Ornamental woodturning is a complex subject that has been tackled by some of our members. The equipment can be expensive and difficult to find but John Lee didn't let that stop him.

He made this apparatus out of tools and materials that can be found in many workshops and he has produced intricate designs and patterns.

The diagrams and photographs will give you enough information to make one of these "gadgets".

The scaled drawing is only diagrammatic; the base is about 12 inches long. Corner brackets are not shown and neither are clamp screws on each side to stop rocking of the head.

The cam rubber for the rocking cam is not shown but can be mounted on either side and there is a spring to hold the rocking cam and rubber in contact. This needs to be moved to suit the position of the rubber.

The frames have been made from MDF and the cams from either MDF or Persplex.

The index head was made from polycarbonate

  In the diagram:-

1 Modified pad bolt, spring extended to locate and lock the index head (10).

2 Cam for swash plate turning (pump action)

3 Cam rubber, (cam follower).

4 Rocking head cam.

5 Spring return for spindle (wooden mandrel) when swash turning.

6 Glass filled Teflon strip used as bearing both ends and under the spring.

7 Main spindle (mandrel) made of one inch myrtle beech, threaded 10 tpi. to suit my chucks.

8 Teflon thrust pad.

9 Spindle on which the head rocks.

10 Index Plate 120 divisions and also used as a hand wheel.

11 End play adjuster made from Teflon

12 Rocking Frame

13 Frame to mount to the bed.

The numbers around the photo will help explain the tool.

1 Large Hand Wheel.

2 Swash plate cam (2 pieces)

3 Swash plate cam follower (rubber) retracted when not in use

4 Extra Supports for end plates.

5 Rocking Cam(2 pieces).

6 Swash plate spring return (pump action).

7 Bearing adjustment (Clamp)

8 PTFE anti friction washer

9 Thread to suit lathe chuck

10 Indicates position when index wheel in use.

11 Lock to prevent rocking (each side)

12 Rock head spring return.

13 Rocking cam follower (rubber) folds down when not in use. Cam followers are sometimes called rubbers.

14 Rocking Head

15 Base Frame

16Index lock, spring extended

17 Index plate, 120 positions.

The article is held in a chuck on the Rose Engine and a cutter is applied to it.

The basic ideas are straight forward and can be broken down into four movements.

1 This engine can rotate the work by turning the index plate which also acts as a hand wheel.

2 The main spindle also moves along its axis as it rotates.

3 The rotating assembly with the "pumping" spindle also moves sidewards following a cam.

4 The cutting tool can be applied to the work, with variable depths and angles, by means of the cross tool slide which moves the whole cutter and motor assembly. John has a lever instead of a screw to facilitate this movement .

The other variable is the cutter which can be a router bit or some profile on a fly cutter.

The cross slide, drill spindle and the drill can also be used with vertical, horizontal and eccentric cutting frames.

A die-grinder or a gun drill can be mounted directly in the vice if you are using balanced cutters such as router bits.

The cam with the above shape, rubs on the cam follower. If the cutter is on the same side as the follower, the shape produced is the same as that of the cam. If the follower (or rubber) is on the opposite side, as it was to make John's right hand side lidded container, you get the "scalloped" shape as seen above. In this project, a router was used mounted in the drill spindle and then the scalloped shape was hand finished after shaping.