Segmented Paralleloroid

[Richard Madison]

Made from four half-toroids and two straight sections, this one is approx. 6” x 9-1/2” x 11”. The woods are oak and walnut, with three coats of lacquer sanding sealer. Rather than building a high gloss lacquer finish, am leaning toward just buffing this one a bit and leaving as is. Composed of 80 rings of 12 segments each, it has 961 pieces. One extra piece, you say? There is a blue marble inside. Each “spiral” makes 3-1/3 circuits as it traverses the piece and meets the start of a spiral four segments away. So after three complete laps it rejoins itself at the beginning. That means that there are really only 4 spirals, not 12. I think. It is far from perfect. These things take a little practice, but I can honestly report that there are no bad glue joints. Of course you all know who taught us to do this so I won’t mention his name, but his initials are Malcolm Tibbetts. Thanks for looking, and your comments are welcome.

[Don Carter]

Richard:
I don't think I understood all of your description, but I do know what I like and I like that a lot. This is not something you can just glance at, you have to look it over for a while. Great job!
How long did it take you?
All the best.

Don

[Dewey Torres]

Richard,
I see you found a use for your leftover toroid parts:D

Mr. Tibblets will certainly comment if he sees this post.

[charlie knighton]

Richard, very nice

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking piece. Well done.

[Mark Hix]

congratulations. I know you are proud of it. The blue marble struck me as funny. I have to ask.....is it a requirement for one of these?

[Jim Kountz]

Man these things just blow my mind, I dont even understand where,.......On never mind I just dont understand!! LOL You did a great job and I thought the addition of the marble was a cool idea!!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Richard - I have to admit that I have not read Malcolm's book and actually have a very limited concept of segmented work but this thing is really really cool! Love the colors and the idea of the marble got me to laughing! I can just see someone picking it up for the first time and that marble rolling around - they probably will think they broke something! Very nice concept, design and finish! Hope to see more of these works from you! Thanks for sharing!

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Richard - nice job! I'm very happy to see others take this style of work and go in other directions. Love the marble addition.

Why did you feel the need for the straight sections?

Folks, this is not easy stuff; not many are brave enough to try it, but the rewards can be great. And it's not that tough. If you've got some segmentation experience, don't be afraid to give it a go.

[Jim Swift]

Outstanding!!! I also love the marble idea. I can see the look on someones face when they pick it up.

Great job

[Richard Madison]

Thanks all for your kind replies.

Don, The thing is interesting from several directions. Hard to decide which picture to post. Did not record actual work time, but total elapsed time was 20 days. This included visits from two sets of grandchildren, a trip to the vet with my shop cat, etc., so you could say maybe 16 days.

Glad you guys enjoyed the blue marble. Have not heard of anyone sealing anything inside before. Just my way of saying that this is supposed to be fun. It's not ALL fun, but some of it is.

Malcolm, thanks for your comments. I wanted the straight sections to increase the asymmetry of the piece, but I should have made those rings thinner so they would blend in a little better. Wish I could think of some great names for stuff like you do. Maybe some folks here could give me some suggestions?

Thanks again.

[John Terefenko]

Richard

You need to enlarge your font size. These old eyes can not see that good. But they can see what a beautiful piece and the concept is fantastic. I just bought Malcolm's dvds on segmenting and will start playing around this year. This is one of my New Year's resolutions. Thanks for showing.

[Richard Madison]

Sorry John. I wrote that off line and it came out tiny when pasted to here. Maybe can edit the size after it is pasted? Good luck with your segmenting.

[charlie knighton]

Wish I could think of some great names for stuff like you do. Maybe some folks here could give me some suggestions?




how about Infinity

it seems to have no beginning or ending

Richard, you will probably do more turnings in this style, you might want a name to refer to the series and a name for the individual piece. Cindy Drozda has her Goddess Series, while i have my Rover series. i am sure others must have their series also.

[Brian Brown]

Richard,

That is a very nice piece. The joints look nice, and the shape is fun. The marble is a nice touch, and very unique.


Wish I could think of some great names for stuff like you do. Maybe some folks here could give me some suggestions?

Thanks again.


How about out "Out of my mind", :D "Too Much Time on my Hands" :D "Lost my Marble" or SWMBO says "Thigh Master" or U-turn2 (That's u-turn squared, but I couldn't do the super script).

[John Terefenko]

Lost My Marble is a good one.

[Brad Kimbrell]

I just received Mr. Tibbetts' 2 volume DVD set and ordered my Powermatic 3520B so I'm already spinning some of this cool stuff in my head.

I don't think I have a full understanding of how you put the angles on the completed segments. I would imagine a sled thru my drum sander with a tilting tray would do it, but are they all the same angle and just rotated to make the turns that you want to make?

And maybe offset by 180 degrees to make a straight section?

And yes, the marble is a very original idea which is a great one as once I read about the marble it seems to be an automatic feature...even though I would have never thought to do it!

Thanks for sharing this beautiful work with us. It is very inspiring!

[Harvey Crouch]

Richard, you have done it again. As I said before, you have a lot of courage to start a piece like that, and obviously, you made it happen. I am looking forward to visiting your shop.

[Richard Madison]

Thanks again for your comments and your name suggestions. Food for thought. So far am liking Charlie's suggest of a series name, combined with others into a series called "Losing My Marbles". But my fingers are still too sore from pressing little pieces together to start another one. Maybe tomorrow.

Brad, a toroid is just like a segmented ring, except that the segments are themselves segmented rings, so each ring has the same angle on both sides. In his book Malcolm used a sled and drum sander to sand the angles, with a spacer under each ring IIRC. Lacking that tool I made a jig to sand each ring on a disc sander. To have the spirals align properly I had to sand three different groups of rings, one with the joint at the top, and one each with the oak and walnut segments at the top of my jig. For straight sections both sides of the rings are simply sanded flat and parallel. I made two complete toroids, as nearly identical as possible, cut them in half, sanded the cut ends, and reglued into the new configuration.

Hope this helps, and happy new lathe.

[Bill Wyko]

Great work. I'm gonna have to try this some day. Very nice execution .:D

[Richard Madison]

Thanks Bill. Good to hear from you. Some guys on the Australian forum have been wondering what has become of you. Your work was cited on a segmenting thread there.

[Dick Strauss]

Richard,
That is an interesting idea. I can see a larger version of that design supporting a piece of glass for a modern table.

[Richard Madison]

Dick,

Yours is an outstanding idea. Not sure I have the resources to build such a piece, much less market it, but it is a great idea. I could build it, but would need a commission and substantial prepayment just to buy the materials. It would be VERY expensive.

[Robert McGowen]

need a commission and substantial prepayment just to buy the materials. It would be VERY expensive.


That just means you charge more! This is a very nice piece Richard. You are obviously improving with each project.

[Richard Madison]

Thanks Robert. Appreciate your reply and good to hear from you. Hope the knee is doing well. Still waiting to see a compound stave piece. Probably my sorry-**s "help" was no help at all.