Wood Bangles on the Lathe

In this instructable I will show you how I make wood bangles on the lathe.
These little bracelets make beautiful gifts for friends and co-workers.

Step 1: Grab Some Wood

Go to your scrap bin and look for some good material. The size you need depends on how large of a bangle you are making. A.4-6" diameter disc or square should work. The thickness depends also upon your chuck jaw depth and the size you want. In this one I am using a chunk of Mulberry I harvested last fall the thinnest part was about 1" thick. I also made one with an unused sgmented ring I had glued up already. so you can make your own out of smaller scraps too. Go crazy!
I found one side that was somewhat flat, then marked a square and cross-cut the wood to get a square(ish) block of wood. then marked a rough center and drilled a hole large enough for a worm screw for your lathe chuck. then cut the corners off to make it a little easier and safer when you start roughing it to shape.

Step 2: Flatten and Rough Turn the Block of Wood

This is the easy part, simply rough turn it round and flat.

Step 3: Part Out the Inside

Now I need to rough cut the inside diameter. I did this with a freshly sharpened parting tool. Mark the radius on the block and make a circle to mark the inside diameter then using the parting tool, go about 3/4 of the depth of your block, remember to make relief cuts.
Once you are at the depth unscrew the block from the work screw and remove the screw from the lathe and flip it around.and insert the jaws into the new groove and tighten the piece in the chuck. Now mark the radius and circle and using the parting tool finish the cut to remove the inside of the bangle. Remember, The sharper the tool, the less sanding is needed.
But we still need to sand!
Sand the inside of the bangle but be careful of the chuck jaws. I just sanded the inside up to 220 grit.

Step 4: Finish Smooth the Outside

Now I finish smoothed the outside of my bangle and began the parting of the bracelet from the block.
I re-sharpened my parting tool then marked the width of the bangle on the outside (keep in mind the depth of the chuck jaws, you do not want to hit these.

Step 5: Finish the Bangle

Once the bracelet is parted off sand it by hand the rest of the way. I sanded from 150 thru 320 then buffed it with all three buffing stages. followed by wax.

These go great with the wood rings.
Thanks for looking.