After reading a couple articles on turning Christmas ornaments, I figured I would give it a try. I wanted to make it extremely easy on myself and utilize some hardware I already own, so I came up with an idea to turn christmas ornaments on my bottle stopper chuck. I REALLY enjoyed this method, so I thought I would share…
Step 1 – Get your Blank, Drill your Hole
I put my square blank (Box Elder) in my clamp and drilled a hole all the way through. I used the drill bit that came with the bottle stopper chuck, which is 23/64.
Step 2 – Setup on Lathe
I screwed the blank right onto the bottle stopper chuck, and placed my live center at the end for stability.
Step 3 – Turn Center Piece
With my lathe set at 2800 rpms, I began shaping my center piece. There is no science to my madness, I just turn a shape that I believe will look good for the center of the ornament.
Step 4 – Part off your piece, Sand, Flip
When you finish shaping your piece, part off the excess material.
Now take the piece off your chuck and flip it around. Finish shaping the other side and begin sanding. I sanded to 320g, but should have stopped at 220g since I am applying dye. After sanding, I am done with the center piece for now.
Step 5 – Turn the lower finial
I took out my bottle stopper chuck since my Nova chuck gets a good grip on smaller pieces of wood. All I am using here is a walnut pen blank, 3/4 x 3/4 x 5 inches long.
Step 6 – Shape the bottom piece, sand
Now round the blank.
I used calipers to set my peg thickness. This should be slightly smaller than your drilled holes. You want this to fit snug
After my peg was the correct thickness, I shaped my bottom finial and sanded to 320g. I parted the piece off and am going to use the remaining wood for my top cap.
Step 7 – Top Cap
I turned my top cap, sanded, and parted it off.
Step 8 – Dry Fit
If you did the above steps correctly, the top cap and lower finial should fit in the holes of the center piece.
Step 9 – Finish
I wont go through the finish process since it was more of an experiment. All I will highlight is my setup. The drilled hole is the same size as an earplug, So I dangled an earplug from the rafters for an easy finish station!
This actually helped out a lot. I ended up applying a bit of black, blue, green and amber dye. Finished it with Seal a Cell
After you are done with your finish, glue it together, install your hook or loop so you can hang it from a tree limb, and your done.
Finished product….
Other ornaments
Thanks for reading!
Chris
Together We Wood 