More Than Meets The Eye

In its new home - what a really nice calabash,!! with very accurate pewas, and that surprise spinning top as a lid.
Working on the swap piece today...

This is sooo cool! Great idea and wonderful execution Michael!

Michael
Your stock of ideas never cease to amaze me; so much to emulate (read unashamedly copy:<) and so little time...
Well done!
Cheers.
Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!

The color of the wood, the darker pewas, WOW Michael, you hit it out of the park!!

Michael, this is really clever and beautiful!

Ok…
Ok…
Now you’re just showing off!

Really neat idea and execution

Very creative, Michael. A new look and/or surprise as one rotates the piece ... and an appropriate title! Love it. Can the lid be reversed in the calabash so the threaded insert doesn't show? Or is the spinning surface too small to act as a knob? Just wondering...

headspinning. So much happening and at such a high level of execution. WOW.

Thanks a lot everyone! This was a fun one to work out.

Tom Gall said:

Very creative, Michael. A new look and/or surprise as one rotates the piece ... and an appropriate title! Love it. Can the lid be reversed in the calabash so the threaded insert doesn't show? Or is the spinning surface too small to act as a knob? Just wondering...

Click to expand...

Thanks Tom! The lid fits pretty precisely in the designed orientation. It will sit reversed, but not as well. The challenge with this was to make a lid that fit with minimal slop only in the upper straight-ish section of the calabash. If it was recessed any further down, I would have had to either 1) compromise on the shape of the interior, or 2) deal with a lid that had a lot of slop (because the interior diameter is wider than the entrance). That said, if the lid was reversed so that the spinning bearing was used as a knob, it would ruin the surprise effect--the ebony bearing is fairly large and bulbous by design (I wanted to match the gentle curves of the calabash). Here's a clearer photo of the bottom of the spin top:



I did consider some alternative approaches to eliminate the visible threaded insert:

• Turning some sort of flat cover to screw into the threads--this might be a good solution, but I was worried that it would be too visible and ruin the surprise, as well as the difficulty in removing it if it ended being screwed in too tightly.
• Threading the Environ directly via a tap, but wasn't sure the material would hold the fine threads--it is somewhat porous, and even though I might be able to reinforce with CA, I didn't have enough material to experiment.

I like both options, but prefer the second. Maybe in a future iteration this could be a way to go. I do have a project in my mind to make a convertible top that includes a variety of stems and bearings. Upscale toy

Nicely done Michael! It’s an interesting use of the 360 degrees of the vessel….i have to admit, that’s I concept I rarely consider! That composite is interesting, tell me more please! Your turning/ joinery is outstanding and as usual, very cleaver. Well done Michael!!