Wood Turning Projects For Beginners

Wood Turning Projects For Beginners

Discover my 23 wood turning projects for beginners

• Bowls
• Bottle Coasters
• Trinket Box
• Gavel
• Wine Bottle Stoppers
• Pen Kits
• Secret Compartment Holder
• Magnifying Glass
• Clock
• Tea Light Holders
• Jewellery Display Stand
• Apple
• Pear
• Christmas Tree
• Ring Stand
• Doughnut Shaped Dish
• Toothpick Holder
• Bear Claw Salad Servers
• Rolling Pin
• Oak Coasters
• Mortar And Pestle
• Kitchen Roll Holder
• Log Reindeer

Wood Turning Projects For Beginners

Wood turning being a new hobby for me is turning out to be both rewarding and frustrating.

So the Question “Is wood turning difficult?” I can honestly answer “No, with a little research and a lot of practice is can be very rewarding.

Just when I thought I was getting the basics right Mike my brother bought me a book for Christmas entitled “Wood Turning A Craftsman Guide” by Mark Baker (thanks Bro!).

It comes with a comprehensive video and is the information I should have had right at the start! It has a number of wood lathe project ideas but not many, so I thought I would record here my own easy lathe projects.

So what have I been up to in the man cave, well the pictures below are of the beginners projects I have played with recently.

Bowls

Turning bowls is probably the most common project to start on but is not necessarily the easiest of things to get right.

The first bowl pictured now resides on our dining room table.

Its about 8 inches in diameter and made from a Bubinga wood blank .

It is not as deep as I would have liked but that is because I was conscious of not going too deep and hitting the screws holding it to the back plate! (Toblerone miniatures are soo addictive!)

Note the visible screw holes in the base. (Below you will see a series of my own Wood Turning project photos)

Another bowl this time in Cherry wood but with a limited edition Charles Dickens coin inserted in the centre.

On the theme of “More” from Dickens Oliver.

I have covered the base of this one with red felt. Screw holes are not visible but the red felt is difficult to cut in a a perfect circle.

The next bowl is a side salad bowl made from purple heart.

This time I have cracked the felt base issue buy cutting a grove around the base and feeding the excess felt into the grove thus producing the perfect circle – result!

The only problem with this one is I did not use a food safe finish inside and the vinegar oil is stripping away the polish so I will need to return it to the lathe.

I also have made a salad bowl with proper food safe finish

 

I have another blog post on turning bowls with a useful video you can see here Turning A Bowl

 

Wood Turning Projects For Beginners

Bottle Coasters

I have made two of these. One from Tambootie (South African hardwood) which is very dark in colour which I like but Karen does not.

The other was made from Goncalo Alves (Mexican Tigerwood) and is really striking and the one Karen prefers.

Note I made these two early on and I had not perfected the bases. These are simple Wood Turning ideas.

Wooden Trinket Box

My first attempt at making a box with a lid went fairly well all things considering.

It was made in Bubinga wood which I seemed to have bought too much of first time around.

Making the right sized collar to fit the lid with is one area I will work on in my next box.

I needed to make it much deeper.

Wooden Gavel

I had some left over Sapele so I decided to make a gavel.

It is a crude design but for a first effort it looks like a gavel and feels like one.

Only mistake was to put a shade too much glue into the hole where it inserts the handle into the body.

You can see a small ring of epoxy glue but I was keen it should hold and not fly off at first strike!!

 

Wood Turning Projects For Gifts

Axminster Kits

I bought a number of the Craft Pro kits from Axminster tools.

These can be great fun to make.

I have made several of the pen kits, bottle stopper, secret compartment kit and magnifying glass kit and a tambootie paperweight with clock insert.

I am now experimenting with as many different wood types as I can.

Tea Light Holders

I have just made a series of tea light holders in spalted beech which do look very nice when polished.

Tea light holders can be easy to practice on and I have tried a variety of different shapes.

 

Wood Turning Projects For Beginners

Wood Turning A Pen

Wood turning a pen can be a hobby all in itself.

I really do enjoy making pens and you can turn the bodies from wood, acrylic and other man made materials.

I tend to prefer the slimline stylus pen kits from axminster tools as they have proved to be of good quality.

I have written a more detailed blog post here Wood Turning a pen which has a useful video if you have not seen a pen turned before.

Below are some images of pens I have made.

You can view a selection of hand turned pens I have made – these are fun wood lathe projects

 

 

Jewellery Display Stand

Read the description here Jewellery Display Stand 

Turning an Apple then a Pear

I have also had a go at turning an Apple and a Pear – click the link to see how it went

 

Christmas Trees

Another good idea is to use up odd bits of wood and turn some Christmas Decorations such as this Christmas tree. 

I have actually attended a Christmas Craft Fair last year and sold out of all of the Christmas Trees I had made.

They are a great way of using up odd bits of wood as you can see from the images below. I made a large variety of different sizes and wood types and was surprised at how popular they were.

 

Making Use Of Off Cuts

I hate wasting wood so any opportunity to make use of off cuts and odds and ends is to turn small items such as this cute little ring tree I made out of a Bubinga end

Some Further Experiments

I have also purchased from Axminster Tools a couple of their clock mechanism kits. Below you will see a very crude first attempt by me to create a clock for my shed out of a Tulip Wood Blank and some red drawing pins I had found in a desk drawer – waste not want not. It is pretty crude as I did not buy the numerals to go with it but hey ho its now ticking away in the shed nicely.

A Wenge Doughnut Shaped Dish

I tried to make a doughnut shaped dish. It proved a lot harder than I thought. Getting the two faces to match the doughnut shape was not too successful as you will tell from the images below.

Log Reindeer For Christmas

Not an actual Wood Turning project but great fun none the less. Take a look at my blog post where I describe how I made Rudolf Here

Another interesting project was a:

Toothpick Holder

I tried to get technical and bored out the centre. I then made a plunger type holder for the toothpicks.

The body was made from a spindle blank of birch and I turned a little finial from tulip wood I had left over.

The idea is that you pull up the lid which raises the toothpicks to make them accessible. I think its quite cool and a really good project for any beginner.

The toothpick holder opened

I have also made a much simpler project in the form of Tooth Pick Holder In Shape Of A Mushroom. Click the link to see the full details of how it was made.

Tooth Pick Holder In Shape Of A Mushroom

Here is another interesting project for a beginner.

Bear Claw Salad Servers 

These very nice wood salad claws were made for Christmas 2016 as a Present for Karen 

This Goncalo Alves rolling pin was her 2015 present. I have not done a separate post on this one.

I chose this wood as it was very hard and durable and would take the pounding life in Karen’s kitchen would give.

The below image was taken in December 2016 one year later and it has survived its first full year very well indeed. 

If you are looking for a simple beginners project which will gain brownie points with the wife this is a good place to start.

The biggest issue was making it perfectly round and the same diameter for its whole length. I did find that making the ends identical was a bit of a challenge also.

Here is another simple project to turn for a beginner.

Oak Coaster Set

Click the link to see how easy it was to make these cool wood lathe project…

You can start turning wood very cheaply – I bought an axminster hobby lathe which are easily purchased on eBay

Wine Bottle Stoppers

Another project which is quick and small is turning wine bottle stoppers.

In the above image you see on the far right a traditional shape made with a cork stopper. A bit of a failure in this case.

On the far left is a stainless steel stopper I had as part of a wine set.

This stopper is in my opinion the best shape as it has a rubber O ring which seals neatly in the neck of a wine bottle.

(Note this is for wine bottles with corks – screw top wine bottle necks are slightly larger so you may need to make one for each size)

I decided to turn a replica and bought some tap O rings to fit.

Siting the O ring and getting exactly the right depth of groove for it to fit is tricky.

There is a knack in getting the exact size and position of the O ring to fit snugly in the bottle.

However with practice it becomes easier and they do make an ideal gift idea.

Mortar & Pestle

Not a new idea being as it was developed over 35000 years ago and has been used in kitchens and pharmacies ever since.

This one I made as the 2017 Christmas gift for Karen.

The bowl is made from Bubinga  whilst the pestle is made from English Oak.

The bowl measure approximately 5 inches in diameter and stands 3 inches tall whist the pestle is 6.5 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter.

The bowl was shaped to be heavy at the base and thick on the bottom to be stable whilst things are crushed within it. I also added some cork to the base to absorb some of the pressure.

I did not put any fancy shaping into the pestle other than a good solid handle to grip whilst pounding and crushing herbs. It seemed to be well received as a gift idea and could be made by any beginner.

Well that’s a round up of the projects and learning points from me to date. I am not sure what will be turned next but watch this space…….

Here is another quick and easy project which is useful as well. Turning a kitchen roll holder…

Wood Turning Projects For Beginners