# Replicable Wooden Ring Process?



## DustyM (May 16, 2016)

Hey, gang, coming to you today with a question that I haven't really seen addressed here. I've been reading the forums for various methods on making wood rings (looking to do laminated rings with inlays, myself), and have seen a myriad of methods used: mandrels mounted to a drill press with a router and sprial cut bit mounted on the table, dremels, hand carving, belt sanders, etc. While reading all of this, I couldn't help but think that there has to be an easier way to make such a simple shape.

What I'm proposing is this: after laminating my work pieces and cutting it to a rough shape (mainly to knock down the square corners), cutting multiple "mandrel" plugs to fit various ring sizes. Then building a little jig to allow me to mount the mandrel with the ring bored out, and use this to creep up on my Ridgid belt sander. Using a bolt or other veritcally mounted rod as an axis, spinning this mandrel with the ring blank by my belt sander to get the initial rounded shape.

I figured with the above method, the time consuming part would be the creation of all the different mandrel sizes. For finishing, I'm trying to come up with some idea to get a piece of rubber (or something flexible and "grippy") with a center hole to ride on a pen mandrel on my lathe, with bolts or wing-nuts compressing the sides to have it expand and grip the ring better, allowing me to sand and finish the ring as I would pens.

Any thoughts on this, or has anyone had any success doing something similar? I'm looking for something that is repeatable and would be well adapted to doing multiple rings at once (plenty for friends, family, etc).

Thanks for reading!


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## Mutha (Sep 21, 2015)

Robert nurden on youtube has some videos up about ring making. He uses coins but he has a long stick looking thing on his lathe he uses to polish and shape the inside of his rings. It starts out big and is tapered. This could easily be modified with steps to accommodate the different ring sizes. Im assuming your drilling rings out of wood instead of using veneer. Anyway. GL snd i hope i helped a bit.


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## DustyM (May 16, 2016)

Mutha,
As if I don't spend enough time on youtube, now I get to prcrastinate on my homework even more tonight!
I'll definitely check that out, as the insides is the part that was posing the biggest problem. Prior to this suggestion, I was contemplating putting the ring in a chuck (wrapped, of course, to protect the finish) and delicately sanding through my usual finishing schedule.

Thanks again for the tip!


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## Mutha (Sep 21, 2015)

Lol yeah be careful, i find his videos to be quite entertaining, easy way to burn thru 10 minutes or 3 hours. 



 will get you to one video with him polishing the inside of one of his rings. I want to make some rings but think i want to use veneer. The drunken woodworker had an excellent video about using veneer for rings.


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