New Shop Made Ring Tool

[James Combs]

I had made some inquires over on the turner's forum about captive rings and did a practice baby rattle shape which didn't turn out too bad for a first, at least my "Baby" love it.
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After turning it I decided that I needed a better tool then the scraper and parting tool I used. Here is how I made one using a 3/8" Robert Sorby #805C Captive Ring Cutter blade.
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First thing I did was to take a piece of 3/8" key stock about 7" long and slot it with my jigsaw.
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I used my 1" belt sander to "fit" the blade to the slot.
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Then I knocked the corners off the tine end to fit 3/8" hole.
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Here is the result less a handle. This pic also shows some rounding and shaping of the business end of the key stock. I took off all the sharp edges and corners for fear of accidentally cutting into adjacent rings or project material.
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More in following post.(Handle)

[James Combs]

I am partial to the shape of the EasyWood tools so that is my go-to pattern for shop-made turning tools.

I verified the length of my blank then used a dimensioned sketch to turn the handle
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A short piece of 3/4" copper tubing became a ferule.
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Just in case you were wondering(no reason you should) what the grey carpet was. It is a piece of carpet I keep over my Grizzly table saw when I am using it for a bench. BTW does anyone recall the "Flying Grizzly" post?
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Here is the resulting tool with the handle Installed and finished with a couple coats of sanding sealer and satin RC poly.
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As too whether it does the job or not I will post a review of it later after I have had a chance to use it for a while.

C&C welcomed on the tool/handle construction.

[Richard Moran]

Very cool toy James. And the tool looks good too. I believe that mine had a more pointed tip to get in tight corners a bit better, but still had that "wrap around" shape. If I remember correctly, I drilled an off-set hole in the tip of a flat blade screw driver and shaped & sharpened it from there, maybe a bit narrower than what you show here. It really doesn't have to be too fancy just as long as you take it slow and easy.