I saw, but don't remember where, a jig for holding small parts in order to polish them on a buffing wheel. The jig is essentially a split cylinder for gripping the parts and keeping your fingers at a distance.
A length of walnut that had been turned on the lathe for practice was located and turned down to about 1 1/2". The ends were rounded with one end more cone shaped. A "waist" needed to be cut and this was done between centers. Two small slots were chiseled on opposite sides of a center line drawn on the larger end. These slots were arranged so they would fit the cutters on a two-insert end mill. The end mill was held in a three-jaw chuck and the part held between the end mill and a tailstock center. The photo below shows the two slots cut for the end mill.
With the part held in the lathe a waist was cut first with a standard lathe tool and then cleaned up with a cutoff tool. The waist is 1/16" deep and a bit over 3/8" wide. The waist as cut is seen in the photo below.
The next step is cutting the part in half down the center line. This was accomplished with a jig on the table saw. Two blocks of wood, both about 1 1/2" square, had a 1/2" dado cut along one long side to a 1/4" depth. A block of wood was glued to a base about two inches from a straight edge on the base. The part was clamped between this glued block and the free block as seen in the photo below, which shows the part after cutting aout 2/3 of the way through, which was as far as I went. The rest of the cut was made with a handsaw. The newly formed interior faces were planed and sanded.
A strip of metal goes around the waist holding a rod or screw in this case across the center of the two halves. The strip of metal came from an old license plate saved for making aluminum soft jaws. The strip was cut to fit the waist of the jig. 1/4" holes were drilled in each end and at the middle. The strip was wrapped around the jig and a 2" long 1/4" carriage bolt was inserted through the three holes. A nut was screwed on to lock the bolt in place. The part is seen below with the strap clamp in place. The strap clamp holds the bolt in place which then serves as a pivot.
Two wedges were made from a scrap of wood. The wedges serve to clamp a small item in the jig, when inserted from the opposite end. The next morning the holder was completed by disassembling, super gluing leather pads to the jaws, and reassembling.
