Woodturning With a Bandsaw

Woodturning on a bandsaw!

I was invited to create a pawn chess piece for the Makers Central chess piece challenge...32 makers each making one chess piece...the whole set to be auctioned off for charity at the Makers Central show.

This idea was inspired by Izzy Swan and Jimmy Diresta who built a jig to spin timber above a circular saw to turn wood without a lathe...

...with some simple to make jigs great results can be achieved with the use of a bandsaw to turn little things.

Come with me and find out how to turn wood without a lathe...

Makers Central is the UKs first big maker show bringing together top names in the maker scene...Jimmy Diresta, Izzy Swan, I like to make Stuff, Home Made Modern, Laura Kampf, Giaco Whatever, Get Hands Dirty...and so many more...two weeks time in Birmingham UK [5-6th May 2018]

The challenge was for thirty two makers to each make a chess piece for the set, each in their own unique style, materials and colour!

Make it...put your makers mark on the bottom and send it in...one lucky person will be the proud owner of a very unique chess set. Check out Makers Central website for details.

As no colour was specified...I decided to make a parquetry of a chess board chequer pattern...it would make an interesting pattern to the turned pawn.

The pawn was to be about 50mm high and 35mm at its widest.

Follow on through the steps to find out how the piece can be either black or white.

Materials

Some dark and light hardwood - I used Walnut for the dark and Maple for the light

PVA glue

6mm MDF pieces for the jigs

Ply or thicker MDF for the brackets + turning block ends

2no. 22mm bearings

2no bolts to fit through the inner hole of the bearings + 2no. nuts to fit

2no. panel pins

Tools

Gerneral woodworking tools

Circular saw to cut strips [bandsaw with ripping blade would work]

Thicknesser or hand plane

Bandsaw

Cordless drill

Forstner bits to fit the bearings

Abrasive paper

Briwax

Plane the edges of your selected timbers square and flat...

...slice and thickness the timber to a 5mm thick finish...

...and trim the strips to length...I made a block that I could turn two of the pawns from so I could choose the best to put into the set and keep the other as a memory.

Glue the strips in alternating layers of colour...

...and clamp together until cured

Lets do the same process again!

Plane the block square...

...trim ends...

...slice into strips and plane to 5mm...

...add glue...

...stack the layers in a chequered board pattern...

...and clamp until cured...

...you should now have a very cool looking chequerd pattern running through your timber just like a 'stick of rock'!

Cut two squares of ply or MDF the same size as the ends of the block...

Drill a hole in the centre and recess the head of the bolt flush with the face of the ply.

Thread on a bolt and tighten down onto teh ply...this will hold the ply and bolt tightly together and spin nicely on the bearings on the bracket [coming up in next step]

Carefully glue and clamp the assemblies to the ends of the block...try and get this as accurate as possible to avoid wobble when turning...as you will see in my video I could have done better!

To turn our beautiful block of wood we need to make a turning jig.

Make two brackets with some scraps of ply or MDF...glue and screw together...

...make sure that they are tall enough for the block to spin without touching the bandsaw table...

...mark at one end the position of the centre that the block will rotate around...

...clamp the two brackets together and drill a pilot hole through both so that they are in the same position on both brackets.

We will use a 22mm sealed bearing on both brackets to allow for smooth spinning.

Drill out to half depth on the inner face of teh bracket to allow the bearing to snugly push fit in...

Drill out the centre for the bolt to pass right through with some slack.

Cut a piece of thin 5mm MDf for a base and screw one bracket onto the base...

...Slide in your block with glued on pins...slide on the second bracket and screw in place to the base board

A simple jig needs to be made for bandsaw table to allow the turning jig to run up against...

Cut a piece of thin MDF [good and slippy] to cover the front half of the bandsaw table...

Glue on a strip to the front edge...

...When cured start up the bandsaw and carefully allow the blade to cut through the strip and clamp in place to the table.

Attach a cordless drill to one end of the turning block by tightening the jaws around one of the bolts...

...press the trigger and spin the block to check for wobble...if all is good we can start to turn.

Push the turning jig up to the stop on the bandsaw jig and check that the bandsaw blade is flush with the flat side of the block...spin around for all four sides to set to the furthest in face...

...clamp the bandsaw jig in place.

UPDATE - As has been pointed out in the comments please be aware to use a bandsaw blade with lots of teeth - high teeth per inch [TPI] designed to cut timber across the grain. A bandsaw blade with low teeth per inch may catch the timber.

WARNING - If you have a bandsaw you will know that they can cut off fingers super quick...keep your fingers away from the blade at all times and make sure that you have a firm hold of the turning jig at all times.

Pull the turning block back away from the bandsaw blade and switch on the bandsaw.

Set the cordless drill to spin the block upwards in a rotation that is spinning the block into the bandsaws teeth that are descending...

...slowly bring the spinning block into the bandsaw blade and slide sideways taking a very cut...just the depth of the teeth of the bandsaw blade....

...repeat until you have turned a nice cylinder.

It is advisable to set the bandsaw jig to only allow the removal of the tooth depth, advancing the jig and securely re-clamaping for each pass, this will give a firm stop to run along.

The big benefit of turning like this, is that you will use a template...this will allow for multiple exact copies...perfect if you are making a whole chess set.

First of all hammer in two nails into the front edge of the turning jig...make sure that they will be outside of the cutting area.

Draw your desired shape and cut out a stencil...cut it along centre line...

...cut two strips of thin MDF to make two templates...

...stick the stencil to the strips and carefully cut out the shape...I taped the two bits of MDF together and cut in one go giving exact copies.

Place the turning jig with the pins touching the bandsaw jig front strip...determine the position by placing to the right hand side that you will want to start turning the shape.

Glue the two templates to the left hand side of the pins of the turning jig...pushed up to the pins.

As before switch on the bandsaw and spin the block up into the blade...

...take small depth of cuts only the bandsaw teeth depth will cut...

It is advisable to set the bandsaw jig to only allow the removal of the tooth depth, advancing the jig and securely re-clamaping for each pass, this will give a firm stop to run along.

...slowly cut down until the pins of the turning jig start to follow the templates turning your shape into the block of wood.

When the shape is turned...turn off the bandsaw pull the turning back from the blade...

...spin the block and apply abrasive paper to sand to a nice finish.

Cut off the turned piece from the timber block...

...and cut off the head of the pawn!...leaving a neck pin.

Drill a hole into the end of the body of the pawn so that the head is a snug fit.

The pawn needs a nice thin collar between the head and body...

...cut a very thin strip of both of the timbers...

...and sand to as thin as you dare.

Glue together...when cured drill a hole in the middle to fit the head pin diameter...

...cut into a disc and sand to a nice circular shape.

Slot the collar over the pin of the head and push into the body...look down from above and line up the chequer pattern.

As my design for the pawn is not either black or white...the collar denotes the colour of the piece...

...which ever colour is pointing upwards is the colour of the pawn...Walnut is black...pull of the head and flip around for the Maple on the top to play as white.

Spray stencil my makers logo to the bottom of the chess piece so that the eventual owner of the set knows who made which piece...

...give it all a coat of wax to bring out the beauty of the wood...and done...

...nearly!...

Such a little thing feels like it needs a special box to increase the experience of the piece...

A quick fingered box made from off cuts of the stripy strips of timber...spray with logos + text...place the unique chess piece inside and pack with some of the fantastic stripy shavings...

...make a little concertina pamphlet of how the change of colour works...

...box up and post off to join the rest of the chess set.

Super happy how this project turned [!] out...a new technique for me inspired by some of the makers that will be at Makers Central.

Check out Makers Central website...if you are quick there may be some tickets left...it would be great to see you at the show...I will be wandering around for the whole weekend taking in the vibe, meeting makers and handing out stickers...if you are there find me and say HI

I am entering this project into the Pocket Sized Contest as the chess piece is definitely pocket sized! and if you have enjoyed this project, I would really appreciate your vote...thank you so much.

This project is part of my YouTube channel where I try to make cool and interesting projects. Please check out my channel if you want to see more of the projects, if not there will be more coming to Instructables soon. Why not check out what I am up to on Facebook. + Instagram