Segmented bell ornament

[Roger Wiegand]

Someone brought up a 10 year old tutorial by a Carl Curt Fuller on making this ornament up over on SMC, and I liked it and thought I'd give it a shot. I've never done segmented turning, and found making even these simple glue-ups frustratingly challenging-- everything wanted to move as soon as I applied clamp pressure. Perhaps a little sand in the joints? If I did this a lot I'd want much better systems for precise angles and easier glue-ups.

I made the blanks with two pieces of 3/4" cherry flanking a piece of baltic birch, doing it again I'd use thicker wood on the inside layer and thinner on the outside to move the patterns farther down the bell. I had to make the bell a lot smaller than the blank to get it down this far.

Anyway, something fun and different for the season. I just made 30 acorn birdhouse ornaments and was ready for a break.

 

[hockenbery]

great looking ornament.
Looks like you triumphed over frustration

 

[Curt Fuller]

Someone brought a 10 year old tutorial by a Carl Fuller on making this ornament up over on SMC, and I liked it and thought I'd give it a shot. I've never done segmented turning, and found making even these simple glue-ups frustratingly challenging-- everything wanted to move as soon as I applied clamp pressure. Perhaps a little sand in the joints? If I did this a lot I'd want much better systems for precise angles and easier glue-ups.

I made the blanks with two pieces of 3/4" cherry flanking a piece of baltic birch, doing it again I'd use thicker wood on the inside layer and thinner on the outside to move the patterns farther down the bell. I had to make the bell a lot smaller than the blank to get it down this far.

Anyway, something fun and different for the season. I just made 30 acorn birdhouse ornaments and was ready for a break.

I haven't visited SMC in quite a long time, so I checked it out because it seemed familiar. I think that tutorial is by Curt Fuller, me. I can read the text but it won't allow me to see the pictures. I do the gluing and clamping differently now to make the frustrating glue-up you mention a little easier. Instead of gluing half the segments to make half the bell, the other half of the segments to make the other half, and then sanding them flat and gluing the two halves together, I now have a more accurate miter saw so I glue all the segments at once and use hose clamps to clamp them. But like you I'm not a skilled segmenter so I still have a few that don't line up occasionally. I also use different colors of veneer between thin slices of wood instead of the baltic birch plywood.
Your bell is beautiful!

 

[Roger Wiegand]

Whoops! Sorry for getting your name wrong, I'll see if I can edit it. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration! Yes, colored veneer was something I thought of, I thought I'd keep it simple to start with.

 

[John Torchick]

Roger, very nice ornament. What is SMC and where to find the tutorial? How did you clamp it?
I do believe I have sand in my joints when getting up in the morning.

 

[Roger Wiegand]

SMC is Sawmill Creek. The article is here https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?173171-Making-the-bell-ornaments You won't be able to see the pictures unless you pay $6/year to be a member.

I made up the blank, rounded it between centers and put a short tenon on one end. Then I held it in a chuck to shape 85% of the outside and completely hollow it, including sanding and finishing. Then I reversed it, back between centers, using a conical Rubber Chuckie drive at the headstock end that fit into the bell of the bell, the live center on the tailstock, turned away the tenon, shaped the top of the bell, then sanded and finished. I parted it off at the tailstock end, not my favorite, but the chuckie held it centered well enough with light finger pressure to get the lathe turned off without disaster.

It took at least five time longer to make the blank than to turn it. I guess that's the story of segmenter's lives.

 

[John Torchick]

Roger, many thanks for the description.