nova ornamental turner

[Ed Hall]

hello all,
does anyone here use the nova ornamental turner?, just looking for educational resources on it.
thanks
ed

 

[Bill Blasic]

There were never really a lot of educational resources on it. A few grainy videos is what I remember. (here is one:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZzRtEL7n4w&ab_channel=TeknatoolFan
). There is a Facebook group on the Ornamental turner (https://www.facebook.com/groups/272005441171104/), you could ask there if anybody would get it to you.

 

[Ed Hall]

thx
will do that

 

[colinsp]

There is also this video from a man in Germany who made a similar device.

View: https://youtu.be/3AHOfuIBP8I?si=qbepJa7a6zqwK9kE

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

By adapting some standard parts (boring head, cross slide table and rotary index head) that could be put together to do everything the JaHo device can do. Even large bowl turning could be done in addition to embellishments.

 

[John K Jordan]

rotary index head

I haven't done anything similar but I can say a decent rotary table is a useful tool. I use mine mostly on the milling machine when I want to mill to certain angles.

Off the original thread topic (of course): the rotary table was also was the easiest way I found to help lay out patterns for chip carving on turnings.

JKJ

 

[RichColvin]

Ed,

I’ve not seen much published about this system. In the end, I think it becomes more of a gateway towards getting a rose engine.

Rich

 

[Bill Blasic]

It was a gateway to a Rose Engine for me, no doubt.

 

[Bill Alston]

I looked at these type of things a couple of years back. I ended up cobbling this together.



It’s a small standard X Y Table from eBay for which I machined a custom Router mount. I reduced the speed on the router and I’ve made some of my own cutters using small HSS tool bits.

The overall setup obviously moves the cutter from the lathe headstock to the router and the workpiece to the headstock compared to that in the original post above. The setup worked well in tests but I’ve not got round to using it yet apart from that. These type of things work best with dense timbers which aren’t always easy to source at a good price.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

I built the JaHo and it is interesting to work with . Already had the cross slide vise. And the rest was not expensive.

 

[John K Jordan]

These type of things work best with dense timbers which aren’t always easy to source at a good price.

I had the impression that Boxwood was common in the UK.
Or is it available but expensive in usable sizes?

Some years ago some turner friends joined forces to source and import a quantity of boxwood to the US, I got a few pieces from that deal, sections of branches (trunks?) 4" or less in diameter. Very tight piths, no cracking. Nice white color. That stuff sure is dense. Haven't turned any yet.

JKJ

 

[colinsp]

I had the impression that Boxwood was common in the UK.
Or is it available but expensive in usable sizes?

Some years ago some turner friends joined forces to source and import a quantity of boxwood to the US, I got a few pieces from that deal, sections of branches (trunks?) 4" or less in diameter. Very tight piths, no cracking. Nice white color. That stuff sure is dense. Haven't turned any yet.

JKJ

It is available in the UK but not that common as it is slow growing and expensive as a result. France seems to be the place where it is most abundent so contacts in that country would be useful.

 

[Bill Alston]

Boxwood is very nice and ideal for ornamental turning. As Colin says though it’s not cheap and not often available much over 3” diameter.
I bought some 4” diameter pieces a while ago but by the time I’d turned off the bark and trued it up it was obviously quite a bit smaller.

 

[John K Jordan]

Boxwood is very nice and ideal for ornamental turning. As Colin says though it’s not cheap and not often available much over 3” diameter.
I bought some 4” diameter pieces a while ago but by the time I’d turned off the bark and trued it up it was obviously quite a bit smaller.

I guess the closest thing we have to boxwood is Flowering Dogwood - fine grain, hard, dense (but not as dense as Boxwood). Also slow-growing and generally small diameters, especially if it grows in the woods. Occasionally a yard tree with lots of sun and in good soil will get large. A neighbor cut one down - I got a lot of blanks from 2x2 up to about 6x6. Dogwood can warp like crazy as it drys and if a blank contains some of the dark heartwood, expect cracks. Can be white or have color.

Dogwood turns beautifully, though. This little finger top needed no sanding.



Makes me want to cut into the Boxwood now!

A friend who did ornamental turning often used Holly and some fine-grained tropical woods.

JKJ

 

[Bob Roehrig]

Currently working on cobbeling together a JaHo Ornamental turning device. With only 3 basic parts comprising it, it doesn't seem all that complicated. Looking for some bits of incidental information such as a good way to attach my chuck to the indexing head. I no longer own a metal lathe to making the little part is going to be an issue. Looking for some of the turners that have gone down this Rabbit hole concerning the Jaho to see if there are any good words of wisdom either good or bad in making one of these. Appreciate as many comments as possible since every bit of information will be helpful........thanks in advance

 

[Bill Alston]

I had a good look at the JaHo before making my setup pictured above. Admittedly I already had an indexing plate and detent for my lathe. Fixing a wood turning chuck to a small rotary table was something that gave me pause. Also, while using a rotary table gives you lots of potential increments, I was concerned about “loosing my place” part way through the cutting process. Using an indexing plate seemed far less daunting.

I used a small but quite solid cast iron X Y table and I suspect it’s less likely to suffer from vibration than the extruded aluminium table used with the JaHo.

Good luck with your project.

 

[Bob Roehrig]

I built the JaHo and it is interesting to work with . Already had the cross slide vise. And the rest was not expensive.

View attachment 76261View attachment 76262View attachment 76263

I had a good look at the JaHo before making my setup pictured above. Admittedly I already had an indexing plate and detent for my lathe. Fixing a wood turning chuck to a small rotary table was something that gave me pause. Also, while using a rotary table gives you lots of potential increments, I was concerned about “loosing my place” part way through the cutting process. Using an indexing plate seemed far less daunting.

I used a small but quite solid cast iron X Y table and I suspect it’s less likely to suffer from vibration than the extruded aluminium table used with the JaHo.

Good luck with your project.

Hi Bill.......YES, attaching the chuck to the rotary table is also giving me a BIG pause also. The original JaHo used high density plastic for this piece. The fellow from New Zealand machined it from steel but had a metal lathe. High density plastic is SUPER expensive in large sizes and then they want to sell you several feet of it. Back to the drawing board on this one. What did you finally use may I ask?