Arthur Kingdon

Welcome to Arthur Kingdon's gallery. Arthur is displaying a number of items which illustrate a range of materials and techniques:

Arthur's major passion in woodturning is the making of complex ornamental boxes.  He has several ornamental turning lathes and for a while had an "MDF Rose Engine" on loan from a friend.  He has now made his own version of this machine. The rose engine has been made pretty much in accordance with the design available on the Internet at MDF Rose Engine.  For anyone interested in ornamental turning or rose engines - how they work and what sort of pieces can be generated etc.- a few hours spent on this website will provide a fascinating insight.

The rose engine is made from half a sheet of MDF, biscuit joined and glued together making for a pretty strong construction.
Arthur has used a spindle from a Myford ML7 metalworking lathe, which was purchased via eBay from a chap in Penhill - for the grand sum of £10.  It has a number 2 Morse taper which it is hoped will be useful when transferring work between the different machines.
The pictures (below) show various stages of construction and then the first trial with a piece of boxwood.  Note: the sliderest, which is also a Myford item, was held in position with G-clamps pending a better arrangement.  The rose engine has since had a sheet of 3mm steel fixed to the top and the sliderest is now secured using magnetic switches (£140 for four).  There are several low cost ways of securing the sliderest, but this is a very convenient arrangement.

MDF base construction - strong box sections - biscuit joined plus glue, and lots of clamps.
A photo showing the main pulley/ rosette holder being very accurately machined on a Holtzapffel ornamental lathe.  Made of MDF but drilled and tapped to hold rosettes.



The tapped holes were strengthened with CA glue and seem more than strong enough.  Initial trials/ testing on a boxwood workpiece using G-clamps to hold the sliderest - this provides precise 'X' and 'Y' axis motion.



First attempt at a 'proper' project - with an African blackwood blank - eccentric patterns (on the box lid) were achieved using an eccentric chuck from Arthur's Holtzapffel lathe (serial no. 752) dating from 1811.
A view of the perspex rosette - which produces the 'rocking' motion on the headstock - and the 'rubber' assembly mounted on 'T' track.



Close up view of the chuck and cutter assembly/ frame - with the sliderest now held with magnetic clamps.  The single-point cutter (similar to a fly-cutter) spins at around 5,000 rpm.  The cutting frame is of modern manufacture and retails for about £250, but it is possible to use a router or a Dremel as a viable alternative.
Overall view of the machine showing the drive unit (a small modified bench grinder) and overhead pulleys to drive the cutter.  The rods and pulleys are from an old metalworking lathe



A completed ornamental box in African blackwood - created on the MDF Rose Engine.
The box measures approx. 55mm diameter by 32mm tall.
The box lid was the first project on the new lathe and this was decorated all over including eccentric patterns.
The box was decorated on the base and inside the lid.
A piece of pewter sheet was inserted between the base and lid



Here a box in African blackwood, with some sapwood, along with a bead of boxwood on the lid.
There are 48 spiral flutes on the box body and 48 eccentric circles on the domed lid.  This was machined on an Evans ornamental turning lathe dating from 1880!  The interior of the base and the underside of the lid were decorated using a rose engine.

Arthur continues being creative in his workshop making boxes on various ornamental lathes.  Each box takes around 10 to 15 hours to complete.  On top of that is the time spent in selecting suitable timber, designing the box, and working out how to hold and actually make it by determining the processes required and the order of applying them.

Arthur says - they do take a long time but I'm trying to standardise on some sizes so I can make jam chucks that will survive several uses.  I use 4 different lathes when I do the spiral work - a Nova DVR for roughing out/ coring, an Evans ornamental turning lathe, circa 1880 for the spirals, a Holtzapffel ornamental turning lathe circa 1811 for fitting the parts together and for any work with an eccentric cutting frame, and finally a rose engine for the decoration on lids and bases.  All machines have different nose threads, so that means time spent with a dial test indicator to get pieces running true when transferring between machines.

This box is African Blackwood with solder wire and a pewter insert
in the lid.
The height 45mm, diameter 65mm.  The top has 32 circles cut into
the pewter with an eccentric cutting frame then filled with Araldite coloured with black poster paint - sadly, not perfect but too much
time had been invested in the piece to bin it.  Spiral fluted sides
with plain areas drilled and filled with solder wire.
The interior and base decoration was completed on a rose engine.





This box is African Blackwood with boxwood on the lid. The height 50mm, diameter 70mm. Spiral fluted sides with rose engine cut
3 layer 'flower' on top.  Rose engine decoration inside lid and on base.




This box was an experiment, using different (for me) techniques and materials.
It comprises a cylinder of African Blackwood inside a cylinder of boxwood.  Done by using a lathe equipped with a sliderest for accuracy - this could be done freehand by better turners than me. It was then an exercise in using a pearling drill (a concave semicircle) while indexing to achieve a slight spiral effect.
The top has a finial made of betel nut. I'd never used this before but I'd seen a few examples by an American turner and I was keen to try it. Purchased on eBay - £3.99 for ten.  It's not particularly hard and It turns easily with a spindle gouge, but does not like a scraper.   I do like the variegated markings and will certainly use this material again.  The first couple I tried seemed to have lots of voids and ended up in the bin. The next two seemed solid and turned without any problems.  The tall, slim design was inspired by a box I saw on the Internet but may be a bit Marmite to some.  The height is 135mm and the diameter is 35mm.







Examples of 'pearling' or 'beading' drills.  The drills were originally sold in sets of graduated sizes and shapes.



A new project making a couple of 'wavy' boxes - they were produced on a rose engine using a six-lobe rosette.

The boxes are: 50mm diameter by 52mm high and 63mm diameter by 57mm high.  The waves around the outside of the box are generated by a 'pumping' action which is where the work moves in and out in relation to the headstock as it rotates.  The lid is produced by pumping and rocking at the same time.  The cutter is an antique spear point drill spinning at around 3000 RPM.  This is held in a homemade spindle utilising an ER20 collet chuck and the whole assembly is moved under control of the sliderest.

The timbers used are boxwood and African blackwood.  The two boxes have a different treatment for the lid and spigot - boxwood is usually very plain, with little figuring, so no real need to match the body and the lid, and the blackwood can be a simple ring.  The other is spalted, with distinctive marking, so there needs to be a match, hence the blackwood is used for the spigot.







Describing the box shown below - Arthur said this is "My most ambitious one to date!" - made in boxwood and African blackwood - 110mm tall x 70mm diameter.  The spiral fluting is achieved with a stair step drill.  The fluted top was created using a spherical sliderest.  The box is completed with a betel nut finial and rose engine decoration to the  interior and base.




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