I’ve been turning wood for about eight years, and I’m still making mistakes. The difference between now and my first year is that the mistakes are smaller, less frequent, and I usually spot them before they ruin a piece. Looking back, there are five errors that cost me the most time, timber, and frustration early on — and they’re the same ones I see other turners making at club meetings.

Here they are, with what I’ve learned about avoiding them.

1. Dull Tools (and Not Knowing They’re Dull)

This is the big one. A dull gouge doesn’t just cut badly — it changes the entire experience at the lathe. You push harder, the tool skids instead of cutting, the surface tears instead of shearing cleanly, and catches become more likely because the tool isn’t engaging the wood the way it should.

The problem is that dull happens gradually. The edge degrades slowly, and you compensate without realising it — pressing harder, changing your angle. By the time you notice something’s wrong, you’ve been fighting a losing battle for twenty minutes.

The fix: Sharpen more often than you think you need to. I touch up my bowl gouge every ten to fifteen minutes of active cutting. Get a slow-speed grinder with a good jig and learn one consistent grind for your main gouge. A simple swept-back grind at 55-60 degrees will handle 90% of bowl work.

2. Lathe Speed Too High (or Too Low)

Speed is a safety issue as much as a quality issue. Too fast and an unbalanced blank can vibrate violently or come off the lathe. Too slow and the tool bumps along the surface instead of shearing.

The fix: For roughing large, unbalanced blanks, start at the lowest speed your lathe offers. Once the piece is round, increase the speed. For finishing cuts on smaller pieces (under 150mm), speeds of 1500-2000 RPM are usually fine. For larger bowls (300mm+), stay under 800 RPM until the blank is round, then move up to around 1000-1200 RPM for finishing.

If the lathe is vibrating, slow down. If you’re getting a bumpy surface, speed up slightly (assuming the tool is sharp).

3. Poor Tool Rest Position

The tool rest is the foundation for every cut you make. If it’s too far from the work, the tool has too much overhang and will chatter. If it’s at the wrong height, your cutting angle changes and you lose control.

The fix: Move the tool rest constantly. Every time you change position on the piece, stop the lathe and reposition the rest. It should be as close to the work as possible without touching, and at a height where the tool tip meets the centre line of the work.

I probably adjust my tool rest twenty or thirty times during a single bowl. It takes five seconds each time, and it makes every cut more controlled.

4. Sanding Through the Shape

You’ve turned a nice piece, and you start sanding. But somewhere in the process, you sand through areas of the design — you flatten a curve, round over a crisp edge, or remove the definition from a bead or cove.

Sanding doesn’t just smooth the surface; it removes material. And it removes material unevenly — soft grain sands faster than hard grain, end grain sands differently from side grain.

The fix: Get the best possible surface off the tool before you touch sandpaper. A clean cut with a sharp gouge should leave a surface that needs minimal sanding — maybe starting at 240 grit. Use coarser grits only for correcting actual problems, not as a substitute for good tool work.

Check your work frequently by stopping the lathe and looking at the profile from the side. If your curves are going flat, you’re sanding too aggressively. There are even AI-driven design tools emerging that can help visualise profiles and curves digitally before you commit to wood, which is a fascinating development for those of us who usually work by eye.

5. Not Finishing the Base

Many turners spend ages perfecting the inside and outside of a bowl, then leave a rough tenon stub on the bottom because reverse-chucking seems like too much effort. The result is a piece that looks great until you pick it up and flip it over.

The fix: Plan for the base from the start. Either turn a tenon that you intend to remove later (using a jam chuck, vacuum chuck, or Cole jaws), or design the base with a recessed foot that looks intentional. A clean, finished base with a slight concavity so the piece sits flat is the mark of a considered piece.

If jam chucking intimidates you, practice on scrap. Turn a waste block to fit snugly inside your bowl, press the bowl onto it, bring up the tailstock for support, and turn away the tenon. It takes five minutes and transforms the finished piece.

The Common Thread

Most of these mistakes come down to not taking enough time — not stopping to sharpen, not pausing to adjust the rest, not planning for the base. Woodturning looks fast and dynamic when you watch someone experienced, but the quality comes from all the small pauses and adjustments in between the cuts.

Slow down, stay sharp, and pay attention to the details. Your turning will get better faster than you’d expect.