LIGHTED VASE

This vase is an original idea that I came up with. I liked the challenge of trying something new.

For the base I glued the first ring onto the lathe support.

Then I turned a recess, at the lathe, for a disc, to fill the vases base.

Now I can start adding all the rings. Here I am showing how I make sure each ring stays centered on the lathe's faceplate, when stacking the rings. By spinning the faceplate on the shaft, I can check the clearance to the square, to make sure it stays even.

When I made the segment rings, I randomly put two paduak segments and one resin segment in each ring. The resin segments were made by making a trough in a length of red oak, on the router table.

Then I filled the trough with the resin. After the resin had set up for a week, I could cut them with all the other segments. So when you start turning the vase on the lathe, you don't see the resin on the outside. You just have to keep turning until the resin is visible.

This is what the inside looks like.

Topping off the last ring. This is my version of a glue press.

All ready to start turning. After turning the vase, I had to sand it all down to 3,000 grit sandpaper, in order to polish up the resin to the point where it was clear.

I don't have a way to drill out the end on my lathe, so I improvised to get a clean hole at the top.

I drilled a notch inside at the top, to hold a "fairy light" battery pack, to light up the inside. This vase has about 470 pieces of wood. I was very pleased with how it turned out.