[OP]
Contributor
Thanks for all the feedback folks. I chased the options you brought to my attention, watched numerous videos, weighed the plusses and minuses, and looked inside my wallet (opps!!)....then did a little begging to the lady of the house. I ordered the Vermec from Woodworkers Emporium.
Thanks for your help spending my wife's money!
Contributor
Mike the first thing you should do is make her a nice bowl of spheres of different wood. Great display for coffee table or whatever. My wife loves hers
Pete
* It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep for life - Sister Elizabeth Kenny *
I think this equates nicely to wood turning as well . . . . .
Contributor
+1 on that!Originally Posted by Peter Blair
Bowl of spheres 2021-01-29.JPG
Contributor
Wow! Great looking spheres and wonderful selection of materials!!
Pete
* It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep for life - Sister Elizabeth Kenny *
I think this equates nicely to wood turning as well . . . . .
Moderator
Just an encouragement to those who haven't tried turning spheres by hand - it's not that difficult especially if you plan a bit first. There is a way to lay off a cylinder then cut a series of flats that will get you very close to a good spherical shape, further refined by jam chucking on several axes to refine.
There is even a guy, Soren Berger, who designed calipers to take the work out of marking out the layout without doing the math.
sphere_soren_berger_caliper.jpg
This shows it in use: https://syzygywoodworks.com/2013/04/...here-calipers/
I used the math method, here with some finish applied for looks before the sphere was parted off and held between jam cones for finish turning.
sphere_soren_berger_method.jpg
And Mike, spending the wife's money is wonderful! It just proves without a doubt how much she cares about you!
JKJ
Contributor
I have the Vermec and it woks great. Like others have said, built heavy duty and excellent machining and materials.
[OP]
Contributor
Dang! I ordered the Vermec on Friday and it showed up this morning (Monday). Calling this thing a brick outhouse is an understatement!! My problem now is that I broke my foot and am in a non-weight bearing cast for 6 weeks. I’ll watch some more “how to” videos I guess!!
image.jpg
Last edited by mike ash; 02-01-2021 at 6:10 PM.
Moderator
Be careful! I loaned mine to someone who dropped the heavy part. Do that and it might break your other foot! (The jig got a little scratch but was undamaged.)
JKJ
Contributor
All the talk about spheres made me make one. This is just a piece of sycamore, about 7" turned with my chefwareskit jig. I think it took about 10 minutes to cut, including jig setup, after mounting and roughing out. The stand is for 3" sphere. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this one yet.
globe 7 inch.jpg
Contributor
This one was done a few months ago using my Vermec. A tiny bit under 6" using black walnut laminated to get thickness. The stand is also black walnut but from a different tree.
Contributor
Very nice! That is a big chunk of wood for a sphere. Was it dry when you started? Just curious if it will crack. I would like to find a dry piece of any wood big enough to max out my Vermec. No other reason than I would just like to do it.
Contributor
Was it shipped from the US or Australia? Mine came from Australia in a couple (few?) days also.
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