Fluorescent resin and wood pendants that glow in the dark - Woodturning

 

On this project I used Inventables X-carve CNC machine:

Easel

X-Carve

CNC project files

Tools and materials I propose:

Lathe

Wood turning tools set

Chuck kit

Bowl bottom flat chuck jaws

Bandsaw

Fluorescent bright glow powder 

Vacuum chamber kit

Resin

Mini machinist’s lathe

Jeweler's saw

Solder and flux kit

Centre drill countersink bit

In this video I make two pendants. One out of birch plywood and one out of mahogany. On both I used my 3D carving machine to carve an owl. I then filled the owl element with fluorescent epoxy resin and used my woodturning lathe to turn them round. I also used my mini machinist's lathe to make brass hangers for both pendants. 

First of all I created my vector design of the owl and imported it into Easel. Easel is the on line software my CNC uses. So I set up my project and started carving  the design on my CNC machine. Note that on my design I have added a swallow circle. This will only act as reference so I can centre the piece on the lathe later on. 

When I finished, I lightly sanded the burrs left over from the router. 

Then I used my hot glue gun to add a ring fo glue around my design. This would help me later on while I pour the resin. 

Next I prepared some resin and added my fluorescent pigment. I degassed the resin in the vacuum chamber. I poured the resin and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I used a lighter to remove the bubbles from the surface. 

I cut the pieces round on the bandsaw and then I sanded them flush with my reference circle. 

I mounted the pieces on the lathe using my bowl bottom flat jaws. I used a pencil to create some reference circles on the bottom of the pendants. I then epoxied the pendants on a wood block. As you can see the circles really help to centre  them easily. 

I used a round scraper and a round carbide cutting tool to shape my pendants. 

I sanded dry from 100 to 300 grit. Then I wet sanded with mineral oil until 1000. Finally I used fine and super fine abrasive paste to polish the pieces. 

I parted the pieces off the lathe and then I reversed chucked them using my flat jaws again. 

Finally I made two hangers out of brass on my mini machinist’s lathe. The first one was a ring.  I cut the ring open with my Jeweller’s saw and then I soldered it back using a small torch lighter. I then made the second hanger and epoxied it in place.

My pendants came out really nice. It was a really interesting project. I hope you’ll enjoy it too. But that was it see you soon with a new project video. 

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