# Inside-out Wood Turning Vase



## nicky (Dec 20, 2015)

My wife's birthday was Dec. 4. The week before she kept bugging me to make her something special for her birthday since " you have all kinds of machinery and wood" she claimed. Well way back in the 60's I had built myself a wood lathe. I had bought a head stock and tail stock spindle and built the rest around them. The whole machine was built from channel iron, bed angle , some 1/2" by 2" flat bar for the ways and scrap boiler tubing for legs etc. Nothing very fancy but works fairly well.
A few weeks before I came across a mention on "inside out turning" which intrigued me.  So after watching a couple of U tube videos I decided that I could handle that myself. Back in the mid 80' I had done some teaching of wood turning but when my first wife passed away in 86 I quit and had not done any turning since myself. About 4 or 5 years ago I taught my grandson in Virginia how to do wood turning by example but that is all I have done on the wood lathe since 86. In his first year he won best beginner in a large wood show (won a Delta Mini Lathe) and in his second year he won best of show in the juvenile class as well 2'nd and 3'rd place. He has been tuning out all kinds of stuff ever since and exhibiting and selling them in galleries in the Richmond area.
So I decided that it was time that I did some turning again. I designed an inside out vase on paper using 6 different species of wood and a total of 19 pieces of wood. To see what is involved in inside out turning just google that and you can watch a couple of videos on the subject. I decided that I wanted to do something more elaborate than most of them were doing so I jumped right in.The first photo shows 2 of the 4 quarters after the inside out quarters were turned being glued together.
The second shows the outside being turned and the other two are the finished product.
Now that I have got the taste of it I have an old Delta Milwaukee  lathe sitting here that came out of a high school that had been robbed of various parts. I decided that I would rebuild it including making a new spindle and installing a 3 phase motor with a VFD. Just picked up a brand new 2HP motor for the job and started making the new spindle. I have done quite a few projects in metal over the last few years which have been show on this site over time including the restoration of a 56 Studebaker
So here is something new from me.


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## ch2co (Dec 20, 2015)

That is one cool looking vase.  Thanks for sharing.

CHuck the grumpy old guy


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## kd4gij (Dec 20, 2015)

Very nice work


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## brino (Dec 20, 2015)

Visually stunning.....and thanks for showing the glue-up so I can see how the heck you did that.
Great work!
Thanks for posting.
-brino


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## dave2176 (Dec 21, 2015)

Woodturning is very satisfying. Those inside out vases and even inside out candlesticks are really pretty. You do good work. Thanks for posting and make your wife something else she's sure to love. Ever time I turn something my wife will check it out while I'm finishing it up and if she wants it she will start singing "Happy birthday to me...." She's got a lot of woodturnings. 
Dave


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## magu (Nov 10, 2017)

beautiful work Nicky. I want to get back into wood turning someday.... mind sharing what wood species you used?


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## nicky (Nov 10, 2017)

Thanks. The base is Osage Orange. There is Paduke, Purple Heart, Wenge, maple,and Walnut for the neck and not sure what the striped wood was.
My wife has been hinting again but at this point I am doing some bricking in the Family Room behind the wood stove she has been wanting done so that may be all I get time for right now as it is starung to freeze and we need to get the stove hooked up again.
Nick


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## silence dogood (Nov 10, 2017)

The striped wood might be tulip wood.  Nice work


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