Kathy Marshall
06-04-2011, 8:41 PM
Nothing special, just a couple of firsts for me.
Our club's Presidents Challenge for June is Toys. I haven't done any of the toys before so I thought I better get crackin.
I did the red/blue ball & cup toy first. It was from a blank of glued up dunno wood that my dad had glued up into a 4x4 years ago. It was a big blank, so I thought what the heck, and made it into a big ball & cup toy, the ball is almost 3" in diameter :eek: dyed with Rit dye then applied Ren wax for some protection (didn't see the need to spend a bunch of time on a finish for a piece that's meant to get banged up).
Next I did the smaller ball & cup out of a piece of poplar. The shape came out much better on this one and the cup was hollowed deeper and the ball is almost a perfect sphere. I applied friction polish and Ren wax.
Just need to get some string to attach the balls and try them out.
Next I chucked up a hard maple blank and turned a couple of tops (talk about quick and easy), one is dyed dark green and the other is red on top and blue on the bottom then applied Ren wax. Tested them out and they both spin :D
With what was left of the maple blank, I turned another ball for practice.
196871196867
I then started thinking of what other toys I could turn, but nothing came to mind so I decided to try a mushroom. Found a small acacia log about 3 - 3 1/2" diameter. Undercutting the cap was probably the hardest part. With the stem base being so wide, I kept knocking my knuckles against it because of the angle needed to get the gouge up into the top of the cap. It's about 5 1/2" tall and just has a coat of DO so far and will probably finish it up with some satin poly. I made the wide base so it would stand on it's own with the oblong cap (the log had a bend in it). As usual, it looked thinner on the lathe, I'll know for the next one to make the stem much thinner.
All in all, they were some fun little projects.
196866196868196869196870
Thanks for looking!
As always comments and critiques are welcome.
Our club's Presidents Challenge for June is Toys. I haven't done any of the toys before so I thought I better get crackin.
I did the red/blue ball & cup toy first. It was from a blank of glued up dunno wood that my dad had glued up into a 4x4 years ago. It was a big blank, so I thought what the heck, and made it into a big ball & cup toy, the ball is almost 3" in diameter :eek: dyed with Rit dye then applied Ren wax for some protection (didn't see the need to spend a bunch of time on a finish for a piece that's meant to get banged up).
Next I did the smaller ball & cup out of a piece of poplar. The shape came out much better on this one and the cup was hollowed deeper and the ball is almost a perfect sphere. I applied friction polish and Ren wax.
Just need to get some string to attach the balls and try them out.
Next I chucked up a hard maple blank and turned a couple of tops (talk about quick and easy), one is dyed dark green and the other is red on top and blue on the bottom then applied Ren wax. Tested them out and they both spin :D
With what was left of the maple blank, I turned another ball for practice.
196871196867
I then started thinking of what other toys I could turn, but nothing came to mind so I decided to try a mushroom. Found a small acacia log about 3 - 3 1/2" diameter. Undercutting the cap was probably the hardest part. With the stem base being so wide, I kept knocking my knuckles against it because of the angle needed to get the gouge up into the top of the cap. It's about 5 1/2" tall and just has a coat of DO so far and will probably finish it up with some satin poly. I made the wide base so it would stand on it's own with the oblong cap (the log had a bend in it). As usual, it looked thinner on the lathe, I'll know for the next one to make the stem much thinner.
All in all, they were some fun little projects.
196866196868196869196870
Thanks for looking!
As always comments and critiques are welcome.