Harry Potter needs a new magic wand to withstand “he who must not be named“. This magic wand has the key to powerful magic – a Phoenix feather inside the handle. This full sized 17” long wand is made from walnut and red oak. It is finished with mineral oil and beeswax. It is a […]
Read More...After the Cascade Woodturners club asked me to do a demo, I needed to make a practice run. After the last whistle, a viewer suggesting making the whistle in a way that it could be tuned instead of relying solely on the depth of holes drilled in the cylinder. This whistle is tuned by inserting […]
Read More...To dispel my ball turning phobia forever, I decided to do a large, hollow ball. What’s different? Well, on a large ball, any irregular surface is more apparent. Even more is that I’m having to turn blind. I cannot check wall thickness as I work the wood — I have to rely on measurement taken […]
Read More...I am interested in multi-axis and off center turning. However, any change to the turning axis presents challenges and risks. This project, from hard maple, follows an example in “Woodturning Methods” by Mike Darlow. On the first axis, I turned the body, foot, and a mounting disk. Then I mounted a wood faceplate with a […]
Read More...In my last video I turned a couple of wood balls to overcome a long running phobia – a concern that I could ever turn a perfect wood sphere. But I did it. One requirement was to have a process that I described in that video. However, part of the process required a set of […]
Read More...One project during a week long woodturning class a few years ago was a wood ball using a jamb chuck. I failed miserably to get the ball smooth. It ended up very rough and out of round. With this failure, I feared being able to make a good ball. Since then, I’ve looked for a […]
Read More...On my lathe, I don’t think about cleaning the inside of the spindle or tail stock, but I should. Gunk can build up in the morse taper of these areas and throw off how well your drive and tail centers seat, center, and hold your work. The gunk can also cause damage to these tools. […]
Read More...I pruned a branch off my apple tree last winter and rough turned a small goblet. I had to dodge a lot of rotten wood to form the goblet. Then I waxed it, put it in a paper bag, and put it away to dry. In the mean time, it has lost 34% of its […]
Read More...I’ve been using wood faceplates instead of metal faceplates with wood scrap blocks. A wood faceplate eliminates the risk of hitting a screw while turning. I can have as many wood faceplates as I want and keep it on the project until the project is complete. I can make any size faceplate that may be […]
Read More...In my last video I turned a segmented bracelet using my new home made bracelet chuck. It is an expansion chuck using basic engineering principles with lathe components. It uses 2 tapered end plugs, 8 tapered side slats, 2 automotive band clamps, 4 latex tubing rings, and a little duct tape. One end plug is […]
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