RINGS

After seeing other people making wooden rings, I thought I would give it a shot. I looked at lots of videos on You Tube on all the different methods people used to make a ring. I settled for a simple method which I had very good results with

I started with stock at least ¾” thick. I start by drilling the inside with a forstner bit. Size the bit smaller than the ring size you are aiming for. You need to allow for some material to be lost during the sanding process. I only drill this hole a ¼” deep for now.

Next I start the outside diameter with a hole saw. Again I only drill part way in. I do these first two steps to insure the center points guide the bits straight in, without wobbling when starting the holes.

Now I drill the forstner bit down more, stopping so that there is about 3/16” left at the bottom.

The last step is to drill the hole saw all the way down.

With the ¼” hole that’s left in the bottom of this cylinder, you put in a ¼-20 screw, for mounting the cylinder on the drill press.

Now, using a short dowel, start sanding the inside with the drill press running, to get to the size that you need. I worked my way down to 400 grit to leave a very smooth finish. This is a must because you would feel any imperfection when wearing a ring.

After you’ve got the inside finished, then start to trim down the outside down as thin as you dare. If you leave it too thick, the ring would feel uncomfortable. If you have to take a lot of material off, you might need to start with a rasp. Otherwise just start with a low grit sandpaper and work your way up to 400 grit.

The next step is to cut the ring off with a 32 tooth hacksaw blade. Then finish sanding the ring by hand. I would use a caliper to check the width of the ring all the way around during the final sanding. It’s easy to get the width lopsided when sanding.

For extra additions to the rings, I did some other steps along the way. For making the black ring in the middle, I used a parting tool from my lathe, to cut a groove. Then I filled the groove with some 2 part epoxy mixed with charcoal dust.

For another ring I used a rotary tool to cut diagonal grooves in the ring. Then I filled those with some black epoxy again.

On another ring I used the rotary tool to make some small divots in the ring. These divots I filled with some brass shavings that I got from the hardware store, from their keymaker.

This was very hard to smooth down. I had to start with a metal file, before changing to sandpaper.

For a multi-colored ring, I laminated seven different colors of wood together. Then I drilled my holes at a 25° angle. To start the inside hole I started with a small hole saw, so that the long ¼” pilot bit would guide the hole saw in straight. I was afraid the forstner bit would bounce around when trying to start a hole at an angle.

After I got the inside drilled out, I finished drilling out the outside diameter.

Then, at the bandsaw cut cylinder free from the block.

Occasionally after I had the ring cut off of the cylinder, I found the outside of the ring had a little taper to it. So I made a small mandrel to mount the ring on, for more shaping on the drill press.

I used 4 to 5 coats of shellac to finish my rings with.