Project Working Idea

Hi Everyone,
Well, since everyone seems preoccupied with the SuperBowl today I thought Id do a little work in the wood shop and get away from it all for a while.

One of my goals for this year is to develop a method for making small diameter boxes (<1" in diameter) and now that I have a drill press,  I can do more precise drilling so I thought Id give that a whirl today.

I had a small piece of 2x2 red oak and I cut off two pieces, the top and the bottom sections and I also decided to cut off a small piece of copper pipe to use both as a sleeve and as a method for keeping the two pieces together while I turned the whole unit on the lathe:



Next, I marked the centers on each end of each piece of wood:

I tried to make each piece match up  and I turned the top around but no luck. The wretched thing isnt going to work.

But I decided to try and turn it anyway, both to see if the top and bottom would hold together while I turned it and simply out of a forlorn hope that the project might still work out.


Here is the top and bottom on the lathe between centers. You can really see how the pieces dont match up:

Here is the box after its been turned for a few minutes:

Hi Everyone,

I was in the shop this afternoon looking at the silky oak pieces that have been drying in preparation for the tea box I am planning to make for my cousins husband Leon, and I decided that the wood was dry and stable and so it was time to begin the turn.

Here are the photos and discussion for the outer lid:

Here are the basic pieces of wood for the box. They consist of the box, an inner lid, and an outer lid. Ive been nervously drying this out in the shop as this is a critical step. The box parts are going to have to fit precisely so if there is the slightest bit of moisture still left in the wood and it dries out after Ive shaped the pieces, the parts wont fit and I wont be able to put them back on the lathe for adjustment.

Ive been drying these pieces in the shop for weeks now and they feel light enough and they havent distorted so I think now is the time to go:


This is the outer lid in its rough cut state:

 Here is the lid on the lathe. Im going to hollow out the underside of the lid and true up the face of the blank:


Here is the blank after the face has been flattened. Time to hollow it out. The pencil lines indicate the thickness of the walls of the lid, which is 7mm thick:


Hollowing only took a few minutes as this wood is soft and the blank itself is small in diameter. One thing that was important was the rim of the lid. The inside walls of the lid have to be parallel with the outside walls so it will fit properly over the box. After I finished hollowing it out, I sanded it with a sanding mop. These are nifty gadgets that enable you to sand an irregular surface:


This is the finished underside of the lid:


Next, I took the lid off the lathe and attached the box and got it ready to turn. The pencil lines on the side of the box and the first line on the edge denote where I am going to remove wood so that the outer lid will fit flush with the box portion of the tea box:


In this photo you can see how the rim is being created. This is another critical step as the lid has to fit very snuggly so I can use the box to turn the top and sides of the outer lid (youll see what I mean shortly):


And here is the finished box:


Now Ive fitted the top on the box. They fit very tightly for this next step which it the  shaping of the sides and the top of the lid:


Here Ive placed the box and lid between centers for turning:


And here are the sides of the box. You can see they match up:

 And here is a photo of the outer box having been shaped, and sanded. Its ready for a finish, which well do later:


Im unable to add more photographs to this posting so Ill end this and start another and show you how the turn was finished.

VW