Well that was a fun experiment. I played around with the lathe a bit more and turned that log into a fairly smooth, round cylinder. Then I tried out some other tool ideas like a dollar store file ground into a skew chisel. The best results actually came from a rasp and course file that I just rubbed along the wood like normal while it was spinning.

But not all was safe and pretty. I got lots of chatter and catches due to the wobbly, thin axle. I'm glad that it wasn't spinning faster than about 500rpm. I doubt I could ever make anything nice like a cup or box. So I've accepted the fact that if I really want to try wood turning I'll have to invest the money in proper tools. Unfortunately that puts it outside of the foreseeable future.

On the plus side, now I have a nice motor for my scroll saw which works well except for an under-powered motor. I should post that project here sometime too.