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Staved ornament

Curt Fuller

Curt Fuller

Member
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348
Location
North Ogden, Utah
This was my first attempt at making something 'staved'. It was just some very plain Chinese Elm, 12 staves. I dyed it blue with some Artisan dye thinking it would soak into the wood more than it did. But all it did was color the seams. The finial and icicle are African blackwood. 1.75" X 6" with deft spray lacquer.
stavedelmandblackwood.jpg
 
Curt Fuller said:
I dyed it blue with some Artisan dye thinking it would soak into the wood more than it did. But all it did was color the seams.
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Curt,

It turned out to be a very happy lack of a result I think!! The lines showing the segments are a great feature!!

Very Nice!!

cheers eh?
 
Curt, I actually turned my first ornament last week so I have an interest in what you have done here. I am assuming you cut the staved segments with a table saw and then glued them together. After that I guess you hollowed the bulb out? How thin did you get the staved bulb? On my first one I got it down to less than 1/8" pretty well except for one end which is closer to a 1/4".

I think this is attractive and opens all kind of possiblilities for new ornament ideas. Good work!
 
Ron, I figured they need to be as light as possible but how do you measure the thickness of the end where you have it mounted? The end where I am working from is easy to measure and so is most of the body of the ornament but the far end, if you know what I mean, is difficult to measure with the tools I have available. Any suggestions?
 
Mike Stafford said:
Curt, I actually turned my first ornament last week so I have an interest in what you have done here. I am assuming you cut the staved segments with a table saw and then glued them together. After that I guess you hollowed the bulb out? How thin did you get the staved bulb? On my first one I got it down to less than 1/8" pretty well except for one end which is closer to a 1/4".
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Thanks everyone!

Mike, I cut one long piece with a 15 degree bevel on each side from a 4/4 board and then cut it into 2" long segments making 12 staves. After it was glued I held it in my Talon chuck, drilled a 3/4" hole through it and hollowed out the center. Then like all my ball type ornaments, I use two cones on a pen mandrel to center the ball and shape the outside. I get them to around 1/4" to 1/8" thick to lighten them up but I don't dwell on exact thickness because once the finial and icicle is glued in you never see the center again.
I've found the cones on the pen mandrel work pretty good to hold the ball while you turn and sand it and you can even apply friction polish if you want.
 

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Thanks Kurt, that is not the way I did it but what do I know. I started with a rectangular block 2X2 with enough waste to chuck up. I rounde it between centers and more or less shaped the outside. Then I drilled a 3/8" hole all the way through. I expanded the hole on one end to 5/8" and used that for hollowing.

I hollowed the bulk of the wood out with a 1/4X1/4 round nosed scraper. Then I hollowed the rest of the curved interior form with an old 1/4" lock mortise chisel that I ground the edge into a curved round nosed scraper. This chisel turned into swan neck scraper looks sorta weird but it does a great job. It has flat sides so it sits on the tool rest great. I am limited to about 2" in depth with it I would guess.
 
Great thread folks!

Curt, why would you use a pen mandrel and cones as opposed to just a cone shaped drive center and a cone shaped tail stock live center?

Just curious, you must have a reason, the only one I can think of, off the top of my head, is the size of the cones on the pen mandrel are smaller than the drive center cone?

Great work!
 
Stuart Ablett said:
Great thread folks!

Curt, why would you use a pen mandrel and cones as opposed to just a cone shaped drive center and a cone shaped tail stock live center?

Just curious, you must have a reason, the only one I can think of, off the top of my head, is the size of the cones on the pen mandrel are smaller than the drive center cone?

Great work!
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Mostly because I don't have a cone shaped drive or tail center. But that would work about the same way I suppose.
 
Curt Fuller said:
Mostly because I don't have a cone shaped drive or tail center. But that would work about the same way I suppose.
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I was thinking about this and wondering about the answer, so if I may offer a couple of thoughts ...

If you use a cone drive and tail cone, then the lathe drives the work and the work drives the tail cone, so the workpiece has additional stresses on it??

If you use the mandrel, then the mandrel drives both of the cones which in turn drive the work, so the stress on the work piece is reduced??

I would think that a mandrel setup would be the more stable and secure.

Just some thoughts.

cheers eh?
 
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