Wood Balls, Mallet & Overlapping Circles - #8 A Seam Ripper

This is the last post in this series of turned pieces.  It is a small present for a friend who does a lot of sewing.  For those of you who are wondering what a seam ripper is, it’s a small tool used in sewing.  The primary use is ripping stitches.  The most common form consists of a handle, shaft and head. The head is usually forked with one side flattening out and becoming a blade and the other side forming a small point.  Here is an inexpensive plastic model.

This is not a difficult turning project and the sequence is pretty much the same for a variety of small items like pens, mechanical pencils, letter openers, bottle stoppers, etc.  There are a whole array of kits available that contain the necessary hardware.  This is the pieces in this kit. 

I start by selecting the wood.  Since this is a small piece that will be held and viewed at close range I wanted to use an interesting piece of wood.  Leopardwood was my choice as it has an interesting grain.  After cutting and squaring up a blank about ¾” square I chucked it up in the lathe chuck and drilled a hole length-wise.  The hole will vary by what you are making and the required size is in the instructions.  In the photo below you can see the setup.  If you look at the scroll chuck on the left side you can see a piece of wood sticking out the side.  That’s to provide backup to the blank for two reasons.  First to provide a stop so when drilling I don’t push the blank through the chuck.  Second, so when the bit exits the blank I have a nice clean cut without any chipping or blow-out.  I have on occasion had the bit grab on exit and split the blank turning it into fireplace kindling.

Next is to glue a brass tube into the drilled hole.  This is the tube sanded to remove any oxidation so the glue bonds well.  The pencil is my “brass tube insertion tool” 😊.  The blank is longer than the tube so the pencil helps me insert and center the tube in the blank.

I use Gorilla Glue which is an expanding polyurethane glue cured with moisture.  The left photo below is after the glue has foamed and cured.   Once that is done I cut most of the wood that extends beyond the tube off with the bandsaw.  The top right image shows the tool I use to trim the wood end flush with the brass tube and the bottom right shows what it looks like ready to turn.

The blank can now be mounted on the mandrel along with a couple of bushings.  These photos are of just the mandrel and bushings then with the blank mounted are ready to turn.

The mounted blank is turned to whatever profile you desire.  I decided to turn the handle to a larger diameter than what the instructions suggest.  I used my wife’s hands as a testing subject since her and the gift’s recipient hands are nearly the same size.  It’s always good to size the tool for the user.  The goal here is to provide a handle that is comfortable to grip and easy to use.

I can now apply the finish which is a lacquer based friction drying polish.  It is applied wet using a small cloth then cured via the heat generated from the spinning handle and the cloth.  It is quick and after a few coats builds up a nice protective glossy finish.

 

Last step is to assemble the parts.  Most of the time with these kits the various pieces are held together using a press fit.  For this piece I used my bench vise.  The pine facing is soft enough to not mar the finished surface of the different pieces.  For a little extra insurance, I added a cloth buffer between the metal cap and the vice face.

When all completed the finished piece looks like this all ready to use.

When not in use the business end of the ripper is reversed and stored in the handle.  That way it is protected from damage and from stabbing the unsuspecting user.

Wood Balls, Mallet & Overlapping Circles - #7 Overlapping Circles Completing Turning & Finishing

As I said in the last post the concentric circle pencil layout was really just to keep me on track.  The actual layout is done using a couple of dividers to score the blank.  The photos for these next steps are done after I had already scored the circles.  I was concentrating so much on getting them done right that taking photos of the process was not a priority.

First step is to set the divider at 7/16” for the inner circle. Then with the lathe running and one divider point at the center I used the other point to make a shallow cut in the oak.  With the inner circle scored I reset the divider to 9/16” and scored the outer circle of the first ring.  This gives me a 1/8” wide ring.

With the first ring done I set one divider to 5/8” and the second divider to ¾”.  By using these two dividers I can accurately mark the rest of the rings.  This photo shows the setup for making the scribing cuts.

The top photo below shows a different view of the divider set at 5/8” making the scribe line for the inner edge of the second ring.  The bottom photo shows the second divider set at ¾” scribing the line for the outer edge of the second ring.  Note that right hand leg of both dividers are working off the same inner circle reference scribe.

Scribing the edges of the third ring follows the same process as making the second ring.  Using the 5/8” divider to scribe the inner edge and the ¾” divider to make the outer ring.  Having two dividers set up to make each cut referenced off the same place removes any inconsistency in ring spacing or size.  If you look close the scribed lines do not exactly align with the pencil layout and that’s due to the slight differences in measuring when using a compass and center point.  Here you can see the setup for scribing the outer edge of the third ring.

Once the layout was done I could start cutting away the waste between the rings.  I start in the center and work out.  The depth of the cuts are quite critical.  I need to cut them half way through the blank.  However, it is more important that they are all the same depth.  That’s because when I make the intersecting cuts from the other side they need to align perfectly.  Here is the center cut to its finished depth.  I measure the depth the same way as I did earlier when setting the depth of the dished-out area by using a dial caliper and a 6” steel rule.

After making all the cuts to this face you end up with three offset concentric rings.  The last step on this side is to carefully sand the cut faces of the rings.  Here is the first side finished and ready to be removed from the MDF mounting board.

With the first side finished I can flip the blank and go through the same process on the other side starting with centering the blank on the MDF mounting board and screwing it in place.  That’s followed by dishing out this side then remounting off center for the ring layout.  The only difference in the ring layout is that it is offset the opposite direction as the first face.  The cutting between rings proceeds the same way as before except as you get close to the halfway depth point it is critical to use sharp tools and a very light touch.  If your measurements for the cut depth on the first side are dead on then when the cut reaches half way through the blank it will break through to the other side.  Here you can see after I broke through and quit.  At this point the bits and pieces that need to be removed are just barely holding on.  I could try cutting a little deeper to try and remove them but at this point it’s a bit nerve wracking and a pretty high-risk gamble.  There is not a lot of support for the wood remaining and it’s really easy for a little catch to turn this piece into designer firewood.

Removed from the lathe and set against a black background you can see what needs to be cleaned up. 

To do that I use a razor knife like a box cutter or an X-Acto knife followed by some light sanding.  It almost goes without saying that a very delicate touch is required here.  The rings are only 3/16” thick by 1/8” wide with not a lot of support and frequently cross grain so there is very little strength here.

The last woodworking step is to cut a quarter circle at the corners where the mounting screws were located then sand the edges to soften and do any other final sanding ending up with a piece ready to finish.

I chose to spray a satin lacquer on this piece since by spraying I could easily get finish in all the nooks and crannies that are in this piece.  This is my usual material and setup for applying lacquer to small pieces using an air brush.  In this case the piece is set on a lazy-susan so it can be easily rotated while spraying.  I always, always use gloves and a respirator in a well-ventilated area when working with lacquer and lacquer thinner.

I thin the out-of-the can lacquer by about 50% then apply three coats, let cure for a few days then wet sand with 6,000 grit and it’s finished.

I have to say that most of the work on the piece was not too hard.  It did require careful measuring and a fair amount of me talking to myself.  The final bit of turning on the rings required to break through to the first side was a was a little tense and could go wrong very easy, very quickly.  If I ever make another one then I will use a finer grain wood like maple or cherry.  I think the edges will be a little more crisp than with the open grain red oak.

Next Up - A Seam Ripper

Wood Balls, Mallet & Overlapping Circles - #6 Overlapping Circles Starting & The First Side

I saw this piece made during a lathe turning demonstration.  It is made from a single piece of wood and I wondered if I had the skills to do it so decided to give it a try.  Here is a drawing of what I am going to try and make.

It all starts with a single piece of wood.  I had this piece of red oak in my leftovers box which you can just see in the lower right of the photo.  It is a little over 6” square and about 7/8” thick.  Unfortunately, it was warped and not of much use which is why it was in the leftover box.  Using the hand plane, I worked this face flat then ran it though the thickness sander to flatten the other side.  Probably too much work just to get a flat board but I just hate to waste wood.

With a nice flat board I could start on the layout.  Below is the drawing I used.  First, I drew in diagonals to get the center point of the square blank then offset my ring center a ¼” off on the diagonal.  Using this as a starting point I drew in the concentric rings for reference.

With the layout done I pulled out my face plate and MDF mounting board.  This is the mounting board I used when I made the Snare Drum.

After I screwed the face plate onto the lathe I set the live center in the tailstock right at the center of the blank and advanced it to hold the board tight to the MDF mounting board.  The two screws at the top and bottom of the oak blank were then screwed in.  Here everything is set ready for the screws to be run in.

Here I am ready to start dishing out the mounted blank.

The idea is to turn a nice radiused edge into a flat bottom dished out area.  This is what it looks like after doing some turning where I am pretty close to being done.

I want the bottom the dished-out area to be 3/16” deep.  In the photo you can see that the caliper shows I am a little over 1/8” deep.  To use the caliper this way I set the right jaw on the top of the 6” ruler then run the left jaw out until the outside face is flush with the bottom of the ruler.  The dial is then set to zero.  Now as the left jaw moves into the dished-out area it gives me the distance from the edge of the ruler which is setting on the face of the blank to the bottom of the recess.  No math required which means one less place for an error to occur.

When I get to the right depth the bottom of the turned area is pretty flat but it still has some ridges and unevenness.  To get a really flat bottom I take a small block of wood to guide a piece of sand paper to even and flatten the bottom.  The last step here is using a pencil to mark the center of the dished-out area. 

Next is to unscrew and remove the blank from the MDF mounting plate and redraw the offset concentric circles like I had done earlier.  OK, you ask why did I draw them on in the first place if they were going to be removed when dishing out the blank and I was going to have to redraw them in again.  It’s because I was not really sure exactly what I was doing and wanted to lay the whole thing out to help me get clear what I had to do.  If I had done a bunch of these and had the process down pat there would be no reason to do that.  Also, these lines are not the actual guides that I will use to make the cuts.  That will be done with a set of dividers making scored circles in the blank.  More on the how and why when I get there. 

Now its back to the lathe using the live center in the tailstock to center the blank on the offset concentric circles.   In the photo you can see the original center of the blank just ¼” above where the live center is now.

The mounting screws in the oak blank can now be run into the MDF mounting plate.  One note since the blank is off center the screws do not go back into the same mounting holes.

Next Up – Overlapping Circles Completing Turning & Finishing

Wood Balls, Mallet & Overlapping Circles - #5 Finishing the Mallets

I am now ready to cut the wedges that will lock the handle in the head, I hope forever.  The wedges are made from a contrasting wood.  Hard maple in the case of the mesquite mallet and black walnut for the white oak one.  Here in the left image below I have tilted the bandsaw table 2-degrees to match the angle of the mortise and am ready to cut a couple of wedges.  The right side shows the two cut maple wedges.  I also cut a walnut set for the oak mallet.

Here is a photo taken while I was fitting the wedges.  They need to go almost all the way to the bottom of the slots but not quite.  I need to keep some room at the bottom so I can drive them in when ready.  This photo also shows where I have rounded over all the corners on the head.

Next is to put some blue tape around the top of the mortise (helps in cleanup of glue squeeze-out) add glue to the slots and drive the wedges in.  They spread the tenon and when the glue cures the handle is permanently locked in place.  The photo shows that done and all the glue cleaned off.

After an overnight cure of the glue I use Japanese fine tooth pull saw to cut the excess tenon and wedges off.  Here the blue tape also helps protect the top of the mallet from scratches made by the saw.  I must have gotten a good glue joint as they came off all in one piece.

After applying three coats of Danish Oil Finish I had a these completed mallets.  Or so I thought.  They looked good and had the right amount of heft but the handles were too slick.  They did just not have the right amount of grip.  I thought of three different possibilities to fix the problem.

1. Knurl the handles.  I have done that albeit a long time ago to some steel handles.  The problem here is those handles were round and not oval.  For the life of me I could not figure out how to make it happen on an oval much less one that has a curved taper. 
2. Checker the handles like what is used on a gunstock.  I gave this quite a bit of thought but kept running into a similar problem in getting a continuous pattern around a tapered surface.  The only way I could think of doing it was to do two half patterns with a gap between them.  Doable but not quite what I was after.
3. Dimpling the surface in a random pattern seemed to meet all the requirements. 

With dimpling as a potential solution my only problem was that I had never done it.  From experience I know how hard making a “random” pattern can be.  I also was not looking forward to putting what seemed like probably a thousand dimple in one by one.  For help I asked some wood and metal working friends for help.  I belong to the Borderline Turners which is a local group of wood turners and they gave me some good advice.  They suggested using a pneumatic scaler.  A scaler, needle scaler or needle-gun is a tool used to remove rust, mill scale, and old paint from metal surfaces. It consists of the body of the tool which has a pneumatic piston and about a dozen hardened steel rods the piston hammers against.  They in turn pound on whatever you put them up against.  Below is a photo of the tool with the steel rods coming out the right side. 

The ends of the rods are square cut like what is shown below on the top left.  To get dimples I needed to take the tool apart and regrind the ends so they are rounded like the bottom left.  Once I had all of them reground the same I could reassemble the tool ending up with the group of scaling needles shown on the right.

After doing some testing on scraps I developed a technique applying medium tool pressure and a medium flow of air at about 90 PSI.  The ON/OFF trigger is graduated to control the amount of air through the tool which controls the speed of the impacts.  However, as the pattern was really random I needed a way to fill it in where I made the transition from dimples to smooth handle.  To do that I ground the end of a 16-penny construction nail to match the size and shape of the scaling needles.  The photo below shows the finished dimpler and a closeup of the business end.

To help control where the dimples ended I wrapped the handle with a layer of poster board and several layers of tape.  Here it is setting on a carpet scrap ready to be dimpled.

This is what the handle looked like a couple minutes later with its nearly completed random dimpled surface. 

Here I am adding them in one at a time filling the ends in with random size and spaced dimples.  I did do a little more cleaning up on the transition after I removed the tape.

Last steps are lightly rubbing the surface with steel wool to get rid of any sharp edges or splinters then giving the handles another coat of Danish Oil Finish.  Once the finish had cured I tried the mallet out and the dimples provide just enough tooth to allow me to get a secure, comfortable grip.

After having used the two mallets a little I find that I like the oval handle on the mesquite one a lot better than the white oak’s rectangular one.  Even with the rounded edges the oval handle just feels better in my hand.  If nothing else I can use the white oak mallet to crack nuts.

Next Up – Overlapping Circles Starting & The First Side