A Few Spin Tops

[W.Y.]

Cranked out these 18 spin tops this afternoon. Had a ball playing with my Sorby Spiraling/Texturing tool.
Sold out of tops again at last Saturdays sale (yesterday) so have started to make more . Have 20 more blanks ready to turn but felt like coming in for a coffee. .
Gotta love turning stuff that only takes ten minutes each from start to finish and doesn't require hardware kits and doesn't require a finish. .

I leaned heavily toward red and green this time because it does help to have colors that go with the season.

 

[keithkarl2007]

William they look really cool. I seen a few on Facebook turned by Eli Avisera that yours just reminded me of. Here's the page, I hope you get some inspiration from it. Eli Avisera

 

[Pen_Turner_297]

Are those one piece.I'm sure it is pretty straight forward how to make them But could you please maybe give some tips : size of blank to start with / pic of bottom/ size of finished product.Thanks in advance

 

[Jim15]

Those are really top notch.

 

[W.Y.]

Are those one piece.I'm sure it is pretty straight forward how to make them But could you please maybe give some tips : size of blank to start with / pic of bottom/ size of finished product.Thanks in advance

Mark.
I am going to save myself a lot of typing and quote my answer to a member of my own Woodworking Friends site who asked how I could make that many in a part of an afternoon..

I am being quite conservative when I say ten minutes . Here is a video I made about 100 spin tops ago doing it in 5 minutes by using the end grain method .

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

This last bunch was done with dowels and face grain. I make them either way. Whichever way the spirit moves me at the time and whatever wood I have to use at the time .
Those were made from an old rough sawed board a neighbor gave me because he thought it was garbage but didn't want to burn it . One persons garbage is another persons gold. I don't know what it was but I think maybe pine because there was a bit of blue pine beetle markings in it. Some are also scraps of cherry and maple that were not big enough for much else. .
On the face grain ones like the ones shown I use mostly a bowl gouge with a fingernail grind. .
What speeds it up greatly when doing it with a dowel though the center of a face grain disk is the use of a Beal Collet chuck. That was one of the best investments in accessories. I don't use it a lot but for things like this it just makes it so easy.

Probably what was not addressed there for you Mark was size of the blank. That batch were 3" diameter but there is no set size for them. Little bigger or smaller works just fine.

Picture of the bottom ? ya . . . I could do that . Not much to see but I am always glad to help out
Back after a while with a picture of the bottom ..

BTW. Anyone that wants to jump all over me about the coat sleeves in the video being dangerous . . . Don't Bother. I have heard it before. :wink:

EDIT

Just went and snapped a picture.
Here's a bottoms up view . . lol . .

 

[Pen_Turner_297]

Thanks

 

[onewaywood]

Bill those look fantastic wish mine looked that good, anyway Mark Why don't you try drilling a hole in a small piece of wood and glueing in a dowel. requires a'lot less wood.A 3/8 hole with a matching dowel works great.

 

[W.Y.]

Bill those look fantastic wish mine looked that good, anyway Mark Why don't you try drilling a hole in a small piece of wood and glueing in a dowel. requires a'lot less wood.A 3/8 hole with a matching dowel works great.

A word (or two . .lol) of caution. .
After drilling out a bunch of blanks take one to wherever you are going to buy the dowels and use it to select your dowel purchase . We have the metric nonsense going on here in Canada so have to try maybe a dozen 3' lengths of dowels to get the two or three I need to turn a bunch of tops.

Even when I go over the border to get them where it isn't metric , I always take a drilled blank because at 3/8" they can vary quite a bit from one dowel to another.

I choose ones that have a nice snug fit to be able to get a good glue joint. If they are too tight or too loose I leave them there for someone else .