Playing With Spin Tops Again

[W.Y.]

The temperature got all the way up to zero degrees Celsius by noon so I decided to take advantage of it and add some heat to that in my shop and have a little turning fun.
I was out of spin tops again so I started some catch up on some more.
I have made them with a dowel though a disk before but I find that when making them all in one piece they spin more accurately and longer.
I had some sticks of wood that Bruce (gofer) dropped off here that he called "dunnage" . It is something like pallet wood in that no two pieces are the same inside. One piece was a softer wood with some gray coloring in it and this one on the lathe is red oak .
What I do is put a square piece on the lathe and turn it round. Just takes about ten minutes to turn a 42" long one like this down from square to round.

Then I take those round ones to the band saw and cut them into 3" lengths . Here are a few I made before I ran out and made some more.

Then I put them in a 4 jaw chuck one at a time and turn them into spin tops . It takes about 5 minutes each to turn these using nothing but my home made Oland tool and a scraper and a little sanding . I started with a spindle gouge but I can touch up a scraper on a grinder faster than I can with my gouge and my Oland tool has not required sharpening yet for this batch .
I only got 15 done before wife called me on the intercom for supper. I have ten more blanks left to do because I nearly always do spin tops in lots of at least 25 .
They will look a lot nicer after they are painted but I won't do that until I get the other ten done.

 

[Karin Voorhis]

How really neat. I love tops. those look fun.

 

[bitshird]

Those look like they are more fun to make than the other style you did, nice tops William.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Those are cool.

 

[W.Y.]

I made a short 1.05 minute video to show the spin time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVsLEYe8HXM

Of course it took a while to get ten of them spinning one at a time before hitting the record button or my hand would have been in the way .
Then there were some collisions that knocked out a few before their time . .LOL . .
I was surprised they went as long as they did on that piece of plywood with a coarse surface that I placed on the kitchen table.
I couldn't use the smooth surface of the kitchen table because it is high gloss and caused a glare from the overhead lights when I tried it.

 

[khogan16]

William, those are pretty cool looking

 

[RAdams]

Nice tops! would love to see them after painting!

 

[W.Y.]

Nice tops! would love to see them after painting!

I will show a picture when they are painted.
I don't spend much time on these little guys. They are more of a mass production thing that I use for quick sale at a low price. I have made many hundreds of them and they always pay for my two or three tables at craft sales by selling them at $4.00 each or three for $10.00 .
Anything under $10.00 are very fast sellers at craft sales .
Here is a basket of 30 that sold out during a couple 4 hour craft sales last summer and I never got time to make more. . Those were made a little different with a dowel through the middle of a round piece of board. They don't spin as long as the one piece solid wood end grain turned ones do .
I have had that same basket heaped up with over 50 in it.

I enjoy the turning part but I detest the painting part because I am the worlds worst painter .
I have recently got into pyrography in the house for the cold winter months rather than heat the shop for turning . The burning has been coming along not too bad for a beginner . I have orderd a kit of thirty six different colored oil pencils to color my pyrography pieces after I have done the burning so I am thinking those pencils might also work for coloring the tops. It's gotta be easier than using paint and a brush.

Here is just my second attempt at wood burning.

 

[Karin Voorhis]

Very nice! love the fun paint job. Your wood burning is very cool! nice work!

 

[W.Y.]

Well, I spent another hour and a half in my shop after lunch and finished turning the last ten spin top blanks into tops so here are the whole 25 together before they get decorated.

I took my camera with me and while I was there I made another video. I had mentioned earlier that I turn those on the lathe in about 5 minutes each and the video shows how I do it with just a home made Oland tool and a cheap scraper.
The turning of it actually only took 4.18 minutes. The rest of it was the top spinning on top of my lathe's headstock and me wanting to catch it because it was getting close to the edge. . . lol . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyA2Rke0rMc

I am going to get a good quality scraper when I see one on sale because that one was just out of a $69.00 eight piece set. The hardened tip is worn off and it is down into the softer steel which requires more frequent sharpening. .
It will be a heavy duty one next time and I will also make a wider Oland tool .The cutter on that one is only 1/4" wide made for a mini lathe . I had to go slow with it on the Jet 1220 mini lathe due to power restrictions but now with the 2 HP lathe I can push it right in hard and not fizz on the power at all .

 

[W.Y.]

Picked up my box of 36 colored oil pencils at my PO box just over the border late this afternoon. I got the pencils primarily to try out on pyrography but I now have an additional use for them
I dressed up the plain wood tops with them and although the colors are not as vivid as using acrylic paints and a brush like I have done in the past , they were about 10 times easier (for me) and much faster to do.
I did them while I was watching TV this evening.
I might experiment tomorrow with either spray lacquer or shellac on top of the coloring .

 

[devowoodworking]

Very cool spin tops William ...I have to admit I get a kick out of playing with spin tops:smile-big:

 

[HawksFeather]

Nice job on the video. I was wondering how long that top was going to keep spinning, and spinning, and spinning.

Jerry

 

[JimB]

I've made a few in the past as well. They are fun and easy to do. I use a different tool but same idea. I usually use good color markers and decorate them while spinning on the lathe. I also have a can of carnuba wax and put a quick coat on them while on the lathe.

I confess... I like playing with them. The local turning club collects tops from the members and gives them to the Children's hospital. They make great toys for the kid's that can't do very much while hospitalized.