Playing with Holes, Translucency and Internal Lighting

Jan 31, 2009 6 Replies
C

Am interested in getting past just Reflected Light bouncing off the OUTSIDE of a turning by looking into adding a light source to the INSIDE of a piece.



Been playing with little battery powered LEDs inside turned pieces - using holes to let light out - and translucent material (white PVC pipe) to allow light through. Have found a variety of small, inexpensive, battery powered LEDs and have done two Proof Of Concept pieces that demonstrate TRANSMITTED LIGHT and TRANSLUCENCY Lighting.



So far, so good - and - as the guy on Laugh In would say - "Verrrry Interrrrestinggggg.".


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M

Your chuck is taking up too much room, IMO.. My guess is you're losing about 1 1/2 or 2" in the difference between the chuck and a small drive spur or such..

OTOH, it this helps, I used to turn 18" hair pins on my mini, by running the stock through the spindle and through the chuck (talon), and extending the end to the tail stock.. Turn 2/3 of the piece and reverse.. I found that if I put a layer of blue masking tape over the sections that were in the chucks "inner jaws", the didn't get marred at all.. YMWV

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

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C

probably sholuld have included a link

formatting link

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L

I think glowing magic wands would be a big hit with the kids. They'll need to be voice activated with the right spells though of course ;)

-Kevin

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C

Drilling partial holes from the inside to produce glowing spots - great idea. Have a foredom handpiece that's about the diameter of a Sharpi pen and some ball end bone burs. Will have to try that.

Have a TeknaTools live center with a 3/8" diameter through hole. Hadn't thought of extending a turning through it. But, assuming I'm not starting with 3/8" diameter blanks, I'd still have to hold a blank in order to turn the tail stock end down to 3/8" or less. Guess I could start with a larger square blank extended through the back of the chuck and pick up an additional 1" or so of length capacity. But beyond that I don't see how to to use the hole through the tail stock end live center. Care to explain>

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B

charlie - maybe I missed something - but in answer to your question - when I'm turning a lamp and I want to drill the hole through the center for the power cord, I run the drill through the center of my live center

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C

I was asking for clarification of a method "mac" wrote about

"OTOH, it this helps, I used to turn 18" hair pins on my mini, by running the stock through the spindle and through the chuck (talon), and extending the end to the tail stock.. Turn 2/3 of the piece and reverse.. I found that if I put a layer of blue masking tape over the sections that were in the chucks "inner jaws", the didn't get marred at all.. YMWV

mac"

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