Woodturning is said to be the safest form of woodworking, that said it can still be dangerous and care should be taken at all times

The methods and procedures I show here are what I do at the moment and feel safe doing, I am not suggesting that you should do things the same way, that is up to you, if you don’t feel safe doing it one way find another way of doing it.

Above all take care and remember if this is your hobby it is supposed to be fun so enjoy it.

Traditionally earring stands are made from three pieces, the top, the bottom and the spindle and joined together.   There are many reasons for this the two main ones being you don’t waste much wood as the top and bottom are made from larger pieces and the spindle is made from a narrow piece.   Secondly strength, if you use cross grain pieces for the top and base and a long grain piece for the spindle you get the maximum strength from the wood.

In this project I will be making one from a solid piece of wood with the grain running up the piece, The reason I do it this way is it is quicker and easier, I have made a number like this and so far I have not had any problem with them breaking despite dropping a number of them on the floor.   You have to be careful in selecting your piece of wood to make sure it is sound and doesn’t have any faults or knots.

For this project I am using a piece of Elm 3” square and 6” long and I have marked the center at one end ready for mounting on the lathe.

I am going to be holding one end in the chuck and use a live tail center for the other.   As you can see from the picture below I have the chuck and jaws to be able to do this safely.

I now turn most of it to round, put a chucking recess in the base and sand and polish it.

I now reverse it and hold it in a different set of jaws by the base and bring the tail center up for support.

I now round off the whole piece and turn to rough shape leaving enough room for a small finial at the top.

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