DIY LED Lights For Woodturning
A DIY project to provide LED light to my wood lathe. The LED’s were purchased from Ikea; The magnet was purchased from Harbor Freight. I woodturned small bases to hold the light and the magnet.
Both were turned from scrap offcuts: one is russian olive, the other is aspen.
Before turning, I drilled holes to match the bottom of the LED light. Then the bottoms were turned first to make a recess for the magnet and recess to use to remount onto a chuck. They are finished with a mix of mineral oil and beeswax. Tools used were a bowl gouge and a bedan.
Woodturning A Walnut Salad Bowl
This salad bowl is woodturned walnut 10″ in diameter and 3″ tall and finished with walnut oil.
The walnut was already well seasoned. The wood was salvaged from a gun stock supplier.
It was a fairly quick, very enjoyable project. The most time (over night) came from gluing on a waste block to avoid loosing any wood to a mounting tenon. For this I used a bowl gouge, bowl scraper, and a air powered sander.
Christmas Ornament: The Star of Bethlehem
This Christmas Ornament is woodturned walnut and maple about 6″ high and 4.5″ in diameter. The walnut body and maple finials are finished with friction polish. The ornament has a handmade brass hanger.
The Star of Bethlehem represents the sign given for the birth of Jesus Christ, the true center of Christmas.
The challenge with this ornament is accurately drilling the tenon holes in the star’s body, then replicating 12 side finials.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom.
A Faux Inside Out Christmas Bell Ornament
This woodturning is made of maple poplar about 4″ tall and 2″ in diameter. The poplar bell is finished with acrylic paint for an antique look. The maple finial is finished with shellac. The ornament has a handmade brass hanger.
Instead of being turned inside out, the center shape was drilled out with forstner bits. Small bits marked the top and bottom corners. Larger bits bored out the center of the bell.
After mounting the ornament on the lathe, the bottom was also bored out with a forstner bit. Then the outer shape was turned. With the void in the middle, each stoke had to be with extreme care. Then center void was refined with rasps and sandpaper.
The maple finial has a bell shape. A brass bell is the knocker for the larger bell. This is a bell within a bell suspended by a bell.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge.
A Christmas Tree Ornament
This woodturning is made of apricot about 5″ tall and 1 1/2″ in diameter. The tree branches are painted with acrylic paint. The entire tree is finished with lacquer. The ornament has a handmade brass hanger.
The branches were turned off axis. Three additional centers were marked on the base at 60 degree angles and about 3/8″ from the true center. The turning axis was shifted to the first off center axis to turn a groove at every third mark along the tree. Then the turning axis was shifted to the second off center axis to turn a groove at every third mark along the tree starting with the second mark. Finally, the turning axis was shifted to the third off center axis to turn a groove at every third mark along the tree starting with the third mark.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom
Woodturning Christmas Ornament: Enhancing Poplar and Maple
This woodturning is made of poplar and maple. The body is 2″ poplar dyed red and finished with lacquer. The finials are maple finished with friction polish. Inside the ornament body is a cute little Christmas tree.
The ornament has a handmade brass hanger.
The interior of the body was drilled with a 1 1/8″ forstner bit then sanded. The dye was applied with a mouth atomizer.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge. If you would like to enter an ornament in this challenge, video yourself making the ornament, upload it to YouTube, and let me know where the video is. I’ll then add it to the challenge playlist.
Christmas Ornaments: Icicles From Exotic Woods
This woodturning is a set of three exotic wood icicles ranging from 3 inches to 4 1/2 inches in length. Each as a finial at the bottom and a series of other shapes above the finial. They are strung on nylon thread and have a handmade brass hanger.
Each as a variety of woods that I purchased at a black Friday sale. The store did not identify the woods but they have a nice color and density.
I challenged myself to turn this entire project with a skew.
The small scale of this project was a challenge. The 1/16″ drill bit was prone to wander off center which resulted in a crooked hanging. Ok for these but I would prefer them to be straight.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Here’s a link to the playlist on YouTube. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge. If you would like to enter an ornament in this challenge, video yourself making the ornament, upload it to YouTube, and let me know where the video is. I’ll then add it to the challenge playlist.
Christmas Ornament – Deep Space Nine in Walnut and Maple
This woodturning resembles the space station on Star Trek – Deep Space Nine. It has a wide, round main section with corridors back to the central hub. The top and bottom finials house docking bays and equipment not subject to gravity. Each is about 7” tall and 3” in diameter.
It is about 7″ tall and about 3″ in diameter. The body is Walnut with Maple Finials. The body is inlaid with brass wire to resemble portholes. It is finished with a friction polish. The walnut body is drilled out to form spokes from the central core to the space station’s outer ring.
I picked up a tip from Eddie Castelin for this project. To size the tenon, I used an end wrench 5/16″ on one end and 1/4″ on the other. I aggressively cut the tenon until the 5/16″ wrench fit. Then carefully sized it down the rest of the way to 1/4″.
I made two of these space stations. On the last finial, I started with skew practice and ended up turning the entire finial with a skew instead of a gouge.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge. If you would like to enter an ornament in this challenge, video yourself making the ornament, upload it to YouTube, and let me know where the video is. I’ll then add it to the challenge playlist.
Christmas Ornament – Sea Urchin On Apricot
This woodturning has a sea urchin shell on an apricot top and bottom finial. It is about 8 1/2″ tall. The shell is about 2″ in diameter. The apricot from urban forestry is finished with a friction polish. The sea urchin shell is protected by three coats of white glue on its inside. I sanded the top and bottom shell holes to make them uniform.
Although I prefer finials with a fine point, I worried about grandchildren playing (inappropriately) with it. WIth this risk in mind, I made the finial points into moderate beads instead.
The most difficult part is to fit the shell to the finial. The finial rests on a small shoulder on the apricot finial just inside the top of the shell.
After that, the more technical part is turning the finials without breaking them. Here’s where turning up the lathe speed helps along with a sharp tool. Even then, any defect in the finial or a misstep with a tool and the finial is ruined.
This ornament is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge.
A Christmas Ornament With Bronze Wire Inlay
This woodturning is a bronze wire inlaid Christmas ornament made of aspen and walnut finished with shellac. The body is a near sphere. It is solid – not hollowed out except for a 1/2″ hole thru the center. It weighs in at about one ounce. The turning blank is salvaged from an off cut from a green turned bowl.
The finials are also salvaged walnut from another bowl. I was fortunate to find a piece with the grain running along its length for the finial. The bottom of each finial has a 1/2″ tenon and a 45 degree chamfer. These mate to corresponding parts of the body.
I inlaid a bronze wire around the body. I first cut a groove for the wire and cut the wire to be just a little long. After sanding the end of the wire flat and perpendicular, I glued in the very end of the wire to the groove. After the glue hardened, I glued in the remaining wire in sections, keeping tension on the wire until the glue hardened. I trimmed the very end to fit and also sanded it flat and perpendicular. Then it was glued in to complete the inlay.This bell is part of the Christmas Ornament Woodturning Challenge 2012. Please view the playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4W9FE566kZhU-Mo7smbQgsUb-wpUJGom. Carl Jacobson and I are sponsoring this challenge.