Our demonstrator for July was the elusive Hal Simmons. Hal is a well known turner in the Atlanta area who often demonstrates and teaches turning classes at Highland Woodworking. He also works for the Red Cross and has repeatedly had to cancel appointments to demonstrate for us due to inconsiderate disasters which demanded his attention.
For his demonstration, Hal turned eggs and a sphere. The egg was initially shaped between centers.
Hal made an egg chuck using PVC pipe reinforced with a PVC coupling to turn away the ends. The inside is turned to roughly match the contour of the egg and then slots were cut on the bandsaw with hose clamps used to tighten the grip on the egg.
As a quick aside, Hal turned a less precise egg, demonstrating how it could be done without the jigs, parting the completed egg straight off of the blank.
Next, Hal turned a sphere. He started by turning a straight cylinder with the length equal to the diameter.
Once that was complete he rotated the piece 90° and mounted it between some round concave pads he had turned for this purpose. Getting the original marked center diameter in-line with the lathe centers is important for the sphere to work out.
Once the project is properly mounted and spinning, you have a ghost image of the cylinder’s circumference which can be used as a visual reference to turn a perfect sphere.
