Out of this world challenge

Alan Z.'s submission and step by step photos for the NJ Woodturners club August 2011 'Out of This World' challenge. The challenge is to create a work of art, which employs wood turning, to conjure up images of outer space (real or not) ie. planets, solar systems, space vehicles...

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• woodturning
• lathe
• wood
• turning
• challenge
• ball
• sphere
• rings
• planet

[Zentient1]

Thanks for the kind words.

I adapted a jig from LittleMachineShop that I'd purchased years ago.

I mounted it on a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate, and mounted that plate onto a modular tool post.

I can't seem to post links directly to the one I used, but go to LittleMachineShop (dot) com and search for the word Ball.

You will see three ball turning attachments in the results.

The one I used is their model 1970.

[Zentient1]

I just added an annotation to the dental floss section, and that should clear up any confusion. The lathe was not spinning when I was removing the rings from the tape.

[Zentient1]

One viewer was concerned about my having dental floss wrapped around my fingers... if the lathe was moving during the ring removal.

So to be clear, the lathe was not spinning at the time. It took a few minutes of gentle prying/sawing with the dental floss to separate the tape from the mounting block.

Then it was easy to peel the tape from the back of the rings.

[kenny474]

AWESOME! Very talented! That is super nice work.

One question: Who is the maker of the ball turning fixture and/or where can I purchase or acquire one?

If it's custom, that's ok. My father is a machinist, I will just design one of my own if needed.

[MrLeonard55]

Beautiful.