Recently, after building a bunch of gifts from a Woodsmith plan, I was looking for a way to quickly and efficiently finish them. That’s when I came up with the idea for the simple finishing turntable you see above. Round and round. The turntable is made up of a base and a platform, both made from two layers of plywood. A carriage bolt passes through a counterbored hole in the base and is held in place with a hex nut and a washer. The smaller platform rotates on a T-nut installed in the bottom face. I drove long screws through the platform to act as painter’s points to raise the workpiece. The platform can then be threaded onto the bolt.
CounterClockwise and back. To use the turntable, I place my workpiece on the screws and apply my finish. Rotate the platform counterclockwise on the bolt to finish all sides. For the second coat, I spin the platform clockwise to re-thread the bolt so the platform doesn’t back off the threads. The platform threads onto the bolt installed in the base. Changing rotation each coat prevents it from backing off.