Used a wood lathe to turn some barrel bushings for one of my Talons. Used Ipe, a very hard, heavy, dense wood, like you, turned down a cylinder, then bored a hole (a 5/8" Forstner bit is a near perfect fit on a 16mm barrel), cut to length on the band saw, then soaked in teak oil for a couple of days. On your next brake, you might try some hard white maple, then stain it with waterproof india ink. Polish out with fine steel wool, top coat with oil based poly, and it will look like polished black iron. Very cool effect.
I've been thinking of using the wood lathe to turn some plastic, I've already done it with an end cap for one of my Talons. Anyone else done that, or have any tips? For a lot of this type of stuff, I think my lathe turns too fast, slowest I can go is around 800 rpm. Still, any ideas would be appreciated. Later.
Dave