Ron Williams started out the meeting with showing one of the nutcrackers he made. Gothard Knuteson "Knute" was our member demonstrator for the evening. Here is a photo of the style of top he will be making this evening. The raw material for the spinning top is on the right side of the photo. Here is Knute's method for holding the top: Between a tapered block held in a chuck, and the tailstock. Turning begins with truing up the diameter of the workpiece, then truing up and tapering one of the top's faces. Here Knute parts off the dowel that the top will spin on. Double sided tape holds the workpiece to the chuck block, here the top is being pried free. With more tap holding the workpiece to the chuck block, the other side of the top is trued up. After a handle is made, the
top is ready to be tried out. Here Ben gets the finer points of how the top looks, how it is assembled, and the test run! |
