Woodturning Captured Pedestal Spin Top – But…??
For this project I wanted to replicate a project from an AAW video. However, after turning a Captured Pedestal Spin Top as demonstrated at AAW, I could not show the video. In my opinion, the key process was too difficult and fiddly. I prefer processes that anyone can follow to replicate. The original involved an acorn nut and a small bolt that had to be inserted into a small cavity. This part was difficult to handle even after checking with a buddy who had also turned one as demonstrated.
My design requires no special hardware. Instead, the key components are separated into individual components that are easily turned and replicated if necessary. If a mistake is made while learning, the key components can be discarded and again made quickly and easily.
My spin top is mostly ash and about 3 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall, finished with shellac. The video has a diagram of the key components.
In this video, I use a collet chuck for dowels and finials. However, a collet chuck is NOT a requirement since any chuck that can hold a small cylinder will suffice. A collet chuck uses collets each of which is sized for a very limited size range. If the wood being turned is too large for the collet, the collet cannot be forced – a larger collet is required. However, also, if the wood being turned is too small for the collet, the collet may not be able to clamp securely. In other words, each collet has a limited range of wood sizes it can hold. My original collet set has collets for .25, .375, .5, .625, and .75 inch. These are ER-32 collets which specifies their overall shape. I have supplemented the original collets with an additional set from Amazon incrementing by thirty-seconds. Now, it will hold any wood in its range.
Since I was not pleased with the original design as demonstrated, I came up with another design. I hope this sparks an idea for you to improve upon my design. I want to see your ideas. Let me know.
Enjoy.
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube. But it is best right here. So stick around.
Woodturning Beyond A Basic Sphere: Now Beaded and Hollowed
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube. But it is best right here. So stick around.
During this project, I turn a sphere using the octagon process and refine it with a process using cup faceplates. This saves me money because I have avoided purchasing a sphere jig. The octagon process guides any woodturner including novices to learn and to turn a sphere quickly and easily.
However, this project goes beyond a basic sphere to apply an interesting bead pattern and to hollow the sphere.
My decorated sphere is poplar about three inches (75 mm) diameter finished with my utility finish of beeswax and mineral oil. By the way, this is a mixture of 1/4 pound beeswax to 1 pint of mineral oil. The beeswax is chopped up into a container in which the mineral oil is also poured. I used attic heat over two days to melt the mixture (stirring after one day). I could have used my hot car in the summer but my attic does not move. These options avoid using a double boiler that would otherwise have been required for fire safety.
I cut the beads with a D-Way beading tool.
For hollowing, I used my DIY doughnut chuck which consists of:
- a base plate (mine is threaded instead of a steel faceplate);
- three T-nuts in the base plate (1/4″ x 20 tpi) oriented so that bolt tension pulls them into the wood instead of out of the wood.
- To the base plate, I can attach various options such as cup faceplates or center positioners so that I can use this doughnut chuck for sphere, vases, or whatever.
- An outer cinch plate through which has recessed holes for three bolts to cinch up to the baseplate.
- The outer plate has a mortised hole to receive a custom rings to fit to various projects.
- An assortment of 1/4″x20 bolts of various sizes to accommodate different project needs. IMPORTANT. for safety these bolts go from the cinch plate to the base plate so than any excess length is between the baseplate and the lathe headstock. In other words, well away from the work area.
Enjoy.
Woodturning End Grain Bowl or Dish From Limb Wood
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube. But it is best right here. So stick around.
Turned bowls are the bread and butter of woodturning. However, most are deep cross grain bowls. At least these seem to get most of the attention.
In end grain bowl, the grain is vertical instead of horizontal. To their credit the grain pattern in cross grain bowls are arguably more dramatic. Still, there is room for beauty in these end grain bowls.
My wood is apple, finished with walnut oil. It is six inches diameter.
Enjoy.
Woodturning Segmented Drunken Vase
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube. But it is best right here. So stick around.
Years ago, I created a segmented vase with slanted segmented rings. In that case, I sanded each ring to achieve the angled profile. It was a lot of work. Since then I have developed several methods to split, saw, or cut rings on either the lathe or the bandsaw. I also have a method to saw a ring on the table saw but that method does not yield as well as either the bandsaw or lathe methods.
The lathe method can only split a segment ring into two parallel rings which is especially useful to create thin rings which are difficult to glue up from thin stock.
However, my band saw sled can create both parallel and angled segment rings. It has additional features to creatively saw any project that can be mounted to a lathe chuck or lathe faceplate.
The vase is about five inches diameter and five inches tall. The finished project has 21 segmented rings of 12 segments each for a total of 252 segments. The base is created with an approach similar to plywood. However, it uses project wood glued together in cross banded layers. I prefer this style of base over a floating base.
Do you like my sled? More pictures on my Etsy site.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/AsWoodTurnsTools
Enjoy.
Woodturning Three Loop Celtic Style Vase With Tiny Neck Opening
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube. But it is best right here. So stick around.
After club demonstrations I frequently like to create my own version. This was the case after a Mike Jackofsky demonstration on hollow forms with tiny hole. I also like, when possible, to put my own spin on the project.
In this case, the criteria is a tiny neck hole and a hollow form. But I did not want to hollow the wood through a tiny hole. Instead, for my spin, I incorporated a Celtic knot process. My Celtic knot process involves slicing through the wood to insert contrasting wood.
I decided to adapt the Celtic knot process to hollow the vase while it was sliced apart. There was a downside to my decision: the slanted face of a partial vase is a tough starting point for hollowing. Yet, this was easier than hollowing through a 3/8″ hole. But, you need to watch the video.
My vase is Russian olive about 3″ diameter and 4″ tall. The inserts are maple. It is finished with wipe-on poly. The neck hole is 3/8″
Do you like my sled? More pictures on my Etsy site.
Enjoy.
Woodturning Tri-Footed Rocket Box
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube. But it is best right here.
For this video, I am joining Richard Raffan, Tomislav Tomasic, and Mike Peace in a 4Ways Woodturning. In 4 Ways Woodturning, we decided on a general theme and each of us creates a project for that theme. Each is independent and in their own style. Each does not know specifics on the others’ projects.
Other woodturners participating in this 4Way Woodturning are:
Richard Raffan https://youtu.be/t76rvDR2OhM
Tomislav Tomasic https://youtu.be/DrM1E6NFMkQ?si=vysAmmK3dcudO-4C
Mike Peace https://youtu.be/6E1iyKLkaYY
For myself, I am pulling together the 4Ways Woodturning theme of a box with feet, a recent club discussion on Japanese Shou Sugi Ban (or Yakisugi), and the Artemis II mission to the moon. My astronauts will travel in the box portion. The booster section is finished like Shou Sugi Ban. The feet are rocket nozzles supporting the rocket booster.
The booster section is ash, burned with a torch (following Shou Sugi Ban) and finished with spray lacquer.
The crew module is cottonwood burl finished with shellac.
The rocket nozzles are maple finished with shellac.
The rocket is about 9 inches tall and 3 inches diameter.
Enjoy.
Woodturning Adventure: Segmented Shamrock Bowl
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube and FaceBook. But it is best right here.
Before last St. Patrick’s Day. I was brainstorming ideas for video projects. Somehow probably with the proximity to the holiday, one idea was a shamrock bowl: a single bowl with three lobes like a three leaf clover. I’d seen other shamrock bowls turned from solid wood but they were always still a round bowl.
I set to work to design a bowl whose exterior also looked like a three leaf clover. Three segmented bowls could be cut up and glued together – but how? Questions came up. How to cut the bowls accurately? How to hold the bowls safely and securely? One answer: leave the bottom off to enable clamping. Other answers followed: jigs and fixtures. Then sawing, gluing and a lot of sanding.
I did not finish the shamrock bowl for publication in time for that holiday. It is a good thing that it comes around every year.
My shamrock bowl is about nine inches diameter and a little over three inches high, finished with wipe-on poly.
Enjoy.
Combining Woodturning Basics: Bud Vase And Sphere
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube and FaceBook. But it is best right here.
I got this idea from a demonstration I did for my club. It is a longer story that I’ll tell in the video. For now, why not turn a bud vase using sphere techniques plus a little more.
For more detail on turning a sphere, please see my video that focuses on turning a sphere.
A Woodturning Primer – Basic Sphere Process
My sphere bud vase is about 3 inches diameter finished with shellac.
Enjoy.
Woodturning Wet Bark Or Natural Edge Bowl
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube and FaceBook. But it is best right here.
After a great club demonstration on smaller bark edge bowl, I won a piece of the presenter’s spare wood. BTW, most natural edge bowls start out intending to be bark edge bowls. The difference is whether the bark survives the turning process.
This bowl will follow the same process as the demonstration – meaning that the bark will be on the top side of the bowl. Since the top edge is also the outer curve of the tree, the end grain ends will be higher than the side grain sides.
The process this time:
- Seat a two prong drive center
- Adjust the live center to make the top side parallel with the headstock. This will more likely yield a bowl whose end grain heights are equal.
- Round off the sides first. This was a choice to give another opportunity to balance the bowl before loosing too much wood at the bottom.
- Trim the bottom and form a double tenon. The first tenon will hold the bowl when reversed. The second tenon is larger to provide visual guidance later when hollowing.
- Apply thin CA glue to the cambium layer. But, first, I sealed the bowl edge with shellac to prevent the CA glue from staining the wood.
- Reverse the bowl using the tenon.
- Start the hollowing process until the hollowing is about an inch lower than the side grain sides.
- Apply thin CA glue to the cambium layer. Again, after sealing the bowl edge with shellac.
- Continue the hollowing. I had problems that are described in the video.
- Because the wet bowl will most certainly warp, sanding would be difficult. Instead, I went ahead and removed the mounting tenon.
- For sanding, the sanding pad was mounted to the lathe with the bowl being hand held.
- The bowl is finished with walnut oil.
Post Script. The bowl has continued to shrink in the few days since I made this video. There is now a gap between the bark and the solid wood edge making the bark likely to break away. I will attempt to add UV resin at the cambium layer to reattach the bark to the wood. Epoxy resin is also an option. However, with UV resin, I can apply small dots of resin and flash it with UV to hold it manually until I can apply more UV resin. This process will likely require sanding at least the exterior of the bowl again but that is the same as shown in the video.
This bowl is six inches diameter and about four inches high, finished with walnut oil.
Enjoy.
p.s. Would you like a more in depth demonstration? Please contact me for an IRD (Zoom Demo) on this or other topics.
Woodturning Natural Edge Bowl: Inversed
If you happen to have technical difficulties, this video is also posted on YouTube and FaceBook. But it is best right here.
One of my clubs has a wood exchange – a frequent source of interesting wood. In this case the wood is aspen with a weathered bark edge. While it is on the smaller side, I found it interesting due to the weathered edge. I could have proceeded to turn a bowl in the usual process. But, in this case, I want to preserve the weathered look which would have otherwise be turned away.
Most of the time when turning a bowl, the first task is to turn a tenon on the rounded side. However, this would destroy the natural weathered side. I had to come up with another plan to be mount the wood for turning.
Instead of a tenon that chuck jaws can clamp onto, I can drill a mortise that the chuck jaws can expand into. A tenon cuts away a lot of the beautiful wood to form the tenon; a mortise can be a simple moderate size hole that removes only a little weathered wood. The offset is that a mortise risks cracking the wood if there is too little wood around the hole.
There are other smaller differences that you will see in this video.
The bowl is from dry aspen, about seven inches diameter and finished with walnut oil.
Enjoy.
p.s. Would you like a more in depth demonstration? Please contact me for an IRD (Zoom Demo) on this or other topics.