Wand turning

I've tried to do this. It's not as easy as it looks. I'll keep trying. - Owen -

Owen, I don't know how you do it but it's a little easier if you make the handle one part and then make the pointy stick end another part, rather than trying to make the whole thing a one piece turning. Also using different woods for some nice color combination and/or contrast.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Owen Lawrence wrote: > I've tried to do this. It's not as easy as it looks. I'll keep trying.

Sounds like a terrilby risky business: What if Lord Vol^H^H^H^H the lawyers of the marchadise company find out and come for their 1000% share of the profits?

But, do they Glow In The Dark?

I'm now finding it _very_ easy to turn these long thin tapers. I made a "trapping plane"

Geez, I've been making them for the neighborhood kids since shortly after the first book came out. Nothing hard about it. Getting 60+ bucks for them is impressive though. Guess it just goes to show that marketing is whats its all about......

--JD

> >

> > Sounds like a terrilby risky business: What if Lord Vol^H^H^H^H the > lawyers of the marchadise company find out and come for their 1000% > share of the profits? He's not claiming any relationship to the movie on his site, and magic wands were certainly readily available in commerce before the Harry Potter movies so it seems unlikely that they would have a chance of collecting anything.

Besides, he's small potatoes in the wand business.

LOL!

That seems to be a reasonable conclusion. Nothing original in the idea of magic wands. If he tries to tie them to the movie, then he's got problems, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

That may be so, but that kind of thing has never stopped the suits at W Disney from descending like a flock of angry dragons on any gray-haired Grandma who would dare to make a non-licensed craft project that remotely resembles the mouse or the duck.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

I made one but it wouldn't work. Do I need a unicorn or will the ashes from a phoenix work?

Oh man, "a phoenix", I thought it said "ashes from Phoenix". No wonder mine didn't work.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Actually, that's exactly what I was trying to do. I got it down to about a minimum of 3/8" thick by 1' or less, but after that I get a lot of catches. I'm not willing to blame my lathe entirely, but it vibrates a lot. My tools are as sharp as I can make them. I think I'll ask if I can try it on a friend's lathe to see if it makes any difference. It got to the point where I gave up pending building a steady. I don't know if I could make a trapping plane that would work any good, but that's a new idea to me (thanks Andy).

- Owen -

It _is_ a dowel, after all.

Or drive it through a plate, lay in tapered V-block and scrape the taper.

George,

Not sure I understand the "plate and V-block" arrangement. Any pictures of just how this is done? And any comments on turning cue sticks?

It's a lot easier if you use a chuck like the SuperNova2 or Talon type. Cut your stock square, chuck up the handle piece and drill a hole in the end for the tenon you'll turn on the end of the wand part later.

By using a chuck to hold the drive end and a live center on the tail stock you can greatly reduce one source of the problem - the springing you get when using a spur or stebb center on the drive side. Compressing the blank between the head stock spur drive and the live center will

If you start rounding from the tails stock end and work your way back to the chuck - cutting towards the tail stock also helps because you're automatically tapering, k with lots of beef to the left for rigidity. Cut the tenon on the wand part last as it will be closest to the chuck where things are the most stabile.

If you set the tool rest lower than normal and use a 1/2" or 3/4" roughing gouge, handle pretty low and do light passes, you'll reduce the likelyhood of a catch. Higher RPMs also helps.

And don't forget about the "80 grit gouge" I've NEVER had a catch using my trusty "80".

Sand to 320 before cutting in details.

Handle details with a half inch skew - at low RPMS, detail gouge at higher RPMs

(Here's some ideas for wands

and then try doing some hair sticks charlie b

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I understand that if you promote the wands as "Harry Potter" wands, you will be in trouble, I read a posting of a guy who had his listing kicked off eBay for this. If you promote them as "magic wands" you will be OK. There is a group on Yahoo called "wandcrafters". Not very active, but they have some images and info on making wands. Brad Harding HardingPens.com