How To Turn A Mallet On Your Wood Lathe 

Excellent tutorial Mike. Great tips on use of the gouge. Very good idea to use the waste to make a drive tennon and then the plug. Sometimes it amazes me how easy it is to make a tool. And shop made tools are always so much more satisfying to use. I have a lot of wheel weight lead, over a hundred pounds. Would I get the same dead blow result if I made a lead slug to fit into the mallet head? I would make the slug slightly smaller than the bore so that it could move a bit. May I make a suggestion on your camera set up. If you would move the overhead camera a bit more toward the backside of the lathe your face shield wouldn't get in the way. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay healthy.

First time turner. Looks like a good newbie project.

Thanks for the videos that you have done. They're a good reminder from my days of taking wood shop in Junior High School. (1975 was a long time ago!)😅😂

Hey Mike, thanks for sharing these videos with us. Always a pleasure to visit with you in your shop. Having left Gwinnett in 85 watching and listening to you is like getting to see friends from home.

Your video is educational, informative and quite interesting. Your tone of voice and teaching abilities are conducive to learning. Great work and thank you.

Mike, you are an amazing teacher. I have been watching your videos for about 6 months now and have learned a lot, ty

Thanks, Mike! New turner here. Just getting my lathe set up. This will be one of my first projects. Thanks for the guidance! Cheers, Pete

I want to buy a hobby lathe now. I remember taking wood working in high school decades ago and enjoyed it.

Perfect timing Mike! This month's challenge for our club Atlantic Shore Wood Turners, is a mallet! I like the dead blow version.

definitely going to try to make the dead blow version! thanks!

Thanks Mike, you have really helped this old Ga boy out many times.

Thanks for a handy mallet how to video . I add a half inch diameter screw eye in the butt end of handle , to hang from a hook on tool stand

i love the dead blow mallet,i think i try that one!thanks for showing ,mike!

The first thing I made on the lathe was a mallet like this, and I have been hooked on turning ever since! After I bought my mini lathe, I made handles for all of my files and rasps. I used copper pipe couplers cut in half for the ferrules.

Very helpful, I’m making one each for 12 students in a carving course I’m doing.

Another fantastic video! Thanks Mike!

Thanks, Mike. This reminds me that I need to replace my old beat-up lathe mallet!

Great teaching and tool making video. Keep it up. Always learning.👍

The shop mallet was one if the first tools I attempted to make, great idea on using the lead shot. 🤙🏼

You always produce outstanding and useful videos. Thanks again for everything.

Going to make one this weekend

Beautiful work, Mike! Really well done! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

Hi Mike.. Thanks for making this video as well. I'm new in the game so much learning a head of me... I'm gonna try this one as well. Thanks again...

Lead shot was a good addition enjoyed the video. Also liked the 60° cone you made I'll have to find your video on making it.

Interesting for a new turner. I made 1 turned mallet from maple so far. I use it almost daily. Going to try a couple glue up turns using olive wood and red palm 1x1x12. I'll glue them into a 3x3 block. If you're wondering why I would take the time to do that, well I have a whole bunch of 1x1 stock I bought when I was doing cutting boards. Since I got the lathe, it has consumed my work shop time. Its a used 10x16 Grizzly, so I'm limited as to what size wood and projects I take on. Thanks for an instructive video. Good tips

Excellent video, thanks!

Your magic Mike 😊

Another great video Mike. I find when I’m removing quite a bit of wood like you did, it makes it a great time to practice with your skew chisel. If you get a catch or gouge you have plenty of wood left to smooth it out.

like the Super Shine I think I will try, thanks for the idea.

I was trying to watch the angle the chisel met the wood, but your face shield got in the way. You convinced me to avoid carbide tools. I'm still studying before jumping in and buying a lathe, etc

Great beginners project!!

Good video, Mike! I made a deadblow mallet a few years ago in pretty much the same way, although I used a larger cavity. I used lead shot too. I bought 10 pounds or so off eBay and I’ve still got a lot left. I just used the shot in my latest video about making a termite tool - I put lead shot in the end of all my homemade tool handles as a counterweight. Wear a mask and stay COVID-free, Mike.

Mike, I really enjoyed this. I am still a novice on my lathe (Powermatic 90) but I have a lot of fun with it. We had to take a Bradford pear trees down a year ago and I had the tree service save me some crotch pieces, larger limbs and trunk chunks (about 24 inches across at the bottom, it was a good size tree.). I have been contemplating making a mallet or two from some of the pieces now that they have been sitting for a while, and this video is quite helpful for technique and sizing. The other project I have in mind is to make some longer wood chisel handles, which I think the pear wood should be good for as well. I also have some very dry pieces of Osage Orange limbs in my pile of stuff, but I think I will have to break out the carbide tools for that….

Thank you

Thank you for your information and knowledge it’s very useful

Thanks Mike; just bought a Jet 1221 (really tough decision between the Laguna you have and this Jet). In the end, Laguna was out of stock on most sites. Appreciate all your videos. A mallet sounds like a good project to tackle. Take care bro

I took a smallish log out of my wood pile and within 30 minutes had a nice mallet. This morning I had a very smart mallet full of cracks. Ah well it still whacks a chisel well, at least for now.

like so many others I have been making handles for every thing in my shop. my 10'' x 18'' lathe was made from an old flat screen t v mount and pieces of old bed frame,( I picked up a wire feed welder at harbor freight) the mallets will be my next project for sue.

Thanks Mike

Thank maks project👍

Hi Mike, I’m really enjoying your videos. I am a total beginner to wood turning, my new lathe is being delivered next week from record power. We are in lockdown here in the uk so it’ll be a while before I can access any 1 to 1 tuition, so I’m paying close attention to any beginner safety tips and advice on tool use. Kind regards Martin. ( Leicestershire Uk )

One thing to note if you use sand as the ballast, not all sand is the same. There are garnet sands available that will have a much higher density that the normal sandbox sand. Heavy sands like this are relatively inert compared to lead shot and may be a suitable option for a dead blow mallet.

Love the dead-blow mallet with lead shot. Definitely going to have to make one. Now I just have to source some osage orange, you know, because dead-blow mallots should be orange for easy identification, right? Ha ha ha. Although that would be a great hard wood to use, I have never seen any aroung my location, so black locust, or white oak will likely have to do, maybe ash, though, it is hard to come by any that isn't dead standing due to beetle kill, the ash that is.

Nice, very clear -- except the parts where your head and dust mask got in the way. A little rehearsal footage would show you how to avoid that in the production take.

I was thinking what about a piece of steel rod or rebar from the home store ? Narrower than the hole and shorter than the hole length. You would get weight in there and it would slide back and forth.

That was one of my first spindle projects when I got started turning. That was about 10 years ago but I still have it in my shop and actually use it fairly regularly. When I first made it I didn’t want to use it but then I came to my senses and realized that I made it for shop use so I should use it for such. It was kind of ugly even when I first made it being such a newbie and yes it’s definitely uglier now but it always brings pleasure when I use it that it was a tool that I made for myself. I now plan on making a new one but with the lead shot or bb’s.

Just a suggestion, when using your lathe bed as a bench on your videos , push the tail stock to the end of bed Also move the overhead view camera . Away from the lathe about a foot , so we do not have the top of your head on screen Otherwise good videos , more information than many Watch Me Turn This videos with music background

Great video, Mike, what flavor glue is that - hazelnut? 😃

I was just thinking I needed to go find a site like this and T H A N K Y O U I did!

I enjoyed the video and your teaching style. Makes me feel like I am talking to a friend. Only negative comment was your face shield obscured some of the presentation.

hey mike,fran is my name,have a rikon mini 12.5x20,will need a chuck eventually,not sure what typr or do I need two for bools plates and who knows,never much used one,this is new but will learn,what thinking

Nice project! Two points - first, you illustrated but didn't explicitly mention that you want the face of the mallet tapered slightly toward the handle so that the face with strike the surface of whatever you are using it on squarely. Second, mallets get beat up in use - which you illustrated at the beginning of the video. I saw a suggestion somewhere (forget where at this point) to leave either dimples at both ends, or possibly a mounting tenon at one end, so that the mallet can be easily remounted for resurfacing when the need eventually arises.

How do you decide when to use your Powermatic and when to use your Laguna?

Mike the only problem I have with your videos is when I watch em my wood disappears.... :)

For the weight could you used a solid piece of rond steel

I’m curious on the dead blow mallet why you didn’t do some preliminary shaping on the handle before reverse chucking. Seems that would have reduced catch risk while only supported by the tenon?

OR, you can go with the tired and true and original ACKS that came out 2 years ago and still going strong!!

Is "fruitless mulberry" considered hardwood?

couldn't see what you were doing at the end of the handle, looking down on it would be great if only your face mask wasn't in the way. NICE MALLET THOUGH. i PLAN TO USE 4X4 PICES i CUT FROM A PALLET, They're oak.

Things I notice….toolrest needs dressing, you are not rubbing the gouge bevel, hence not a smooth finish. If you are going to post suggest you do things right. Rub the bevel, raise handle to start cutting, roll gouge into direction of cut, nicks in tool rest cause inconsistent cuts. Dress with a bastard file as needed.

What the heck is that hat