Recent Work | Syzygy Woodworks

June 1, 2009April 11, 2013

Drilling a pen blank on the lathe

I drill all my pen blanks on the lathe. It takes a little bit longer than using a drill press, but I find it to be more accurate, both in terms of the hole size and drilling through the center of the blank. The later is particularly important when drilling a segmented blank, as you need to drill directly through the center of the design. I’m sure others have slightly different techniques, so feel free to post any comments or tips on something I may not have mentioned. The pen blanks I show here are cherry. A customer ordered a couple of Perfect Fits and supplied a slab of cherry from which I milled these two blanks.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

The first thing I do is mark the center of each end using a center finder and a marking knife. Once I locate the center I will mark it with a spring loaded automatic punch

I will then mount the blank on the lathe between centers and knock the edges off with a spindle roughing gouge. Then, starting at one end of the blank, I will turn it round to 3/4″. I use a 3/4″ wrench as a gauge. Once the wrench drops over the blank it is at the correct size. Moving the wrench to the side will burnish the wood and show you clearly where the blank still needs to be turned down.

Once the blank has been turned down to 3/4″ diameter, I move the tool rest closer to the blank and rest the tubes on it and the blanks. Looking at the grain, I mark where I plan on cutting the upper and lower barrels. I normally cut my blanks using a crosscut sled on my table saw, so I allow for the kerf of the blade between the upper and lower barrels. I also mark the two barrels and draw a couple witness lines at the center band.

Then I’ll sharpen my drill bits. I use a set of Harbor Freight bits and sharpen them using a Drill Doctor I sharpen them using the 135 degree setting. I’m sure plenty of people will swear by more expensive bits or a different angle, but this is what I use including when I’m drilling blanks segmented with aluminum or brass. So far it seems to be working, so I’ll stick with it.

The shot below shows the tools I use to do the actual drilling on the lathe. From left to right, PSI collet chuck, center bits and 1/2″ drill chuck. I found that when I started using the center bits, my drilling on the lathe really improved. A big thanks to “rherrel” on the IAP for turning me on to that!

When I mount the blank in the collet chuck I will orientate it so that the entry hole is on the center band side. Using a center drill that is slightly smaller than the drill bit I need to use, I will drill a starter hole in the blank. The tail stock is locked down on the lathe bed. As I advance the quill in the tail stock by rotating the handle with my right hand, I will apply pressure to the lock lever with my left hand, to the point where it starts to become a little difficult to rotate the handle. I find that pressure on the quill seems to stabilize things a bit and reduce any possible vibration.

Then I will mount the drill bit in the drill chuck, and applying pressure to the lever, start drilling the blank. I run my lathe between 400 to 500 rpm while drilling. I will typically drill about 1/2 to 1″ at a time. If I see the flutes are clearing the chips then I’ll keep on drilling. The moment I stop seeing chips being ejected, I will stop the lathe, back out the tail stock using the wheel, clear the flutes, advance the whole tail stock forward, lock it down, turn on the lathe and start advancing the drill bit by rotating the wheel. I’ll repeat this until I feel the drill bit exiting the blank.

Before I remove the blank from the collet chuck, I will push the tube into the hole to check the fit and to confirm that I have drilled deep enough. Here are shots of the tube in the blank showing both the entry and exit holes.

Then I’ll repeat the procedure on the other blank. Once done, I’ll mount a 60 degree live and dead center in the lathe and sand the tubes with some 100 grit paper.

Back at my workbench I plug the tubes with dental wax. Then I’ll coat the inside of the blanks with gorilla glue using a q-tip, dip the tubes in some water and then insert them in the blank with a twisting action. Gorilla glue expands as it cures and sometimes will push the tube out of the blank so I use some small clamps until the glue cures.

May 30, 2009April 11, 2013

Dining Room Built In

I just finished installing this private job. I designed and built the cabinets. The design incorporated wrapping the existing base board and chair rail around the base cabinets as well as adding wainscoting to the door and side of the base cabinet to match the wainscoting on the walls. I was pleased with how it turned out and more importantly my client was very pleased.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

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May 27, 2009April 11, 2013

Hand held drum

If you had asked me a while back if I ever thought I would make a drum, I would have laughed.

Well, I made a drum. The case of the drum is cherry and it was made using stave segments. The drum skin is goatskin. It sounds pretty good as well. A fun project!

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Continue reading “Hand held drum”

March 5, 2009April 11, 2013

Making a Tool Handle – Part Three

To read Part One click here To read Part Two click here If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools I got a chance to turn the handles today. I mounted the blank between centers, locating a 60 degree live center in the channel opening at the headstock. After turning it round, I turned a tenon at the headstock side, sized to accept a brass coupler. I used a 1″ brass coupler cut in half. The coupler was originally just shy of 2″ long. I also marked the high points and low points of the handle and using a parting tool cut down to the final diameter of the handle at those points.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version. Here is a shot of the handle, sanded and ready to be parted off.

I used 5 minute epoxy to secure the tools in the handle and to secure the brass coupler on the tenon. I finished the handles with a couple of coats of spray shellac. While not as hard wearing as some other finishes I like the feel of shellac. It is also not as shiny as some other finishes, which is fine by me for a tool handle. Lastly shellac is very repairable, any future coats will melt into previous coats.

I’m looking forward to trying out the tools tomorrow and giving a review of them.

March 3, 2009April 11, 2013

Making a Tool Handle – Part Two

To read Part One click here

If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools

My tools arrived today! I’m glad I waited before gluing the handle blanks together. Either my 1/2″ router bit is not exactly 1/2″ or 1/2″ square bar is not 1/2″. Either way the tool bar did not fit in the grooves I had routed. The depth of the grooves was fine, but the width was a hair to small. I increased the width fractionally on the router table and the fit was perfect.

Here is a shot of one of the blanks glued and clamped. I left the bar in the groove temporarily while doing the glue up to make sure the channel lined up nicely. As soon as I was done clamping, I pulled the bar out. I also marked on the bar the depth it receded in the channels. I know I will have some clean up to do in the channels due to glue squeeze out and I want to make sure the bar is able to fit in as deeply as it did during the dry fit.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Here are a couple of shots of the business end of the two tools. One has the carbide cutter in place, the other just the holding screw.

Making a Tool Handle – Part Three

March 2, 2009April 11, 2013

Veneer Cutting Jig

I use a lot of wood veneers in my segmenting. Initially I was cutting the veneers with a utility knife and ruler. I decieded I needed something more accurate and efficient. When I think accurate and efficient, I often think of my table saw.

The following pictures show what I came up with. The jig has a runner which fits in the miter slot. A couple of points when building the jig:

Assemble the base, leading and trailing edges first. When attaching the leading and trailing edges don’t use any metal attachments (brad nails or screws) in the area where the blade cut will be.

Attach the runner. Make sure the runner fits snugly in the miter slot with no play.

Raise the blade 1″. I used 3/4″ MDF so this meant the blade would be 1/4″ higher than the bed of the jig.

Run the bed through the saw. You now have a cut line in the bed of the base which is perfectly parallel to the miter slot without any measuring

Add the jig fence and hold down block with a handle. Make sure the screws attaching the handle of the hold down jig are well offset to the cut line! The bed of my jig will accept a piece of veneer just over 12″ long. I made the fence so that I could rip/crosscut a piece of veneer up to 2″

A good coat of wax on the base of the jig and runner will help it to glide smoothly.

Because the cut in the base is now a zero clearance kerf and you are supporting the top of the workpiece with the hold down block, I’m able to cut the veneer with no tear out at all.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

February 28, 2009April 11, 2013

Turning a hollow sphere

I’m still having a ball turning spheres! This is how I turned a hollow sphere. I first mounted a piece of wood about 3 1/2″ square by 5 1/2″ long between centers and turned it round with tenons either side sized to fit my jaw chuck. I measured the diameter of the cylinder at the center point and it was 3 1/4″. I then parted the cylinder in half.

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February 26, 2009April 11, 2013

Making a Tool Handle – Part One

If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools

I am waiting on arrival of two tools a friend is making up for me. They are for lathe work and accept radius carbide cutter inserts. The tools are made from some 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 18″ square steel bar that I sent him. He is milling a slot in one end of the bar for the cutter to seat, as well as tapping a hole to secure the cutter. I told him not to worry about turning the other end of the tool round to insert in the handle.

I’m excited to try out the tool and so have started preparing the stock I will be using for the tool handles. My first step was to take four pieces of 4 pieces of cherry and 4 pieces of maple, each piece was 3/4″ x 3″ x 15″. I milled and cut each piece down to 5/8″ x 2 1/2″ x 15″ and glued them together.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

I then mounted a 1/2″ straight bit in my router table and raised it 1/4″ above the router table. I set the fence 1″ from the edge of the bit and also set up a stop block 4″ from the near side of the bit. Using this set up I routed a 1/4″ x 1/2″ x 4″ stopped groove in each of the four pieces.

Finally, I squared the end of each groove using hand chisels. I was tempted to glue the pieces together but decided to wait until the tools arrived so I could do a test fit of the bars in the grooves.

Making a Tool Handle – Part Two

February 25, 2009May 25, 2020

Turning a sphere

At the demo by Fred Holder, I attended he turned a sphere and used a set of sphere calipers. They are available online but are pricey, so I did some more searching and found a great article by Al Hockenbery. It involves a bit of math but is a fairly quick and easy way to turn a sphere on the lathe. This article describes and illustrates the process.

Edit: Since writing this article I have purchased a set of the Soren Berger Sphere Calipers. You can read my post on using them at this link ~ Instructions for Using the Soren Berger Sphere Calipers.

One of the nice things about the spheres is that they show off the end, face, and side grain in a small area. They also look so cool and feel so good to hold!

I find a nice size piece of wood to start with is 3″ x 3″ x 4 1/2″.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

First the math. You first need to turn a cylinder that is round in cross-section. Then you will turn that into an octagon and finally turn that into a 16 sided polygon before blending all the angles into a perfect circle. The pictures below illustrate this and you can see that the sides of the octagon are 0.414 x the diameter of the initial square.

Mount a piece of wood between centers. A 3″ x 3″ x 4 1/2″ piece is a nice size, yielding a sphere about 2 3/4″ diameter which fits in your hand nicely and feels good to hold. Grain orientation is not important, although it will affect your choice of turning tool. I like to use a bowl gouge to rough turn the cylinder.

Mark the center point of the cylinder and find the diameter at that point. Layout that dimension on the cylinder, centering it about your first mark.

Now turn tenons on either side of the cylinder. Turn the tenons down to a diameter of 0.414D. (D = diameter of the cylinder)

Now layout two more lines on the cylinder that are 0.414D apart and are centered around the centerline of the cylinder. Make a straight cut from these lines to the edge of the tenons. You should now have a shape that is an octagon in cross-section.

Mark the center point of each of the newly created flat areas. These two marks, along with the first mark on the centerline of the cylinder, will be on the surface of the sphere.

Turn the tenons down a bit more. Then mark the center points of each area between the lines and the edge of the flat area. These are the red lines in the image below.

Make straight cuts between adjacent red lines to turn the octagon into a 16 sided polygon. Try to make the cuts as straight as you can, you can see in the picture below that one of mine ended up a bit concave.

Using a bowl gouge or a skew held flat like a scraper, blend all the flat parts in, creating the sphere.

In order to finish the sphere and turn off the tenons it needs to be mounted between a set of cup centers. To make the cup center for the headstock side chuck a piece of scrap in a jaw chuck and hollow it out slightly. Make sure that the sphere fits against the edge of the concave are and does not bottom out in the hollow.

Next mount another piece of scrap in the jaw chuck and hollow out a v-shaped hollow. Place a 60-degree live center in the tailstock and check that it fits snugly in the v-shaped hollow. Turn a tenon on the end of the piece.

Turn the scrap piece around and remount it in the jaw chuck using the newly created tenon. Hollow a cup on this end.

Mount the sphere between the two cup centers and carefully turn the tenons off. As you can see I cut the majority of the tenon off with a handsaw.

When sanding the sphere I put a piece of high friction router mat between the cups and the sphere to protect the wood. I also re-orientate the sphere between the cup centers a number of times in order to get the sphere as round as possible and to sand the whole surface.

February 22, 2009April 11, 2013

Make a Donut Chuck

I needed to make a donut chuck so that I could mount a 12″ bowl on my lathe and finish off the bottom of the bowl. I have a set of cole jaws for my jaw chuck, but they will only expand 10″.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

The first step was to take a 16″ x 16″ x 3/4″ piece of plywood and find the center. I marked out three circles of 9″, 15″ and 15 3/4″ diameter. I laid out eight points on the 15″ diameter circle and drilled 5/16″ holes and inserted 1/4-20 tee nuts at each of these points.

I took another piece of 16″ x 16″ x 3/4″ plywood and placed it below the first piece. Using a transfer punch, I transferred the centers of the eight tee nuts to the second piece of plywood and then drilled 1/4″ holes at each of these points. I bolted the two pieces together using 1 1/2″ 1/4-20 bolts and cut the two pieces of plywood round, just outside of the 15 3/4″ circle. I used my jigsaw to do this as the workpiece would not have sat flush on my band saw table and I did not want the heads of the bolts to scratch my band saw table. As an aside, I used the new Xtra-Clean (T308B) blades from Bosch and was impressed at how easily they cut and how clean the cut was on both the top and bottom of the plywood.

Using my center finder I located a face plate I have dedicated to this donut chuck and attached it securely to the first piece of plywood.

I mounted the face plate and plywood pieces on the lathe and turned both pieces perfectly round. I marked a 9″ diameter circle on the front piece and drilled a 1/.4″ hole through both pieces using a drill chuck in the tail stock. I took the piece of the lathe and drilled a 5/16″ hole 3/8″ deep in the back piece of plywood and inserted a 1/4″ tee nut in that hole. Then I bolted both pieces together suing another 1 1/2″ 1/4-20 bolt.

I remounted the piece on the lathe and made a mark on the sides of the plywood pieces to help align the two pieces. Using a parting tool, I cut the 9″ diameter circle out of the front piece of plywood. I cut at an angle from the center out and took care to make sure I did not cut too deeply into the back piece of plywood. Because of the tapered cut and the center bolt the internal circle did not come loose. I had to remove all 9 bolts to take it out.

Lastly I cut a piece of high friction router pad cloth and using spray adhesive attached it to the inside face of the front section. This will help to both hold and protect the surface of the bowl.

The tee nut inserted in the center of the back piece can be used to mount a scrap piece of plywood to. A tenon that matches the internal diameter of a bowl can then be turned onto that scrap piece enabling you to mount the bowl in the donut chuck directly on center.

In my excitement at how easily the bowl mounted and how smooth and true it ran, I forgot to take a picture of the mounted bowl before I finished off the bottom. Here is a shot of the bowl mounted in the donut chuck, with the bottom finished and sanded.

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