Linked Rings Decorated Box Top

By Roy Wood

As various club members showed interest in my lidded box in the March competition this is a rough idea of the procedure I used. I know that I could have used a router with the famous Jack Cox (Trend) Jig, but I was keen to see how the same effect could be obtained on the lathe.

My box was 7 1/4" (185mm) diameter, and the decoration, 6 1/4"(155mm) outside, and- 2 1/4"(55mm) inside. The procedure involved uses a scrap timber faceplate about half as large again as the work with a central dowel of about 5/16"(8mm) protruding about l/4"(6mm).

This disc can be fairly thick to dampen the effect of off-centre work and I also use mine with clips and screws to remove the dovetails from underneath bowls etc.

Next turn up a slave mounting of 1/4"(6mm) ply a similar diameter to the work piece. Drill a central hole the size of the dowel and scribe a 2 1/4"(55mm) diameter circle. Using dividers, accurately mark and drill 6 holes to fit the dowel around this line. Better still would be to use a simple drilling jig mounted on the tool rest and the lathe's indexing system. Now drill a 5/16"(8mm) hole in the centre of the work piece and using a temporary dowel through the centres for location, attach it to the stave with double sided tape or hot melt glue.

Number the holes in the slave and mount No. 1 onto the faceplate dowel, fixing with a suitable screw and large flat washer through the work centre. Note that it is only the dowel location that is critical. The accuracy of the eccentric circles is important to obtain equal gaps in the pattern. To this end a batten is clamped onto the toolrest with a slot cut to accept the chosen parting tool as a snug fit. This device will prove useful for critical cuts in other work, The rest must be set be far enough from the face to allow removal of the slave and work from the dowel without any disturbance.

Position the rest/batten by scribing trial lines with a slimmed down pencil through the slot until the 4" (100) circles fit the area required. Some care is needed to avoid tiny segments in the pattern that will be too weak to survive adjoining cuts. Once happy with the pattern the design can be cut. I ground a hollow in the top of my parting tool to minimise tearout. The lathe should be run at a lowish speed where vibration is eliminated and a cut 1/8" (3mm) wide and 1/8"(3mm) deep made. The central screw is then removed and the unit moved to mount the next hole on the dowel and refix the screw to repeat the operation on each setting. I expect that the system would also work with just three linked circles.

Before removing the work from the slave the slots on my box wore filled with black 'Inlace' resin (from Turners Retreat) and sanded flat to reveal the design. Any two pack resin would be effective and even a sawdust/glue mix could work. Folk with more skill than me could obviously use softened veneers etc. to good effect. The central hole was filled using a button style knob together with an inner blanking plug of ebony. I don't suppose for one moment that this method is in any way unique, but once again I was able to indulge myself by doing what pleases me the most, that is to say, "0K, so I've solved that problem, Now what's next?"

Mounting Method