Making a Lazy Susan for Yarn-Making the Parts on the Lathe

 Hello Everyone,

Well, I'm finally getting started with some wood turning projects and this is the first one-making a lazy susan-like spinner for knitting yarn.

I enjoy knitting but I don't enjoy having the yarn roll around all over the place. I've made myself a yarn bowl only to watch the yarn roll out of the bowl. I've tried cloth bags, paper bags, a large soup pot (the cats got into that one and had a field day), and a very large old fashion bread dough bowl. And none of them either kept the yarn skein from rolling around or cat hair off of the yarn or dust bunnies from getting all over everything. So after trying out a stationary stand with a wooden rod for the yarn, I've decided to make a lazy susan yarn spinner. 

These are designed to be placed ideally on a side table next to the person doing the knitting, but they could be placed on the floor as well (cat alert here). I've designed these to have a heavy base on the bottom and a smaller round disc on the top. Both the top and bottom have a 1/2" hole in them to accommodate a 1/2" diameter wooden rod. The top and bottom parts will spin on two 2" diameter fender washers, which also have a 1/2" diameter hole. So the whole thing is essentially a metal-wood sandwich.

Let's take a look at some photos:

This first photo shows the two different versions I'm making. The one on the left is has two parts cut out of some scrap lumber with a wooden rod in place. The second one on the right has a lower part made with 2" thick scrap mahogany and a 1" thick birch top. The next two photos are closeups of each spinner: 

I've refined the parts on the lathe to give them a more finished look. But these could be made square or have multiple sides. They do have to be sanded smooth however on the edges and both faces so as not to catch the yarn as it's being unwound. 

Here's some more photos:

The spinner with the thick base was made a little differently than the one in the first photo above:

I turned a 1/2" depression into the thicker bottom piece so as to inset the top into the base. I think this might help to keep the spinner from being too tall or too tippy:

This photo shows the placement of the washers:

I have made enough parts for 9 of these which I'm going to be donating later this year. 

This project is a win-win kind of thing: a non-profit will be getting the proceeds from the sale and I get to turn wood and shrink down my scrap wood pile. 

My next step to to finely sand everything and apply a finish-I think polyurethane will work well for this. Then I'll epoxy the washers to the base and top parts. Lastly I'll sand and fit the wooden rods in place. 

Stay tuned,
VW