Too plain for pens

[GaryMGg]

I bet many of us have lots of blanks we've turned which just looked to plain for pens.
I had a bowl full of little spindles which just weren't going to become pens.
Last week, Mrs said "make me a wooden windchime". They're quieter than metal chines; she wanted some in her garden.

This is made from various hardwoods and a black acrylic. The upper piece is Cypress.
No big deal but I thought maybe someone will want one too.

 

[SteveJ]

Cool. Did you turn those with tubes?

 

[GaryMGg]

No.
Sometimes, when I make a number of blanks from my lumber supply or start with a rather large piece, I'll turn a cylinder between the 60 degree live and dead centers to see what it will look like.
I would do cylinders just for practice too. Same way.
Plain ones don't make it to pens.

 

[SteveJ]

So they are just cylinders and not hollowed out...

Do they make a decent chime?

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Whoa!!! What a great use of "available resources". For sure I'm going to steal this idea.
WELL DONE!

 

[Kenny Durrant]

Nice idea. I often use the plain pieces for segmenting. The pieces are small enough I use them for color and not grain.