A Wand for Harry Potter - Magic

Just before Christmas my daughter went to a friends birthday party and asked if I would make a Wand as the friend is a Harry Potter fan and would love to have one.

I agreed and made a two piece Wand from Beach and Mahogany.

The wand was fairly simple (turned stem and a bit of patterning to the handle). Since then I have decided to make a more elaborate one - All of the material (apart from the glue) is recycled. See what you think and leave comments/suggestions

Thanks

The Magical part of the Wand is made from Beach - many people will recognize the bucket of parts in the first picture. This is what is left of my children’s cot.

The kids got bigger so we thought if a good idea to get larger beds - :-)) Recycled part 1

I started putting some of the beach into the lathe and turning the tennon that would be used to mount the stem into the handle of the wand. To do this I used a 10 mm Forstner Bit in the lathe chuck - I measured the end of
the bit to get the exact diameter, then used the calipers to turn the tennon a bit at a time until the jaws of the calipers moved over the wood (see the third picture).

With the Tennon cut I completed for rough shaping for the remainder of the stem. Once I had a shape I liked I took the part off of the lathe - but not before marking the wood close to the chuck with the number of the jaw was touching at that point. - I did this to make it easier to remount the wood later for finishing.

The Wand would have two pieces of resin included in its handle, these would have to be turned separately and as luck would have it work has just installed new worktops made from a material called Velstone which is a version of Corian and its great for making pens when the material is supported by a tube.

The bit I used is the waste from cutting an electric socket. Recycled part 2

1. I marked off a line and cut a piece on the band saw.The bit was approximately square - I then trimmed the ends to help when putting it into the lathe.

2. I then used the bench drill to make an indentation in the center of one of the ends. This is very important (see Safety Note below)

3. One end of the Velstone went into the jaws on the lathe while the live center on the tail stock was put into the indentation made in step 2.

SAFETY NOTES

1. The velstone will be turned without substrate (i.e. no support as it would have when making something like a pen) - This means that it can be prone to fracture sending out flying particles.

2. Always use a face visor

3. Because of the fracture potential - I put an indent in one end - this was to center the tail stock, however DO
   NOT tighten this too much to do so will split the material before you even get started.

With the edges rounded slightly and some basic shaping, before you go further you need to make a hole using the 10 mm Forstner bit measured in step 1, work slowly removing the bit at regular intervals to clear the debris.

Once I had drilled the hole I pulled the bit back a little, but left it in the hole as support for the next stage (a bit
more shaping - make sure to leave the face parallel to get a nice fit on the Stem when attached) and once that was done I used a hack saw while the piece was spinning to cut of from the stock.

You can see that I had drilled deep enough to cut two rings - I only need one - the other I can use later.

The next part was the capping at the end of the Wands handle. I formed a tennon of the velstone (described in step 1) and then cut a shape that looked about right for the end and removed it from the remaining stock - see the last picture.

I did not know how long the tennon would need to be on the stem - so I used the marks made on the Stem before removing it from the lathe in step 1 to help center it back on the lathe - I then extended the tennon I had previously made and then parted it from the stock in the lathe jaws.

Next I attached one of the rings of Velstone to the Tennon using a Medium thickness super glue and once set I remounted the Stem in the lathe using the Tennon to hold it. Then I completed the shaping of the Velstone so that I had a sharp joint between the wood and the resin. With this done I polished the resin and the first bits of turned wood.

Finishing the Handle end takes a bit of nerve and a steady hand as its mounted in the jaws with only a very small tennon to hold it, once I have a nice shape that was about the same diameter as the velstone ring, polished it using fine grade pen polishing pads. The important part here is to try to get the joining edge as square and sharp as possible to give a clean join when glued - The reason for this is that once attached its the last bit and there would be no further opportunity to put it back on the lathe.

I have a new toy - a decorating wheel from Robert Sorby, so I decided to try to put a spiral on the stem (my first attempt with this) and I think it looks quite good.

Next came the mishap:

While sanding I made the mistake of letting the pad get pulled from my hand - luckily I let go in time or the mishap would have been an accident. The third picture shows the material spinning around the stem and the fourth is the lathe stopped.

Once over that I put a little bulb at the end of the stem and darkened the joining line with a bit of Formica and friction burns the line.

Work (again) had replaced a number of office doors so I used the chance to reclaim the frames which where Mahogany. The handle is made from a small piece of this left over from a previous turning.

Recycled part 3.

I center bored a 10 mm hole as before into one end as far in as I could go, then cut a tennon on the same end. I then turn the stock around and did the same on the other end.

I made sure that both tennons where larger than the diameter of the resin part to be included on the finished Wand.

With the done I quickly removed most of the material to make a rough handle shape taking care not to go smaller than at the ends. The forstner bit was used throughout to give support while I worked the material.

Trying to measure and get a flush joint when turning is difficult if not nearly impossible - In this case I did not need to - so to make the joint look good I formed a bead at the end and rounded over the edge as the velstone was cut slightly smaller and rounded on the stem this would look good. I then sanded and polished this end as much as possible.

To turn the end that had been held by the chuck - a made a friction chuck from another bit of Cot and pushed the part made handle onto it (careful not to push too hard or I would split the wood). I then brought the Forstner bit put and put it as far into the open hole as possible to support the wood again.

All this allowed me to finish turning the handle and put the bead on the lower end - this time the sharp edge of the end cap would give a nice clean joint. and once polished the whole Wand was held together using more of the medium super glue.

Thanks for looking.

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