Every Christmas I make tops for the kids in my kindergartners SS class. This is the handful I made today to take tomorrow. Never know how many kids or visitors will show up.
In case someone hasn't made these and is interested, the bottom is turned and finished first, then the part above, then the handle. Lines are friction burned with a wire, a trick on a sloped surface. I hit it each section with a little 600 grit paper whether it needs it or not; finish is Mylands friction polish.
It's hard to get a sharp picture with a phone camera while the lathe is spinning! But I am always amazed at how good the phone cameras have gotten.
I made these once to help describe the process. A picture might help for someone who hasn't tried making finger tops like this. (These make great Christmas presents for kids - even adults like them.)
I actually turn, sand, and finish the bottom surface before I remove any wood to the left. Keeping as much wood thickness as long as possible can prevent vibration.
Some notes:
I sometimes get chatter when turning the handle, especially if the wood I chose is softer or more flexible. In that case, using the left hand as a steady rest while turning with the other hand works. For a one-handed hold I grip the tool as close to the tip as possible then support the end of the handle by pushing against my forearm.
I usually start with a turning square with about 6" extending from the chuck and cut more than one top in a row, perhaps three for smaller diameters. I have used up to an 8" overhang but depending on the wood that can be difficult to avoid chattering.
I turn at the highest speed possible, about 3200 rpm on my lathe.
I mostly use a 1/2" or smaller spindle gouge and skew chisel, small parting tool to hog out the shape.
I shape as much of the tip of the handle as possible before cutting it off, then clean up and finish the point by hand. A good point on the handle will let you spin it nicely up-side-down.
As with long, thin spindles in general, strong wood with straight, fine grain works best. Soft maple burl? Not so much - cross grain can weaken the handle. And a bug hole in ambrosia maple right through a thin handle can be a problem!
My favorite woods - the harder and finer grained the better: dogwood, ebony, hard maple, tulipwood or any of the rosewoods, bocote for the figure, osage orange and lignum vitae for the color, bloodwood, spalted beech or birch if it's not too far gone, persimmon. Friction polish works well on all of these.
Not so much: jatoba, wenge, walnut, oak. A blank that has some heartwood and some sap wood can be a problem since it might end up unbalanced and wobble instead of spin smoothly.
I know some people turn these one-piece tops the other way, the handle first. The problem I had with that is getting a good tip on the working end - if the point is not perfect the spinning suffers.
Nice photo essay, John. I always make the point first, and part off on the tip of the handle (except in 2-, or 3-piece tops). I figure I want the most perfect tip for it to spin on.
It's interesting how many ways there are to accomplish the same thing. I cut the point end first, and supporting it with the tailstock lightly. I can take heavier cuts that way. I part off and finish the tip after I've removed some of the wood on the top end.
Some of my tops I color with color pens. I want very light colored wood for that so I find a nearly white board and cut out the body of the top. I drill holes and put in a small dowel for the handle and tip. The bright colors really dress up the tops.
I recently made about 50 tops, all colored. A friend has a girl in the first grade. I took the tops to class and taught the 6-year olds how to spin them, then gave them all away. We all had a ball.
>I cut the point end first, and supporting it with the tailstock lightly.
Wally, I've tried that, especially for bigger tops but I found the smaller ones don't give me any grief and it was a lot quicker overall to just leave them suspended. Chatter is rare and disappeared with experience. I do need lighter cuts when I get to the very tip of the handle.
>I recently made about 50 tops, all colored. A friend has a girl in the first
>grade. I took the tops to class and taught the 6-year olds how to spin them,
>then gave them all away. We all had a ball.
Good clean fun! Great toys and need no batteries.
For more fun, challenge the kids to learn to spin them upside-down! Many of the 5 and 6 year olds have trouble spinning the top at all and they get a real sense of accomplishment when they succeed. I then show them how to spin them upside-down and send them home with a new goal. :-)
For my kindergarten classes I bring some in for them to play with and practice spinning over several weeks. Then at Christmas time I let them all play with the new tops, and let them take home their favorites. Some pick Dogwood just for the name! The acorn tops are popular.
Adults like them too, especially with exotic woods and interesting figure (the kids don't much care). One lady said "these are like jewels!" I don't remember if I mentioned it here but I once gave one to the head of the entire Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This very busy "distinguished" gentleman in suit and tie sat down on the floor and spun tops with me. Another time a manager tried his best to steal one but I caught him in the act.
I've made many hundreds of these. I carry them to give away when traveling in US and Europe - great conversation starters. A missionary friend of mine takes batches of 50 to Romania each time he goes to work in an orphanage. He said the kids work hard to earn one! These kids have very little, some don't even have socks...
When i was at the Desert woodturning roundup they had competitions between 2 turners to see who could turn them the fastest. Micheal Hosaluk and Richard Raffen are the kings. They would turn them in under 30 seconds and only one minor glitch would slow one or the other down enough to lose the race. Incredible. I've heard but not seen, Micheal will spin a top and then turn one before the first one slows down.
.....where kids are present. First they are attracted to anything that makes noise and is moving, so I crank them out for giving to the ones that are interested enough to attempt a spin. Nothing fancy, and they don't need batteries!
When I made magic wands kids were so excited. To save time I made a bunch of blanks ahead of time with morse tapers to jam into the headstock spindle and with the shaft part thinned on the bandsaw. The kids would pick out a blank and I would turn it just for them, offering some handle and shaft design ideas for the perfect custom wand. :-) And it was a hands-on experience: I'd stop the lathe and let them see how the handle fit their hand.
Another thing was a hit - I took a box of thin pieces of wood I had cut when thinning the blanks. Kids were fascinated by real pieces of cool wood they could take home! Good clean fun.
I'm wearing the Sorting Hat. I knew you were wondering.
JKJ
(Duh... After all these years I just this minute discovered I could resize the text box where I'm typing this.)
I think we are going to do that again this year. The idea actually was given to me by Dale Nish and. They do an egg cup competition in Utah similar to that one. We didn't want to copy them exactly, but took the idea. I think it was a lot of fun and went over well.
Hi John, I demo'ed one year in Provo, and participated in the egg cup race. I teamed up with Bonnie Klein's husband Steve. we did our egg cup in 21 seconds. Then I did a solo cup, for the BEST and fastest egg cup competition. One minute, 40 seconds. fun!
