Showing posts with label bells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bells. Show all posts

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Jingle bells

I tried to turn some Christmas Bells this year. My first attempt at turning a bell from memory was not a success. It has the look of a bell that was squashed. I Googled "Bell" and placed that picture in back of the lathe so I could see it as I turned. The next 5 bells actually look like bells.
Once I had shaped the exterior of the bell I used a Jacobs chuck and a Forstner bit to hollow out the interior of the bell. I added a small ball shape at the top of each bell and drilled a hole through the ball for a ribbon to make is easy to hang the bells from the tree.
I used several species of wood: maple, cherry, ash, walnut. One bell was made from an old blank of Red Maple that had been completely shot through with worm holes. I only noticed it while I was turning when I hit the worm holes a cloud of dust would appear around the piece. The holes are packed with sawdust and frass left by the beetles or worms. When cut open, the frass and sawdust flies out because of the centrifugal forces of the spinning blank. When I finished this bell, some of the exposed holes still had sawdust packed in the exposed holes, so I used a dental pick to clean the holes out. That bell has a unique, weathered look.