How To Make A Bent Wood Ring With Guitar Strings And Abalone Inlay

My name is Dan Rees from www.ZebranoWoodCraft.com. In this video I'll show you the process I used to make THIS guitar inspired bent wood ring. I used two types of wood veneer: Birdseye maple and Macassar Ebony. These are just standard thickness wood veneers that are about 0.6mm. For the inlays I used this abalone laminate sheet, and an old guitar string. To begin I used a sharp craft knife to cut 10mm wide strips of the maple and ebony veneers and sanded down one end of each strip until it was paper thin. To make the wood nice and plyable I soaked the strips in hot water for around 30 minutes. Then I wrapped my strips of wood around a wide socket, secured them with masking tape and left them to dry thoroughly. This makes the wood nice and bendy ready to make bent wood ring. When the wood was dry it was time to start forming the ring. I wanted the inside layer to be birdseye maple with ebony around the outside. I started by dry wrapping the maple veneer around my former one time and added around a CM of extra wood. I snipped off the excess with a scissors and this left me with enough wood to for one layer of the ring. I sanded down the edge I'd just cut until it was paper thin. To glue my first layer of wood, I wrapped it tightly around my former, added a small amount of CA glue and rolled it together. I sanded the seam flat and that was my first layer done! I wanted the outside to be made of Macassar Ebony and I used a similar process as before but wrapped enough wood to form two layers. The glue up was a bit trickier as I needed to make sure the wood lined up correctly but I've had plenty of practice at doing this and it was no problem at all! I sanded down the outer edges until they were flat and the ring was the right width. I did this on a piece of sand paper and used a figure of 8 motion to help keep the edges even. Ok so we have the basic ring blank, it's the right size and the right width, the next thing to do is take it over to the lathe and do some inlays. To get my inlays precise I used my trusty marking gauge to score three lines around the circumference of the ring. These lines gave me a good guide and allowed me to carve my inlay channels with precision. I mounted the ring on a simple spindle and used a set of files to carve inlay channels where I'd scored my lines. I made sure the channels were deep enough to accommodate the guitar strings. Time to set the guitar string inlays. I began by test wrapping the string into the inlay so I could find roughly how much I would need to go around the whole circumference of the ring. I used a wire snipper to cut the string and then a half round nose pliers to make the string more ring shaped. Without this step the string will keep wanting to revert back to a straight shape which makes the glue up impossible! I made adjustments to the string with a flat file to make sure the fit was tight and the seam where the edges joined would be minimal. When I was happy with the fit, it was time to start gluing the guitar string into the channel! The seams of the strings were lined up with the seam or join in the wood - we'll call this the “back of the ring”. I began gluing from the “front of the ring” and this made lining everything up a little easier. I dabbed a little bit of CA glue into the channel and then pressed the string in and waited for the glue to cure. I worked my way from the front, dabbing in a little glue and pulling the string tight. I repeated these steps with my second string and did a good job with lining up the seams. Before moving on to my third inlay I sanded down the strings with a few grits of sand paper to give them an attractive “ground down” look. With my strings in I started carving my center inlay channel in much the same way as before using a series of files. I did this with the ring mounted on a spindle. Ok so I've cut the center inlay and now it's time to fill it with abalone shell. I cut a strip from the abalone laminate sheet that was roughly the same width as the inlay channel (approximately 2mm wide). To set the inlay I dabbed a little bit of CA glue into the carved channel, and placed a section of abalone into the glue. After waiting a few seconds I rolled the shell into the inlay. I worked my way around the ring, trying to make the abalone inlay as seamless as possible. Where a piece broke off, I glued the next piece in so that it blended nicely. When the final inlay was complete I began finishing. To do this I gave every surface of the ring a generous coating of CA glue to really make the details pop and add protection from the elements. I do this using a cocktail stick, but I've seen it done with kitchen roll or a paint brush. To stop the glue from blooming/bubbling/going weird I spray a light misting of activator spray in between coats. I've gone ahead and applied a bunch of layers of CA glue to the ring (the inside and the outside). Now I am going to go ahead and polish it all up... I always take my time with polishing to give the final ring a shiny and smooth feel. For the inside and outer edges I used progressively finer grits of sandpaper and micro mesh to hand sand the ring until there were no bumps, marks or dips in the finish. To polish the outside I mounted the ring back on my spindle and wet sanded through the grits to get an even and shiny surface. When the sanding was complete I rubbed in a bit of burnishing cream to bring out the full lustre of the finish. That's the ring fresh of the lathe, and one way to know you've done a good job with polishing is if it's squeaky – so let's give it the squeaky test! I'm really happy with the way that turned out, let's see if she fits. Thank you for watching guys, that was an awesome project. I'm so happy with the way this turned out, these are definitely going into my Etsy shop right away. I've included a discount code if you'd like to buy this ring. That should be either on the screen or in the description to this video. Thank you s much for watching, check out more videos, subscribe to my channel if you want to see more ring making tutorials. Be sure to go over to my website, www.ZebranoWoodCraft.com where you'll see a sign up form to my email list so come and get involved and join the team. Thank you so much for watching, hope to see you in the next one!

Channel: Zebrano Wood Craft

Views: 95,437

Keywords: Bent wood ring, Bentwood ring, Wooden ring, How to make a bent wood ring, abalone inlay, wood ring, Rings, DIY Ring, guitar string ring, Wood jewellery, Guitar jewellery, Wedding rings, Engagement ring, How to inlay, Inlay wood, Bentwood ring tutorial, Woodworking, woodwork, wood turning, woodturning, wood lathe, lathe projects, ring making, jewelry design, wooden ring, bentwood ring, things you can make from wood, woodworking gift ideas, easy woodworking projects

Id: 92KzbEBiRlY

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2018