# How'd he do that?



## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

Any ideas on how to reproduce this penguin? It looks like this Norwegian turner glued a thick dark wood dowel into a maple blank and then glued strips of another dark wood onto the maple blank.

http://hauslondon.com/products/re-turned-penguin-by-lars-beller-fjetland


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Here's what I see for a glue up. All squared off pieces and then cut the ends at an angle and turn. (Dotted line is approximate center line for lathe centers.



















Don't know if that's how he did it, but it's one way that could work.


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## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

Fantastic! Thanks, JayT, I'll give it a try right now.


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## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

I think it turned out pretty good. The reason the wings are round instead of elongated is the lamination was only a 1/2 inch thick, whereas the belly was 5/8" thick.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Awesome first try. The body and belly are right on, just a matter of adjusting a little to get the wings.

Looking at the original again, the wing pieces on the glue up need to extend the full height of the combined maple/dark wood block. I drew it wrong to get the wing overlapping the belly piece.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Cute, I'll make a few for my daughters.


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## TimberMagic (Mar 4, 2015)

These "laminated" turnings are pretty straightforward. You start with a core piece of square wood (dark wood in the case of the penguin), and then glue on light strips on opposite sides. Then glue on two more light strips on the two remaining sides, usually overlapping the previous two. The center blank can be either square or rectangular, and can make for interesting reveals as tapers on the turning reveal the added layers.

Here are several reversible screwdrivers I made, with the bottom one using the above technique (like the penguin, but more layers). Woods are middle rectangle of maple, with two thin walnut slices on each side, then jatoba added on other two sides, and then purpleheart. I may have a cross section I cut off, and will post.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Yep, made a mallet like that


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## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

Another question, Jay. I've been playing around with different angles for the block and different thicknesses for the laminations. So far I've used a 15 degree angle and keep getting a flat area in the back. I'm terrible at geometry. Can you tell the approximate angle the Finnish turner is using for his penguins? http://hauslondon.com/products/re-turned-penguin-by-lars-beller-fjetland


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

Did a quick mockup in Sketchup and looks like 15 degrees is probably a bit much.

Circle represents the main body. 5 degrees on the left looks much more like the general grain direction of the original piece to me.










Are the wings coming out better after a couple practice ones?

Wish I had a lathe to try this out, those are just too cool for how simple they are.


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## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

Except for the wings, my first one turned out pretty good, but it was just dumb luck. I think the angle was about 15 degrees but I didn't measure it. The angle for the second two was 15 degrees.


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## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

Here's how the second two turned out. I extended the side laminations the full length of the core piece.


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## kmetzger (Jun 4, 2013)

The core was about 2 7/8" square. The laminations about 1/2" thick.


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