The making of a special Simonelli spinning top

[Iacopo]

This Simonelli spinning top is special because of its complexity; 
the wooden parts are segmented and composed by many pieces, of various kinds of wood, for decorative aims.
I never made this before, I believe that it will be a nice top, so I thought it is worth to show the making of it.

I show the making of one top but I am making three tops at the same time, with this design.
They are the Nr. 70, 71 and 72.  The tops should be ready in the late spring.

The idea is that of a top with an egg case; the base of the top is also the base of the egg, and the egg can be removed from the base.  Below, the first sketches.  I find practical to use also an editing software, for to combine different detail sketches together and to enlarge/shrink/distort them to each other, (second drawing below);   

 

When I am happy with the design, I draw the top again, with more accuracy, defining details and measurements.
That at the right, at the bottom of the drawing below, is the assembly of the top before to be turned on the lathe. 



For to have a better idea of how the segmented egg will look, I designed it on the computer, using the photos of the wood textures.
The wood species used are ebony, goldfield burl, walnut burl, camel thorn and pink ivory.
The white parts are made of epoxy resin.



 

[roypwee]

Wow nice!

[paulstewart]

Gorgeous drawings!  I love the variations on base and finial.  Look forward to seeing the finished tops

[Iacopo]

Wow nice!

Thanks, Roy!
These are going to be my most complex tops ever, as you will see.

[ta0]

These will be museum-worth piece, for sure. They would look at home besides a Faberge Egg.

[Iacopo]

Gorgeous drawings!  I love the variations on base and finial.  Look forward to seeing the finished tops

Thanks, Paul!
In the next days I will show the making of the egg, which is almost ready, but it will take some months for the tops to be completed.
In the next three months in fact I will have much work to do as a mould maker, and very little time for tops.

[Iacopo]

These will be museum-worth piece, for sure. They would look at home besides a Faberge Egg.

Thank you, Ta0!

[Iacopo]

I started making the decorative rings of the egg.

Here I am cutting slots in a cylinder of ebony:



The slots are spaced at regular intervals thanks to the dividing wheel, that disc with all those holes at the left in the photo below.  I had it for years, but I never used it, and I had to learn how to use it. The dividing disc is attached to the main axis of the lathe through a gear with a ratio 60:1.  So, 60 turns of the handle of the dividing disc make the chuck to rotate by one turn. There is a pin, on the handle, which stops the handle in correspondence of the holes. If I move the handle by one hole at a time on the most external part of the wheel, (where there are 91 holes), I am subdividing one full turn of the chuck in 5460 (!) equal parts, (91 x 60).
I can move the handle  by a certain number of holes every time, or I can choose a different set of holes, if 5460 is not divisible by the number of subdivisions I need.  In my case I am dividing the circumference in 144 parts.   



Then I cut tiny pieces of white epoxy resin:

[Iacopo]

the resin pieces are going to be glued in the ebony wheel:



After some turning this is how the wheel looks:



I cut the wheel in three thinner rings, for the three eggs.
Each egg has four rings of four different diameters, so I made four wheels of different diameters and cut each one of them in three rings. 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Gorgeous drawings!  I love the variations on base and finial.  Look forward to seeing the finished tops

Thanks, Paul!
In the next days I will show the making of the egg, which is almost ready, but it will take some months for the tops to be completed.
In the next three months in fact I will have much work to do as a mould maker, and very little time for tops.

I second Paul's comment, and now we have the answer to the age-old question: Which came first, the top or the egg?

With the right core (stem+hub+tip), one of those black and white rings would make a (visually) simple but elegant top in its own right.

[Iacopo]

I second Paul's comment, and now we have the answer to the age-old question: Which came first, the top or the egg?

With the right core (stem+hub+tip), one of those black and white rings would make a (visually) simple but elegant top in its own right.

Thank you, Jeremy! I agree about the black and white rings.

[Iacopo]

This is the ring with rhombuses and lozenges:

I made the cuts in a disc with the camel thorn for the rhombuses and the lozenges:



I prepared all the pieces to be inserted, with pink ivory and white epoxy resin:






Another disc with the same cuts is placed on the top:

[Iacopo]

Everything is glued in place with epoxy resin:



This is the ring after some turning:



I add the black and white ring, and a walnut ring: the pieces are held in place by the C shaped clips, for the time it takes for the epoxy resin to harden. 



I made the core of the egg with iroko...



... and glued it to the decorative rings:

[ta0]

Thanks for sharing the detailed construction: it's fascinating and makes me appreciate even more the craftsmanship that goes into making them.

The shell made of iroko wood not only has many layers oriented in different directions, but also circumferential seams. Was it turned on the lathe from a block or from rings?

[Jeremy McCreary]

Stunning craftsmanship!