I have updated the pendant jig and made some modifications to it.
I was experimenting with adding an angle block to turn “tapered” pendants and the original pedestal that I had turned from ash split apart when I drove a screw into it to retain the wedge or angle block.
Because I had to take the jig apart to put a new pedestal in it, I turned a new sliding pedestal mount (SPM). I had drilled the original one on the drill press and I didn’t think it was running as tre as I would like, so I wanted to drill this one on the lathe. The original SPM was made from oak – the new one is hickory. The new pedestal is turned from black locust.
I was able to salvage the threaded brass inserts from the old pedestal mount by holding it a vise and splitting it apart with a wood chisel.
I also had seen where some turners tilt the pedestal blank to allow the “bottom” of the pendant to be thicker. I wanted to try to do that, so I made a wedge block that is held to the pedestal with a screw and double-sided tape. I tried a 5-degree block and a 10-degree block. I’m not sure I like the “tapered” pendants but they are growing on me.
Perhaps I will get some pictures and add them to this post.
Today, I made a visit to a different hardware store and came home with some different parts.
These are from the bottom up, a 5-inch long 10-24 screw, a steel collar with setscrew that slips over the 10-24 screw and a 10-24 threaded brass insert.
I removed the slider and drive mechanism from the jig.
I removed the 8-32 lead screw from the assembly shown above.
I removed the clamping screw and the pedestal from the slider.
I then drilled out the old 8-32 threaded brass insert from the slider and enlarged the hole to accept the 10-24 threaded brass insert.
I then installed the threaded brass insert. It works best to drive the insert into the wood with a nut on a screw that guides the insert into position. The screwdriver slots made on the insert do not take much pressure at all.
Next, I installed the 10-24 screw into the end block and slipped the collar up to the end block and tightened it.
Finally I installed the pedestal into the slider and installed the clamping screw. I threaded the 10-24 screw into the slider and installed the slider into the jig. I did have to drill out the end block on the other end just a bit so the 10-24 screw would fit into it.
Advantages – I can adjust the offset with a Philips screwdriver. The sharp end of the lead screw no longer is a concern on the exterior of the jig. The leadscrew is much easier to set up and remove any free play with the locking collar and an Allen wrench.
This post is to list some tips and ideas for making a pendant jig such as I have shown in a previous post.
Leave the plywood, etc square until the jig is assembled – this will aid greatly in layout. After assembly of the jig, use a miter saw to cut the square into an octagon and then round off the corners of the octagon on the lathe.
Cut a 6 inch square piece of high quality plywood – squareness and same length of the sides is more important than being exactly 6 inches
From a piece of S2S hard wood, cut two pieces with a 30-degree bevel on one side – these pieces must be 6 inches long and 2 inches wide at the widest part of the bevel. The grain of the wood should run lengthwise.
From the same hardwood cut a piece that is beveled 30-degrees on two sides and is 2 inches wide across the narrowest part of the two bevels. Cut this piece long enough to have a piece to insert into each end of the slot in addition to the 2-inch sliding pedestal mount (SPM) – make it at least 3 inches long. When this piece is assembled with the two pieces described in step 3, they should be the same width as the board cut in step 2.
Cut a 2 inch piece off piece cut in step 4 – this becomes the actual SPM. Save the remainder of the piece cut in step 4 from which to cut end blocks (see picture below). Sand the sharp “points” of the bevel flat.
Cut end blocks from the piece cut in step 4 – the end blocks should be short enough to allow the sliding pedestal mount to move at least 1-1/2 inches from center.
Mark the two end blocks and the SPM at 5/16 from where the bevel intersects the top plane of the block on both sides/ends. Assuming the thickness of the material is 3/4 inch, mark a point 3/8 inch from the bottom and drill at the intersection of the 5/16 and the 3/8 measurement. NOTE: the size of the hole needs to be large enough to allow the lead screw to pass through and to allow for some misalignment between pieces. The leadscrew needs to pass through the SPM and from one end of the piece to the other. Drill both sides of one of the end blocks and the sliding pedestal mount. Only one side of one of the end blocks needs to be drilled
Determine the “drive end” of the jig.
Determine the orientation of the SPM. Mark the center of the sliding pedestal mount.
Determine which side of the SPM will be the drive side. On the non-drive side, enlarge the hole away from the drive end and install a brass threaded insert and cut a slit from the side to the center.
On the drive side of the SPM enlarge one end of the hole and install a brass threaded insert. It doesn’t matter which end of the SPM the insert is installed in, however, read through these instructions and see what might be affected by which side it is installed in. When you determine how to capture the leadscrew you may want to recess one side or the other of the SPM for clearance.
Assemble the jig. Screw and glue one of the pieces cut in step 3 onto the plywood square cut in step 2. Determine the portion that lies outside a 6-inch circle and keep the screws inside that circle.
Use the end blocks and SPM to space the second of the 2 pieces cut in step 3. Glue and screw it into place. Make sure the SPM can slide between the two. If it will slide with finger pressure, that is good enough. The fit can be adjusted a little by sanding. It should have a minimum of play.
Center the square plywood and mount to the faceplate to be used.
Mount the jig on the lathe, slide the SPM to the center position and use a forstner bit to drill a hole for the pedestal mount. Doing this at this point ensures the pedestal hole is centered to the lathe (I used a 1-1/4 inch bit).
Turn a pedestal. If the holes drilled through the SPM in step 7 pass through the side of the hole for the pedestal mount, you will need to cut a cove in the sides of the pedestal to accommodate the screws that pass through that area (see picture below).
Assemble the slide drive components. The slide drive will move the SPM back and forth by threading through the threaded insert installed in step 11. For this to work, the lead screw needs to be captured. This can happen on one end or the other or between both ends. I originally used two juts “jammed” together on the non-drive end, by using a split end block with an enlarged hole for these parts to turn in. There could be other ways to do this. A few days later I upgraded the drive with a 10-24 screw and a locking collar – see the next post.
On the drive end, enlarge the hole on the clamping screw side of the SPM so a screwdriver can be inserted to tighten and loosen the clamping screw.
Some years ago I made a pendant jig from a plan by David Mueller that I found on-line.
I did make a couple modifications to the original plans:
I used my Beall 1-1/4 inch tap to make a collar (from red elm) that threads directly onto the spindle of my wood lathe.
I used brass threaded inserts and machine screws to hold the inner disk into the outer disk.
I also put a brass insert in the center of the pedestal mount for the pendant to retain it with a screw from the back side of the jig
I made a lot of pendants with that jig (shown above) – in fact I can find traces of over 30 pendants just on the pedestal shown in the center of the jig, and that is the 3rd or 4th pedestal top the jig has had over its lifetime.
There are some things about the jig, however that aren’t the best. The offset for the hole or for any decoration you want to put on the pendant is determined by the rotation of the offset disc. That is not linear and is a little hard to calculate. By using it I have learned about how much to rotate the disk and get the desired offset, but it is still a little bit of a guessing game.
Second, to re-clock the pendant to make the grain line up the way you want it to when you drill the hole requires that you remove the jig from the spindle and access a screw from the back side of the jig. This is time consuming, and on a larger pendant is even more time consuming as you must loosen the offset disk to bring the screw inline with the spindle hole to access it. See the next picture.
Another issue with this jig is that the wooden threads move with the season changes – I thought they were good, but this year I put a heater in the shop which has really lowered the moisture level in the winter months and once again I needed to run the Beall tap through the threads to ease them out a little but.
The last problem is that over time the jig is no longer flat, the plywood has apparently moved a little bit so there is just a bit of runout on the workpiece. All these things together made me want to try another jig design.
Recently, I read about and watched a video about a different pendant jig by Jim Duxbury. This one is quite simple and consists of a block of wood with a hole for the pedestal, and the pedestal itself – two pieces. To use it, remove two of the jaws from a 4 jaw chuck and clamp the jig in position – there is a slot cut in the block of wood so clamping the chuck down keeps the pedestal from turning when you put the chisel to the pendant blank. To offset the jig, you simply loosen the chuck and move the block to another position. To re-clock the piece for grain alignment, the pedestal can be turned when the chuck is loosened.
I made one of these – (See picture, below) and didn’t care for it much for a couple reasons – first, the adjustment for the offset is tricky to get exactly where you want it. The jaws from the 4 jaw chuck leave marks in the wood and if you don’t want to be in the same spot as previously it is very difficult to make a fine adjustment on the piece.
Second, the corners of the block can catch your fingers or your sandpaper while sanding which can be painful, or worse. I rounded off the corners with a bowl gouge, but they still protrude significantly.
A third problem – which may be of my own making, is that the jig moves just a bit in the jaws when I clamp it down which again results is a little bit of runout on the work piece.
So, after all that background – here is what I came up with.
I wanted a jig with the good features of both the Mueller jig and the Duxbury jig – so I decided to try to put one together. I wanted a pedestal mount with a linear slide and a way to re-clock the pedestal without needing to remove the jig from the lathe – this jig meets those requirements.
The pedestal mount is dovetailed and slides between two pieces of wood with matching dovetails. It is moves back and forth and held in position with an 8-32 lead screw. To re-clock the pedestal for grain alignment, a Philips screwdriver can be inserted into the chuck to access a clamping screw in the pedestal mount.
Other things I did to correct the problems from the other jigs – First, I used a home built steel faceplate (a large steel washer welded to a 1-1/4×8 TPI nut) as the spindle mount – this will eliminate movement in the threads with the seasons. Second, I made the jig round, to reduce the chance of getting finger caught in the jig.
To date, I have made three pendants on the jig and am happy with how it is working out. There are some things I would change if I could and will perhaps make a another jig with these changes:
I would like to change the leadscrew to a 10-24. This would require 1/3 less turns to make the same offset adjustment. However, it would also require larger holes in the end pieces to accommodate the nuts and washers
I am thinking of making a 3-layer sandwich in place of the two layer. In this deign, the leadscrew would be in the center of the jig and engage a tab that was mounted to the center of the pedestal mount.
If I make a another one, I may try it without dovetails, just with a stair-stepped pedestal mount. The dovetails seem to be working fine, and the off-center lead screw seems to be working fine.
I’ve been puzzling over how to drive the lead screw (made with all thread) with a socket head (preferred) or Philips screwdriver. Currently the drive is with two nuts “jammed” together and that means I need a socket to make the adjustments.
Yesterday, my better half was getting ready for church and found that the refill for her lint roller would not fit on the handle she had. So I headed out to the shop and threw this together. I hope this meets the criteria of an off-center turning…
Wood is ash – from a tree that stood in front of my daughter’s house when she lived in Mukwonago, WI. Finish is a home made friction polish made with beeswax, mineral oil and diatomaceous earth. It took me about 45 minutes and I was in a hurry.
Here are a couple pics of the piece on the lathe – I roughed it out between centers and then marked offsets for the drive center and the tailstock and then turned the handle between centers and parted off. I then mounted it centered in a chuck and turned the shaft for the roller refill. Finally turned a very shallow cap to fit over the end and drilled a hole for a screw to hold it.
Continuing the segmentation journey. I made this ornament. I calculate that including the top and bottom finials there are 170 pieces of wood in the ornament.
I have thought about trying to do segmented woodturning for years. In fact, many years ago I dabbled in it. I received a custom order for a segmented egg-kaleidoscope, and made a PSI top with segmented pieces. Both of those were a combination of walnut, maple and cherry, and both were glued with CA glue. I can’t help but wonder how those pieces have faired through the years. I think the top sold through Etsy, or possibly at a craft fair. I actually made two of the eggs, one delivered to the person who custom ordered it and the other sold through a craft fair or possibly on Etsy.
Anyway, at our woodturning club meeting last month (September 2024) one of our members demonstrated segmenting and it prompted me to finally take the steps required to begin. Our demonstrator suggested just trying it, even with a power miter saw if that’s all we had. It was too much trouble to get my miter saw out of where it is sitting, so I used the miter gauge on my Bosch contractors saw and set up a crude stop clamped to the fence, and cut some segments.
I must have gotten really lucky with my setups because the segments were almost perfect! I used the segments I cut that way to make the bodies for a couple acorns.
While the segments were close to perfect, there was room for improvement. So I have an old Delta contractors saw that I bought from friends when they moved to Arizona for retirement. It had been in the basement for years, but I recently made more room in the outdoor shop by selling an old wood burner, so I moved it out there.
Next, I made a segmenting “sled” for that saw from an old shelf and some scrap wood to cut 15-degree segments. 15-degree segments make a 12-segment ring. That sled is shown in the picture of the Delta saw, above. Also shown on the saw is a stop block that is used to set the length of the segment, and a ramp that sits along the blade of the saw to move the segments away from the blade as they are cut off.
That got me pretty close and I used that to make a fully segmented acorn box and a bowl. The acorn body was made from ash, cherry, oak and black walnut woods, and the bowl was made from honey locust with some black walnut accents in the second ring down from the top.
Oh, for what it’s worth, the acorn is a little over two inches in diameter.
The bowl is about 7 inches in diameter. The outside doesn’t look too bad, but the inside shows a number of places where the straight sides of the segments are not fully turned away and the transition into the bottom is not great. Also the bottom got much thinner than I wanted. I know how to address some (if not all ) of those problems, but at this point I haven’t had a chance to take another try at it.
Finally…..
For the last 10 years or so a device called a wedgie sled has been on the woodturning scene. The wedgie sled is touted as making “perfect segments” with no sanding of segment faces needed if you can get it set up correctly. It is fairly simple to make, so the next step in this progression was to make a wedgie sled. As I write this I have yet to complete a project with segments made on the wedgie sled but I have made a few rings with it which are awaiting assembly into some project or the other.
One of the first rings I made was one with 48 segments (below), which was because I mistakenly set the wedgie sled to 7.5 degrees where I should have set it to 15 degrees for 24 segments. I have not yet glued this ring together.
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The wedgie sled is traditionally set with a wedge of the desired segment angle. Rather than purchase a number of wedges at somewhere between 10 and 15 dollars each, I have purchased and been successful with a digital angle finder.
So if you have ever considered segmenting, I encourage you to give it a try. As the demonstrator from our September meeting says, “There are endless possibilities.”
I wonder if occasionally people end up on this site due to the fact they have acquired an “Empty Bowl” with my signature on it. And, perhaps someone may be wondering what I use for the “finish” on bowls I donate to the Empty Bowls event.
Bowl for “Empty Bowls” – Black Walnut
In almost every case, my “Empty Bowls” are finished with a coat of walnut oil. This is a commercial food grade product that comes from one of two sources, either “Mahoney’s Utility Finish” or “Doctors Woodshop Walnut Finishing Oil.” These are essentially the same product – an oil sourced from American walnut trees which has been treated to remove the substance that causes nut allergies.
In 2023, I experimented briefly with a home made friction polish made with beeswax, mineral oil and diatomaceous earth. These bowls can be treated the same as the ones treated with walnut oil.
I use the walnut oil finishes because the oil does not go rancid. It soaks into the wood and eventually polymerizes (hardens). If used for food, and washed repeatedly, over time the finish may appear to dry out. A recoating with walnut oil will restore the finish. If the walnut oil is unavailable or is too costly, there is a product sold at Home Depot and other locations called “Howard’s Butcher Block Conditioner.” This product is mineral oil based and will not last as long, but can be replenished as often as needed.
I set a goal of donating 100 wooden bowls to the Freiden’s Empty Bowls fund raiser for this year. I reached my goal in late July. Here are pictures of some of the bowls:
Extra Deep Red Elm BowlGrain Pattern in Red Elm BowlMulberry BowlsRed Elm BowlsBowls from a donation made by a club memberBowls with Special Rim TreatmentBowls with a special shapeA Typical BowlBlack Walnut BowlsPoplar Bowls (Yuk)Sugar Maple Bowls
A comment to begin … this is without a doubt the hardest cherry wood I have ever turned. These bowls are “roughed out” – that means that wood will be turned away from both the inner and outer surfaces after they dry, and decoration can be added near the rim of the bowl. So, because the tool was bouncing on the surface of the bowl you may see significant chatter and ridging in the turned surface – this will be turned away when the bowl is finish-turned, several months in the future.
Today was more of the same, except we began the day with two problematic bowl blanks.
The first bowl today was problematic because of a deep pith-crack which branched down into the wood.
We chiseled a lot of it out so we could contact solid wood with the spur drive.
We shaped the back and then turned it around and cut away a lot of material until we eliminated any cracking (we hope).
I wasn’t sure we would be able to get an inner (cored) bowl from this piece but we got a nicely shaped and reasonably sized bowl from inside the larger one.
Both the shot above and the shot below suffer from a wonky camera angle. The rim (above) is not nearly this thick in relation to the diameter of the bowl, and the end of the yardstick (below) is actually even with the edge of the bowl. So, we were able to get a 12+ inch outer bowl and a 9-inch inner bowl from this blank.
The second bowl was problematic, first because it was not symmetrical – it had a large lump on one side of the center which needed to be turned away to bring the bowl into balance.
Second, the lump that needed to be turned away concealed some wild grain – almost worthy of being called a burl. However, like many burls, there were cracks in the grain.
I did not core this bowl blank because of those cracks on the exterior of the bowl. I was afraid that coring would put enough pressure on the wood to crack out the entire side.
Unfortunately, the cracks go all the way into the inside of the bowl. We won’t know whether this bowl will be viable or not until it dries down a ways. We may be able to epoxy the cracks.
The remainder of the bowls were more or less unremarkable – today we ended up with a total of eight bowls from the five remaining half-rounds.
Here are individual pictures of the roughed out bowls from today, in no particular order. Some will have no comments. The bowl below is pretty good, but we will keep an eye on the knot in the side of it.
The next bowl is the inner bowl from the one above – it too has a knot or two in the side which may affect its viability when it comes time to finish turn the bowl.
Another bowl with a couple knots in it (below).
The bowl below was the core from a larger bowl – it has a spot on the rim that we hope does not lead to a crack as it dries.
The bowl below looks good with not evident flaws and some nice grain patterns.
The bowl below is the core from the bowl above – a bit smaller than some of the other cores, but a nice little bowl with no obvious flaws.
The last bowl I turned this afternoon I did not core – I turned away a lot of rotting sap wood and it ended up much smaller than the original bowl blank.
The last two picture show the pile of shavings behind and below the lathe. About one-fourth of these were there before I started this project.
