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robatman
13th November 2006, 11:42 PM
Hi all,
I have recently for some unknown reason become interested in collecting watches. I have one good one, and a few more for under $100. Something else to pass the time and spend the pocket money on!!

I would like to make a watch tree to hang them off. See example basic drawing.

Is there a way to make the horizontal holders and trunk out of the one piece?? Ie I dont want to turn the body and then drill/glue the dowel-like holders for each watch to hang off.
I dont have an arbortech or similar, but this seems to me to be the only option- is there another way.

Thanks Robert

34384

joe greiner
14th November 2006, 02:41 AM
Multi-center (or centre:D ) turning comes to mind. But very complicated, and you still need to carve away the part of the trunk between branches. Also, even though the watches are not heavy, making this from a single piece of wood with the grain parallel to the trunk places the branches in what is called "cross-grain bending." This is absolutely verboten in structural engineering.

Best way is probably to find a small shrub with branches already at the desired locations, and just trim the ends. Maybe add a notch on top of each branch to provide hanging points.

JG

tashammer
14th November 2006, 06:47 AM
Here's a couple of ideas. Recall the old witches brooms? Well have a look around for either branches that have a bend in them which you can then bind together at the bottom and have the bent parts above. Bind them with something that you make obvious so as not to overpower the watches, perhaps thick malleable galvanized fencing wire. Make the appearance rustic.

The other idea is to make hockey stick-shaped pieces in such a way as not to weaken the grain. Then treat the lower portion as a segment, plane and glue, then turn.

Do you follow?

Skew ChiDAMN!!
14th November 2006, 09:23 PM
It can be turned as one piece, yes. But I doubt that you'd be happy with the end-result as the grain would be running across the "arms" instead of along 'em, so they'd be very, very prone to breakage, unless you made the arms quite thick...

As Joe suggested, multi-centre turning is one option, but you'd still need to clean up the junctions where they all meet by hand. An Arbortech or Dremel is a very handy tool to have. ;)

You could turn it as two or three "bowls" connected by the centre shaft, and then use a small scroll-saw to cut away sections of the bowls to form the arms.

Hmmm... You could possibly alleviate the cross-grain problem by turning the bowls as long, narrow items (long, skinny funnels?), then after cutting the arms out steam bend them to flare out more horizontally. But this'd take a lot of turning skill to pull off successfully; I'm not sure if I could make something I'd be happy with this way, not without a lot of practise and failed experiments first...

joe greiner
14th November 2006, 11:47 PM
Yes! Steam bending could alleviate the cross-grain deficiency. Depending on appearance desires, drying jig could be planar (easiest) or 3-D (more complex). You might only have to make 3 or 4 pieces of firewood before you get acceptable results.:D

JG