I managed to luck out and obtain a piece of Walnut with some nice grain - a combination of luck, and looking for some knarly figure.Īnd some samples of the patterns from the finished kaleidoscope. Most of the class turned their end caps plain, I opted to add the coves and a couple of decorative grooves. The wood is Claro Walnut, with Maple end caps. Although I took a Mike Darlow based turning course at my local lumber supply specialist, it has been a while since I had done any major projects.

It was a lot of fun, and a bit of a confidence builder - there are a number of fairly critical tenons and such used to glue these together. There are a couple of things I would consider changing for the next one I do.Ī moving object cell would be the first amongst the list - as most people that pick it up to play with try to turn the cell instead of the entire scope. This particular project was developed by Lee Valley specifically and fine tuned over a couple of years. Remind me to stay quiet and in the background next time.Īnyone interested in more of the technical detail on this project, let me know. Consequently, I was the one that got to 'try' everything first during the demonstration part and was used as an example. I was one of three in the class with any turning experience (with the exception of a fantastic instructor) and the only one that owned lathes. Lo and behold, a couple days later, Lee Valley provided the opportunity to make one without having to invest in extra equipment on a venture that may prove disappointing, disastrous, or a dead end after the one project. The Brewster Society was one I would up on during some link surfing. I'd never made a kaleidoscope before, but had recently run across a couple of interesting websites when I was looking into some finger spinning tops on-line. I recently managed to fit in two :) This was the first one. But I keep an eye out on the Lee Valley seminars - they often have courses of interest (made my first spokeshave in one.) Not only are the courses interesting, an opportunity to meet like minded folk, develop new skills with assistance, have good instructors, and include all required tools and supplies - they provide a dedicated amount of shop time. With the job the way it's been, I've been having trouble getting to the shop.

Wood kaleidoscope