Wood Spin Top With Box in Maple
This woodturning project was inspired by a visit by Eli Avisera to the Cascade Woodturners. Eli Avisera is an Israeli woodturners. He made a small wood spin top that also served as a lid to a small box. He made it look so easy, I just had to try it myself.
Fortunately, I had some hard maple in my wood stack that was perfect for the project. I started with a block 2″ x 2″ x 4″. Unfortunately, my four jaw chuck capacity is just under 2 inches. So I had to be very careful to size the tenon to fit.
I followed the same sequence of steps that Eli Avisera did. I’ll have to do another few hundred to catch up with him. The top and box are textured that is then colored. V grooves mark out the texture sections. V grooves in the box were also burned with a wire. I burned the lip of the box with a piece of scrap wood.
In the end, the top spins so it is a success. I should make a few more right away to cement in the process.
Wood Bowl in Apricot From Green Wood
This woodturning project, a small bowl turned from apricot, was a nice short fun project.
The wood came from urban forestry, meaning, I helped a neighbor cut down the apricot tree he didn’t want in his yard anymore. I was glad to help in return for the wood.
At the beginning of the bowl turning, I had not decided whether to turn in completely in one session or to turn it in two sessions – months apart. The difference is when the bowl has time to dry. If turned in one session, I turn it to final size, then let it try. As it dries, it shrinks and warps into its own unique shape. If turned in two sessions, the first is only to rough turn it with the walls much thicker than anticipated in the final bowl. Then let it dry and shrink. Hopefully, then the walls were thick enough to accomodate the shrinkage. The bowl is remounted in the lathe to finish it.
This one already shows typical shrinkage and shape changes resulting from drying after turning. This definitely marks the bowl as green turned and gives it special character from the unpredicable shrinkage.
This one is a keeper – a small nice beautiful bowl.
Green Apricot Bowl Disaster
Sometimes, we need a reminder of the risks involved in woodturning projects, particularly when turning a bowl harvested from random sources, sometimes called urban forestry. I harvest wood where ever I can hoping for a big turning blank and fantastic grain and figure. This apricot wood blank was from the main trunk, one of the biggest pieces from the tree. I had grand hopes for it.
But the bark inclusion that I was counting on to enhance the bowl actually extended thru almost the entire blank. Many years ago two limbs were growing almost parallel for many years. Moss invaded the space. After many years, one limb was cut. the tree continued to grow and bridged over most of the gap.
In this case, I did everything right except to lower the guard on the lathe itself. I had my face shield on and had noted to myself several times not to stand inline with the bowl. I was almost ready to remount the bowl into the four jaw chuck and hollow the interior.
Then I removed the last bit of new sap wood holding the bowl together. A big piece hinged over and flew off hitting me and my face shield in the middle of my forehead. Sorry, not a lot of blood but definitely a hard whack.
My new resolutions – Use the lathe guard on all green bowl turnings at least until I can turn the bowl around for the hollowing phase; Keep wearing my face shield no matter what; Avoid standing in line with a spinning bowl.
Always keep safety in mind – Otherwise, it will be knocked into you.
Wood Egg Box in Walnut
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My twin granddaughters wanted me to make them each a wooden egg. My thoughts went directly to a hollow egg, or wooden container. With dry urban harvested walnut, I started to turn the two eggs.
The first egg was nearly a disaster. I had turned the tenon too small for my dovetail jaws. No problem, I have a set of smaller jaws. But these are not dovetail. So, Had to turn the tenon down a bit more. Then while turning, these jaws only contact the wood at 4 very narrow points. The dovetail jaws would have grabbed at 8 points. The consequence was that the blank popped out of the jaws several time when I was more aggressive.
I had fitted the top and bottom before one of these popouts. When remounted, the rotation was very slightly different when made the fit between top and bottom very loose. So, turn the joint down and start fitting again. Oh well. The first egg turned out more ball shaped than egg shaped.
So I moved to the second egg and had much better luck. The second egg is featured in this video.
Sea Urchin Ornament 2 on Juniper
This woodturning project is the second in a response to a challenge by Cascade Woodturners to make “something” from a juniper block. I had made one already but decided to make a second sputnik sea urchin ornament. It has a sea urchin shell with juniper finials above and below the shell. The lower juniper finial is also a pedestal for the ornament. It could be a Christmas ornament or a decorative ornament.
To prepare for the first sea urchin, I reviewed two videos by Cindy Drozda who makes beautiful turned wood finials. I also practiced on two small ones before the real thing. In the end, the finials turned out well.
At the end of the video, I compare these two ornaments to decide what direction to take for the next set.
This one is a keeper. I’ll show off both these wood turned ornament at Cascade Woodturners shortly.
Sea Urchin Ornament on Juniper
This woodturning project is a response to a challenge issued by Cascade Woodturners to make “something” from a juniper block, I decided to make a sea urchin ornament with a sea urchin shell with juniper finials above and below the shell.
To prepare, I reviewed two videos by Cindy Drozda who makes beautiful turned wood finials. In the end, the finials went fairly well. I practiced on two small ones before the real thing.
This one is a keeper. I’ll show off this wood turned ornament at Cascade Woodturners shortly.
Wood Bracelet For My Girls Part 2
With the pending visit from my grandchildren, I decided to make a bracelet or bangle for each girl. In the last video, I made the first set of three.
But with six granddaughters, 3 bracelets is not enough. I needed three more.
With three under my belt, I changed them a little bit. In the first batch, I used four segments per layer. In this batch, I use eight segments per layer. There are two segmented layers with one layer of thick oak veneer between them. Woods are Purpleheart, Padauk, Honey Locust, Oak and Maple.
With the practice from the previous batch, these went more easily. I treated each joint with CA glue to fill any possible gap and to seal the wood.
The bracelets were finished with a shellac friction polish.
I finished the last bracelet about 11:30 pm. The next morning the grandchildren started arriving for our family reunion.
They were excited for the bracelets; Two made additional requests for a wooodturning project. That will be in the next video.
Wood Bracelet For A Girl
Several years ago, I had a bright idea to make wooden ties. I made several which turned out very nice except they were not very comfortable to wear. They only bent in one direction. I did not make any more beyond the first batch but still had a lot of wood milled out.
Now I’m using the wood for a wooden bracelet for a grand daughter using segmented turning techniques.
For this first set, I’m using four segments in a layer. Two segmented layers are glued up witha thick piece of Oak veneer in between for added strength. Woods are honey locust, maple, walnut, a probably padouk.
The blank was CA glued to a piece of baltic birch held in my scrolling jaw chuck. I turned the outer face and hollowed the middle first. Then parted off the bracelet.
I had to add another layer to the baltic birch to make a jam chuck for the bracelet. The bracelet is sealed with thin CA glue, then finish sanded, and finished with a friction shallac polish.
Rescue From A Woodturning Bowl Disaster – My Poor Maple Bowl
This woodturning project picks up from a green turning disaster a couple of months ago.
At that time, I turned a green piece of maple. I wanted the finish turning without waiting for the wood to dry.
However, in the final moments, my gouge caught the bottom of the bowl and it exploded.
Maybe I should have thrown the broken bowl away. Instead I decided to try to make something of it after all.
So, I turned another small bowl from a piece of Walnut limb wood. This walnut was very dry, having been salvaged many, many years ago. It has had ample time to dry.
I mixed up some casting resin with a little silver metallic sparkle and poured it into the walnut bowl. Then I placed the pieces of the broken maple bowl in the walnut bowl and embedded in the casting resin. I used small skewers to space the pieces of the broken maple bowl.
The end product is not a classic in my estimation. But it does have a story to tell and an acknowledgement that not all woodturning projects turn out perfectly.