I turned a gift for someones whom I haven't met yet....

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In fact, nobody has met these individuals...yet.....

My youngest son and wife are expecting twins in the next 8 weeks. They asked me to turn a couple rattles for the twins. So here's my first atttempt. I have enough wood for 7 more attempts. I have already come up with some changes for revision 2.

While I have a lot of cherry and apricot, I didn't want to use any fruit wood that might have had pesticides sprayed on it. So....I bought some kiln dried maple figuring it was either the least probable to have had pesticides used on it and if not..I'm ignorant and claim my innocense due to that.

I had some pretty severe dental work done Thursday morning and have been under the weather or at least keeping a low profile until this afternoon.

Here it is..maple with a light frictioned BLO followed by dewaxed shellac finish.

I hope you like it little ones.......Grandpa's first gift......

rattle1.JPG
 
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Very cool Ken, I hope it survives and becomes a family heirloom :thumb:

What did you use inside to make the "Rattle" part?

I've heard of things like green peas etc.

Cheers!
 
...Grandpa's first gift.....

And by no means the last, I'm sure. :thumb: Version 1.0 looks very nice...I'll be interested to see what you have in mind for V2.0.

...What did you use inside to make the "Rattle" part?

The ones my granddad made for me had shards of radioactive glass and rusty thumb tacks. And the rattles always had a screw-off top. :rolleyes: He was the best granddad ever. :D
 
Thanks guys! I used popcorn as the rattle material.

The joint where the two halves are glued together....is hidden by the middle burn line.
 
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Very nice. And, I'll bet you were smiling all the time you were working on those. Congrats on the coming grands.
If I had known how wonderful it is to have grandchildren, I would have had mine first.
BTW, I believe your fears of pesticide in the wood is unfounded. Those are applied externally. Now, I'm sure, someone will tell me they can go systemic. Whatever.
You can't go wrong playing it safe.
 
Hopefully the dental work wasn't due to turning the gift!!??!!:eek:
Very, very nice work/rattle. I tip my glass to all of you in a toast that this is the first of a long line of gifts you turn for these two!!!!:thumb:
 
Jonathan,

The dental work was strictly due to bad genetics and being a smoker for 41 years. I quit smoking 4 or 5 years ago. This is in preparation for some more extreme and expensive dental work. I was hoping to retire in March. Even though we have some pretty good dental insurance, it won't cover a lot of what I'm having done. So I'm working a couple more years.

Frank,

Some pesticides are systemic and like you I think the chances are remote but......

my youngest is a 3rd year dental student....his wife is a pharmacist. They are both very health conscious and frankly...the twins will be the first in either of our families...no history on either side.....I asked my son about that...he is an 11 year Navy vet....a 3rd year dental student on a Navy scholarship.....and has a college degree in Natural Sciences (pre-med) ....no history ......how can it be?.....his reply "Dad....somebody has to be the first!"....I found it hard to argue with his logic.:huh::dunno:
 
Ken,

Very nice. Can you post a few details on how you made this? I've got a couple staffers who are expecting babies soon, and I've been wondering what to give them... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill,

It really wasn't that difficult.

This was made from one piece of maple. I turned a 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" x 6" maple between centers to a cylinder.

At each end of the cylinder, I turned a tenon that would fit my chuck.

I measure up about 1/3 the length and parted it into two pieces. That's why the grain lines up so nicely. The middle line of the 3 burned lines is the joint between the 2 pieces.

I measured out 1/2 the length of the "bulb" and hollowed it using a spindle gouge a round-nosed scraper. The wall thickness is about 1/8".

I then chucked up the 2nd shorter piece and turned a tenon on the end. This tenon was made to fit the hollowed opening in the 1st piece.

Then I hollowed the 2nd piece....again using a spindle gouge and a small round-nosed scraper.

I took both pieces off the lathe and checked the fit making sure the tenon of the 2nd fit the hollowed opening of the first properly.

At this point I separated them....mixed some 5 minute epoxy.....put a dozen pieces of uncooked popcorn in the hollowed area of the first piece....applied epoxy to the tenon of 2nd piece.....aligned the grain and pushed the two pieces together.

I put them back on the lathe and let them turn slowly.....200 rpm or so for about 30 minutes so that the epoxy would NOT have a chance to run into the hollowed area and glue the popcorn rattlers together.

I turned the final form.

The lines were burned by friction using a piece of guitar string between two small wooden handles......I used a skew to cut 3 evenly space V-grooves....the middle one is over the joint between the two pieces....then I applied the guitar string with the lathe running about 1500 rpm or so.

Using a parting tool at the tailstock end which was the top of the rattle, I parted all but 1/8". At the headstock end, I parted all but 1/4" below the swell of the handle.

I sanded using 150, 240 and 320 grits.

I frictioned a light application of BLO followed by 2 coats of shellac.


At the tailstock end, I parted the final 1/8"...moved the tailstock out of the way and sanded and applied finish to the 1/8" area.

Then I parted it at the 1/4" area below the handle and finished that small part off the lathe.
 
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Boy, that explains a LOT....... :D :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :wave:

Stu I had a good laugh first at Vaughns post then at your reply.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Ken that a great project for a real good cause. Thanks too for posting the how its done. I might venture back to my lathe and see if i can do one. Should be some real quick instant gratification and i can give it to the NN to shake when they are mad.:rofl::rofl:
 
Ken, having smoked for 15 years, chewed for 30 (both scrap and snuff) my genetically bad teeth also were bad. A little happy gas, a good dentist, a few thousand later, plastic teeth are my friends!!! First time in my life I was part of the zero cavity club!!!!:rofl:
Everything I have read, fruit woods are naturally not toxic. But your concern about pesticides, hadn't thought of it. Yep, this day and age, fruit trees get the most direct spray and amount of spray over and above any other type of tree/wood. Walnut has a toxin that horses can absorb through the soles of their hooves that will cause them to founder so would stay away from that. Otherwise, don't know about any other nut trees. Great rattle Ken, congrats to mom, dad, gramma and gramps!!
 
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