You Want a What?

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
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Location
Thomasville, GA
So, when LOML returned from a visit to her mother a few weeks ago, she brought back something that caught her eye and that she just knew I could duplicate. I took a look at it and, of course, said "Yes, Dear".

Here's the result:

Thimbles_1.jpg

Yep. Thimbles! Now, you guys and gals know I'm still really a novice at turning but my wife only knows that I can do "anything". So, my model for this project was the thimble in the middle - her mother's. But, it's a little too large for Bobbie's finger, so I had to make some tweaks. I used a 1/2" standard drill bit to make a hole a bit less than an inch deep. Then, I eased a taper along the inside to make it about 9/16" at the opening. After a little sanding to smooth it up, she had a perfect fit.

By the way, the materials are walnut and curly maple. The thimbles I made are in order from left to right around the original from Bobbie's mother. I played around with burning lines using a piece of wire. Needless to say, Bobbie is happy with all of them. After all, how many people get to say they have a "custom" thimble?


Now for a stealth tool gloat. I worked on one thimble using my regular lathe tools, a spindle set. It was kinda touchy for me, so I used this as a reason (excuse) to order a set of small tools. These are a bit over 10" long; the gouge closest to the camera is 1/4" wide. After sharpening, they worked great!

LatheToolsSmall.jpg
 
Good stuff Bill,

I did a passle of thimbles a while back bit there was one part I never figured out which was how to finish the outside of the ends properly. My basic strategy was to turn a piece mostly round then chuck it up, drill the hole, shape the inside of the hole and most of the outside and part it off. At that point I used a compression chuck I turned from a chunk of wood and shoved the thimble over it, brought up the tail stock and turned as much as I could then pulled back the two stock and finished the nib. That last part was always a problem as the slanted inside of the thimble wouldn't catch the compression chuck very well and it would pull loose.

So basically wondering how you did the finish work so I can steal any ideas you have :D
 
Cool little project Bill. So was the wire braided or just a straight piece?

All I had when I did these was some straight wire used for electronic work. I have since acquired a couple of busted guitar strings.


Nicely done man. :thumb: Bill is this set from pennstate? They look just like the set I won when we had the beauty and the beast contest, over on WTU. Nice little set if they are.

Yep, the set is from PSI.


Good stuff Bill,

I did a passle of thimbles a while back bit there was one part I never figured out which was how to finish the outside of the ends properly. My basic strategy was to turn a piece mostly round then chuck it up, drill the hole, shape the inside of the hole and most of the outside and part it off. At that point I used a compression chuck I turned from a chunk of wood and shoved the thimble over it, brought up the tail stock and turned as much as I could then pulled back the two stock and finished the nib. That last part was always a problem as the slanted inside of the thimble wouldn't catch the compression chuck very well and it would pull loose.

So basically wondering how you did the finish work so I can steal any ideas you have :D

I did pretty much as you described, Ryan. After parting it off, I used a jam (compression?) chuck I turned from a piece of oak. I used a piece of blue tape to keep the thimble steady while I eased off the nib and scooped out the end a little. If I were going to produce more of these critters, I'd probably make a chuck with a rubber cone to hold the thimble.


Lest I forget, thank you to Ken for having an excellent suggestion, as always! :rolleyes:
 
I did pretty much as you described, Ryan. After parting it off, I used a jam (compression?) chuck I turned from a piece of oak. I used a piece of blue tape to keep the thimble steady while I eased off the nib and scooped out the end a little. If I were going to produce more of these critters, I'd probably make a chuck with a rubber cone to hold the thimble.

Thanks Bill.

Yeah something with a little more positive holding pressure seems like it would be useful. The other small problem I had was with consistency on the inside size - this seems like it's OK since it have a variety of sizes for folks to try :D but it did make putting them on the jam chuck (that's probably a more correct name alright) a bit of a hassle. Thinking some sort of expansion center with a compression outside would be just the ticket (but then I got distracted before making any more ;))

Side note, I also didn't have any chisels small enough but being more impatient I just made a little skewchigouge out of as ?3/16? allen wrench which worked a charm for detailing the outside and cleaning up/adding the bevel to the inside as well. I'll likely make more of those in other sizes eventually as I need them.
 
...but it did make putting them on the jam chuck (that's probably a more correct name alright) a bit of a hassle. Thinking some sort of expansion center with a compression outside would be just the ticket (but then I got distracted before making any more ;))...

How about a tapered wooden friction (jam) chuck that has been dipped in (or sprayed with) Plasti-Dip?
 
Another option I've thought about is a two-part chuck; one being a tapered piece for the inside of the thimble, then a second piece to slide over the outside of the thimble and held to the first with a rubber band. I might go ahead and set up something like that to try - in my spare time! :)
 
How about a tapered wooden friction (jam) chuck that has been dipped in (or sprayed with) Plasti-Dip?

I was using blue tape to sort of achieve that same "feel", I think the plasti-dip would likely work a fair bit better (and I have a tube sitting right there.. why didn't I think of that! :doh:)... I'm thinking the "best" would be to taper a piece of wood to just under the right size, drill the center out and cut some slots in it and put a tapered plug in it so you can expand it to fit (alternatively just make it a smidge over sized and compress it to fit - either would work probably and the compress to fit would be less moving/fiddly parts). Coating the outside of the fingers with plasti-dip would probably be a decent step up maybe. Add on a second compression piece over the outside like Bill's talking about and I think it would be a real winner.

The main problem with a single sized inside jam chuck is that there is (at my turning skill anyway :D) some significant variation in the inside shape and size; at least enough that a single sized jam chuck wasn't cutting it very well for me so I ended up re-turning it a little for each thimble. That worked but was a bit tedious, something better/faster like we're talking about here would be needed for any sort of production work.

Also my end goal was to do some in soapstone, and for that the jam chuck for finishing the end would need to be spot on. Either that or just hand carve it off of the lathe... not sure yet since I haven't gotten up the nerve to try any of it :D
 
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