JSWAY | Leading CNC Lathe Manufacturer & Supplier Since 2007
Woodworking And The Wood Lathe: The Challenge
As woodworkers move from flat woodworking such as jewelry boxes, desks and wall cabinets to woodturning round objects such as candlesticks and bowls, there arises a new challenge in finding the wood with which one works. The old familiar places may not fit the new requirements and the results may be pleasantly less expensive.
People doing woodworking that results in flat objects generally start a project at the local lumber merchant, looking for boards that are dry, flat, straight and clear of knots or other defects. There are a few stalwarts who will fell their own logs and mill them to lumber that will then air or kiln dry but these are few and far between. Woodturners are closer to these folk than to the former as they will often be looking for logs to start the work. Their wood is likely to be a log that is solid, green, and has knots, bark inclusions, and forks. To a woodturner these are character.
Most of the wood carried by the lumber yards is unsuitable for woodturning especially when the turner is contemplating faceplate work which usually requires wood thicker than two inches. This is either difficult to find dry or will be split in the drying process or be prohibitively expensive.
On the other hand firewood or landfill logs are comparatively cheap. They require some thought in obtaining them and some additional tooling to be able to process them, but will give a wealth of turning material. It is not inconceivable to obtain over two hundred bowl blanks of good size along with a lot of smaller pieces and lots of spindle material from a single cord of firewood. A chainsaw and a good homemade saw buck will easily enable the turner to produce plenty of turning blanks.
While there is a great variety of hardwoods suitable for turning found growing as ornamentals in many yards of the world, it can be difficult to obtain them for the woodturner. However, in most communities there are lawn companies and arborists who specialize in tree removal when the trees get too large for the properties, diseased or in the way. These logs are generally deemed unsuitable for lumber or processing because metal is often found in yard wood and it does a lot of damage to commercial processing equipment. Instead of sending them to an expensive landfill facility, many arborists will happily call a woodturner and allow them to have the wood.
So the woodturner can find themselves easily in the position of someone who save trees from firewood and landfill, eliminates excess wood in the landfill when it should be compost anyway, and produced art and craft from the savings. This allows the turner to enter into a win win situation with all concerned.
On May 24, 2026, the production base of JSWAY CNC COMPANY welcomed teachers and students from Banfu No. 1 Middle School, Zhongshan City. This event combined campus education, family support, and the social responsibility of enterprises in Banfu. As a benchmark enterprise in the field of intelligent manufacturing in Zhongshan, JSWAY CNC COMPANY opens a door for students to enter the gateway of modern industrial civilisation.
The modern industrial system of the Banfu Industrial Park is being built at an accelerated pace, providing a continuous stream of momentum for the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing in the Greater Bay Area. As a “machine tool” enterprise — a true mother machine of industry — JSWAY CNC COMPANY resonates with the same frequency as the new industrial city of Banfu. By coming to JSWAY, the students, parents and teachers of Banfu No. 1 Middle School can experience the authentic face of high-end manufacturing.
In the workshop of JSWAY CNC COMPANY, Swiss‑type lathes ready for delivery undergo rigorous pre‑shipment inspections. Every machine must pass three levels of inspection – self‑inspection, cross‑inspection, and specialized inspection – followed by online laser inspection and finished‑product running‑in testing, before it can be loaded onto trucks bound for customers. The laser interferometer scans the guideways, the Renishaw ballbar checks roundness, and the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) touches every reference surface – only when all data show “green light” is the machine allowed to be shipped.
In the field of machine tool manufacturing, a well‑known saying goes: “Only a precise mother machine can produce precise machine tools.” As the “industrial mother machine,” a machine tool’s own manufacturing accuracy determines the precision of the parts it can produce. Over nearly two decades, JSWAY CNC COMPANY has forged a path toward quality based on the principle of “building top‑level machine tools with top‑level mother machines.”