My Scale Miniature Turnings

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Tom McMillan

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Hi guys. For the past year and a half I've been making and selling scale miniatures (mostly 1:12 scale which is 1" to a foot). Most of the vases are approximately 1" tall. Since I started guess I've made over 1200 items now. Anyway, thought I'd share some recent ones.

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This has been a lot of fun and sales are mostly to folks who enjoy Dollhouses or miniature collectors. There is a group at www.CDHM.org where we have a turning forum that I moderate. If anyone's interested I think you need to sign up but it's free, and when you do go down to the turning forum---we have a lot of topics about miniature turning.
 
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penhead

penhead

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Those are awesome Tom, very nice job. I love the shape/color of all of them.

I would love to try something like that but with 'my' eyes, would prob need binoculars to see to turn them [:)]
 
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Tom McMillan

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Thanks guys!! Yes, John--my eyes aren't too great. But, it's amazing---after doing a few 1/2 scale (1/2" to a foot), and a very few 1/4 scale (1/4" to a foot), these seem large to me now.

I don't want to discourage anyone from trying this, but it has been very competetive and my prices are down a lot from last year. Several turners who have become friends have dropped out of EBAY where I sell most of my miniatures. I've been fairly lucky to have started when I did and to have a small following for my work. However, there are others with much more miniature experience that get a very good price for a lot of their work.

You can see my EBAY listings if you'd like at: http://tinyurl.com/exj7q

In addition to my miniatures, I did just list a birdhouse ornament, and one of my handcarved Cross pens.
 
btboone

btboone

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Great work Tom. As you may know, live steam locomotives are often built to a 1" scale. My dad used to belong to a live steam club where the trains pulled people around the track on the small flat bed cars fitted with seats. He built a full train station in 1" scale, so it was something like 40" long and had great detail. I wonder if there might be some kind of a niche market for turned items to these people.

Ebay sounds like the best approach, where the people find you.
 
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Tom McMillan

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Thanks Bruce---I'll have to take a look at the model railroader's groups---good idea.

Fred, I've had to make up some small tools. I've used an old screwdriver, an old ice pick, and a couple dental type tools and shaped the metal into a turning tool shape. Most of these I use for hollowing---just haven't been able to find any commercial tool yet small enough for the hollowing on these. I do have a very small mini set from Grizzly, and a fairly new mini set I got from Penn State that works well. Also, I do use some larger tools for the outside until I get to the detail.
 
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