Charles Mak shows step-by-step how to make to a sculpture that will impress all your woodworking and woodturning friends
Woodturning is a fascinating activity … you shear away layers of wood, change its shape, and create something. So can be turning wood – that is, hand cranking a sculpture that produces the life-like action of a woodturner.
Constructing a mechanical build can sound daunting, given the need for the coordinated movements of all of its parts. But not this kinetic piece, because I have designed it to be mechanically simple. If you want a break from your usual projects, build this woodturner and let him work at your command – and to the delight of those who encounter him.
The kinetic woodturner comprises four key components: i) The workbench that houses the mechanical parts, ii) The mechanism, iii) The mini-lathe and iv) The woodturner. Like building a cabinet, we’ll build each key part and then put them together at the end. Let’s get to work!
The miniature workbench
The mini bench consists of the top, two side panels and the shelf glued to two support strips. I first cut a slot on the top and drilled a hole on the right side panel, as given in Diagram A. I glued up the workbench and put a couple of brads to reinforce the butt joint. Some scrap blocks were glued to the top to hide the brads.
The mechanism
I chose a crank slider and pulley as the mechanism. The crank slider is simply a cam with an arm (a wire attached to an offset screw) – see Diagram B – that pulls and pushes the woodturner’s body, while the pulley spins the turned object.
First, I made the crank handle and cam shaft by cutting and gluing dowels – one short and one long – to a rectangular piece. I made the cam and the collet out of two 32mm dia. discs with a 6mm dia. centre hole and drove a small screw on the cam 6mm from the centre point. After dry-fitting, I put them aside for assembly and gluing later. For the drive belt, I cut it to 200mm long and then joined the ends.
The mini-lathe
I cut a spindle as the turned object to a length of 50mm and drilled a 3mm dia. centre hole end-to-end. Following the dimensions shown in Diagram C, I cut out the mini-lathe on the bandsaw. I then glued a wooden toolrest to the lathe bed and as well as a dowel painted black to the lathe as the motor.
The pulley system was made out of a wood spool, dowel rod and retaining button. I assembled the spindle on the lathe with the pulley. The lathe was glued in position on the bench top such that the pulley aligns to the middle and centre of the slot.
The woodturner
The woodturner figure is the last component to make, consisting of the head, the body with the right leg, the arms, and the left leg, all to be connected to each other by 2.3mm dia. dowel rods. You may cut and paste the templates to make the body parts.
After cutting out the head, and the body with the right leg on the bandsaw, I drilled all the holes on the part as given in Diagram D and glued the head to the torso with a dowel rod. The left leg was cut and drilled before I countersunk the 3mm dia. screw hole and attached a screw eye to its end.
I cut out the arms according to Diagram E and drilled holes at the elbows. A skew chisel was made out of a metal strip and a dowel rod. Finally, the arms were joined to the torso and the torso mounted on the left leg, all with dowel rods without glue. Instead of painting, my daughter sewed some cloth to dress up the woodturner and I glued the skew handle into the right hand.
Plans
The final assembly
I screwed the woodturner’s left leg to the back edge of the bench top. After feeding the drive belt to the pulley, I glued the crank slider in place and glued some scrap blocks to the shelf for decoration. Lastly, I tied a wire connecting the screw on the cam to the screw eye.
After testing all the movements of the piece, I glued only the joints in the shoulders, leaving the elbows and the torso free to turn. You’re done – crank it, and turn some heads!
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLES MAK