The Next IT Contest Entries

[John Hart]

Hi all! This is the place for The Next IT Contest Entries!

I would like to kick it off with my EXAMPLE Entry. This is not an official entry...Just an example.

Snakewood and African Blackwood Magnifier

This little device is intended for Fly Tying but since I've never tied a fly in my life and I don't Fly Fish....Well...I guess it's just gonna hafta sit on my desk. It stands 6" Tall (measuring the centerpost height), 21" from claw tip to claw tip, and the magnifier is 3.5" in diameter. The finish is buffed BLO. This took me approximately 23 hours and I started it last Wednesday, January 25th. I had no plans...Just looked at a metal one and kinda made it up as I went along.

Thanks for looking....and GOOD LUCK!!
SHOW PIC #1
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SHOW PIC #2
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SHOW PIC #3
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[John Hart]

Close UPs (These are optional)

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Next Post is the Required HOW-TO

[John Hart]

This project basically started with me looking around the room. There were quite a few things I saw that I thought I could turn into a project....but I was running out of time. With less than a week left before the contest, I decided to replicate one of these things.
1-Inspiration.jpg

I have some Snakewood boards that were given to me by Mike Glazer, but I didn't have a chuck that would support them. So I had to make a chuck.
Just took a piece of mahogany
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Turned it to a cylinder
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And put a hole in it that would accomodate the square rods of Snakewood
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[John Hart]

Making all the spindles for this project was the most tedious part. I cut several square rods and got them round
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This gave me a good chance to finally use my steady rest. It's not the greatest steady-rest on the planet...but it worked!!
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Then I turned all the various snakewood spindles. I gotta tell ya though....I lost a bunch of them!
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[John Hart]

The Centerpost.

I gave a lot of thought to this part. I knew that I would have spindles running through, perpendicular to each other...and I wanted it to not turn out blocky and bulky...but still have strength. I had some African Blackwood stored away for a rainy day...so now was the time.

First, I mounted the piece to the lathe to knock the corners off and inspect how centered the piece was.
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Then I drilled two perpendicular 1/2" holes, spread just far enough apart to give me strength in the final turning and not look stupid. (that was the tough part)
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Then turned the Cylinder
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Then just free handed a spindle that had some curves and allowed me to get some fun Skew work in.
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And this is how far I got on the first day.
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[John Hart]

The Base

The Base was made by mounting a piece of Snakewood to a block of Ringshake Beech (useful stuff)
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Mounted it up and turned it. Nothing special...just kinda fun. I did find that it was easier to turn the corner of from the face of this, because the snakewood had a tendancy to splinter.
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Sorry about the focus....but here it is
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Next was the Flatwork - Those pesky little holder things. I decided on African blackwood to match the centerpost.
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These were simply cut on the Table saw and then rounded on the beltsander. I did one set with a Dremel router bit...but didn't like the look..So I decided to go rustic
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[John Hart]

Drilled Centerholes to accomodate a tap on one side and a through-hole on the other side.
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Then used a 3/8ths bit to put the two Detent holes for the ball joints
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Then tapped the hole on one side
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And fit it up
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So far so good
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[John Hart]

The Magnifying Glass

This was the scary part. First pic shows it mounted up on a small piece of Beech that allowed me to get behind it.
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Made it round....As lathes tend to do.
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I continued to ensure that the magnifying glass would not quite fit in the opening but tried to get it as close as possible
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Then went deep. First, I bored through the center so I could see where the bottom was. That helped take some of the guess work out of it
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Before parting it off, I put the indentation into the frame to accomodate the glass
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[John Hart]

Here was the hard part. I had to break it to insert the glass.
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Got it all glued together and then turned a ball joint for the Magnifier...Next to a giant dime
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All that was left was some simple assembly...very little glue. I used epoxy for the Center post to base and to get the arms in secure....Oh and the Itty bitty spindle for the Magnifier pivot.

That's it!!! <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->

[Ernie Nyvall]

Wow John, that is impressive. I don't fish for flies either, but that thing looks like it would work fine for making them.

With this, you have really presented a challenge to all of us.

Ernie

[Jim Dunn]

Very nice John, but you stole my idea Just kidding. I'm a thunking! My head is still spinning from trying to look up stuff for my signature line this past weekend.

[Mike Ramsey]

Thats a lot of little turnings! Great job John!
Oh & I liked the way you recylced those roach clips .

[John Hart]

Thanks y'all...Yeah Mike....ever since I took up Lacquer....I got no need for all that teenage paraphenelia!
Oh...Here. I figured out a use for the Magnifier. An Itty Bitty Looker-Atter thing! This is the Itty Bitty that Keith Burns gave me.

[Keith Burns]

Well, I give up Another great one John I still give up

[Andy Hoyt]

Well done, John. I like the very first picture the most. Reminds me of Bill Stevener hunkered down over his spinner thing doing itty bitty spinny things.