I cheated :-)
mike recchione
>Bill, I'm sorry to admit I didn't turn the beads. I bought them for a few cents at A.C. Moore. I made one Chinese style and one Japanese style abacus, mostly to illustrate the principle for my older son, and to teach him to use one. The Japanese style is more practical, I guess, and also more compact. If my son had remained interested, I had plans to make a really nice one out of exotic wood, maybe use ebony or african blackwood for the beads. But he lost interest after a week or so, and I moved on to other projects. Maybe one day I'll go back to it...