How to make a maraca on the lathe

This is a percussion musical instrument. It is similar to a baby rattle. I made it out of lime tree on the lathe.

First of all I cut a piece of lime tree to size using my circular saw.

I then used my jointer to flatten one side of the board. I cut it in half on the bandsaw. I glued the two flat sides together. 

I then cut two cylindrical pieces on the bandsaw. I did that so that the hollowed egg of the maraca would be hollowed mostly on side grain. This makes the hollowing process much easier.

Using my 1/2 inch bowl gouge I turned the cylinders true. With the parting tool and the skew chisel I created the tenons that would fit the jaws of my chuck.

I shaped the outer sides of the eggs with the spindle gouge. I then hollowed the interior with the bowl gouge.

The halfs are jointed together with a mortise and tenon. After I have roughly turned the two halfs, I glued them together on the lathe. I cleaned one end of the egg with a bowl gouge.

I then used the a forstner bit on the tailstock’s chuck and drilled a hole on one end of the egg.

Using a spindle gouge, I turned the spindle for the handle. I measured the forester bit I used before with a caliper and made a tenon on the end of the spindle with the parting tool.

I filled the egg with rice and glued the egg and the handle together.

I then finished turning everything. I used a straight chisel as a scraper to smooth out as much surface as I could.

I used my steady rest and a bowl gouge to finish the top of the egg. The steady rest helps reduce vibrations and also I avoided the piece from braking off the spindle.

I then sanded everything with 100 and 220 grit.

I used water based powder dyes to color the wood. First I applied the light color with a piece of cloth. Then I added the two darker ones. With the cloth I tried to blend the colors and create a gradient effect. 

I then lightly sanded with 220 and repeated the process. I then used a wet rag to better blend the colors.

I finished the piece with shellac. Shellac is alcohol based and does not dissolve the dyes. I applied six coats of shellac with light sanding between coats.

Using the skew chisel I parted the piece of the chuck. I sanded the bottom on the belt sander and finished it with shellac.

My maraca was now ready, it was a really cool and interesting project!