Help needed. You know those incense burners where the smoke sinks? I want to make a wooden one on a lathe with at least three off set leaves where the smoke travels from one leaf to the other all the way down to the base. Any ideas to help me achieve this?

It all depends on the shape you want, either way it's going to involve as much carving or cutting as turning.

For a vase shaped one you'll need to shape and hollow on the lathe then cut 1/3 to 1/2 off the side and fix shelves inside. Or you make 3 or 4 bowls separately, each smaller than the last and mount them on each other with an offset, with a lower part on each lip. You could do it in one and either have a pyramid shape or change mounting position to get the levels at various places with an eccentric chuck or glue block but I'd test the idea with separate bowls first then take measurements from that.

I can't think of anything specific tp point you to, but the first thing that came to mind was to check out Carl Jacobson's channel. He does some carving on turned pieces. You may find some applicable ideas.

Thanks for your submission. If your question is about getting started in woodturning, which chuck to buy, which tools to buy, or for an opinion of a lathe you found for sale somewhere like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace please take a few minutes check the wiki; many of the most commonly asked questions are already answered there!

http://www.reddit.com/r/turning/wiki/index

Thanks!

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