– Howard Hirsch
Downingtown, Pennsylvania

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Over the years, I have admired butterfly patches (also known as dovetails, dutchmen, bowties, or pewas) in turned pieces. Aside from becoming a primary visual feature, they add value to the piece by demonstrating the maker’s skill. Additionally, being able to turn a finished bowl with a crack in it extends your usable wood inventory.

Adapting to a Curved Surface

Butterfly inlays are common in flat work. Traditionally, the maker scribes around a hand-cut butterfly, drills or routs out most of the recess, then uses a chisel to work to the line for a perfect fit. But I wondered how to transfer that process to the curved surface of a bowl. I was doubly impressed with turners who had used butterfly inlays in turned work.

The opportunity for me to learn came when I offered to repair a broken bowl for a desperate customer. A bowl (made by another turner) had been dropped and all but broken in half. I researched various methods of repair and landed on the one I knew I could do with the tools I already had.

I decided to use butterfly patches using a router with an inlay guide-bushing set and a pattern to make both the recess and the insert. I chose a different bowl to illustrate the process in this article.

Note that the grain of the butterfly inlay must run 90 degrees to the crack to give it full strength. If it runs the same direction, the butterfly itself could eventually break. Usually, I prefer the butterfly to be of a contrasting wood, but that is a matter of preference. Choose wood that is strong but relatively easy to work by hand because you will typically have to do a little tweaking with a chisel or knife. I usually use black walnut for dark patches and birch for light patches.

Router Considerations

I originally used an old Craftsman router with good success, but its motor was often misaligned, and it required a lot of care to advance the bit and keep it in the same relative position. Although the handles were fairly high on the base, I didn’t find it a problem, but when I tried a friend’s small plunge router (trying to solve the misalignment issue) with even higher handles, I found it had a very “top heavy” feel and was hard to maintain fine control.

I decided to get a new router, a smaller one for ease of handling, with as much power as my old router, and handles as low as possible. Variable speed and a soft start are also nice features. But most important of all, it had to be able to stay on center when I advanced the bit. While there were several choices on the market, I bought a Bosch Colt.

Inlay Bushings and Router Bits

Inlay bushings are made to attach easily to most router bases, with the face flush to the bottom of the base. A centered protrusion around the bit follows a pattern and has a removable collar that allows for negative and positive shapes (recess and insert). Leave the collar in place to create the recess, and remove it to make the insert. Before you purchase an inlay-bushing set, confirm that it will work with your router base. In my case, I used the lathe to turn a custom router base from 1/4″- (6mm) thick acrylic, so it would accept the bushing with a perfect fit.

While it would be possible to make the cuts using a bit with straight flutes, spiral cutters make much cleaner cuts. Downward spirals leave a very clean cut at the surface but tend to load the recess with shavings. Upward spirals clear the chips better, but they tend to rip the surface of the wood. So if you find yourself installing a butterfly in a finished bowl, an upward spiral would be a poor choice. My preference is the downward spiral cutter; I simply clear the chips between levels of cut. Router bits are available in 1/8″ (3mm) and 1/4″ diameters, so you must take that into account when choosing a removable collar for an inlay bushing.

Make an Inlay Pattern

As far as I can tell, all commercially available inlay patterns are made from acrylic, so I had a friend with a laser engraver make my first one. I found pretty quickly, however, that I wanted more sizes because the inlays should be in proportion to the turned piece. So that I wouldn’t have to constantly go cap inhand to my friend’s shop, I came up with an easy method of making the router patterns from wood. Choose a hardwood like hard maple, oak, or similar.

A pattern should be large enough for the router to ride on it securely without rocking. About 3″ × 5″ (8cm × 13cm) is good, as it will work for most “bowl-size” butterflies and still provide a stable platform. If you had to make a significantly larger butterfly, consider increasing the outside dimensions to maintain stability. I now make my patterns 3/8″ (10mm) thick, rather than the more common 1/4″, for two reasons. First, I found (sadly, during an IRD) that because the pattern was barely thicker than the inlay bushing, the router teetered on the bushing on a small-diameter bowl, messing up the cut. Second, a thicker pattern allows more room for shavings, which helps to prevent build-up.

An inlay pattern requires a top, bottom, and four center sections cut to your preferred dovetail angle for the butterfly. After some trial and error, I chose to make my dovetail angles 15 degrees.

Make a simple clamping device and glue and clamp the components, as shown. This photo shows the completed inlay pattern, trimmed and ready to use.

Rout the Inlays

As described earlier, the router bushing set has a removable collar. Take the collar off, leaving the small-diameter “follower” when cutting inserts. Before adhering the pattern to the wood with hot-melt glue, I put masking tape on both the pattern and the wood being machined. This allows for easy removal of the pattern and the hot-melt glue.

Rout as many inserts as you can get from a piece of waste wood, making them as thick as you want. I make mine at least 1/4″ thick, from wood that is at least 1/2″ to 3/4″ (13mm to 19mm) thick. You’ll have to re-attach the pattern for each insert. When you have as many routed as you want, cut the inserts out at the bandsaw. If you don’t have a bandsaw, this can be done with a handsaw or table saw with a zero-clearance table insert.

Rout the Recess

Butterfly inlays are generally “blind,” meaning they don’t go all the way through the vessel wall. If you have a thin-walled vessel, where the butterfly does go right through, be aware that the small amount of handwork in fine-tuning the recess must be precise. Any cuts that aren’t 90 degrees to the surface of the bowl can show up as a gap on the inside.

I like to re-mount the bowl on my lathe at an angle, using the face of the chuck and the tailstock to position the work area as horizontal as possible. Determine where you want the butterfly inlay, place the pattern on the crack, trace around the inside of the pattern with a pencil, then check to see if the shape, orientation and proportions are to your liking.

Place masking tape outside those lines in any place you expect to place hot-melt glue (usually the full outside dimension of the pattern). I use blue painter’s tape because it tends to conform to the compound curve of a bowl nicely.

Apply a spot of hot-melt glue at the two points that form the “waist” of the butterfly, and secure the pattern in place. Once it is in place, glue wedges under the four corners, or wherever possible, to provide adequate support while routing.

Important: Be careful to maintain the angle of the pattern so that it is tangent to the surface of the bowl. I usually have a selection of wedges at the ready, dry-fit them, then apply a dab of glue on the top and bottom of the wedges before affixing them. Having long wedges keeps your fingers away from the hot hot-melt glue.

Butterfly inlays just 1/8″ thick will provide adequate strength, so I rout the recess at least that deep, plus an allowance for any finishing cuts on the bowl during turning. After setting the router-bit depth so that it is contacting the surface of the bowl, I put a piece of tape on the router’s depth scale at the full depth to make it easier to see. I like to use one of the corners for the “home” corner, extend the bit while the router is running, then move the router clockwise around the pattern.

Be sure to remove any wood remaining in the center as well. I usually take a 1/8″-deep cut, remove the router to clear the chips, go back to the home position, then lower the bit the rest of the way. If you can’t lower the bit while the router is running (like my old Craftsman), extend the cutter away from the pattern and enter the cut somewhere away from the edge before moving it to your home corner. Always let the bit come to a full stop before removing the router from the pattern.

After routing the recess, it will be necessary to cut the dovetail corners to a sharp angle, as the router will leave them rounded. Alternately, you could leave the rounded corners as is, in which case you would have to not only round the corners of the insert to match but also do all the fine-tuning on the insert, not the recess.

Fit and Glue the Inlay

Test the fit of the inlay in the recess to see which way it fits the best, then mark an “X” on one end so you will always test the fit in the same position. The inlay bushing creates a fit that is actually “too” exact, so the fit will have to be relaxed a bit. Place the insert over the recess, hugging one side of the recess with one side of the insert, and scribe around the other side and both ends with a sharp craft knife.

Use that line to locate the chisel to take off fine shavings as required. Alternately, you can work the sides of the butterfly insert to adjust the fit. It is safer and allows greater accuracy to hold the insert with a clamp while making these cuts. You can touch the ends on a belt sander or use your chisel. I’ve taken both approaches and have found that adjusting the recess is easier.

Chamfer the inside edges of the insert to make for an easy entry into the recess. The fit should be a nice push fit or even a tap fit. Don’t put it all the way in until you apply glue, as it probably won’t come back out without damage.

While cyanoacrylate (CA) glue is acceptable, I prefer regular woodworking glue, as I feel it offers a more permanent hold. If possible, drive the inlay home with a clamp, making a glue bond at the bottom of the recess. Depending on the glue brand you use, clamping is usually required for an hour, with full strength in 24 hours. However, there is very little stress on a well-fit butterfly while turning, so it is reasonable to turn in an hour. I have never had an insert move during turning.

With regular glue, there is usually some squeeze-out into the crack. I try to “dam” the crack with a sliver of wood to prevent that. You could also remove the squeeze-out with a series of pointy blades, slivers of wood, and/or dental picks. With the butterfly inlay glued in place, continue turning the bowl as you normally would.

Closing Thoughts

Generally, cracks that need a repair are obvious, but some aren’t. My feeling is that when the wood’s moisture content has reached equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere, as with a roughturned bowl that has sufficiently dried, it will not move or crack further. So if a crack is clearly minor, while others on the same bowl have been patched, most people will understand that the bowl will remain stable in its current state.

I am often asked if filling a crack (along with using a butterfly) is a good idea. If you have a salad bowl with a crack low on the walls, filling the crack would maintain the bowl’s functionality. But for more aesthetic pieces, I would leave it unfilled. You may also just simply want to fill it. In either case, I would fill after inserting the butterfly, in case the placement of the butterfly breaks the bond between the filler and the wood.

When I teach new turners, I emphasize the need to honor the wood, to give it their best effort. Using butterflies to salvage a broken piece or to make use of wood with natural imperfections is a way of honoring the wood. The Japanese call the art of repairing broken pottery vessels kintsugi. Cracks are part of the “scenery” and history of a vessel and should be honored, rather than disguised. A butterfly repair on wood is no less attractive than figured grain and becomes part of the story of a wooden vessel.

Ed Pretty has been turning wood for more than sixty years, initially learning traditional spindle techniques from his father. After retiring from a thirty-six-year career as a professional firefighter, Ed now turns full time. Ed offers an interactive remote demo (IRD) on crack repair in turned bowls. Learn more at edswoodturning.com.

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DVR in the Driver’s Seat

Let’s start with the lathe’s business end — a 1.5hp direct-drive Digital Variable Reluctance (DVR) motor. It’s both powerful and coupled with an advanced control system. Striatech’s Intelligent Direct Drive controls deliver remarkable torque across all speed settings — from 100 to 3,500 rpm. Included in the programming for the motor is a chisel jam detection feature that will stop the machine if something goes awry. Also part of the safety package is electronic braking to ensure rapid stops. I believe it’s the most sophisticated lathe motor system in the industry.

The Neptune is sized to allow home-shop turners the opportunity to create really large bowls inboard with its 15″ swing (18″ between centers) and outboard turning diameters up to 20″. Outboard turning is accomplished with a power head that slides the full length of the bed and pivots 360 degrees. To further accommodate outboard turning, Nova has developed a full set of tool-rest extensions and outriggers.

The takeaway from all this is that the Neptune performs well above its “weight class,” so to speak. It will likely fulfill many turner’s desires for a large lathe without the significant footprint or price.

Screen Time

In addition to the high-tech motor, this lathe’s control screen is an HMI (Human Machine Interface) icon-based system. There are speed chart icons for rough cuts, fine and finish cuts, load level, a diameter-based speed chart, an unbalanced load icon, favorite speed control, a break-enabled warning icon and a reverse rotation icon. All of those surround a large active rpm display. This icon-based layout is another step forward in lathe design.

Nova has taken the time to fully accessorize the Neptune, too. From the standard benchtop version you can add benchtop mounting plates, heavy-duty legs, a bed extension, tool-rest extension for turning large-diameter stock and an outrigger for even larger-diameter turnings. In other words, the basic unit can grow as your skills expand. Fully outfitted with all the accessories, it becomes a lifetime tool — one that few home-shop turners will ever outgrow.

Nicely done, Nova. Here’s a new niche in the lathe marketplace that will fit many woodturners’ shop spaces and pocketbooks.

Nova Neptune

Motor: 1.5hp DVR, 110/240-volt

Speed Range: 100 to 3,500 rpm

Swing Over Bed: 15″

Distance Between Centers: 18″

Spindle: 1-1⁄4″ diameter, 8 tpi

Quill: 2.4″ travel; #2 Morse Taper

Headstock: Swivels 360 degrees

Indexing: 24 positions, electronic

Controls: Icon-based screen; Intelligent Direct Drive

Safety: Electronic braking, chisel jam detection

Weight: 125 lbs

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The idea of a small lidded container for holding pills, sewing needles, toothpicks, or garden seeds will probably conjure up different images for all of us. When we think of making a lidded box on the lathe, a long, narrow shape may not be the first form that comes to mind. I have turned many pill boxes over the years; however, calling this container a pill box might limit ideas for design variations. Regardless of the box’s intended use, choosing to make a small item just for the pure joy of making it might be reason enough. And whatever you call it — an ornamental case, a box, lidded tube, or even an etui — it ultimately is a lidded container with an atypical shape and design. As I present my procedure for turning this delightful little box, you will discover it is a project ripe for exploring options.

Etui: an Ornamental Case

French in origin, this small ornamental case, usually featuring a hinged lid, dates to the early 17th century. It was designed primarily for women to hold scissors, needles, cosmetics, perfume, or miniature writing sets.

They were mostly made of silver, ivory, bone, leather, gold, or enamel, and, not surprisingly, woodturners have adapted the form for the lathe as a long, narrow lidded box. Past President of the Yellowstone Woodturners Bruce Blackketter, now of Joplin, Missouri, turned his own version, as shown.

Material and Design Choices

Materials suitable for this small container include wood, cast resin, acrylic, and other man-made plastics. Some design choices may affect the material you choose. For example, when considering a threaded connection or a slip fit for the lid, material choices make a difference. For a thread-chasing project, I might select a hard, dense material such as African blackwood or a two-part cast resin. For a nice friction-fit connection, any material, hard or soft, will suffice. For a lidded box that holds my daily pills when traveling, a nice tight suction fit will hold the container together safely. But if you prefer more security, nothing beats a threaded connection.

The focus of this article will be turning a box using spalted cherry with a slip-fit, or friction-fit, connection of the lid.

The old maxim, form follows function, may be front and center in this discussion. If the intended use for this small object is to securely hold pills, needles, or toothpicks, long and narrow is a better design. Perhaps arriving at the best design requires first deciding what the container will hold. A prototype made from a suitable scrap of wood costs little in either time or material and may be the best method of determining the proper inside volume. Starting with a very small female opening in the lid will dictate the size of the opening in the base at right. Consequently, the opening is very small. Proper sizing of both the lid and base openings will provide the maximum volume for your project. The photo shows the completed lid above the base, which is chucked in pin jaws. In the finished box, the inside diameter (ID) of the lid is 25/32″ (20mm) and the ID of the base is 19/32″ (15mm).

With a rather long cylindrical form, the usual shape and design possibilities available in “boxes” that woodturners typically make may be difficult to apply. Fibonacci’s Golden Ratio, which is sometimes used to determine the lid-to-box ratio in lidded boxes, may not be optimal for an etui-inspired box. For my own favorite design, I lean toward long flowing lines with delicate details

As for etui dimensions, a good place to start is with a 1″ (25mm) square blank, 3″ (8cm) long. The dimensions of your own project will depend largely on the intended use of your container.

Turning Process

In the following steps, I chuck the blank directly into pin jaws, eliminating the need to form a tenon, or spigot.

This process does require alternative methods for reverse-mounting the lid and base (jam-fitting), which I’ll discuss later.

Start by turning the blank to a cylinder using a spindle-roughing gouge . With the tailstock removed, true up the end of the blank with a reverse and true up the other end.

With the rounded workpiece chucked up in the pin jaws, part the base section from the lid using a parting tool.

Turn the Lid

I drill a recess in the lid using a 5/8″ (16mm) Forstner bit. By drilling the recess in the lid, rather than hollowing the lid by hand, the walls are perfectly straight and parallel. Sand and apply a finish to the inside of the lid. If your container is to hold medication, it may be prudent not to apply any finish at all.

Remove the lid from the chuck, and mount the base section. The lid will mount to the base by way of a friction fit on a tenon at the end of the base, so I form that tenon using a small beading and parting tool.

Sneak up on a good fit by cutting and testing the connection repeatedly, until you have a snug fit. At first, I attach the lid to the tenon with a tighter than necessary connection while I complete the turning of the lid and add decorative elements. This connection can be fine-tuned for a more serviceable fit in a later step.

With the lid jam-fitted onto the tenon of the base, I use a beading tool to add some decoration to the top of the box and to the area near the join.

I complete the lid by sanding, applying an abrasive paste, applying a friction polish, and finally buffing to a nice sheen.

Wood Jam Chuck

A jam chuck is a workholding method, or fixing, that makes use of a tight friction fit, usually of the workpiece onto a piece of scrap mounted in a chuck or on a faceplate. This operation is accomplished by carefully turning the jam chuck to the correct size. A caliper can be used at first, followed by test-fitting until the two components mate securely together.

One key benefit is that it does not require tailstock support, allowing total access to a piece while completing the turning and finishing. Note that for larger pieces, tailstock support is recommended when possible. My favorite tools for this operation are a ½” (13mm) skew chisel and 3/8″ (10 mm) beading/parting tool. Both can be used in either cutting or scraping mode and will serve to accomplish the task.

I start with the skew presented in a cutting orientation to remove the bulk of wood . Next, I use the beading/parting tool to scrape the surface and make minor adjustments. Sneak up on a good fit by cutting and testing the connection repeatedly.

Correcting a Loose Fit

When you are learning to make jam chucks, it is common to remove too much wood, creating a fit that is too loose. Several options are available to tighten up the connection and make it more secure. One is to lightly spray the jam chuck with water, which will swell the wood fibers for a better fit. This can also be accomplished by applying a layer of wax. Another idea is to add a layer of tissue paper or paper towel between the jam chuck and the workpiece to help take up the slack. Finally, if the failed jam chuck is a piece of waste wood, save it for a future project and start again with another scrap.

Turn the Base

I drill the opening in the base with a 1/2″ (13mm) bradpoint bit. I make this opening as large as possible to allow for more volume inside the box. Note that if you drill too wide a hole in the base, the walls of the tenon will become too thin. Maintain ample thickness here so you won’t weaken the tenon that holds the lid.

To turn the rest of the box body, I reverse-mount the work onto a jam chuck made from a scrap of dowel mounted in the chuck.

I use a beading/parting tool as well as a small spindle/detail gouge to shape the base and add decorative details. At this point, I finetune the lid-to-base connection to my desired fit—not too tight, but not so loose that the lid will fall off.

The photo shows a good view of the dowel used to chuck up the base for final turning and finishing. At no point do I chuck up either the completed lid or base directly in the pin jaws. Jam chucking eliminates the possibility of marring the surface of the wood.

Threaded Lid option

The steps in making this project are similar if not identical to the process most turners use for making a lidded box. Adding threads to the female recess and the male tenon may slightly alter your approach to completing this container. A threaded connection will certainly add more security to the lid’s fit. Since most woodturners do not have the skills for chasing threads by hand, using a thread-chasing jig might be an alternative. If you prefer to add a threaded connection to this project, watch my video, “A Small Ornamental Container,” available on my YouTube channel, @wyomingwoodturner.

Conclusion

I find a certain joy in turning miniatures. Usually, a different approach and a higher degree of precision is required. You can transform a small bit of scrap wood or even a pen blank into a work of art. Many small items, from pills to batteries, can be held in this narrow-lidded box. However, no reason is needed for turning one other than the sheer pleasure of turning your own little ornamental case.

Sam Angelo retired in 2011 after forty years in public education. He is currently the president of the Yellowstone Woodturners, an AAW chapter in Billings, Montana. Sam has published hundreds of videos on his YouTube channel, @wyomingwoodturner, including one on making a small box, as shown in this article. He offers turning classes and continues to turn daily in his shop.

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I enjoy turning large platters from highly figured woods. Highly figured woods are beautiful, but they present special challenges for woodturners. They tear out readily and ripple if sanded excessively. In this article, I will explain how to cut highly figured woods successfully — to turn them absolutely smooth and tearout-free right off the tool. This reduces the need for sanding and thereby avoids rippling, resulting in gallery-quality woodturnings.

A Challenging Material

The figure in wood is created by irregular wood fibers. Think of wood fibers as a bundle of tiny cellulose straws. In straight-grained woods, the straws are arranged together in straight lines, hence the name straight-grained. But in figured woods, the cellulose straws grow in irregular patterns. The more irregular the patterns, the more figured the wood. The sides of the cellulose straws appear lighter and more reflective, while their open ends appear darker, creating beautiful patterns of light and dark.

As woodturners, we know that cutting into sidegrain (the sides of the straws) is easy, but cutting into endgrain (the ends of the straws) is more difficult and often produces tearout. As figured wood turns on the lathe, we are continuously cutting into a mixture of side- and endgrain fibers. Without specialized techniques, tearout is inevitable.

More sanding is not the answer. Excessive sanding on highly figure woods creates ripples because sidegrain and endgrain are intermixed, and the sidegrain abrades much more rapidly.

Ready Your Tools

For most of my woodturning, I use gouges with cutting edges ground at about 40 degrees. On straight-grained woods, these gouges cut fast and clean. But on highly figured woods, the 40-degree cutting edge tends to get under the irregular fibers of dry wood and tear them out. If the gouge is sharpened with a 55-degree bevel, however, it has far less tendency to get under the irregular endgrain fibers. So for finishing cuts on highly figured woods, I prefer a gouge sharpened at 55 degrees.

A dull gouge with a 55-degree bevel will hardly cut at all, but a very sharp gouge will cut like a dream. Dull tools always cause tearout, always! So keep your tools sharp. For finishing cuts on dry wood, I prefer a gouge with a U-shaped flute. Why? The U flute is broader at the bottom, and if the wings are not swept back, the nose of the tool has a longer, straighter cutting edge. If the gouge is presented to the workpiece with the bevel rubbing and the cutting edge held almost parallel to the direction of travel of the spinning wood, the cutting edge slices the wood fibers smoothly and beautifully, minimizing tearout and producing fine, hair-like shavings.

For years, I used tools made of M2 steel, which is a wonderful, conventional high-speed steel. But in recent years, I have upgraded to tools made of particle metal. I prefer them because the cutting edge of a particle-metal tool is richly supplied with tiny, uniformly distributed, carbides. There are many excellent particle metals. My personal preference is CPM 10V (an A11 metal), which contains almost 10% vanadium. Vanadium carbides are particularly hard and abrasion-resistant, which is why tools rich in vanadium stay sharp longer. For finishing cuts, I sharpen with a 600- grit Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) wheel. It gets particle-metal tools wonderfully sharp, so they cut highly figured woods cleanly and stay sharp longer.

Sharp Tools = Better Results

Keeping tools very sharp is fundamental to success when turning highly figured woods. To get the best results, take advantage of the technology improvements in both tool steels and grinders. Consider upgrading your tools to particle-metal. They offer significant advantages over conventional tools.

I grind and sharpen my tools on two low-speed 8″ (20cm) grinders, each fitted with two CBN wheels. One grinder has an 80-grit wheel for rough-shaping tools and a 180-grit wheel for sharpening negative-rake scrapers. The other grinder has a 350-grit wheel for sharpening gouges used for rough-shaping platters and bowls and a 600-grit wheel for sharpening gouges used for finishing cuts. Consider replacing your old wheels with CBN as soon as your budget allows it. You’ll be amazed at how much better they are.

Your grinder setup should invite you to sharpen frequently. The necessity to fiddle with anything on a grinder is a disincentive to grinding. My platforms are always set at the correct angles for my gouges and scrapers, and I never move the platforms. I can quickly regrind every tool and be back at the lathe in just seconds.

Two-step Turning Process

I advocate using a two-step turning process. I remove 99% of the wood with my gouges, but before sanding, I smooth and refine every square millimeter of the surface with negative-rake scrapers. These tools can smooth curves, crisp-up transitions, and remove every vestige of tearout, getting the workpiece “perfect” before any sanding commences. Negative-rake scrapers are particularly effective on dry highly figured woods.

You might be wondering…If the surface is “perfect,” why sand at all? Under magnification, the burr on the cutting edge of a freshly sharpened NRS looks like sandpaper. It smooths the wood beautifully but inevitably leaves a pattern of fine scratches. Light sanding removes these scratches and prepares the workpiece for a gallery-quality finish. I hand-sand, usually beginning with 220-grit sandpaper, progressing through 400 grit, and ending with a very slightly dampened 500-grit Abralon pad. This process removes all of the fine scratches left by the NRS.

Negative-Rake Scrapers

Unlike traditional scrapers, negative-rake scrapers have a bevel on both the top and bottom, ground to the same angle. You can customize their edge profiles to match the surfaces of your workpiece.

A negative-rake scraper need not be heavy. Since effective scraping requires a very delicate touch, I prefer a lightweight tool. And since it is a finishing tool, it should be “floated” delicately across the wood with almost no forward pressure on the tool. It should not be used to remove much wood, but instead only to smooth the surface. Used correctly, a negative-rake scraper produces fine, hair-like shavings, not dust.

At the Grinder

I set my grinding platform at 22.5 degrees so, after grinding both sides, the included angle at the cutting edge is 45 degrees.

As the scraper is ground, a burr forms on the upper side of the grind, and in use, the scraper is held horizontally on the toolrest, burr-side up. Feel the upper edge of the tool as it comes off the grinder to make sure it has a good burr. When the burr is gone, the tool must be resharpened immediately, as the burr is the only part of the scraper that cuts. When the burr has worn away, the tool is dull and will do more harm than good. But when a freshly sharpened negative-rake scraper is used correctly, it is very effective in removing tearout on figured woods.

In Summary

Keep your tools very sharp. A dull tool will always tear the wood, and heavily sanding figured woods may cause a different problem—rippling. Take advantage of new technologies by using particle-metal tools sharpened on CBN wheels.

When making finishing cuts on highly figured woods, choose a gouge with a U-shaped flute, ground to a 55-degree bevel. Then smooth and refine the entire surface of the workpiece with negative-rake scrapers, getting everything “perfect” right off the tool before sanding. Sand lightly but thoroughly before applying a finish.

Tom Wirsing is a physicist, woodturner, furniture maker, and a former AAW Board member and president. A past president of the Front Range Woodturners (Denver), Tom lives on a ranch in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where he turns wood, builds furniture, and grazes Angus cattle. For more, visit thomaswirsing.com.

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Glass pumpkins have turned into a huge industry, and my wife loves them, so I wondered how a wood pumpkin would go over. Turns out, they go over very well. They are fun to make, and I have sold every one I’ve ever made. Let’s take a look at how to make them. The basic process involves turning, hollowing, and carving, which is quite similar to processes used by John Jordan and Avelino Samuel, but with a vessel shaped like a pumpkin.

Sometimes, I color the pumpkins with wood bleach and/or paint. Oh, and you have to make the finial look like a pumpkin stem, which is also turned and carved. There are myriad ways to carve in wood; the following is the process I use, but certainly other methods can be used to achieve excellent results.

Shape the Pumpkin

For the pumpkin I made to illustrate this article, I chose a piece of Norfolk Island pine. A set of branches was at the top of the log, so I decided to see if I could incorporate them in the top of the pumpkin. The log initially was about 14″ (36cm) long and 7″ (18cm) diameter, so the first thing I did was cut it to length for a good height-to-width ratio for a pumpkin; I kept the remainder of the log for the stem.

Before I mounted the log on the lathe, I searched the Internet for photos of real pumpkins to help guide me as I shaped my pumpkin. Since I wanted to retain the Norfolk Island pine branches on top, I wanted a pumpkin with a fairly flat top. I often print a picture and keep it near the lathe for easy reference during turning.

Mount the work between centers, rough-turn your pumpkin, and form a chucking tenon at the headstock side. Then begin refining its shape. The apex of a pumpkin’s curve is usually about midway up, and that worked well for my pumpkin. I was able to start at the center, make similar shaping cuts in both directions, and then come back and blend the curves in the middle.

Since I was turning a larger workpiece in spindle orientation (with the grain running parallel to the lathe’s bed ways), a spindleroughing gouge was a good choice for most of the shaping. As I started seeing what the piece would look like, I decided to deviate from the photo and make my pumpkin a little taller than I had intended. A taller pumpkin would enhance the lines of the Norfolk Island pine branches and the spalting in this log.

Hollow the Pumpkin

Remount the work in a chuck, and begin the hollowing process by drilling a hole with a large Forstner bit. This creates a good starting point for hollowing, using whatever hollowing tools you are comfortable with.

When I hollow my pumpkins, I leave the walls quite a bit thicker than I do for most hollow forms. There are two reasons for this. First, you will be carving into the sides, so a little extra wood for the grooves is needed. And second, real pumpkins are pretty heavy.

One of the things I remember from my youth is picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch that were too heavy for my young body to handle; I want to evoke that feeling with my wood pumpkins. I want them to feel like you are picking up a real pumpkin, so my final wall thickness is typically about 3/4″ (19mm).

After the piece is hollowed, turn a recess in the top to later accept a spigot at the base of the stem. I have made pumpkins with wide openings, like you might see if you carved a jack-o-lantern at Halloween, but generally I prefer a small opening, where just the stem is removable.

After I have completed the hollowing, I give the piece a light sanding so I can evaluate the wood for the placement of the grooves. In this case, there were two bark inclusions that stood out.

I could have left the inclusions, as real pumpkins aren’t perfect, but I decided to fill them with epoxy and sawdust. I prefer West System’s G-Flex epoxy, as it is designed to accommodate wood movement, so I mixed up a small batch and added some of the shavings left over from hollowing.

Form the Pumpkin’s Grooves

Norfolk Island pine can look rather plain until you oil it. To better see where I wanted the grooves, I added oil to the piece, which really made the grain and spalting stand out.

Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes and can have many thin grooves, a few bold ones, or anywhere in between. Using the Norfolk Island pine branches as a guide, I decided to make eight deep grooves; good thing I left plenty of wall thickness to work with.

Using my Harvey Fein-inspired router setup with a small-radius grooving bit, I routed the grooves into the pumpkin. This step could be done by power-carving or even handcarving, but I find the router makes quick work of this process.

After routing the grooves, I rounded their edges over using a series of rasps, then refined them with files and sandpaper. I have found that for carving on curved surfaces, especially in endgrain wood, Kutzall rasps are great tools. They aren’t as sensitive to grain direction as traditional rasps, and they cut on both the push and pull strokes, making this process quick and easy.

Make a Stem

The stem does not have to be from the same wood as the pumpkin, but I decided to use the remaining piece cut off from the Norfolk Island pine log. When I started making the stem, I hadn’t yet decided how I wanted to color it, but having grain that matched the pumpkin offered some nice options.

To make the stem, you could simply start with a scrap of wood and begin carving, but since I had a pretty big chunk of wood, I decided to use the lathe to remove the bulk of the material, accounting for a curve in the stem. Using the lathe also allowed me to form two tenons—one for mounting the stem in a chuck and one for fitting the stem into the recess at the top of the pumpkin. It is important to measure the tenon that will fit into the pumpkin accurately, as it will be difficult to re-turn it once the stem is carved. Ultimately, you may have to fine-tune the recess in the pumpkin to fit the stem.

After turning the stem, I still had a lot of wood to cut away, but you can see from the lines I drew that the turned curve established the basic shape of the stem. At the bandsaw, I cut away more of the wood in preparation for carving.

With the stem remounted in the chuck, I held the chuck in my Trent Bosch carving stand. With the work held securely, I was able to shape the pumpkin stem using first an angle grinder and then a Proxxon long-neck grinder with sanding flaps. The Proxxon tool is excellent for finessing the final shape and leaving a decent surface.

With the basic stem shape formed, you can begin carving the grooves in the stem. I like the grooves to have a twist to them, so I started by drawing their locations freehand. I then used a rotary tool to cut grooves along the lines I had drawn. Finally, I eased the edges of the grooves using a round carving bit, then completed the grooves with rasps, files, and sandpaper. Since actual pumpkin stems are pretty rough, I did not feel the need to make mine too smooth. Often the surface off the rasp or file is just about right.

Use a parting tool to separate the stem from the chuck, or simply cut it off using a hand saw (with the lathe off).

Remove Chucking Tenon

Once the stem is separated from the chuck, check its fit in the recess in the top of the pumpkin. It may be necessary to remount the pumpkin on the lathe to refine the width of the recess.

When you have achieved a good fit of the stem to the pumpkin, it is time to remove the chucking tenon from the pumpkin. Since there is no easy way to reverse-mount the pumpkin in a chuck, I create a custom jam chuck in the form of a long dowel that reaches into the bottom of the pumpkin.

Turn a dowel small enough to fit through the pumpkin’s opening, then form a slight recess in its end. The recess ensures the pumpkin is pressed against a wider base and not a small point. Applying pressure from the tailstock to hold the pumpkin on the jam chuck, turn away the chucking tenon.

Color at Will

The final decision is whether to color the pumpkin and/or stem or leave them natural. In this case, I wanted to see the grain of the wood but give the stem some contrast, so I bleached the stem with two-part wood bleach.

Just about anything goes when it comes to coloring—don’t be afraid to use bold and crazy colors on your pumpkin and stem. Above all, have fun.

John Beaver lives in Pacific Palisades, California, where his proximity to the ocean inspires his signature Wave Bowl turnings. You can see more of his work at johnbeaver.net.

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When I was new to woodturning, I never tossed bowls away simply because I had turned through the bottom. They went into my “parts” bin, and when I had time, I would mess around with them, trying to figure out what they could be. Striving for perfection is great, but each item you make becomes precious, and you are less likely to explore alternative possibilities. Creativity comes from alternative possibilities.

In the early 1980s, my woodworking mentor taught me about pattern fences and how they are used in cabinetmaking. Later in my career, I used a pattern fence to make staves for coopered columns. And about six years ago, I adapted the concept to make elliptical vessels from turned bowls.

I take classes in as many nonturning- related subjects as possible. When I took metal-smithing classes, I was not thinking about metal smithing, I was thinking, How can I bring these techniques to my woodturning practice? When taking archeology classes, I was thinking, How do these objects from antiquity relate to my woodturning practice? As an architectural woodturner, I have spent lots of time standing at a lathe, a bandsaw, and a table saw, thinking about the objects I am making. That is how the adaption of the pattern fence for making the elliptical vessels came about. I was messing with my box of “holey” bowls, and that week’s job was coopering columns. I was using the pattern fence to make staves but thinking about the bowls in my parts bin. The two came together in my head, and I started adapting and experimenting that night.

What is a pattern fence? It is a simple jig that allows you to cut a straight edge on a workpiece that does not have a reliable working edge. Typically in woodworking, a straight edge is cut by referencing an existing edge against a fence, resulting in a straight, parallel cut. To make elliptical vessels, the idea is to cut the center out of a bowl and fit the two outer pieces together. But a bowl does not have a straight, or working, edge to run against the bandsaw fence, so you must create one. A pattern fence facilitates this process.

A Temporary Straightedge

Begin with the bowl you want to. work with. If you rough-turn a lot of wet bowls, I am sure you have a few lying around that have cracked on the rim, or possibly you went through the bottom.

Once you have identified a bowl to use, think about the final shape you want. You will be cutting a parallel strip from the middle of the bowl. The wider the strip, the narrower the final two side pieces will be, with sharper, steeper angles. The thinner the strip, the rounder the glued form will be.

In the example shown here, I started with a bowl that was turned wet and had dried to an oval. I wanted to remove the crack at one edge, but I also needed to take out a strip from the middle in such a way that the two remaining pieces would be as close in shape to one another as possible. To split this oval bowl symmetrically and remove the crack, I needed to remove a strip at least 1-3/4″ (4cm) wide. I like my elliptical vessels narrower and sharper looking, so in this case, I decided to remove 2-1/2″ (6cm). From a scrap piece, I ripped a temporary straightedge 2-1/2″ wide. Make sure to leave your straightedge long; mine was about 24″ (61cm).

The rough-turned bowl I used had a foot, so I could use the flat surface on the bottom of the foot as a reference to measure each side and ensure the two would be equal. If you are using a round bowl, you can use any remaining tool marks as a guide. Spend the time needed to get both sides as close to equal as possible, as there will be less sanding required after you cut them. I darkened the bowl foot edges with a pencil so it would be easier for me to compare visually.

Predrill and screw the straightedge onto the bowl. Predrilling makes it easier to maintain the careful alignment you have achieved. Don’t worry about screws going through and out the other side, as they will not come near the bandsaw blade. I use short sheetrock screws. If the center is missing from your bowl, place the holes out on the edges, where you know you will catch some wood. Now you basically have a bowl on a stick. Make sure the bowl is firmly attached.

Make a Pattern Fence

Now you will need a fence to run the straightedge against, and this is where the pattern fence comes in. The pattern fence — I call this variation an “overhead fence” — is just a straight piece of wood that is wider than the sides you are cutting off, say half the width of your bowl. I cut two notches in the pattern fence, so I could clamp it to my existing bandsaw fence without the clamps sticking out farther than the edge.

As an alternative, you could also drill a couple of large holes in the pattern fence. If your bowls are big and wide, it is best to position the clamping pressure closer to the bandsaw fence; drilled holes could be of benefit in that scenario, as you wouldn’t have to cut deep grooves into the edge of the fence.

The idea is to run one edge of your “stick on a bowl” against the edge of the overhead fence. The opposite edge must be exactly aligned with bandsaw blade, so it represents where the blade will cut. Adjust the position of the bandsaw fence accordingly and lock it in place.

Flattening Board

I made a dedicated flattening board from a sink cutout from a countertop, but you could use any board that is flat. Attach strips of self-adhesive sandpaper (80 or 120 grit) to the flat surface (I use Klingspor sandpaper). Clamp the sanding board down securely. This setup is great for flattening many things in the shop, from tools to guitar parts. When you need to change the sandpaper, use a heat gun or hair dryer to loosen the grip and peel off the worn abrasive. Then replace it with new strips of sandpaper.

Cut Away Bowl Sides

With the overhead pattern fence mounted and the bandsaw fence positioned, it is just a matter of keeping the straightedge against the pattern fence as you slide the bowl into and past the blade.

After cutting one side of the bowl away, flip the whole piece around and cut the other side. This will leave you with the middle section (waste material) still attached to the straightedge. Of course, this curved element can go into your “parts” bin for future creative possibilities.

Note that for both cuts, the bowl rim is securely registered against the bandsaw table. Never cut unsupported round or “rocking” pieces on the bandsaw, as this would pose a safety hazard.

Since I made the straightedge long, I could grab it on either side, without my hands coming close to the blade. For this kind of cutting, use a stiff blade that will not flex. I typically use a 1/4″, 3/8″, or 1/2″ (6mm, 10mm, or 13mm) blade with 4 tpi (teeth per inch), but any stiff bandsaw blade will work.

Prepare Gluing Surfaces

Now you have the two halves of an elliptical form that should be close to a perfect fit. But no matter how hard you try, there is always a little adjusting to do. Hold the two pieces together and evaluate the seam. You will probably have a wider gap at the bottom of the form. Now notice the top edges. If one side hangs over a little, you will need to sand it a little more than the other side.

To prepare the newly cut bowl edges for gluing, sand them on a flat surface. When you look at the soon-to-beglued edges, you will see blade marks from the bandsaw. You will need to sand these marks off to get a clean glue joint. Draw several pencil marks on both glue surfaces and sand on the flat surface, keeping the pressure as even as possible. When all the pencil marks are gone, you know you have a flat surface. Now check the fit for size. If one side is bigger, keep sanding that side until the two parts fit together perfectly.

Glue sides together Now comes the gluing. I like to use spring clamps for odd-shaped pieces such as these elliptical forms. I use Ulmia or Collins brand spring clamps. They are expensive but really come in handy during glue-up. I have purchased cheaper brands and ended up throwing them away.

Spring clamps come with a tool that opens them so you can put them in place. When you let go of the tool, the clamp squeezes securely. I take mine to the grinder and sharpen the tips.

They do leave a little mark, so if that is not acceptable on your finished piece, duct tape works well as a clamp, provided the fit of your glue joint is good. I use Titebond II for almost all of my regular glue-ups. Wipe off the glue squeezeout inside and out with a damp cloth.

Elliptical Form as Sculpture

I often use these elliptical forms in sculptural work, adding parts together and embellishing them. Sometimes, I do not glue but sew the pieces together instead. See where your creativity leads you—these forms are ripe for imaginative play.

The real trick is to find something to do with the leftover center section. I have lots of them in my “parts” box, just waiting for inspiration to strike.

Beth Ireland, a professional architectural woodturner and sculptor with more than thirty years of experience, lives and works in St. Petersburg, Florida. She teaches the two-month Turning Intensive at The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine, as well as workshop classes at major craft centers around the country. For more, visit bethireland.net.

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Here is a modern table lamp project that is relatively easy to turn. Its shaft comprises three separately turned pieces in spindle orientation (grain running parallel to the lathe’s bed ways), which allows for the attractive use of contrasting woods and avoids the need for a long lamp auger. The lamp’s base is a simple component turned in faceplate orientation (grain running perpendicular to the bed ways).

The prospect of drilling long holes into endgrain with a lamp auger creates stress and anguish I can do without. This project allows you to avoid that stress by dividing the lamp shaft into three pieces and drilling all the holes on the drill press prior to turning. I used a table saw to cut the blanks perfectly square, which makes aligning them on the drill press easier and more accurate. If you don’t have a table saw, careful cutting on a bandsaw will do.

My students and I have made roughly a dozen lamps using this design. Over time, I have tried various alternatives (different hole sizes, no lamp rod, etc.). I have found the following simplified approach works best for most turners.

Material Prep and Layout

I like to use contrasting wood colors in the lamp shaft and base—black cherry for the dark color and hard maple for the light color. Using different species creates an attractive lamp and precludes any grain-matching issues that could result from using a single piece of wood cut into three sections and rejoined. I like to alternate the wood species top to bottom—either dark-light-dark-light or light-dark-light-dark.

When you prepare the blanks, start with square stock 1/4″ (6mm) wider than the finished diameter. Straight grain wood is easy to work with, but not required. Using wild grain can turn a simple spindle project into a torn-grain sanding nightmare. Following are the dimensions of each wood component prior to turning; the numbered pieces correspond to the labels in the drawing:

1. Lamp Shaft Top: 2-1/4″ square × 2-1/2″ long (57mm × 64mm)
2. Lamp Shaft Middle: 1-1/2″ square × 9-1/2″ long (38mm × 24cm)
3. Lamp Shaft Bottom: 2-3/4″ square × 5-3/4″ long (7cm × 15cm)
4. Lamp Base: 8″ square × 1-1/4″ thick (20cm × 32mm)

For many lathe projects, I see no point in making blanks perfectly square before turning them round. However, that approach will not work for this project. Since the through holes are drilled prior to turning, starting with perfectly square stock is critical to laying out the hole locations accurately. Pay special attention to making the ends of shaft blanks parallel. This means registering the same face of the blank against the miter gauge when crosscutting the pieces on the table saw (or against the fence on a chop saw). Mark precise centers on both ends of the three lamp shaft blanks and on the base blank. Drawing two pencil lines corner to corner works best. If you are using a center-marking jig, be sure to use the jig on all four corners and find the average in the middle. Mark the bottom of the lamp base “bottom” for future reference.

Lamp Kit and Hardware

You’ll need to acquire the following lamp parts, readily available online or at big box stores:

• Lamp Kit, including socket, harp, cord, nuts, etc.
• Lamp Rod, 3/8″ (9.5mm) OD, 20″ (51cm) long
• Lamp Shade, suggested size: 6″ (15cm) top diameter × 19″ (48cm) bottom diameter × 13″ (33cm) slant height

Pre-drill Holes

Shaft Blanks

You can drill straight holes using a good old-fashioned wooden hand screw clamp and a drill press. Before drilling, use a square to confirm that the lamp shaft blank is held vertically in the clamp. Use a 1/2″ (13mm) bradpoint bit to start the holes on center.

All of the through holes in the lamp shaft are 1/2″ diameter. A 3/8″ OD lamp rod fits easily in a 1/2″ hole. You can drill a hole all the way through the shorter top blank with a standardlength 1/2″ bradpoint bit. The lower two shaft blanks, being longer, are more challenging. You will have to drill the 1/2″ hole from both ends so the holes meet in the middle. For the 9-1/2″ blank, it may be necessary to complete the drilling with a longer twist drill.

Important: The holes in the lamp shaft blanks must enter the wood at dead center. It is less critical how the holes meet in the middle of each blank; if the lamp rod passes through the hole, it is good enough.

Base Blank

Using a 2-1/2″-diameter Forstner bit, drill a hole in the bottom of the lamp base 3/4″ deep. To drill a hole of this size safely, clamp the workpiece to the drill press table before drilling. This hole will be used as a chucking recess, so you may need to make it larger, depending on the minimum jaw size of your chuck in expansion mode.

Do not drill the 1/2″-diameter through hole in the base just yet—this hole will be drilled later on the lathe.

Next, drill a hole in the side of the lamp base to allow the cord to escape from the center. This hole is best drilled now, while the lamp base blank is still square and thus easy to clamp on the drill press table. Drill a 5/16″ (8mm) hole in the center of the sidegrain (not into the endgrain). This hole should intersect the 2-1/2″-diameter hole already drilled in the bottom of the lamp base.

Turn the Base

I like to start by turning the lamp base and then working my way up. The first step is to turn the bottom of the lamp base, but to do this, you’ll have to drill a pilot hole for your screw chuck in the top of the base. I have found this is best done on the lathe.

I cut my blanks close to round on the bandsaw and then make them truly round on the lathe. Draw a 7-1/2″- (19cm-) diameter circle on your lamp base blank with a compass. Then use a bandsaw to cut outside the line. Mount this blank in a four-jaw chuck, expanding the jaws into the 2-1/2″-diameter hole in the bottom. The jaws should not bottom out in the chucking recess.

Install a drill chuck in the lathe’s tailstock with a drill bit sized for your screw chuck—in my case, a 3/8″ drill. Drill a hole all the way through your blank. Now turn a flat area for the face of your chuck jaws to sit against when you mount the blank on the screw chuck. Don’t remove too much wood at this point, just create a flat 3″ to 4″ (8cm to 10cm) wide in the center.

With the workpiece remounted on the screw chuck, shape the bottom of the lamp base. Start by truing up the outside edge of the base with a bowl gouge. Then true up the bottom and create a 3/16″ dip in the middle (refer to the drawing). For stability, only the outside of the lamp base should make contact with the table. But beware — if you undercut the base too deeply, you risk cutting into the lamp cord hole.

Create the 1/4″ back cut angle on the side of the lamp base. I used a 1/2″ bowl gouge and a shear-scraper to form this surface. This subtle detail gives the lamp an elegant, modern look. Sand the bottom before removing the base from the lathe.

Flip the lamp base over and remount it on your four-jaw chuck by expanding the jaws into the chucking recess. Mark a 2-1/2″-diameter circle in the middle of the top. This is where the lamp base will contact the bottom of the lamp shaft. Since the bottom of the lamp shaft is flat, don’t try to also make the top of the base flat; any variation could mean a visible gap.

Instead, create a small recess in the top of the lamp base so only the outside edges of the shaft will make contact. I used a shear-scraper to create this small recess, running downhill from the marked 2-1/2″ circle to the hole in the center. Now shape the remainder of the top of the lamp base.

Since the screw chuck pilot hole was just 3/8″ diameter, the hole should be enlarged slightly to better accommodate the 3/8″ OD lamp rod. A 13/32″ or 7/16″ twist drill should do the job. Sand the top of the lamp base.

Turn the Shaft Pieces

Each of the three lamp shaft blanks should be mounted between centers to provide access to the entirety of each blank, end to end. The 1/2″-diameter through hole makes traditional mounting a challenge. My solution is to mount the shaft segments using two 2-1/2″-long pieces of 1/2″-diameter wooden dowels—no special-purpose lamp centers needed.

At the headstock end, mount a 1/2″ dowel in a collet chuck, small chuck jaws, or a drill chuck. At the tailstock end, remove the center point from the live center and replace it with a 1/2″ dowel. Some live center holes have straight sides and a setscrew, which can be used to secure your dowel. But if the hole is tapered and has no setscrew, you will have to turn a tenon and shoulder on the dowel to register against the end of the live center. Both of these approaches are shown. Be sure to make the tenon long enough to support the dowel sticking out of the live center. The dowel may not run perfectly true in the tailstock, but it will suffice after you mount your blanks on the two dowels.

Mount and turn each lamp shaft section, one at a time, on the 1/2″ dowels. Note that standard 1/2″ wooden dowels are frequently undersized, so you might need to wrap masking tape around the dowel to make it fit snugly in the 1/2″ holes in the blanks. The shape of each shaft segment is a simple taper or cylinder, so I just use a spindle-roughing gouge and sandpaper. If you are careful, you can get really clean finish cuts with a roughing gouge.

I have found that adding correctly sized wasteblocks on both ends of the blanks makes the turning simple. They help you avoid sizing mistakes and prevent tearout at the ends of the shaft sections. I make my wasteblocks out of 1/2″-thick plywood. Rough them round on the bandsaw slightly oversized after drilling a 1/2″ hole in the middle. To turn the three shaft segments as specified in the drawing, you will need six wasteblocks in the following sizes:

• Top segment: 2″ and 1-1/2″ diameter
• Middle segment: Two at 1-3/8″ diameter
• Lower segment: 2-1/2″ and 1-1/2″ diameter

Mount the appropriate wasteblocks over the 1/2″ dowels with the turning blank mounted between them. Turn the wasteblocks down to their final diameter before turning the lamp sections.

After the wasteblocks are correctly sized, you only need to “connect the dots” to turn the blank to the correct taper. Leave each blank a little oversized, and sand to the final diameter.

If you run into problems with the blanks slipping on the dowels, add masking tape to the dowels to get a tighter fit.

After you turn the middle section to a cylinder, you can add some decorative burn lines, but remember the old adage: less is more. Burn the lines with a wire after you make a shallow groove to get the wire started.

I form the groove with a point tool. You can purchase burn wires, but a piano wire or guitar string will also work.

Safety Note: If you make your own burn wires, securely install wood balls or handles at each end of the wire.

Never wrap the wire around your fingers! The lathe must be running at a high speed to create enough friction to make a nice burn line. Press the wire into the groove until smoke appears. Assembling the lamp will be easier if you turn the ends of the middle shaft section slightly concave. Undercutting both ends will help the sections mate up without unsightly gaps.

You can do this by reducing the wasteblock at the tailstock end, then use a spindle gouge to undercut the endgrain of the shaft. segment. Flip the piece end for end and repeat the process, again from the tailstock position. Use a spindle gouge to add a 1/4″ bevel at the top of the upper shaft section.

When sanding the lamp shaft sections, remove the wasteblocks so you can access the ends to slightly round over the edges. But do not sand the ends that you made perfectly square on the table saw.

Finish and Assemble Lamp Parts

It is a good idea to pre-finish all the wood lamp parts before assembly. I apply two coats of semigloss sprayon polyurethane, lightly sanding with synthetic steel wool and buffing between coats.

I like to use the lathe as a big clamp. Use it to align and dry-fit the pieces before gluing them together. Epoxy is a good choice of adhesive because of its gap-filling qualities. The 3/8″ lamp rod fits loosely in the 1/2″ center hole. I have found it easier to allow the epoxy to fill some of that gap near the joints than to force a 3/8″ lamp rod through a long 3/8″ hole with no play.

Insert the lamp rod through all of the turned parts and install lamp rod nuts at the top and bottom. Do not leave any extra lamp rod protruding at the bottom, but do leave 1-1/2″ or so extra lamp rod sticking out the top. Cut off any excess rod only after you have test fitted the lamp socket at the top of the lamp rod.

Mount the lamp base on a chuck on your lathe, expanding the jaws once again into the chucking recess on the bottom of the base. Then position the center point of the tailstock live center in the hole at the top of the lamp rod. Hand-rotate the wood parts on the lamp rod to position the grain to your liking. When you are happy with the dry-fit, loosen the lamp rod nut at the tailstock end and add some five-minute epoxy to the joints. You don’t need much glue. Tighten the nut to hold the parts in place while the epoxy dries.

If you need to clean up any excess epoxy after it dries, you can do this by turning the lathe on at a very slow speed and buffing with fine synthetic steel wool. Finally, I like to add one last coat of finish after assembling the lamp to help tie everything together and hide any problems created during the assembly process.

Install Lamp Hardware

Install the lamp socket and cord according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It is important to use a UL-approved lamp cord knot, also called an Underwriter’s Knot, under the socket. An Internet search for “UL lamp cord knot” will reveal the correct way to tie this knot, which prevents the electrical connections from being pulled and becoming disconnected. This is an important safety precaution.

When positioning the lampshade on the lamp, I like the bottom of the shade to be above the top of my beautifully turned lamp. The height of the harp determines how high or low a shade sits. The harp that comes in your lamp kit may not be the ideal size, but you can purchase a taller or shorter harp separately.

Carl Ford is an accomplished woodturner, a member of the Kaatskill Woodturners (Hurley, New York), and loves teaching people how to turn. His website is carlford.us.

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