Wooden Homemade Rings tutorial

[Jacob Rowell]

Alright guys, I just wanted to share a little, describing the wooden rings I just made, and I also have a question.

I made the rings by purchasing 2 sheets of plywood, one 1/2 inch, the other 3/4 inch. They were actually small sheets, 2'x2'. Ran about $20, It was decent wood.

First step was to use several clamps to hold the sheets together stacked on top of each other while doing the initial cutting. I traced out 4 rings, with the outside diameter being 9inches, and the inside being 6.5inches. You wind up with 1.25inch thick rings at 9inches wide.

It's easiest to go through and cut out the inner circles first, you have the benefit of not having to put clamps on each ring for the cutting. After you have cut out all 4 rings using a saber saw, glue them together using quality wood glue and clamp together overnight.

After the glue has had plenty of time to dry, use a belt sander to make sure the rings are perfectly round, and that there are as few as possible imperfections in your cuts. I'm not saying you should start rounding off the edges with the sander, but make sure that the flat edges on the inside and outside of the rings are flat and even. It will be a lot easier to fix them now than later. I found this out the hard way.

Using a router with a .5 inch roundover bit, round off all the edges of your cuts to give you the basic ring shape. It should come out very cleanly if your initial cuts were good and you went over them with the beltsander.

Finally, clean up with sandpaper, fixing any imperfections. You may have to repair some defects in the wood by using woodfiller.

I hope that was clear. My rings have come out pretty well. For those of you using pvc rings, and don't have the money for multiple sets of production rings, this is a pretty good option. It feels much better to have some that doesnt flex under you weight as the pvc will.

Now, my question fox the woodworkers out there:

what should I be using as a protective coating for the rings? I would like to use some sort of clear coating that will protect the rings from the elements, dirt, and preferably can be applied thick enough to prolong wear and tear. Thanks for the help!

[Steve Shaw]

Did you happen to take any pictures throughout the process? Please post some pictures?

[Jacob Rowell]

I'll post some pictures as soon as I get home of the finished product. I will be making another set of rings in the next week, so i can post some step-by-step pictures very soon.

[Brian Sullivan]

I have a 2 year old pair of homemade rings made from Baltic birch plywood, similar to yours. They are unfinished and have held up fine, but I'm the only one using them. If I were to finish mine, I'd probably use a clear water-based polyurethane - easy to apply and very little smell as it dries, however pretty much any finish would be fine.

[Dennis Barrett]

Jacob, I followed your tutorial almost to the letter except I glued my 3/4 and 1/4 squares together before cutting out the rings. I used "liquid nails" for adhesive. I used polyurethane to seal them. It takes e few coats since the edges of plywood are an open and poreous material. Just fine sand between coats. It makes a great finish.

[ryan mack]

pictures of the homemade ones anybody?

[Dennis Barrett]

Ryan, You can see mine at the end of the thread titled How sparce was your homegym. It's in this section.

[ryan mack]

very nice. I think I may try to build some

[Matthew Miller]

Here are some rings that I made about two weeks ago. I absolutely love them. Extremely comfortable. Let me know what you think.

[John Schneider]

Wow, those look awesome. I'll have to give it a go at making my own.