Christmas ornament follow-up(instructions)

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low_48

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Peoria, IL, USA.
Thanks for all the kind words on the ornaments I posted the other day. I do not hollow the spheres. In this area of the country, I would not get a $.25 more if they were light weight or not. I sell them at our turning club charity event for a $20 bill and they fly away quickly, the kids getting all the proceeds. I usually stop at 20 ornaments for them, making a nice donation for their Christmas fund. At the Art Guild I charge a little more than double that, the guild gets half.[B)] It's a good organization though, it doesn't feel thaaaaatttt painful.
The pic shows the material I start with. A 6" piece of 3/4 dowel rod, and a block that is 2" square and 1 3/4 tall. The dowel protrudes 1 1/2" out the top. (I drill a 1 1/4" hole in a 2x4 and put the block of wood on the 2x4, centered over the 1 1/4" hole. I drive the dowel through the hole in the block and through the hole in the 2x4 till it hits the bench. "Automatically" setting it to 1 1/2" out.)I chose the 6" length of dowel so I can get 6 pieces from a 3' dowel. I mostly make my own dowels now. 4 passes on the router table on a 3/8 round over bit. I also have a piece of 1/4" steel that has a 3/4" hole in it. This is called a sizing plate and scrapes off any flats on the dowel stock and makes it a good 3/4" dowel.
The brass plated hardware I use for the hanger is a french hook earing and a 2" eye pin that I get at Michaels Crafts. I bend the earing around a 1/4" dowel to form a full circle and then trim to length. I open the eye in the pin with a ice pick, place it through the eye of the earing, then pinch it shut with a needle nose pliers. I form the loop on the eye pin with the 1/4" dowel and away goes some more Christmas joy:D

2006111115214_ornament%20followup.jpg
 
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Great idea!

I always hollowed out my ornaments but I think I'm going to try a varition of your technique. That is I'm going to drill out the blanks like you but still attach my finials like I do.

Thanks!
 
Question...

Are you gluing the the block to the dowel? If so, what type have you found that works best? Just typical yellow glue? CA?

Thanks,
Jerry
 
With out hollowing them how do they hang on the tree? I hollow mine and when I use heavier woods it will pull the branch down a little. To me hollowing is part of the fun of making them too. But your approach is definately quicker than mine.
 
I got desperate trying to download videos like this. Such as The Woodworking Channel. I actually used my video camera and recorded it off my laptop screen. This will also work on your desktop if you have a LCD screen. I don't think it will work on CRT's. Really worked pretty good.
 
I sent Larry an E Mail asking permission to post his video here. I gave him the forum post link. He & I are members of Woodturer's Resourse. Another turner forum with a lot of excellent people like there are on here. Will let you know when he ge's back to me.

Chuck
 
I do use Titebond original to glue them together, works great. The dowel is usually pretty snug. When I drive it about an inch into the block, I brush on a little glue, then drive it the rest of the way home. I have never hung one on a tree. I've always sold everyone that I have made, well except the ones I have given my Mom. She has never put one on a tree either. She displays them year-long, hanging from various places around the house, and from some stands I made. I don't mind the hijack, I was suprised to see that much response when I logged back on[;)]I watched the video, very nice job. One of the guys in our club turns a big bunch of those each year. He buys lots of minature Christmas figures for inside or the ornaments, or using dyes to get a colored tree.
 
I spent a day making ornaments with Bob Rosand. This makes hundreds of ornaments every year that are all hollowed out and some his wife paints. It was well worth it, Bob spent all day with me and then sharpened my tools and made me a hollowing tool and sent me home with wood to make my own. The guy knows his way around a lathe.

This is his web site. http://www.rrosand.com/index.html
 
Just right cleck on the link below and save as. Worked for me, if word comes back we can't keep it I will delete it.
Bob

I tryed again and it didn't work. The lost one by Larry does.
 
I got an answer from Larry Marley, Here it is.

Hi Chuck,
It is OK to link to my site, just as WR does, but I do not authorize them to publish my videos on another web site.
I don’t mind if people save the video to disk, for personal use. Here is how to do it.
The video is called in a script so you can’t just right click and do a “save asâ€
You need to link to the absolute path of the video.
This will run the Video on your PC’s local player.
Then, within the video player use the menu, â€File / Save As….â€, to save the video to your hard drive.
Here is the link:
http://marleyturned.com/videos/Ornament.WMV

I looked at the IAP and the pens displayed there are very impressive.
Please forward my reply in its entirety.

With Kind regards,
Larry Marley
Marleyturned.com
 
Thanks again Richard

I tried your method late nite
While this would be a great way to speed up production, I think the ornaments are a bit to heavy.

Still might come in handy someday.

Enjoy!
 
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