I moved this post here, figured it was more appropriate as a blog vice a random post...

I figured this would be a great place to document my path down segmented turning.  That way we can all look back years later and laugh...

Today I will start with why I am looking at getting into segmented turning in the first place.  Last Christmas I was trying to figure out what to get my dad for a gift.  He is at the stage where there isn't much he needs, and I had already made him a dozen or so pens.  In the end I came up with the idea of a beer koozie.  Strips of wood cut at an angle on each side glued together with one of those thin foam can insulating things spray glued to the inside (example in pic 1).  Surprisingly, it came out well.  My dad received many compliments on it an I had numerous offers for purchase if I made more. 

So I did, or at least I tried.  Imagine trying to glue Popsicle sticks together on the long edge to make a cylinder.  Yeah, I am stunned the first one went together at all.  You can see in both pic one and two some of the issues I ran into.  Really what it came down to was the material was too thin to turn, and there was no great way to get it into my lathe to turn it in the first place.  I could make a round bottom, but 12 Popsicle sticks glued together does not actually make a circle but more of a circle-ish dodecahedron.  So a circle bottom would leave many little gaps, or provided zero support when turning if I simply glued it to the bottom.  I failed four times before I realized that this was probably not the best way to go about making a wooden cylinder.

I did not make the jump directly from needing a cylinder to segmented turning.  As with most breakthroughs, I put the idea down for a while and went on to other things.  I follow a ton of wood people on YouTube and one of the videos that went by in my recommended feed was Kyle Toth and watching him turn a massive vase (if you have not seen it I recommend taking a look).  So of course I start going down the YouTube rabbit hole and found one where he made a segmented wine bottle...click...I could do that with my koozie!

So that started my research into segmented turning.  In my earlier post I discussed how most of my searches took me to a place called Seg Easy.  Next post I will discuss what I built, what I learned, and what I would do different with my first few rings.

Please feel free to let me know what else you want to know, any questions you have, or if this simply does not interest you and move on.