This was another fun lathe project. The body and head are turned separately, and the head attaches via a tenon on the body. This was made with some Honey Locust pieces I’ve had sitting on my shelf waiting for a purpose. It stands around 10″ tall.
The ears are a turned cone which is then cut in half with a hand saw (or jigsaw). Each half is then carved with a rotary tool/Dremel.
For the whiskers, I split small slices of leather. They were drooping so I dripped thin CA glue onto the leather to stiffen them up.
Small projects on the lathe are fun. For a little time in the shop, I can have something started and completed. And it’s a bonus when they can be actually used as decorations or given away.
This year I tried my hand at a few snowmen – one small enough to be an ornament for the Christmas tree.
These all have maple bodies. Four have walnut hats and one cherry hat. Buttons and noses are unknown wood.
A huge thanks to Craft Supplies USA‘s commitment to teaching projects on the lathe. They released a video last month showing off how to use their German Smoker (incense) kit to make a fun little Christmas project.
After plenty of rewinding, fast-forwarding, and otherwise studying the video, I was able to turn my own Santa Claus this weekend.
At the part of the project where I was painting the face, I was incredibly skeptical that it was going to look good in the end. But once the hair, beard, and hat were added – I’m very happy with it!
If you’re looking for a fun project for the holidays, give it a shot. You may just end up with a decoration you’ll pull out year after year.
Last week I processed a couple more of the rough turned Sycamore I mentioned in Log to Bowl, Wood Unknown. There are so many interesting grain patterns here, I’m a little sad I don’t have that many more pieces left.
Earlier this year I was able to get ahold of a few pieces of an unknown species of wood. I quickly rough turned them back in April and placed them in to paper bags with shavings to dry.
Tonight I took one off the shelf, weighed it, and found it had stabilized. Ready to turn!
There is a lot for the eye too look at, that’s for sure. There was a little tearout but not too bad. Polar water for scale 🙂
I don’t know what kind of wood it is, so if you recognize it, let me know. Here’s what it looked like in log form.
The new lathe is a pleasure to work on. Vibrations are greatly reduced and it simply does not bog down. It also has Reverse, which I’m finding very useful for sanding to a nice smooth surface.
I have a few more of pieces of this wood and now I’m excited about what they’re going look like.
Last weekend I went to fire up the lathe to process some newly acquired logs and the lathe stopped lathing. Well, it spun but wasn’t happy about it. Lots of noise and heat, I just had to shut it down and say goodbye.
Not thriled with the prospect of the cost of a full-size replacement (or getting one into the basement), I opted for another benchtop model. But this time I went with a Jet, one with a more powerful moter and about 60% heavier.
I rough turned this Cherry bowl several months ago and it has been drying in my basement since. I didn’t have high expectations for the finished bowl because it just looked a bit plain.
Happily, this turned about to be incorrect – it has far more visual interest than I expected.
A friend sent a video to me a couple of days ago, showing someone making a “passive speaker” on the lathe – one of those horns (for lack of a better term) you place your phone into to amplify the sound.
I’ve had a piece of Cherry sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now for which I just haven’t had the right project. This seemed like a great use.
I started off with this piece, maybe 6″x6″.
After 3.5 frustrating hours Wednesday night, I completed the shape – inside and out. It was an incredibly frustrating experience on my lathe, trying to hollow out the horn into end-grain, when the piece was this long and I don’t have any support other than this small chuck.
The next step, after work on Thursday, was the nerve-wracking step of taking a saw to this nicely shaped horn! It isn’t perfectly symmetrical, but is close enough.
It’s starting to actually look like a thing!
The last piece was to flatten the bottom of the rear portion so it doesn’t roll. I adhered a sheet of sandpaper to some plywood and quickly ground down a flat bottom. Nice and stable.
The best part, finishing, was done with a 1:1 mixture of pure Tung Oil and citrus solvent. I’ve applied one coat so far, and it’s looking great. Sounds pretty good too!
Over the weekend I finally turned one of the Cherry wood blanks that has been drying in my basement for over 2 years now. The blank was on the larger side, and I didn’t want to waste a bunch of the wood, so I decided to try a taller bowl than usual.
I think I found the limit, height-wise, of a piece like this on my lathe. It just caused too many vibrations and too many tool marks. To top it off, there were plenty of knots and soft-ish spots inside.
I recently turned a small Elm bowl/dish. The knots and cracks were a little bit of a challenge to deal with. I wanted to keep them in the final result so I filled them with dark brown CA glue.
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