Harry Potter Part 2

[Greg A Jones]

Couple of wands the goblet inspired me to turn this afternoon for the two little boys next door. Very simple design but LOTS of vibration to deal with when I got down to 1/2". They are about 14" long
Top is maple finished with walnut oil and Bealle polished.
Bottom is cherry finished with EEE and Behlen's Wood Turner's Finish

[Thom Sturgill]

I've made a couple of dozen of those myself. Good Job! I'll bet the boys love them.

[Greg A Jones]

Thanks. Neighbor mom told me the boys have just started reading Harry Potter and are fascinated by the magic, etc.
It was much more difficult that I would have thought. They were like plucking guitar strings whenever I laid a skew or gouge on them to do the final taper and I was terrified that one little catch would send pieces flying. I suppose some sort of support would help eliminate the vibration but I'm not far enough along to curve to have learned/figured that out yet.

[Thom Sturgill]

A thumb on the tip of the skew with the hand wrapped around the spindle helps, but yes I had a few shatter. Make sure that the grain runs straight down the length of the shaft. For smaller kids I made thicker wands, quite a few adults asked for them too.

[Greg A Jones]

Thanks for the tip

[Jim Underwood]

You can also make a string steady to help
stabilize thin turnings.
I find that using my finger or thumb as a steady usually does the trick. But when things get really long and thin I use a small jawed chuck on the headstock end and a taper jamb chuck on the other. This helps prevent chatter caused by center to center turning. When turning between centers the spindle tends to bow up from tailstock pressure. This exacerbates chatter cause by tool pressure and a thin springy spindle bouncing away from it and back.
Ideally you would have a chuck on each end of the spindle and pull tension on the spindle. But I find that the extra rigidity of a headstock chuck and the tail stock taper works well enough.

I really like your wand shapes. I think I'll emulate them!

[Jim Underwood]

You can find pictures of my tip in one of the last couple AAW journals. I can't remember which one exactly.

[Greg A Jones]

I really like your wand shapes. I think I'll emulate them!

Thanks for the ideas. Credit for the wand design goes to Barry Gross in his wonderful book, "Learn to Turn." Although, as you can see from the pic, his skew skills are considerably more advance than mine - to say the least. I was going to try and duplicate them, but......sometimes, as I'm sure every beginner know, you have to make "adjustments" as the work progresses. I suppose the upside is that I'm getting pretty good at corrective, cosmetic surgery on the fly. :D

[roger oldre]

I made these for a fellow a while back the handles are Ebony and the shafts are Ash.
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I cheat a little on thin turnings and use a router for the cutting tool. these were 12" long and tapered from 9/16 to 1/2".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P12E08byJ6k&feature=player_detailpage

[Greg A Jones]

Nice - lots of detail in the handles