlier I flattened the bottom surface of the turning blank and that a part of this original reference surface remains as the bottom surface of the tenon. So if I can measure from the bottom of the tenon to the bottom of the bowl at a known point I can compare this to the full size diagram.

Projecting the reference surface. Note that the ruler is lined up with the center point, so I can easily measure X inches out from the center and compare to the diagram.

So for example, allowing for the thickness of the ruler, at 3 inches from center I need a depth of 2 ½”. Set the calipers and I can eye ball I need to take off another 1/8”. A similar operation can be done at 4’”, 2”, etc.

I will try to take off 1/16” with this tool then remove the remainder with a negative rake scraper.

[wtnhighlander]

Mark, I love how much detail you put into planning these pieces. And your explanation!

Do you ever turn other materials than wood? Or have you considered adding a 'spun' metal vessel to the mix?

[Mark J]

No, I have never really turned anything besides wood.  I imagine at some point something with acrylic or resin will get on the lathe.  I would love to have a metal lathe someday, but that's a whole nuther thing entirely.

[Mark J]

Having completed work on the bottom contour of the basin I turned my attention to the top contour. I repositioned the standoff arm and tool rest to access the top surface. Then using the guide holes I worked the curve.

The chips and dust get everywhere.

I mean everywhere.

As I complete shaping the top curve I want to be mindful of the overall shape of the basin while adjustments can still be made. I learned this trick from Jaques Vesery, put a solid black background behind the shape you’re assessing. I think it is also helpful to hang the target diagram/picture sideways so I can more easily make comparisons

With shaping complete there is the usual abundant sanding starting at p120 and going through the grits to p1200. I will blow off the swarf and/or hit the piece with a tack rag between grits, but every so often I do a full wipe down with mineral spirits so that I can assess the surface. I find that until you get to higher grits like p220 p320 it can be hard to see some of the missed spots. So I will often step back a couple of grits and re-hit a trouble spot, then proceed back up the grits again.

When the sanding is done it’s time for a final wipe down with MS.

And then time to consider the next phase, excavating the basin’s cavity.

[pkinneb]

Beautiful! 

[Mark J]

Remember that tenon I created on the bottom of the basin? Well it’s time to put that to use.

An adapter is used to mount a second chuck to the live center on the tail stock.  The tail stock is then advanced until the second chuck is in place on the tenon and the jaws are closed down tightly on the tenon. The jaws of the first chuck can then be opened releasing the wood worm screw. The now empty first chuck can then be removed from the lathe. The second chuck is then removed from the tail stock and mounted on the head stock. At this point the wood worm screw can be removed, which usually takes a wrench. The process has a lot of steps and does require some equipment, like the adapter and a second chuck, but it is the best method for maintaining the concentric alignment of the piece you are working on.

 

I have chosen to use the same carbide tool with the pie pan or cupped shaped cutter that I used back when making the base. Although I put it to other uses, this tool is actually intended for hollowing. The mount for the cutter can positioned at an angle and I have it here swung a bit to the left.

Getting started with removing the waste wood. Note, I have made a shallow scratch mark to indicate the location of the rim.

A little deeper.

Once the center is deepened enough so that there is room to work, I begin to excavate out to the side into the undercut region. But it’s really awkward to position the tool and still be able to see what I’m doing. Many turners can do this sort of hollowing by feel. I’m not that good; I’m a visual guy. So being able to rotate the head stock is a real benefit. Here it is rotated 22* and while this excavation is shallow visualization is good enough to get started.

But as I got deeper that degree of rotation was not enough, so I swung the head out to the 45* position. You can see the improved view in the second photo. But this is also about as far as my banjo can reach to position a tool rest.

As the hollowing gets deeper it gets harder to crane my neck to see inside. With further hollowing the tool shaft gets more and more parallel to the tool rest and the reach over the tool rest also increases. This is “not optimum”. I tried to get better support with a couple of different rests and even used a small dog leg that fits on the banjo to give me a bit more reach, but really did not have great success.

So I decided to take my wife’s dog for a drive. It was sunny and I hadn’t been out of the house in a couple of days, and her dog loves to ride. While we were out listening to the radio and driving aimlessly, it hit me that I had the solution (or something that was likely to work) all along. This lathe has an outrigger option that I bought years ago. Whatever the project it was intended for hadn’t work out, and I never used the outrigger. I did stick the knock out bar in the tool post holder and it holds a few wrenches I use all the time, which is useful, but I never used it as an outrigger, to the point where I forgot it was there. You can see it in any of the wide angle shots of the lathe I’ve posted.

It’s mounted to the left front and is meant to swing out in front of the lathe when the head stock is rotated 90*.

With the work in this position I can stand to the side and handle the tool without craning my neck as much. Seeing inside is still a challenge. I need enough light and from different angles to prevent shadows. So it’s a pretty narrow sight line.

And it’s slow going as the cavity fills quickly with dust and chips so that I have to stop every few minutes to empty out the shavings.

But progress is being made.

This is about how far the hollowing tool is reaching so far.

At this point I am working on the top half of the undercut area.

I will remove the waste from the bottom half of the undercut area after I finish widening the top half. The central area will need to be excavated, too. So a good bit to go yet.

Even with the improved positioning of the work my position at the lathe is still awkward. So I decided to forego the PAPR I usually wear and go with a simple lighter weight N-95 mask. I also removed the double layer of mats I usually stand on and a second thing I came up with is to stand with my feet very far apart to make myself “shorter”. I still had some back and neck pain at the end of yesterday, but less.  As more waste is removed it gets more difficult to see the business end of the tool and the tool has to reach farther over the tool rest. While that distance is still reasonable, the longer the reach the more leverage the wood has on the tool and the more the tool can vibrate. So all that said, I’m taking it slow.

[Chestnut]

Question. Could you run the lathe clockwise and use the head stock in the 0 degree position and just cut on the back side of the bowl? It seems like all the work your doing is to accomplish basically standing on the other side of the bed. Instead of standing on the other side of the bed reversing the motor to run clockwise would accomplish the same thing would it not?

[Mark J]

Yes, I forgot to mention those considerations. 

I could have put the motor in reverse, and with the tool rest repositioned used the tool to work on the back side of the basin.  BUT, there is a serious potential problem you have to be constantly watching for.  The chuck and spindle are right hand threads, so when reverse turning you are tending to un-screw the chuck from the spindle.  True, there is a set screw to resist un-threading, but it can only do so much.  You have to keep an eye on the spindle.  (By the way reverse is generally not a problem if you're just sanding).

An alternative approach is to do just as you suggested.  Leave the lathe motor in forward, but stand on the back side of the lathe.  This works well. The caveat here is that the controls including the emergency stop are usually on the front of the lathe.  In my case I'd have to move an equipment table and the DC setup to get space to stand behind the lathe.  Lot of power cords, too.

Actually, now that I have the outrigger setup what I find myself wishing for is a barstool.  I'm thinking that would get my head lower and my back straight.  

[Chestnut]

I knew i was forgetting something and that it couldn't be that easy. I suppose the reason you outlined about the stop is why some of the expensive lathe manufacturers provide the stop switch on a moveable magnetic box.