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Thread: Birdhouse Earrings Procedure

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    Tallahassee FL USA
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    Birdhouse Earrings Procedure

    These little whimsies have been quite well received. Turned from ramin dowel, 1/2in diameter. Black acrylic paint in the doorway, spray clear satin polyurethane overall. Gifts to friends, relatives, and neighbors.

    These were from an earlier batch. My improved(?) procedure follows in my next post.

    Joe
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Tallahassee FL USA
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    291
    It's difficult enough to make two matched turnings of normal size, and just about impossible when they're this small. The trick is to make a large quantity of individual pieces, spread them out on a table or such, and select pieces that resemble each other enough to declare them a pair. There's nothing sacred about any of the dimensions. When worn, earrings are several inches apart, and dimensional deviations are less apparent. But deviations in proportions and angles are more noticeable, so those deserve more concentration. I'm using both Imperial and metric measurements. Woodturning is an international sport, so you might as well get used to it.

    Materials:
    1/2" dowel; hardwood with tight grain preferred. These are Ramin.
    Toothpicks for perches (to be sanded to about 1mm diameter).
    Stainless steel wire, 0.020" or thereabouts.
    Fishhook hangers and plastic grips, available from craft shops.
    Epoxy glue for hanger loops.
    CA glue for perches.
    Black acrylic paint for the doorway.
    Clear spray coating; your choice of type and finish. These are polyurethane satin.

    Tools:
    Lathe (of course)
    Drill press
    1/8" drill bit - brad point preferred
    1mm drill bit
    Vise grip pliers
    Open end wrenches (for calipers and gauges): 7/16" & 1/4"
    Triangular file (for angle gauge)
    Small bench chisel (1/2" or 12mm), 25-degree single bevel. I find this more suitable for small turnings. Sharper is better; I prefer to hone the chisel on a piece of 400-grit sandpaper on a piece of plate glass.
    Chuck: Four-jaw with pin jaws or Jacobs. Jacobs may be preferred for single blanks.
    Simple steady rest (optional). This allows faster production and less waste; example in Part 2.
    Sandpaper, 80 grit for sanding the toothpicks for the perches.

    Take all these instructions with a grain of salt. This is just how I've made them. Modify as you see fit; in fact, I encourage you to add your own variations.

    Preliminary work: Clamp a 1mm drill bit in the vise-grip pliers, about 5/16" from the tip.

    Take a piece of 1/2-inch dowel, about 12 inches long, and chuck it in pin jaws or a Jacobs chuck. Set the steady rest about 1 1/2" from the far end. Use the 1mm drill bit, placed at the center of the dowel, to set the tool rest; the tool rest will function as a locator for drilling the hole for the hanger eye. The end of the tool rest can touch the steady rest.

    My preferred cutting sequence is shown in the attached sketch.
    1. Shape a 60-degree cone at the end. Use the triangular file to verify the angle.
    2. Cut off the tip of the cone to make a flat spot about 1/16" diameter. Use the corner of the chisel to make a small divot to assist drilling.
    3. Drill the hole for the wire eye.
    4. Turn the outside as shown to 7/16" diameter.
    5. Plunge the chisel perpendicular to the lathe axis, with the bevel facing the end. This short bevel helps to reduce tearout at the roof edge. Only a millimeter or so parallel to the roof edge is satisfactory.
    6. Turn the body to 1/4" diameter in stages.
    6a. Make "stopping cuts" occasionally with the bevel facing the headstock.
    7. Use the 7/16" wrench to locate a bevel cut at the bottom of the body.
    8. Turn a cylinder portion for the ball finial. The "golden ratio" provides a good estimate for the diameter. That would work out to about 5/32", but let your eyes do the measuring as a proportion of the body diameter, i.e. about 0.6 times.
    9. The bottom of the ball is 1/4" from the bottom of the body. (Simply because the wrench is available for a gauge.) Turn coves on either side of the ball. The easiest way I've found to turn such small coves is to plunge the chisel from each side of the cove, while rotating the chisel to about 30 degrees from vertical. Shape the ball with small slicing cuts, working around the surface.
    10. When the stem is about 1 or 2mm (or about 1/16") diameter, slice through the stem and allow the piece to fall into your hand. Sand the end flat. If you hone the chisel, and take light cuts, this should be the only sanding needed.

    Part 2 follows

    Joe
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    Tallahassee FL USA
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    Birdhouse Earrings procedure, Part 2

    The remnant below the piece will likely be close to the shape needed for the first cut of the next piece. Move the steady rest to about 1 1/2" from the new tip, and relocate the tool rest, setting its distance from the center with the drill bit in the pliers.

    Repeat until you've amassed a sufficient supply, or until you get fed up, whichever comes first.

    You WILL make mistakes. I always do. Usually you can turn away the mistake, and continue from there. If you need to re-turn the top cone, re-drill the hole too. This is another reason to use the drill and pliers to set the tool rest. And there will most likely be variations among the pieces. This may actually assist in assembling "matching" pairs later.

    Drill a 1/8" hole at about mid-height of the body, no more than 1/8" deep; this is merely to contain the paint defining the doorway. Drill a 1mm hole midway between the doorway and the bottom of the body, to receive the perch.

    Take a piece of ss wire about 1 1/4" long. Bend it into a "U" shape and pinch the ends together. Grasp about 2mm or 1/8" of the ends in a pair of pliers. Place a toothpick through the loop and use it to twist the wire until the loop is snug. Cut the other end to match the length of the 1mm drill. Make a few more of these than the number of turned pieces, just in case.

    To make the perches, chuck a toothpick in the drill press. Grip it with a folded piece of 80-grit sandpaper, and sand it to about a 1mm diameter. This seems easier than trying to turn such a small dowel, although a dowel plate might be justified. Make lots of these, because they're fragile. This operation is tedious; for the next batch, I'm considering pine needles.

    Glue a short piece of the 1mm dowel in the piece. Cut it off about 2mm or 1/16" from the face. Put a drop of black paint in the doorway.

    Glue the wire loop in the hole in the top of the piece. Orient the loop so that its hole is in line with the doorway hole.

    The final coating can be applied now or after assembling the pairs, but before attaching the fishhooks.

    Arrange all the pieces on a tabletop or such. Rearrange them into "matching" pairs. (e.g. "Hmmm. This one looks a lot like that one." And so forth.) Discard any outcasts, or save them for a later production run.

    Attach the fishhook by prying open its loop, and re-closing after engaging the loop on the birdhouse. Place the hook end toward the back of the birdhouse (obviously). Add a plastic grip to reduce the possibility of loss by the user. DAMHIKT.

    For best results, cluster the work into similar operations, e.g. turn all the pieces, drill all the doorway holes, drill all the perch holes, bend all the wire loops, etc.

    Steady rest:
    I made a simple steady rest to support the dowel near the working area. The arms are two layers of 1/4" plywood. I cut a notch at the inner face of all the piles, and after assembly, I drilled along it to receive the clamping bolt. The swinging arms permit use on different size lathes, but it isn't as rigid as I had hoped. I tried paraffin wax as a lubricant, but it didn't work very well. Instead I used WD-40 in a pen-like tube; later on, I drilled the upper arm for a wick oiler. The oil leaves a stain on the dowel, but that part gets turned away.

    I've probably omitted some vital details. Please post as many questions as you like. I'll be on the road for the next two weeks, but I'll probably be able to log in to field some questions; although if sketches or more pictures are needed, I'll have to wait until I'm back at my own computer.

    Joe
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