Layered Veneer Wood Ring (using a Dremel Lathe)

Finding and keeping hold of my wedding ring has become somewhat of a challenge.

First, I'd ordered the wrong size - and as the ring was bespoke made (from wood, bronze and titanium) I was denied an exchange. I paid for another size, but then the excessive hand washing of Covid caused a seal to break, and back it went for repairs. My newly repaired ring went missing about a month ago.

I couldn't bring myself to buy a third wedding ring when the other one might still be found, so decided to make my own. I find wooden rings - fully wooden or inlaid - to be much more attractive that metal; so, after a little trail and error, I came up with the following technique. I'm very pleased with the result, and drying time aside, it only took 3 days to make.

I hope you enjoy reading.

Supplies

Required:

Ruler
Cutting mat and blade knife
Veneer strips, 0.5mm thick (assorted wood veneer offcuts)
PVA / wood glue and spreader
Spring grip clamps
Sticky back paper
Circle drawing guide
Scroll saw or coping saw
Drill, with 3mm and 6mm brad point bits
Sandpaper, various grits
Tapered wooden dowel of some kind / spatula

Optional:

Plywood, 3-10mm thick
Dremel rotary tool
Dremel workstation 220
Folding workbench
Dremel mandrel bit 401
Dremel sanding bits

To Finish:

Danish oil
Clear satin varnish

Step 1: Cut Out Veneer Squares

Choose which veneers are going to be used and what the ring striation pattern will be (the colour order). For this ring featured, I chose the pattern: light grey, light brown, light grey, dark grey... and so on, plus a final light grey on the end.
Cut the chosen veneer sheets into 30x30mm squares using a blade knife and ruler (this may need to be scaled for ring sizes greater than 18mm). A combined thickness of 9mm is required, which in my case required 19 squares in total.

Step 2: Glue the Veneers

Glue the veneer squares together, as follows:

Use PVA / wood glue and a suitable spreader.
Only glue 2 veneers together at a time, with 30 mins to dry before adding another (best to start early).
Ensure all the squares are lined up correctly and the grains all run in the same direction.
Try not to deviate from the chosen pattern.
Clamp the glued pieces together with spring grip clamps, working from one edge towards the other (squeezing out any excess glue).
Leave the finished stack to dry for 24 hours after gluing

Step 3: Glue Plywood Practice Blank

Meanwhile, it is a good idea to create a practice blank to use later on. For this I glued together three 30x30mm squares of 3mm thick pine plywood (any scrap wood up to 10mm thick will do). This can make a fairly attractive ring if stained, but it is most useful when used as a practice run.

The practice blank also comes in handy if you clamp it onto the growing veneer stack in order to stop the veneer curling it dries. This can't really be done until the veneer is a few layers deep, or the whole block may stick together.

Step 4: Draw the Template

For the ring template, I used a 30x30mm square of adhesive backed paper, which is easy to peel away with little residue. Before sticking these to the wood stacks, I drew on each:

A yellow cross marking the centre.
A ring shape in black fineliner, with an inner circle of my ring size (18mm diameter), and an outside circle of 22mm diameter, in order to produce a 2mm wide ring.
A red 17mm inner circle and a red 24mm outer circle, for use as cutting guides.

Step 5: Cut the Ring

To cut out the ring(s) I used a scroll saw, though a coping saw would fulfil the same function. Only cut along the outer red circle at this stage, taking care not to cross over the line. It may be easier to cut off only one corner at a time.

It is also worthwhile hanging onto any off-cuts, which can be used to try out different finishes later.

Step 6: Mount the Ring

Next, drill a 3mm hole straight through the centre of the ring (this must be the exact centre, so use the yellow guide lines). It is also best to use some scrap plywood at the back of the ring to avoid any blowout.

Now you can mount the ring onto the Dremel rotary tool and use it as a lathe (what?). Here is my setup:

Dremel multitool 4300 (other models will work fine).
Attached to a Dremel 220 workstation
Clamped into a cheap folding workbench
And fitted with Dremel mandrel bit 401

Simply screw the ring into the mandrel (guide lines facing out) and you're good to go, but make sure the ring is secured symmetrically, without any wobble.

Step 7: Sanding - Exterior

Set the Dremel rotary tool to a suitable speed (I used 15000rpm, as any slower and the motor caught/stopped), then - while turning - run a strip of 100 grit sandpaper along the ring. It's easier to hold the sandpaper onto a sanding block (such as scrap wood), as the wood will burn if you don't keep the paper moving. The ring can of course be sanded by hand, but that's far less fun.

Continue sanding until the black outer line is met. Once your happy with the size/shape, bevel the exterior edges by moving the paper along it at an angle. This will likely remove the guidelines, but by this point you may need to reposition them anyway.

Step 8: Cut Out the Inside

Drill through the centre hole of the ring with a 6mm bit, then - if using one - mount the ring onto the scroll saw blade.
Cut a series of straight lines one from the centre hole up to the red inner circle.
Remove the last segment using more straight cuts from the centre.
Remove each further segment by cutting along the red inner circle.

I used my practice ring (see photo) to show the results of cutting out the inner circle all in one go. Your fingers will be the only thing holding this piece down, so cut for too long and the wood will catch. Also, due to the size of the piece you can't use a cutting guard, so there'll only be 2-3mm between your fingers and the blade. Work slowly.

Step 9: Sanding - Interior

The next step is to shape the ring interior. To begin with I used the Dremel rotary tool set to 10,000 rpm with a wide sanding bit, pausing frequently to avoid burning, and moving the ring around with a circular motion. I continued with this until the ring almost fit on my finger.

Then I used a gently tapered dowel wrapped sand paper, aka, a kitchen spatula. The ring needs to get stuck on the sanding dowel (hence, tapered), and whatever you use needs to be perfectly cylindrical. Just pop the ring on and twist until you've sanded down to the desired size, flipping it over every now and then. After that you can bevel the inner edge.