# First Day With New RingMaster Lathe



## W.Y.

Had lots of fun setting the Ringmaster up and making these four bowls today .
The 6 and 7 " pine ones were my first practice ones . Then the 8"  laminated one and the 10" segmented one . All sealed first with shellac  and then three coats of semi gloss lacquer.


----------



## el_d

Very Nice work William..


----------



## Knucklefish

Wow those bowls are beautiful! Honestly, I never knew the RingMaster even existed so I went to their web site and watched a couple of their videos. It looks like a blast! It's on my tool list for sure. Thanks for sharing William!


----------



## George417

Very nice


----------



## brownsfn2

Really cool.  I have never seen this before.  Did you get the full ringmaster lathe or just the lathe attachment?

I would feel like I was cheating.   I definitely struggle with bowls. 

You work is excellent!


----------



## W.Y.

brownsfn2 said:


> Really cool.  I have never seen this before.  Did you get the full ringmaster lathe or just the lathe attachment?
> 
> I would feel like I was cheating.   I definitely struggle with bowls.
> 
> You work is excellent!



It is the 723 model .
It cuts rings so easily and so accuratly and smooth  that it makes it fun. Requires some trigonometry to set the right angles which takes longer than cutting the rings.


----------



## TomW

Doesn't each and every bowl have a 1/2 inch hole in the center of the bottom?

Tom


----------



## W.Y.

TomW said:


> Doesn't each and every bowl have a 1/2 inch hole in the center of the bottom?
> 
> Tom



That's right . It is a part of the system. You use a plug cutter to cut plugs to  glue into the hole . Hardly visible when cutting the plugs from the same piece of wood and matching the grain pattern . Works best with hard woods. Softer woods had a tendency to chip out a little using a ten year old   1/2" drill bit so I bought a good 1/2" brad point bit this morning that will cut cleaner .
The plugs show up  on those two pine practice pieces using a bad drill  bit  but are hardly visible  on the lamimated and segmented ones .


----------



## dexter0606

> ...Requires some trigonometry to set the right angles which takes longer than cutting the rings.


 
Oh no!!!


----------



## plantman

:wink::wink:Hi Bill: I have had the Ring Master on my Shop Smith for over 20 years. It never stops wowing me with the things that can be made with it. I agree that the setup is a little tricky, but once the angle is set according to the thickness of the wood you can cut all day. The biggest advantage of the Ring Master is being able to make large items out of a flat piece of wood with all the grain lining up. I have made vases 15" tall with a 9" opening at the top out of a piece of wood 10x10x3/4 inch.. It realy saves you money if you have exotic woods or beautifull grains, because there is little or no waste in this method on turning. Enjoy!!!!! Jim S


----------



## W.Y.

plantman said:


> :wink::wink:Hi Bill: I have had the Ring Master on my Shop Smith for over 20 years. It never stops wowing me with the things that can be made with it. I agree that the setup is a little tricky, but once the angle is set according to the thickness of the wood you can cut all day. The biggest advantage of the Ring Master is being able to make large items out of a flat piece of wood with all the grain lining up. I have made vases 15" tall with a 9" opening at the top out of a piece of wood 10x10x3/4 inch.. It realy saves you money if you have exotic woods or beautifull grains, because there is little or no waste in this method on turning. Enjoy!!!!! Jim S



Thanks Jim,
 I eventually will get into tall ones like that and am looking forward to it . One step at a time and I will learn how to accuratly set it to do the stacked rings  that angle in as well as out . For now it is practice with straight wall bowls . Next  after more practice ones at the stage I am at , it will be curved , more conventional  shapes and then on to the stage where you are at doing vase's etc. 
I have a lot of other things on the go for the next week that will cut into my shop time  and then I will try to get more advanced from the beginners stage that I am in at present.


----------



## 76winger

dexter0606 said:


> ...Requires some trigonometry to set the right angles which takes longer than cutting the rings.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh no!!!
Click to expand...

That was my thought. I gave up math after intermediate algebra.


----------



## W.Y.

Had a cherry board with a bit of figure in it .It was 10" wide so I cut 10" off of it .  Drew a circle on the wood  with  a compass  and cut off the corners. Drilled a hole on the center and put it on the ringmaster. Cut the rings and glued and clamped them as shown 
Exactly 1 hour and five minutes from start to finish and wasn't hurrying . This is the closest I have come to the rings matching with each other .  I think this is about as good as it gets for accuracy in cutting the rings. 
 Should not take any more than about 5 minutes to sand both inside and outside of this one before applying sealer and finish. 
I will let the glue dry overnight on this one instead of rushing it and sanding after a few hours like I did on previous ones.

The pencil line is my alignment marks for keeping the grain alignment as original on the board. 

This is how it works out  when paying proper attention to the trigonometry . The darker lines around each ring is just due to the wet glue  not cured when taking the picture  . As a  dry fit  before gluing , each ring blended in to each other as the same color and will again when it is dry. .


----------



## woodgraver

*Precision Angle Guide*

There is a little tool (precision angle guide) that you can purchase which really helps set the angle so the rings line up perfectly.  It only requires you to measure the thickness of the rings, and then choose which indexing pattern you will be using.  I tried just doing the math initially, but this gadget sure does take all the guess work, and math work out of it 

Jim


----------



## W.Y.

woodgraver said:


> There is a little tool (precision angle guide) that you can purchase which really helps set the angle so the rings line up perfectly.  It only requires you to measure the thickness of the rings, and then choose which indexing pattern you will be using.  I tried just doing the math initially, but this gadget sure does take all the guess work, and math work out of it
> 
> Jim



Yes Jim, I am quite aware of that tool and have had correspondence  with members of a dedicated Ringmaster discussion board site about it. Some are using that and some are having a lot of sucess with just a protractor with an adjustable arm that measures in tiny increments  from 0 to 180 degrees in both directions. 
I have ordered the protractor  from amazon because it was only $18.00 including shipping . The Precision Angle Guide is $50.00 plus $10.00 shipping to a US address and would be considerably more to a Canadian address. 
Hopefully the protractor will work out and if not I always have the other one to turn to as a plan B. I won't attempt any inward or outward curves until  I have a more accurate way of setting the angles 
The angle scale on the Ringmaster is a joke and is only a metal  foil glued on. Many  are not glued  on accuratly  as I also  discovered with mine. Mine was glued on several degrees to the right of where it should have been  and I  had to do some juggling to get to the accuracy  of matching  the rings as I showed in the cherry glue up.


----------



## W.Y.

This is the 10" cherry bowl I showed   yesterday with the rings cut and glued and being pressed.






Got time today between many other things that kept me out of my shop, to sand it and apply a finish . Sanding was very easy by  just holding a piece on the inside and outside at the same time while it was spinning and going through half a dozen grits. 

For finishing I first applied  shellac sanding sealer . Instead of my usual lacquer finish , I tried a fairly new product that Les Elm has suggested and has demonstrated in  tutorials on various  sites about his method of using it. 
I got a small can of it a few weeks ago and opened it for the first time today  .It is Minwax Oil Modified Water Base Polyurethane .
It sure is a nice product. Hardly any odor at all . My old lungs  don't like the harsh odor and fumes of lacquer and some other finishes anymore  so  for me   it  was a real treat using this stuff and I will use it more in the future. . This is the semi gloss formula. I am glad I didn't get in the high gloss option because it would  have been too much for a bowl. 

Here is the same cherry bowl all finished off and ready to be used as a  fruit bowl or for whatever a person would like to use it for.


----------

