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.