Turning Bases

[John Terefenko]

I am going to be making some round sphere clocks in both woods and acrylics. I am looking for some ideas for some turned bases that I can sit them in. Sometimes my brain gets locked up and right now I can not invision any pleasing shapes. I do not want to turn a piece of wood and drill a hole and set the clock in it. I want to be more creative. Where do you all go to get ideas?? Is there some sort of book that shows different shapes??? Does anyone have a few photos of examples of some round bases that might work for what I am seeking to do?? Thanks in advance. I need a kick start.

 

[John Terefenko]

Somebody on another forum asked what I was talking about so I thought I would show an example. I have been making these billiardball clocks for some time now. I made the bases to resemble the triangle rack. I want to take this concept and make my own spheres and hopefully at some time do some segmenting with them. I have high hopes. Also want to cast some in colored resins. The base is giving me a problem coming up with a design or two. I have a hard time picturing things when they are turned. Anyway hopefully some suggestions will get me thinking in the right direction. Here is the example.

 

[Bill Boehme]

My initial thought off the top of my head was something to complement the geometric shape of the sphere such as a cone and perhaps with a small cylindrical section about a half inch at the bottom (I am thinking of something like the cone that comes with the Oneway live center except a bit shorter. At the apex of the cone you could turn a recess to match the curvature of the sphere so that the clock could be angled to any desired tilt by the owner (perhaps a bit of double sided tape to hold things in their final position. An alternate idea would be to have the cone go to a square base such as a pommel cut on a table leg. This idea could be extended to a hex shaped base or even octagonal which might look good with clear acrylic.

 

[Thomas Stegall]

Most of the ones I have seen involved sanding a small flat spot on bottom of sphere. There is a woodturning book on forms I borrowed from out club library, but I'm afraid I don't remember the title. But you can benefit from examining the various forms shown in any book or magazine on woodturning.