Turning wooden rings and bracelets

[Jack Gaskins]

Need advice from those that routinely make wooden rings and bracelets. Do you have any tips/advice on making these things. I have read a few documents on the subject and watched a couple of youtube vids but they dont really go into any detail. My wife wants me to make her some rings and bracelets and was wanting to make sure I had all the information I could before giving it a go. Thanks.

[Steve Mawson]

Jack, I have made a couple. Took a little time to get the size right to fit over my wife's hand. Started out with a piece of wood laminated with walnut on the outside 2 pieces with maple in between-about 3 1/2 sq and 3 inches thick-need waste for the tenon. Turned it round with a tenon to fit a chuck. Put it in the chuck and hollowed out the inside to the size you think you need but did not go all the way through. Then turned around and used the chuck in expansion mode to hold what I had hollowed out. Then finished the other end. Hope this makes sense. PM me if you want some pictures. This shows the side but not where you hand goes. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=123557

[Jack Gaskins]

Jack, I have made a couple. Took a little time to get the size right to fit over my wife's hand. Started out with a piece of wood laminated with walnut on the outside 2 pieces with maple in between-about 3 1/2 sq and 3 inches thick-need waste for the tenon. Turned it round with a tenon to fit a chuck. Put it in the chuck and hollowed out the inside to the size you think you need but did not go all the way through. Then turned around and used the chuck in expansion mode to hold what I had hollowed out. Then finished the other end. Hope this makes sense. PM me if you want some pictures. This shows the side but not where you hand goes. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=123557

Thanks Steve. The bracelet looks great, how did you get the kokopelli inlay? I did find some pictoral information on making a bracelet over on Lumberjocks.com but the segmenting is still hard to grasp. The wife likes the bracelets with different colors in them but I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to make a multicolored bracelet, not layered but with like round or oval shapes in the bracelet . Oh well. Thanks again.

[Steve Mawson]

I have a air tool that I used to rout out the depression for the inlay. Then super glue and torquoise and some heavy sandpaper. For the patern I used a photo copy of the figure and stuck it on with rubber cement.

[Bob Hallowell]

I make alot of braclets for when I go to shows. I make 2 sizes and that seems to fit most. I drill them out with a 2 5/8 or 2 7/8 forstner bit- I think those are the sizes and then cut around the holes on the bandsaw. Next put a scrap peice of wood on the lathe and make a tennon to fit the inside diameter of the braclet. jam it on and turn one side flip it over and turn and sand the other. I finish them with ca. takes about 5 minutes on the lathe before finish.

Bob

[Jack Gaskins]

I make alot of braclets for when I go to shows. I make 2 sizes and that seems to fit most. I drill them out with a 2 5/8 or 2 7/8 forstner bit- I think those are the sizes and then cut around the holes on the bandsaw. Next put a scrap peice of wood on the lathe and make a tennon to fit the inside diameter of the braclet. jam it on and turn one side flip it over and turn and sand the other. I finish them with ca. takes about 5 minutes on the lathe before finish.

Bob

Do you make any segmented bracelets? Trying to figure how to glue up different strips of wood to get different designs.

[Bob Hamilton]

Hi, Jack:
First, I have never turned a bracelet or ring, but if you want ovals on the perimeter of the piece you can glue up a segmented ring, say an octagon, and then glue a small piece of contrasting wood to the center of each of the flat sides of the ring. When the ring is turned down to round the added on piece will become an oval. The tricky part would be in figuring out what size the octagon would need to be to get the right size hand hole in the bracelet and still leave the accents on the outside of a suitably thin ring.

I did some Christmas ornaments using the glued on accent piece a couple of months ago. I just glued a contrasting wood piece on to each face of a square blank but the result would be the same on a segmented ring. Here is a pic of the blank before turning:



I believe this was my first one and the accent pieces are way thicker than they need to be. After turning the results look like this:




Another method to achieve a similar effect would be to bore a hole in each face and glue in a piece of dowel turned from a contrasting wood. That could make the ovals appear on both the inside and outside of the bracelet, depending on how deep the bored holes were.

Good Luck!
Bob

[Jack Gaskins]

Hi, Jack:
First, I have never turned a bracelet or ring, but if you want ovals on the perimeter of the piece you can glue up a segmented ring, say an octagon, and then glue a small piece of contrasting wood to the center of each of the flat sides of the ring. When the ring is turned down to round the added on piece will become an oval. The tricky part would be in figuring out what size the octagon would need to be to get the right size hand hole in the bracelet and still leave the accents on the outside of a suitably thin ring.

I did some Christmas ornaments using the glued on accent piece a couple of months ago. I just glued a contrasting wood piece on to each face of a square blank but the result would be the same on a segmented ring. Here is a pic of the blank before turning:



I believe this was my first one and the accent pieces are way thicker than they need to be. After turning the results look like this:




Another method to achieve a similar effect would be to bore a hole in each face and glue in a piece of dowel turned from a contrasting wood. That could make the ovals appear on both the inside and outside of the bracelet, depending on how deep the bored holes were.

Good Luck!
Bob

Thanks for the help Bob. During work today in my office I would stop and draw some sketchs of ideas I thought would look good on bracelets but the hard part was trying to figure out how to glue different shapes and colors together to get the bracelet to come out like I have drawn it? I have never been good at figuring out glue-ups/segmentation.

Cant believe no one has ever made a video just on making wooden bracelets and rings and such. There are turning videos for everything else out there. Maybe if I start making these things and get proficient at it I can ask the wife for some $$$ to buy a nice video camera and produce an amature video .

[David E Keller]

Jack, I've turned a number of rings, and my daily wedding band is one that I turned. I've had better luck with rings using professionally stabilized wood. Arizona silhouette will sell you cutoffs by the pound, and I've also used the extra bits left over from oversized pen blanks. I use double stick tape to hold the blank on the lathe(any flat surface mounted to the spindle will work). After turning the outside shape, I turn the inside making sure to round over the edges for comfort. I sand and finish(usually with beeswax). Then part off the ring and make a simple jam chuck to reverse the ring. Clean up and sand the other side followed by more wax. You can sand further off the lathe by hand if needed. I usually apply a little renaissance wax after I'm finished and then buff by hand.

You could add designs a multitude of ways. You could drill the blank before turning and glue in a segment of dowel to add a contrasting wood tone. Routed designs or grooves could be filled with sawdust, metal powders, pigments, etc. You could cut the blank before turning it and add strips of aluminum can, pick guard material, or veneer to add contrast. You could even glue up small scraps of contrasting wood to create a blank.

They're quick to turn, and if your skills are as basic as mine, you'll blow up a few, but the end result can be a lot of fun. I get comments on my daily ring all the time. I've had a few crack after months of wear, so I chuck 'em and turn something else.

I hope that helps.

[Donny Lawson]

Do you have any pics of the ring(s)? That might be something I can use some smaller scraps for.
Donny

[Bob Hamilton]

Hi, Jack:
Scratch the glued on blocks idea I used on my ornaments. I just gave it a try on a cherry octagon and found that the slightest error in getting it centered shows up as a huge difference in the size of the ovals once the octagon is turned down to round. Boring holes and inserting dowels works but you really need a way to jig the drill and bit to ensure the holes are drilled radially and in line with each other.

Ahhh, the difference between theory and practice....

Good Luck!
Bob

[David E Keller]

Donny, my wife's asleep right now, and I'm not allowed to touch her camera without direct adult supervision. I'll try to get her to take a pic tomorrow and post it. I actually have several that I've done, so I'll try for a group shot. I turn 'em, and she does the photos.

[Donny Lawson]

Thanks,
I think that would be something interesting.Can you explain the process about the rings?
Donny