I call myself The SegMaster. A bit egotistical I know, but it sounded good.
I set up this site as a place to share my knowledge and woodturning ideas.
It is not because I view myself as some sort of wood turning expert. In fact, it is quite the opposite. There are some great books on wood turning written by guys (yup - always guys) who truly are experts. But I am not. Then why read stuff that I have written? Because the experts have been doing this for years. They have skills that you and I can only dream about. They have loads of expenses that you and I can only covet.
I write my Tutorials with the less experienced woodturner in mind. And because of my relative inexperience, I have developed some techniques to overcome that inexperience.
The goal of this site is to give you ideas to improve your woodturning and to make your efforts faster and more satisfying.
Tutorials
I wrote a series of small booklets on different aspects of Segmented Woodturning. I tried to make each one short and easy to read with illustrations. Unlike videos, you can go at your own pace, skipping over stuff that is obvious or not interesting.
Free Software
SegMaster Program
Long before I was a woodturner, I was a professional computer programmer.
I wrote a program for myself that I call "SegMaster". I showed it to some friends and they suggested that I sell it. Instead, I decided to make it available for free download.
There were other times when I wanted to quickly make a ring of a particular size. For this I programmed a single page that would do it. In fact, this page will work when your computer or smart-phone is disconnected from the internet.
And then there is the situation where you are seeing small errors in your segment angles. I made a page for dealing with this problem.
Click the link below to find all three of these programs.
3D Printing
Over the last year, I have been experimenting with a 3D printer. My wife has been telling me for years to get one, but I did not see how I would use it. Then a friend got one as a gift and lent it to me.
The 3D Printing Tutorial shows some of the things I have printed to assist with my woodturning. It also provides some useful files that you might use if you have or can get access to a 3D printer.