I am trying to make some pseudo inside out ornaments. I drill the holes into the blank, then round the blank the on the lathe. The piece in the pics started as a 2 X 2 piece of ash.
IMG_2775opt.jpg IMG_2776opt.jpg
It seems to me that if I want a .25' inch side post, the hole would need to be 1.5". The larger hole here is 1.5 inches. When I tried to round the blank, the inside tried to become larger than the outside ; traditionally thought of as bad form. I didn't get the blanks even close to round. I tried a smaller hole at 1.25", and it worked, but by the time I got the blank round, the sides at the center of the hole are so thin that the pressure from the tailstock crushed the blank. I also don't want them to be so fragile for sanding, and handling afterward. Obviously I need a smaller hole, 1 1/8", or 1", which is easy enough, and I can determine how small by trial and error. But with different sized blanks, I would have to start over guessing for each one. I will never get anything finished if everything is trial and error. I am also wasting my wood stash. So my question is, if you have made these pseudo ornaments, is there a formula you use to determine what size hole is needed, exterior size vs hole, or a percentage of hole size to the blanks exterior size? I want it to look delicate without being too fragile. If I master this with a 2" blank, I want to do other sizes, and don't want to try trial and error on larger more expensive blanks. TIA for your help. By the way, I now realize ash was a very poor choice on wood to experiment on these. A chippy, splintery, tearout prone, mess.
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