Ring Turners Vs Pen Turners?

[Tom Albrecht]

Are there any ring turners that can comment on the ease/ difficulty of the Ring Kits that appear to be popular now? In my volunteer time at the Chicago Waldorf School I have had great success with Pen Kits and a couple of extra volunteers from the Chicago Woodturners. It is marvelous to see the instant pride and pure glee that the kids express on completion of a pen.
Many of them have looked at the Craft Supplies catalog and expressed interest in the ring kits. When I look at the videos it looks like it might be a lot of wasted wood and frustration for a novice turner. Am I right?

 

[Mike Johnson]

I made a large number of rings a few years back and they were quick and easy to make, they do make 1-piece and 2-piece metal ring cores in various ring sizes that speed the process and provide a solid base to secure the wood for turning and finishing on a mandrel mounted to the lathe. If you plan your projects out you can get multiple projects from (1) piece of wood the inner core is a ring, the next outer core is a napkin ring, the next outer core is a bangle, etc. etc. I would use different sized hole saws to cut one piece of wood, acrylic, metal etc. to make multiple projects from one piece of material. There is very little wasted wood when you plan various projects form one piece of material.
You could also make your own ring cores and lower the overall cost of the project, they make ring sizing mandrels that can be used to custom fit and size the ring core before gluing your wood, metal, acrylic materials to the core. You can purchase stainless steel tubing in various sizes and cut them into ring cores.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Have not done a ring but have done the two piece core bracelet. I used their blank which was stabilized and in rough size when I bought it. True most of it is turned away but look at the waste from turning a bowl with which you could make many bracelets or rings. Not sure if you are doing as a one day project but the glue has to dry before turning the outside to final size so may be best to have another project to fill in the remaining time.

 

[Arkriver]

Look at the supplies that the "Bangle Guy" sells. The bangle supplies that I have used are top quality and they have several videos to show the process. They may have ring videos also. Allyn

 

[Larry Parker]

Craft Supply has lots of items for ring turning as well as some good videos. We had a demo at our Central Virginia Woodturners club last month showing how to make rings from copper pipe. I want to start with some ring cores from Craft Supply and go from there.

 

[Jesse Tutterrow]

I never thought of ring turning as being wasteful of wood. If you want to conserve wood Bob Franklin has a YouTube video where he gets a bangle, pendent, and ring out of one piece of wood.