Category Archives: Woodturning

Improve your woodworking skills while making masterpieces with the following learning-oriented projects.

Few tools place as much intimidation into the minds of novice and advanced woodworkers alike as the common wood lathe. Nevertheless, this hesitancy is mostly misguided, as lathes are all hat and no cattle. Whereas it’s not an easy skill to master, don’t let the significant size, the harsh sound or the sight of airborne wood chips hinder you.

Woodturning Projects

Since your creativity is the only restriction on what you can make with a lathe, below are only some of the best beginner woodturning projects to help you get your feet wet.

Bowls

Bowls are among the best woodturning projects to build fundamental skills with since you can make them as basic or intricate as you wish. Larger projects on the lathe are usually harder to complete, so you can begin with small bowls and move up from there.

Wooden Bracelets and Bangles

Wooden bracelets and bangles are potentially the best beginner woodturning projects since they’re somewhat large and they finish stunningly. Sanding is just as much a component of woodturning as is common woodworking, and bracelets offer an excellent way to hone your skills on curved wood.

Candle Holder

Candle holders are a perfect project to experiment with once you are ready for medium-sized projects. Even though these holders come in all sizes and shapes, you can utilize the lathe for creating tall stems with swoopy curves that make for gorgeous centerpieces.

Wooden Spoons

Wooden spoons are an excellent way to show off your skills in addition to the natural beauty of the wood since they offer differing perspectives on the grain considering that it’s handle is cylindrical, and the ‘bowl’ portion of the spoon is flattened.

Handles for Anything and Everything

Woodturning is a favorable skill that you can usually use to enhance existing DIY hobbies—or even common activities such as gift-giving by adding a personalized touch with custom-turned handles. As with all the projects on this list, you can begin creating handles with as much basicness or refinement as you can, which makes them perfect for beginning and assessing your progress.

Rings

Rings, comparable to bracelets and bangles, have somewhat simple designs and are suitable for practicing since they don’t require large amounts of material. Nevertheless, rings are a little harder to produce than bracelets since they are smaller and involve more precision, making them amongst the small woodturning projects that are perfect for honing control of your movements.

Wooden Beads

Comparable to rings, wooden beads are a praiseworthy choice for beginners since small woodturning projects are generally easier. They’re also a lot less expensive should you make a mistake, which, at the end of the day, is what you’re supposed to do while you’re learning.

Round Boxes

Boxes might not be the first thing that you think of when thinking of wood lathe project ideas since they are usually square, but that’s precisely what makes round-turned boxes so unique. Round boxes are perfect projects for novice and average skilled turners to undertake since the fact that the box and its lid must fit snugly together means making them an exercise in your dimensional symmetry skills.

Drumsticks

Drumsticks, although simplistic, are a good project for those interested in improving their woodturning skills since both singular pieces must be almost identical in shape, weight, feel and size. Additionally, drumsticks typically have a small taper, giving them a reachable and pleasant element of difficulty.

Wooden Plates

Another beneficial woodturning project for novice and average turners is making wooden plates. The method of making a plate is comparable to creating a bowl, but requires a little more precision in most situations, making it a reasonable advancement from turning a bowl.

Wooden Vase

Wooden vases are favorable woodturning projects since they’re functional and attractive. Nevertheless, before you undertake a large-scale vase, aim to make some smaller ones first; large vases are among the more difficult woodturning projects and are time-consuming.

Rolling Pins

Rolling pins are a must for the community that is woodturning, and for good reasons. They are useful, somewhat easy to make and are perfect for exhibiting the natural flow of the wood’s grain.

Cups

Cups are great for a beginner project since they have a plethora of uses and are somewhat simple to make. Maybe you want a cup to drink your afternoon tea out of or a holder for your writing utensils, a wood-turned cup gets the job done and at the same time looks attractive.

Goblets

Maybe the only thing greater than drinking out of a majestic goblet is taking a drink from one that you made on your own. Fortunately, making a goblet using a lathe isn’t too challenging and the process provides a multitude of chances for you to strengthen specific skill sets.

Lamps

Lamps are among the most difficult lathe projects a novice or average can try. Even though lamps can be as small or large as you wish, you’re probably going to want to take the chance to display your skills. Gorgeous lathe-made lamps have distinct, exquisite shapes and a polished feel.

Hardwoods Mesa by Timber Woodworking

Timber Woodworking offers hardwoods in Mesa, Arizona. We specialize in woodworking tools, equipment, and supplies for commercial woodworking cabinet shops or furniture manufacturers as well as the home shop hobbyist. Contact us today, or call if you should have any questions.