help on confetti lamps?

[D Randall]

New turner, got some questions. dont know what I'm doing. I will check out the turners club, and I'm expecting books for Xmas. problem is I need to make some turned projects for Xmas gifts. Confetti lamps actually.

So, could someone please break down the basic steps for making a confetti lamp? what I'm guessing is this:

drill hole for lamp.
round out blank on BS
chuck on Lathe
turn
sand
finish

is this right? how does one form the very top around the hole?

signed-confused newbie.

[Ron Sardo]

Everyone has a little different way of doing this

Here's mine

chuck on lathe
drill hole for lamp
clean up bottom
turn
sand
finish

God Luck and Have Fun!

[Paul Engle]

I use wood worm screw in chuck: drill 5/16 hole ( hard wood 1/4 in soft wood)centered
turn recess in bottom
shape bottom
finish to 400 grt
rechuck
drill hole ( 1 1/2 in) I use 1 5/8 party lite tea lites. ( wife sells em)
size hole with skew
shape top
sand / finish
30 minutes start to finish.

72 hrs later 600 sand LIGHTLY !!!!
carnuba wax / polish with white 3m pad, buff with wool low speed. 2 for 29.95$

[Steve Schlumpf]

I use a 1 1/2" forstner bit and drill a hole in bottom of the wood block and then mount that to the chuck. Bring up tailstock and turn to shape. Sand to 220 and then mount 1 1/2" forstner bit in chuck (in tailstock) and drill hole for confetti lamp. I do this last and use the hole from the tailstock center to guide the forstner bit. Finish sand to 400 and apply finish of your choice while on lathe.

[Mark Hulette]

Like Ron said, everyone does it a little differently...

I drill all my blanks with the 1.5" forstner then turn a scrap piece that's about 4" long and will just fit into the hole you just drilled in your blank The jam chuck will fit my chuck and give you clearance to get to finishing around the hole. Bring up the tailstock then shape, sand and finish.

Let's see some pics when you get them finished.

I am currently working on gifts for folks at work and have over 20 of them in the hopper.

Good luck!

[Ron Sardo]

Everyone has a little different way of doing this

Here's mine

chuck on lathe
drill hole for lamp
clean up bottom
turn
sand
finish

God Luck and Have Fun!
I should have stated

chuck on lathe
drill hole for lamp
clean up inside of bottom
turn sides
Reverse jam chuck it to clean up outside bottom
sand
finish

[D Randall]

What speeds are we looking at here? (speed at which step would be helpful)

As I said. I will get help, I PROMISE but right now, I need help from you fine folks.

[Ron Sardo]

Turn at a speed you feel most comfortable with.

Increase the speed as your comfort level increases.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

With rough blanks, I generally start out at the lowest speed my Jet VS Mini will go.....roughly 500 rpm and often that is too fast for me. I don't have a b/s so often my blanks are square/rectangular/cubes.....Once I get the blank rounded and more balanced, I turn up the speed. Often, the speed will determine how easily the wood turns/cuts.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm not doing confetti lamps, but these are similar:
52348
1. put blank on 2" faceplate
2. turn tenon on bottom
3. turn bottom half
4. rechuck on tenon
5. drill 2-1/8" hole (to depth of insert) with forstner bit in tailstock
6. flare top of hole until insert fits as desired
7. turn top half...I usually use a "sacrificial" insert, held in by the tailstock, as a guide for this step
8. rechuck (expansion mode) in insert hole to turn off tenon and clean up bottom

Looks more complicated than it really is, probably about 30 minutes each if I do them in "batch mode". Life (or at least steps 6 and 7) would be easier if I had a 56mm forstner bit. Step 8 only works because the hole is a pretty close match to my chuck jaws (that's why I leave the bottom of the hole straight), but I've got some smaller jaws that would work with the regular confetti-lamp inserts.

[D Randall]

NEW QUESTION

Ok, so I turned my first confetti lamp last night, and it turnd out pretty nice if I do say so myself.
here's my question: I'm looking for suggestions on accessing the top to shape that. what I did last night was to faceplate a chunk of flat scrape. round that so it spins ok. and use the tail stock to pressure it to the faceplate. should I chuck up a tennon for more of a jam chuck? and use the tail to hold the piece to the tennon?

trying to avoid turning a tennon to retain as much of the blank as possiable.

[Lee DeRaud]

trying to avoid turning a tennon to retain as much of the blank as possiable.When that's an issue, I usually just use CA to glue a disk of 1/4" poplar to the bottom for a tenon. So step 2 above becomes:
2. glue waste block (tenon) to bottom of blank and true it up

If your faceplate's hole pattern is bigger than your lamp insert, you can do the same thing at the top end as step 1:
1. glue waste block to top of blank, and either:
1a. mount assembly between centers, true up waste block, and mount in chuck, or
1b. screw faceplate to waste block

You can do this whole thing without a chuck, but it's obviously more work.