I had a magazine or something describing how to make a hollow tree ornament. It involved using four square pieces glued together near the ends to make a square blank. After some turning the glued ends were cut off, the pieces rotated 180 degrees, glued together and the outside turned.
I can't find the article now that I want it. Any clues where I could find this article?
Google "inside out turning" - you'll get lots of hits, probably one the article you're thinking of, or at least a similar one...
Gerald, the process is really very simple. Take four equal sized square blanks, form them into a square, number each piece and mark the inside edges (where they meet), glue them together using a "paper joint" (yellow glue on the mating surfaces and a peice of brown paper inbetween -the joint cleaves along the paper when you want to separate them) and mount between centers. Turn and finish a concave form. Remove from the lathe, cleave the pieces, rotate the pieces 180degrees and glue the four pieces together with yellow glue (this time is for keeps, so no paper) and finish turning to your desired form.
BTW, you can also wrap the pieces in masking take or duct tape, instead of using the paper joint. Its just that the paper joint holds better and since you are going to turn the surface where the paper was when you rotate and reglue, it isn't a problem.
Deb
If you can go for 6 pieces or wood, and taped together rather than glued, there was an article: Six-Window Ornament, David Reed Smith Woodturning Design December 2011, Issue #34
Thanks for the pointers. Kevin gets the gold star. In searching, the right terms are important. Found it.
I've got a feeling that with more than two steps I'm gonna botch it up. I sold a pile of regular ornaments last December and wanted something different to try.
Hello Gerald,
There are probably many articles on inside out turning for Christmas Ornaments. More Woodturning magazine published articles on the subject in the September 2001 issue and the November 2001 issue. I don't think any of those articles were written by me, but if you have old issues of More Woodturning, those are the issues to look in.
Fred Holder
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