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Christmas Lights

Project by 12ftguru posted 328 days ago 453 views 5 times favorited 12 comments Add to Favorites Watch

Now that I am done being “Santa’s Workshop” for the year, I thought I would post a little of this years output. These Christmas lights are from an American Association of Woodturners project book. I made them with Dymondwood from hutt products , a little bit of Yellowheart for the base and a small length of oak dowel for gripping in the chuck and forming a small tip for the “screw in” part of the base.

Out of all of the bowls and pepper mills and various oddities I produced this year, these where by far the most popular (I made about 30 of them in 3 different colors). They were also the easiest to make. Once they where glued up it took me about 30 minutes to finish one. The Dymond wood polishes up to a glass like finish so I didn’t bother to put a clear finish on top.

I already have new people asking for them next year. :-)


12 comments so far

View Mark Shymanski's profile

Mark Shymanski

1555 posts in 606 days


posted 328 days ago

Are they LED, series or parallel bulb LOL!

They look great, about how big are they?

-- ...it's rennovation time!!!

View 12ftguru's profile

12ftguru

14 posts in 468 days


posted 328 days ago

heh… if one goes out all the ones behind it go out. ;-)

Overall length is about 2.5 inches. 1.75 of the dymondwood and .75 for the yellowheart. I used an old outdoor Christmas light as a guide.

View Mark Shymanski's profile

Mark Shymanski

1555 posts in 606 days


posted 328 days ago

Not that you would want to plug it in but I am curious…could you thread them into real sockets? I think that would look pretty cool having all these wood bulbs on a real string.

-- ...it's rennovation time!!!

View 12ftguru's profile

12ftguru

14 posts in 468 days


posted 328 days ago

Sadly no, the “screw threads” are parallel. I suppose you could make a set with a traditional screw base.

For stringing them I just cut the hook off of a fish hook, drilled a hole in the end of the yellowheart and glued the top part of the fish hook into the hole. See below:

Bulbs with hooks

View TedM's profile

TedM

1843 posts in 626 days


posted 328 days ago

Great job! I had similar plans this year but got sidetracked with oher projects. I’ll use this as inpiration for next year. Thanks for sharing.

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com

View woodyone's profile

woodyone

234 posts in 485 days


posted 328 days ago

Cool idea, nice one.

Woody.

-- Woody, UK

View Jimthecarver's profile

Jimthecarver

427 posts in 679 days


posted 328 days ago

What a great idea, I was thinking about the wattage on them babies….lol
Nice job on them.

-- Can't never could do anything, to try is to advance.

View hairy's profile

hairy

293 posts in 426 days


posted 328 days ago

Good job! Thanks for showing how it’s done.

-- I'm a lumberjock and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day!

View trifern's profile

trifern

7894 posts in 661 days


posted 328 days ago

What a great idea for Christmas. You’ll have to make some chili pepper lights for the summer. Thanks for sharing.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

View rooster's profile

rooster

54 posts in 831 days


posted 327 days ago

These are so cool. I love it. Favorited!

View roadrunner0925's profile

roadrunner0925

34 posts in 515 days


posted 319 days ago

what made them so colorful?

-- wm, brandon,ms

View 12ftguru's profile

12ftguru

14 posts in 468 days


posted 319 days ago

The color is from the Hutt Dymondwood (See the link in the original post at the top of the page).

I have no idea how they make this stuff and what they do to get the dye so even throughout the wood (I suspect a high pressure infusion system of some kind), but a little bit of polish compound after sanding the wood shines like glass. My wife and I would panic if we dropped one, before remembering that it was wood. :-)

I have also used this type of wood for some small finials on boxes and next I am going to turn a couple of tap handles for my beer dispenser. It’s neat wood to work with, but I very much recommend a dust mask as it produces copious amounts of very fine dust. Sneezing blue for two days is never a good thing.

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