Segmented Run

[Gerold Griffin]

Greetings Creekers
One dark cloudy day I decided to do a oak and hollow form. Once everything was glued up and ready to turn I made an amazing discovery - the banjo would not slide under the turning and there was no way to quickly work on the foot. So me being me I got some 3/8 steel and came up with this[ATTACH]banjo 2.jpg[/ATTACH] Now with that done everything else went great until I decided to do a run of 5 for Christmas presents. I wanted a chuck for this to be able to work on each peice as I wanted to. ( The oak and walnut was done glued to a piece of scrapwood on a faceplate) So with a new Super Nova 2 chuck I went to work on the next 5, made of maple, walnut, and zebrawood. After the first one shot off the lathe I attempted to use my steady rest but due to the low clearance it wouldn't fit. Back to it and hope for the best. Next one shot off, repair damaged rings and back to it. To make a long story short everyone came off the lathe with my head only catching one of them. Busted my face shield all to heck but better that than my head! For some reason I kept getting a catch on the second maple ring from the top. I finally determined that the problem was a loose nut on the gouge or a screw loose in the operator mechanism. The two are so closely related it is difficult tell which after being slapped silly in the head by glued up hunk of wood. Anyway what started out to be 5 matching hollow forms turned out to be 5 hollow forms, 261 pieces each, averaging 8-9 inches tall.
By the way the banjo extension is held in place with 3 grade 8 bolts when in use. I only put two in for the picture.
Enjoy. Comments and Critiques Very Welcome

[John Keeton]

Gerold, what a nice series of segmented turnings!!!! Beautiful form and wood.

Great idea on the banjo extension, too.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Gerold - I believe this is the first time I have seen a production run of segmented forms! Very nice work on each of them! Really nice work on the joinery!

I like your banjo mod - amazing what we come up with when needed!

Sorry to hear about getting hit with a flying blank! Glad you are OK! What tool were you using when getting the catch?

[Paul Douglass]

Boy, those are beautiful. Did you make a template to get all so exact on the form? I would have had 5 different shaped bowls somewhat similar... Awesome!

[Bill Bulloch]

Nice work, even though you did have so many problems.

I normally do vases like this in two halves, finish turning both inside and out, then glue them back together. This way you don't have the wabble problem that is probably responsible for the catches. Once you glue them back together it is easy enough to clean up the glue lines inside and out while the pieces is still on the lathe.

[Gerold Griffin]

John, glad you like it. Hopefully some Creeker will see it and if needed remember it. It works pretty good once mounted and you can swing the banjo and tool rest around to just about any angle you need.

Steve, I was using a Robert Sorby 3/8" bowl gouge. I do not believe it was the tool but rather the tool holders fault. Not enough experience.

Paul, instead of making just one ring and going on to the next I made the same ring 5 times while I had the saw set up.

Bill, that is exactly what I did. Thankfully I left the walls thick enough to be able to go back over the outside and take out the dings and dents.