Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Inside/Out Ornament
Ken Grunke
>Here's my latest piece, finished last night, cut from a 3/4" plank of Walnut (3/4" squares glued up).
I spent about as much time sanding to 1500 grit as turning, and ran out of elbow grease.
I've gotten suggestions for using something more becoming than copper wire for the loop--I have a lot of 1/16" brass, maybe a nice round hook shape would look better--any comments are welcome, thanks for looking!
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
EagleS.C.
>VERRY nice!
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
Randy
>Very nice... I like that a lot.
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
John Lucas
>Ken
Good job. Inside out turning is fun. I'm working on an inside out turned birdhouse. Hope to have it done tomorrow. Photos will follow.
I use a lot of different things for Christmas ornament hangers. Bait saver fish hooks work well. You can get them in gold. Cut off the hook. Push them in a hole of the proper size and your done. They are very strong but a little expensive.
Earing hangers work well. Bend them straight and cut them shorter. They are a little fragile. If you bend them over once or twice accidentally they break off. That's excessive abuse but can happen.
Micro Mark tools sells Deck Railing pins. These are brass pins with a loop in one end. The are strong and look good but the hole is too small for ribbon. A christmas ornament hanger goes through it easily however.
Brass wire works well when bent to the right shape.
Of course you can always get brass eye screws. At the hardware they mostly have them in sizes that are too large. I'm told that Benny's woodworks in Nolensville Tn. has small hooks but haven't looked them up on the web yet. I think that's what Nick Cook uses.
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
Wood Spinner
>I think this is the best I have seen!
Good turning and be safe
Bill
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
adrien
>One member of our turning group recently demo'd using brass wire wrapped around a nail and both ends twisted into a neat spiral that could be glued into the drilled hole�basically a screw-eye easily fabricated. (Hold the two ends in a pair of pliers and turn the nail to make a tight spiral.)
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
John Lucas
>Here are some photos of the different ornament hook hangers. On the left are earing hangers. One has been straightened and cut.
Next are the deck rail pins from Micro mark tools.
The next ones are Bait Saver fish hooks from Eagle Claw. They have 2 barbs that face the hanger. Cut them off and just push them in the hole. No glue necessary.
Then there is brass wire twisted to make a hanger.
Last is a Brass screw in ring. This one is rather large but on a big ornament would look OK.
Re: Inside/Out Ornament *LINK*
Ken Grunke
>Thanks for everyone's comments and ideas. Thanks John Lucas for posting the pic of various hooks. Jamie Donaldson suggested the fishhook idea on WoW and I thought what the...? But now it seems like a better idea. But it's off balance, you'd have to bend it a little.
I still kinda like my hairpin shape copper loop, to tell the truth. But I think it would look better in brass or even silver. It's easy to put in--just form a hairpin shape, stick it in a small hole drilled all the way through so you can bend the ends over inside the ornament.
BtW, a neat trick to getting a hole drilled exactly on center on these things is to bevel the corners with sandpaper before gluing. I usually just put pressure on the top end to avoid a hole on the bottom, where I might want to form a point.
You're right, John these are fun to make. I came across the inside/out technique for vases in a '97 English woodturning mag and the ornament thing just came to me out of nowhere. Then I demoed the technique for our club a couple years ago, and put together a tutorial to hand out with the demo. It's on our club website at the link below.
In the tutorial, I mention CA glue in just a small area as an alternative to gluing with brown paper, to make it easier to break apart after the first stage. Since then I've found double-stick tape, the type used for plastic storm window sheeting, works really good. Since one end can be held in a scroll chuck, you only need to put the tape at the tailstock end for about an inch to hold the 4 segments together. Squeeze each joint with a c-clamp and it will be quite hard to force apart--so putting the tape on just the end makes it easier to pry the segments apart.
How-To's, including Ornaments
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
John Lucas
>Ken
Excellent tutorial on inside out turning. I've found that nylon straping tape works really well to hold the end together that isn't in the chuck.
I plan to build one of the reverse cones to go on the tailstock and try that. I'm starting to turn my ornaments 2 at a time for the first turning. This really speeds things up. If I didn't have to glue them at all it would really help. After I turn a pair of them I reverse everything and glue it back up. Then I Start roughing the 2 ornaments between center and cut tenons for the chuck. Part them in two and they are ready to turn.
I also sand or nick a tiny slice off the corner on the first turning. This leaves a little divot when you reverse glue everything so that the piece is automatically centered.
Good job. I'll be building some shortly so I'll try to post a photo. John
Eye Pins *LINK*
Phil Joines, Krum, Tx
>I use eye pins from The Rock Barrell in Dallas. They are gold plated brass wire with a 1/16" ID loop. Adding a small junp ring allows a ribbon to be used as a hanger.
You'll need to cut the wire down to a reasonable length but the remains are long enough to make more hooks or rings.
The part number is 73357-28. It's also available in silver.
Rock Barrell findings
Re: Eye Pins
Ken Grunke
>Good idea, Phil, thanks. Only 3 cents apiece, the price is right.
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
John Crissman
>I like to use the Eagle Claw hooks. The barbs are a great way to make sure that they will not pull out. Plus they are pretty inexpensive.
John Crissman
Re: Inside/Out Ornament
Barry Turner
>Try cutting the shank off a gold-plated fish hook. They come in all sizes.