Shopsmith Forums

Air Action day yesterday, today, tomorrow.... so my gardening is on hold. Not to mention the 95 degrees and sunny part. So a good day to get a few things done in the shop.

First up I'm going to try and turn a ring on the lathe, first up was to order some wood, a stabilized Box Elder. In case of issues I got two of them. The woodworking starts by sanding one side of the blank flat. Not a problem. I had to take a brake after collection the various tools I needed. Next up was to face a blank scrap to attach to the lathe, again not a problem. So I'm ready for the next step except I have no idea where my prepared blank is. Between the sanding and the rest of the tasks I lost it somewhere.

So I'm thinking it is a good thing I have a spare. And it was until I dropped it and it fell somewhere over the shopsmith and I can't find it. I'll have to pull the shopsmith out to look under the shelving etc. Except I'm not going to open the garage door and let in all that heat.... So my planned project is a wash for the day.

Moral of the story a spare is never enough?

Looks like it going to be one of those days.

Ed

Found the first blank and turned my first ring. This was a test run and I learned a few thing for future turning. I'll place an order for more parts and make a couple more for practice before committing to doing a batch for some family members.

The hard part for me was sizing the blank for the metal band. I had a nice snug fit on the outboard side but had not gone in straight enough so it was not a good fit on the inboard side(where the metal meets the wood). I went ahead and finished turning it anyway just to see how everything else would go.

I was wondering how this might work if I did the inside with the SO, it should work if I can hold the blank well enough. I might give that a go on some other junk wood to see how that might work.

Any way according to the rules here is a picture:
Ed

Turned out the blank never made it to the floor and that is why I couldn't find it. Ended up landing on a shelf and quite visible had I looked better yesterday.

As it turned out that was a good thing. The second ring turned out much better and that is the one for my wife. It had a nice snug fit in the blank which makes it look a lot better.

Again since we do require pictures to prove that things happened here is today's:
If this interests you I can give more detail about how I did it and sources etc. Let me know.

Ed

Those are beautiful!!!

I agree with Mr. Burger!

Ed you made the offer and I for one would like to take you up on it, yes I want more info.
How did you do it, what were your sources and anything else you have to offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

This will be coming in over several posts and with some spacing as I have other things going on today but I will try to cover most of the information you might need first.

The parts are from:

https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/

You need to get the ring core, sizes are up to you. That size then allows you to figure which ring bushings sizes you will need. For me that was the small and medium. Then comes the wood. I went with the stabilized blanks but they do sell some other more natural woods.

While you are checking this stuff out keep in mind if you hope to surprise someone in your life you might want to get the ring sizing mandrel and find the correct size by measurement...... Another option that I selected was the sizing rig set.

If you turn pens then it is likely that you have a pen mandrel but if you don't you will need one. Same for finishing items like sandpaper, CA finish, polish etc.

I mounted the blank with double sided tape, maybe you might have a better way but right now I can't think of one.

I'll post some pictures later which will make some of this more clear.

For other tools, a way of drilling on your lathe/shopsmith so a chuck and bit. I used a faceplate but again maybe you will want to do it differently then I did but at least you can see how I went about the process. I also used a small scraper lathe tool but again that is up to you.

If you don't have a lot of these items then this could be a little pricey to get started.

Now for some pictures. This is a shot of the ring sizing tools, again purely optional but you will need real ring sized to order the parts.
The blanks come packaged like this:
I don't have a picture of the ring core by itself but you will see it in other photos. The material is stainless steel.

The bushings look like this:
If you don't have a small scraper then maybe it time to get one. I like this one but it is the only one I have and the only one I've used so I have no way to compare it to anything else. It will run you about $50 but the M2 steel hold up well. I made the mistake of not rounding the edges and my tool rest paid for it..........
I have run off now but in the next post I'll add some details on the process with pictures.

Ed

The blank will need to be sanded flat to mount. Both of mine looked pretty good on one side but that is a small sample size. Just to be sure I sanded with some 120 grit.

The "good side":
The sanding process:
Next you need to have a way of finding the center of the other side. A simple diagonal x works fine. It doesn't have to be the accurate but hey:
Now we are ready to go to the lathe. I used the small faceplate with a wood block. The outside round of the block is not critical but you will need to have a nice flat front to mount to so prepare that.
Now providing you didn't loose the blank it time for some double sided tape for attachment.
Now you can use the tail stock and dead center to get it close to centered on the faceplate. If you have a lift installed on your shopsmith then you will need a MT2 extender of other means to do this. The center point you marked is held on the center as seen here:
Using the quill you can then locate the blank on the waste block.
I then like to apply as much pressure as I can with my hands to firmly press against the blank to make sure it's going to stick well enough.

Now you can get rid of the tail stock and do some turning. You will want to turn the outside square into a round.
This is followed by drilling the center hole. Since the blank is mounted with tape I went with a twist drill. You could try another type bit but I think it safer to use the bit I did.
From here you need to make the hole just large enough for the rind blank to fit in, snug is the word to use for the fit. I don't have pictures of that part of the process but it is the most time consuming part of the job. I messed up on the first one by not having my tool entering straight enough, the entry hole was the right size but the back side was to large. Even a slight angle will cause this. The ring needs to fit snug next to the waste block, the other wood will be removed so keep in mind the critical part is the fit is where the ring will end up.

This is a get close then try the ring core, over and over as it gets closer until you get the fit you need.

This looks like a good place for another time out while I get a few other things done.

Ed

As you saw in the last post, the wood needs to be reduced in thickness to about the width of the ring core. Some people like to leave the core in and turn down to it. If you do that you need to take care to not go too far and hit the core and mar it. I wasn't comfortable doing that so I removed the core when I got close and then took it out and did small cuts and tests to get what I wanted. It took longer but hey it isn't a race.

Now it's time to get the blank off the block. I felt safest by removing the faceplate and working with a puddy knife. The thicker rings are easier then the thinner ones to get off with out damage. The ring I did for my wife was the 3mm thick one that you can see here after it was removed from the waste block:
Now it's time to glue the ring core in. The outside of the ring core needs a bit of sanding for better grip.
I used some CA glue and while it was a little messy the excess glue will scrape off the core.... Just don't lay it on something it can glue itself to....
A finger nail will get the extra glue off after it drys.

Now we get to use those bushings and the pen mandrel bits to finish up the project. I used some pen blanks as spacers but you can use what ever your favorite method is. I also used a special tail stock that I use for pen turning but if you already turn pens use what you normally do.
At this point you will turn the ring to size, sand, CA finish, polish and end up with your ring. I sanded up through the grits, dusted it off and then put on 6 coats of CA. I then used some liquid polish and buffed. I finished with some hard wax for good measure. You will have to clean off the polish if you go that way....
So as you can see it not that big a deal to do providing you have some level of skill. Nothing that a few practice turnings can't solve.

Of course questions are welcome.

Ed

Found an issue with the small bushings and them holding the smaller thickness ring cores of the smaller ring core sizes. Nothing that can't be fixed I hope but just in case you happen to want to give this ring turning a try this is the deal:

The bushings have a tapered portion that grip ring cores of a group of sizes. How ever with the thinner ring cores the cone shapes meet in the middle and the ring ends up "floating" between them. I think I can get away with taking a little off both bushings and get it to fit.... This was only found on the smaller bushing but could exist on the mid size too. The large size is not an issue because they don't sell the thin rings in those sizes.

I'll contact the seller and let them know so perhaps they will fix the issue somewhere in the future.

Ed