Made a Ring

[keenidiot]

While I'm waiting for the next batch of supplies to come in, I wanted to try something a little different.
So I watched a tutorial on making rings and decided to take a shot. Little more difficult without a chuck.
It was much more difficult than I thought.
Most of what I use is pine left over from work.
Started out large and worked my way smaller. Once I got to where I got the size right, they let breaking when I tried to clean them up.
Finally ended up with this:

 

[Skie_M]

Create your own jamb chuck (mandrel) ...

Turn a tapered piece of wood (any random hardwood) ... make sure that somewhere around the middle is the size you want for your ring. A piece of tape wrapped around the spindle may help to keep the ring secure without breaking it.

Use one of the spare faceplates that came with your lathe, and mount a block of wood in it to secure your taper. The faceplace will ensure that every time you mount it on the lathe, it'll be square and true. While gluing the taper into a hole in the block, make certain that the other end of the taper is secured by the tailstock ... rotate the lathe by hand before the glue sets, to ensure it'll run true.


Now, after you take your chosen material for the ring, you can drill a hole of the appropriate size and mount it on the tapered mandrel. From there, you should be able to turn and finish it normally, though you may want to have a dremel or other small rotary tool on hand to work on the inside of the ring.

Alternative to that, you can take another smaller taper or a series of them, and glue various grits of sandpaper to them (wrap in a spiral) and sand the interiors of the ring by hand or by mounting the small tapers in a lathe chuck.

 

[keenidiot]

I'll make note of it, but the lathe I got only had the one faceplate and can't get more stuff right now.

 

[JimB]

I'll make note of it, but the lathe I got only had the one faceplate and can't get more stuff right now.

No problem. There's an easy solution. Instead of attaching the home made mandrel to a face plate just turn it down to a MT2 shape (or MT1 if that is what your lathe has) and mount it into your headstock. I have made several rings from Corian and that is how I mount them. The mandrel is easy to make of scrap wood and I think of them as being disposable.

Very nice ring, BTW!

 

[MTViper]

I've only made one ring and made it about 3 times to get the one. The customer requested one made from willow as it was their "willow anniversary" (whichever one that equates to in numbers). First I had to find the willow. Once that was done, I slice it fairly thin and sandwiched a piece of Texas Ebony (they're from Texas, too) between two pieces of willow, making sure the grain on the willow ran the same way on both sides and the grain on the Texas Ebony ran 90 degrees to the willow grain to give the ring strength. I made a homemade mandrel but mounted it in a 4 jaw chuck. For a one of a kind it worked well, but the idea above is better.

 

[Charlie_W]

Congrats on getting a finished ring completed! Looks to be very nicely done!

 

[Skie_M]

I'll make note of it, but the lathe I got only had the one faceplate and can't get more stuff right now.

No problem. There's an easy solution. Instead of attaching the home made mandrel to a face plate just turn it down to a MT2 shape (or MT1 if that is what your lathe has) and mount it into your headstock. I have made several rings from Corian and that is how I mount them. The mandrel is easy to make of scrap wood and I think of them as being disposable.

Very nice ring, BTW!

This is an excellent and workable solution ....

Another one is to just make your own faceplate (people call them "Glue Blocks".)


You can drill a hole just big enough into a block of wood to screw it directly onto your lathe spindle thread ... it needs to seat directly up against the spindle shoulder in order to ride securely, but since the threads are made of wood they may wear out quickly with repeated use.

One way to help make them last longer is to soak the threads (in the wood block ONLY) with superglue to reinforce them, and then cut the threads with a proper size tap for your lathe spindle thread. This still will only last so long without repeating it to repair the threads.

Another way is to find a nut that has the same threads as your spindle, and mount that in the glue block so that you have a permanent way to reliably chuck your glue block securely on the lathe. You can make as many such faceplates as you have nuts, and they can easily be found for around a dollar each.

 

[KenV]

If you want durability, you can purchase stainless steel cores from Woodworkers Emporium. David Muller has instructions for download available there. David is a skilled turner.