hi, alan stratton from as wood turns (www.aswoodturns.com)it’s that time of year, the time for the christmas ornament challenge. i want to enter an ornament. this one is a cedar inside out ornament. it has a christmas tree inside of it, a finialon the bottom, body out of cedar. the process is fairly simple but there area few traps to avoid that i will highlight in the video. so, there’s still time for you to make yourornament and submit it. let’s make this one - right now.
i prepared four perfectly square blocks ofcedar, at least as square as i could get them. after arranging them for the best grain pattern,i labeled them so i could keep track later and marked a line about 1/2†from the endto guide how far to spread glue. some turners may glue the entire length withpaper in the joint but i think that gives me a lot to clean up later. i prefer just a little bit of glue on theend. after applying glue, i clamped them together. while the glue dried, i prepared paper templatessized to my glued up blank with a circle fit outside the square.
these i glued to scrap particle board andcut out the arcs to use as clamp cauls. for a strong measure of safety, i’m clampingthese arcs around the blank with band clamps. this should be more than enough to hold thefour pieces together while i turn them. for additional safety, i wrapped duct tapearound the clamp to hold down the free end. i’ve learned from experience not to justrough round my inside out blank. any wood removed at this point becomes a voidin center of the final project. my plan is for a somewhat bell shaped interiorwith a bottom rounded to the sides then stay wide to near the top then quickly taper tothe corner. i have to be careful to cut in on the cornersto avoid splintering.
i must keep my hands on my side of the toolrest to avoid getting hit by the clamps. i am sanding and finishing the interior atthis point. it is easiest now and very difficult or impossiblelater. christmas ornament challenge. i want to enteran ornament. this one is a cedar inside out ornament. it has a christmas tree inside ofit, a finial on the bottom, body out of cedar. in the video.so, there’s still time for you to make your ornament and submit it.let’s make this one - right now. and marked a line about 1/2†from the endto guide how far to spread glue. some turners may glue the entire length with paper in thejoint but i think that gives me a lot to clean
up later. i prefer just a little bit of glueon the end. after applying glue, i clamped them together.while the glue dried, i prepared paper templates sized to my glued up blank with a circle fitoutside the square. these i glued to scrap particle board and cut out the arcs to useas clamp cauls. for a strong measure of safety, i’m clamping these arcs around the blankwith band clamps. this should be more than enough to hold the four pieces together whilei turn them. for additional safety, i wrapped duct tape around the clamp to hold down thefree end. i’ve learned from experience not to justrough round my inside out blank. any wood removed at this point becomes a void in centerof the final project. my plan is for a somewhat
bell shaped interior with a bottom roundedto the sides then stay wide to near the top then quickly taper to the corner. i have tobe careful to cut in on the corners to avoid splintering. i must keep my hands on my sideof the tool rest to avoid getting hit by the clamps.i am sanding and finishing the interior at this point. it is easiest now and very difficultor impossible later. almost finished with the interior cutting,i’m now parting off the last ⽠inch of the blank. this was where i applied glue tokeep the four pieces together. i’m relying on the band clamps only now to hold everythingtogether. now the pieces come apart easily. now i can rotate each of the four pieces intotheir final position and carefully glue them
together again. this time, i’m using whiteglue and spreading glue on the entire surface but sparingly as i don’t want a lot of squeezeout. now with the glue completely dry, i can remountthe blank back to the lathe between centers. even though the joints are completely glued,i feel safer putting on the band clamps again and again wrapping the clamp with duct tape.with these preparations, it is a quick job to part off the end where the old tenon isnow a hole in the blank. then form a new tenon with a skew with peeling cuts.then reverse the blank into a scroll chuck. i have to be brave now to remove at leastone of the clamps to turn the outside of the ornament. i’m using a small gouge and proceedingvery cautiously – to begin with there are
square corners to deal with. then once thecorners are gone, the corners of the inside out piece form sharp edge that could cut likea knife if my hands came too close. at the same time the same corners are super fragile.my objective now is to shape the exterior up to the edge of the interior. this willavoid any flats on the exterior. then i can cut more until i’m happy with the shape.i’m stopping the lathe frequently to check my progress. i cannot rely on the ghost images.with the bottom nearly complete, i’m taking a break to drill a hole. this hole will servetwo purposes: to mount the bottom finial and to mount whatever i’m putting inside theornament. then carefully sand and finish the ornamentwith shellac friction polish. again, those
four corner slats must not contact my hands.they are sharp. some sanding is with a strip held between fingers across the ornament.this tends to round over corners but i don’t mind that effect in this case. by hand, i’vealso sanded each knife edge with fine sand paper to dull the edge.after parting off the ornament, i’m cleaning up the top with a sanding pad mounted to ajacobs chuck. then drill a small hole for the ornament hanger.while i have the jacobs chuck mounted, i’m swapping for a slightly larger bit to useas a mandrel. i’ve looped wire around the bit then twisting the ends together. thismakes a quick small hanger that is perfect for this ornament. i don’t like hardwarestore screw eyes.
next, i’m turning a small walnut disk thatmy christmas tree will sit on. i’m drilling the disk 3/8†inch to match the bottom finialand â¼â€ to receive the base of the christmas tree. other than this, i want a simple shallowogee curve. now i’ll turn the bottom finial. this willnot be ornate since the focus of this ornament is the inside out body. in addition, for christmasornaments, i don’t want a sharp point for children’s safety or super slender spindle.i’ve chucked up a pen blank of some unnamed tropical wood whose color should complementthe cedar. i take care to size the tenon to fit my 3/8†hole in the ornament.once the tenon is finished, i’m reversing the finial into the chuck with this tenonto complete the remainder of the finial.
finally, for the christmas tree for the inside,i picked up a scrap laminated blank. rather than turn it as is, i sawed off opposite cornersthen mounted it between centers. this way the laminations will not go straight up anddown the tree. after roughing it round, i can focus on the base and the tree limbs.i’m carefully trying to undercut the limbs but don’t dare go too far. then sand andfinish. the trunk of the tree provides a mounting tenon while i clean up the tippee top.with all pieces finished, i buffed them then assembled the inside out ornament. it’sa large ornament partly because i want to put something inside it. but really that isjust an excuse. next time, i’ll scale it smaller. still, i like my inside out ornamentespecially since none of my blood was shed
in its creation. let’s see your ornamentcreation in the christmas ornament challenge. we’ll see you again next week for anotherwoodturning video. please give this video a thumbs up, subscribe and tell your friends.always wear your full face shield –goggles are not enough. until next week, this is alanstratton from as wood turns dot com. let’s keep on turning.