I mostly do faceplate turning, and have been asked to
do some spingle turning. This is for a science fair project my department
is doing on speech, and I'll be turning spindles with iregular
shapes to help model vocal tracts (we'll use them as a form to cast
clay or plaster hollows from, then play air through them).

I have a printout of the shapes (based on measurements of human vocal
tracts during vowel production), and am planning to transfer them to
templates I can use to check the turnings against. I've never done this
before.

Any tips?

Any websites with walkthroughs of using templates with complex curves
(i.e. marking out the blank, etc/)?

Thanks,

Andy Barss

Andrew Barss wrote:
I mostly do faceplate turning, and have been asked to
do some spingle turning. This is for a science fair project my department
is doing on speech, and I'll be turning spindles with iregular
shapes to help model vocal tracts (we'll use them as a form to cast
clay or plaster hollows from, then play air through them).

I have a printout of the shapes (based on measurements of human vocal
tracts during vowel production), and am planning to transfer them to
templates I can use to check the turnings against. I've never done this
before.

Any tips?

Why not use the lost-wax method?

In article ,
Andrew Barss wrote:

I mostly do faceplate turning, and have been asked to
do some spingle turning. This is for a science fair project my department
is doing on speech, and I'll be turning spindles with iregular
shapes to help model vocal tracts (we'll use them as a form to cast
clay or plaster hollows from, then play air through them).

I have a printout of the shapes (based on measurements of human vocal
tracts during vowel production), and am planning to transfer them to
templates I can use to check the turnings against. I've never done this
before.

Any tips?

Any websites with walkthroughs of using templates with complex curves
(i.e. marking out the blank, etc/)?

Thanks,

Andy Barss

For one-offs like this, pick a few diameters based on observation of the
shape of the template, size those, mount the template behind the work,
or stop frequently to check against it (or both) and shape the
in-between parts to match. If you were making 100 of them, there are
tricks for that, but IMHO they are not worth the time if making one.

If you mount a reverse template above/behind the work in such a way that
you can move your eye to bring the two into line, it can make checking a
bit simpler.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

sbnjhfty wrote:

: Why not use the lost-wax method?

Because it would require buying an carving a large amount of wax?
Or did you have something else in mind?

?? Andy Barss