Any top turners out there?

Curt Fuller

Member
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348
Location
North Ogden, Utah
Man I'm tired of turning tops. My wife volunteered me to turn some tops for a fundraiser at the local 4th of July shindig here in North Ogden. It's Cherry Days because at one time our little town was predominately a cherry farming community. So they want cherry tops. I didn't get a lot of notice, just found out last tuesday. I was given a few green fruit cherry logs and since tuesday I've cut up the wood and managed to turn 48 tops. But they want at least 100 by the 4th. Does anyone have a good production method for turning tops. So far I'm using walnut dowels for the stems, cherry wood for the rest. I wouldn't mind hearing from anyone that's ever had to turn a bunch of them in a hurry.
 

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I've turned a total of one top -- and it was a single piece of wood -- so I don't really have any experience to draw from. But, since you're using a dowel, could you turn multiple bodies out of a single chunk of wood (between centers), cut each one off with a fine-toothed handsaw or something similar, and drill them on the drill press? Then, once you've attached the dowel, chuck it up, true it up, and turn the point in the dowel. :huh:
 
Yeah, I turned a bunch of them last year as a demo for Johnsons wood expo.

We gave them away as fast as we could make them.
 

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If you have the wood supply, might I suggest you turn 'em all in one piece?

I did 50+ tops for my local ww club last year for the annual toys-4-tots at xmas time. All of mine were maple, one piece. With a friction polish, i spent probably half an hour on each one and I wasn't in a rush.

Then a few months later, we were at the State Fair and I was turning unfinished tops real quick. I could make 'em VERY fast with just my parting tool and a little gouge to form the point.

It goes real fast when they're a single piece, if you have a chuck. It's easiest with a chuck, for me. I just mount a 12" long 2" square chunk and just get to choppin. Make a top, part it off with the skew (skews part off cleaner than a parting tool) and begin on the next one. A foot long is about as far out as I'll go, and I'll support the tips with a hollow dowel on the tailstock for the first few.

Hope that helps :)
 
Well, I made my 100 tops. I may never turn another one as long as I live. If I had to do that for a living I'd rather live in a cardboard box and eat out of the dumpsters. The first few dozen weren't too bad but they really got monotonous after that.
 
Shame to hear your camera broke, Curt. :rofl: A hundred tops. Yeah, right. :rolleyes:

Kidding of course...did you do them all with the two piece method?
 
My woodturning club has a member who does spring-pole lathe demos at a folk center here in Arkansas. He makes tops for show and sell in the gift shop. Most of what he sells are done at home on a standard lathe. He says there is much information available for serious top turners. Also says that, for best balance and performance, the Golden Mean applies to the shape. That's the rule of Fibonnaci. BTW, he uses practice points from arrows for tips or sawed off masony nails. Both work well. The nails are inexpensive, but I would think that sawing them would be something of a nusiance and wear out hacksaw blades quickly.
 
Shame to hear your camera broke, Curt. :rofl: A hundred tops. Yeah, right. :rolleyes:

Kidding of course...did you do them all with the two piece method?

Sorry for being pictureless. My wife and daughter were packaging these as I made them so I didn't ever have the entire 100 in a pile at one time. They printed a small card that folds over the top of a small bag that the tops are in with a little diddy about the top being cherry wood etc.
 

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