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.

I now put a standard chuck on the lathe with jaws to fit the hole, if you haven’t got jaws to fit you can use a jam chuck for this part.

You will notice that the wood has changed in the next few pictures this is because the pictures I took of the other one didn’t come out very well so I used pictures of this spalted beech one instead.

I now shape the back to a pleasant flowing dome shape.

Then sand and finish it.

Once you are at this stage you have several options on how to make it freestanding, you can cut it on a bandsaw, or by hand but I have found the easiest way is to use a belt sander.   I use a 120 grit belt and find this removes the wood easily and leaves a good surface.

The angle of the base varies with each piece of wood but I have found it is not far of straight the main thing is to make sure you make the base big enough so it is stable.

Once I am happy with the base I give it a quick hand sand and apply the finish.

You now have the finished clock.

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