Christmas Ornament Plans

Jerry Gilman

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41
Location
knoxville, TN
Figure 1 - Shows the central web (cross) made from 3/8 X3/8 wood (the long piece is 6 inches and each short piece is 2 5/8 inches long). The short pieces must be in perfect alignment with each other. Simply glue the short pieces to the long piece and let dry.

Figure 2- shows a right angle triangle (four are needed for each section to fill in the cross as seen in figure 1. The triangle sides are 1 3/4 inches long (the central web must extent past the triangles by 1 inch as seen in fig.1

Figure 3- glue contrasting veneer between triangles and central web, and glue in a triangle at the sametime as shown in fig. 3 (it is easier to glue up both opposing triangles at the same time (use light clamp pressure to press them to the central web). Once you have glued the veneer and all 4 triangles into the central web (and it is dry) your ready to go to step 4.

Next- sand either the tops or bottoms of the finished segments flat (best done on a drum sander. A planner can be used with caution and only if all the finished segments are hot melted to a carrier board end to end (make sure you add a sacraficial piece of wood to each end to receive the snipe).

Figure 4- each finished segment must then be beveled on all four sides to 45 degrees (take great care that the cuts are perfectly square and that the glued up design is equal on all four sides. In other words the finished piece must be a mirrior image. You have now completed one finished segment, you will need to repeat the entire process six times in order to glue all 6 segments into a cube.

Turning - Mount the cube between center (be very carefull to place the spur drive point and tail center point dead on center in the central web).
1- Turn to a cylinder, then remount in the two remaining axises to form a
sphere. Make two wood cup centers big enough to hold the sphere
between centers, and continue to round out the sphere as you rotate it
between the cup centers.
 

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Very very neat!

I guess this type of turning take a fair bit of planning, and a fair bit of patience. I also imagine you don't do one piece at a time, but more of a production run? It would seem to me it would be not that much more work to make a dozen as making just one.........? :dunno:

Dunno, as I've not yet played with this kind of thing.

Thanks for the explanation and the inspiration Jerry! :thumb:
 
Good luck. Take your time and enjoy the process of glueing and cutting.
Make sure that the bevel cuts on all four sides of each segment meet at
at the mid point of the central web forming a even point. Remember all six
segments have to fit perfect to form the cube. After cutting the bevels on
a tablesaw sled , if you have a large disk sander (table set at 45 dgrees)
you can finesse the bevels for a perfect fit.
 
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