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:

Good Evening Everyone,

Well, I was very busy all day today and I decided since I had been a good girl, the wood fairies should reward me with an hour in the work shop.

I generate a lot of small scrap like most wood workers do and Im really ruthless about getting rid of them and keeping the shop uncluttered. But it does pay to keep small blocks of wood-they make knobs and other small things that you dont want to cut up a larger piece of lumber for.

I bought a large glued up pine block a while back and I cut it into smaller blocks (youll see one of them tomorrow when I write about the tea box).  I bought some small earrings recently and I needed a small box to keep them in and so I took two of the smaller pine blocks and put them to work.

Here we go:

I decided to make a small square box for my earrings. Its a fast short term project that is easy to make:


I took the larger of the two blocks and sanded the sides smooth and then I drilled a 2 1/4" diameter hole into the center of it with a Forstner bit and that finished the box portion. Then I took the other block and drilled a 1"diameter hole into it and used the hole to put it on the lathe. I cut a small tenon on it that is the same diameter as the hole in the block so the two fit together:

Then I shaped the outside of the top to smooth it and to create a small knob. Total turning time was about 30 minutes from beginning to end:

The box needs to be sanded very smoothed and then finished. This is a neat project if you need to make a small gift for someone or if you want to use it as a gift box to give to someone with a present inside.

Another amazing adventure at SWW Blog!

See you tomorrow,

VW

Ok, Im back.

Time to turn my attention to the cedar of Lebanon box and I must say Im not please with this one at all. I dont like the color, I dont like the shape, its not hollowed out enough, and the scent is a little too overpowering for me. This box is like a bad hair cut-the only thing you can do is re-cut it and hope for the best and thats what were going to do.

Here we go:

Heres the box to begin with. Not very interesting visually:


I put it back on the lathe. Im going to reduce the outside slope of the box and create a rim on it. To do this securely, Ive placed it between centers:


Ive marked off a section of the outside for the rim and begun turning away wood from that:


Im going to cut from side to side to remove wood an reduce the slope :


And I worked in the manner for several minutes. I narrowed the rim and then split it into two beads and cut them down so they would not protrude from the surface too much:


In this photo Im about to hollow out the inside more:


And here it is several minutes later. The box is now deeper and wider inside and so it will be a little more useable:


And here is the box several minutes later. Ive roughly sanded it. It think it looks much better. Im beginning to get an idea about the color:


Next, the lid portion

I was looking at Richard Raffans website again and I decided to try to make an onion-dome shaped lid for the box. Looking around the shop, the only wood I had that was close to being thick enough is a piece of pine. It will turn very easily but is it thick enough for the shape I want?:


I made a turning blank. Well see how this works out:


I did my usual procedure of creating the underside of the lid to fit into the box:



And I placed it on the box to see how it looks. Not bad:


I put it back on the lathe and I began to turn. It was readily obvious that I would not have enough wood for a full onion shape so I would have to modify the shape of the lid:


Here Im beginning to shape the top of the lid:


I took the lid off the lathe and took a look at it. Without a definite shape to aim for, its difficult to understand just what it should look like instead. This is going to be one of those "Ill know it when I see it shapes." In this photo, its clear that the shape isnt exactly there yet. It looks like a giant mushroom sitting on the top of the box. I want to keep the plumpiness of the shape but refine it more. Back on the lathe it goes:

No.

Nope.

I kept turning and removed a small amount of wood from the center of the lid and created a finial and added a little shaping to the area around the finial. Ive also given it somewhat ogee shape to the surface. Its beginning to look like something:


Im going to stop turning this for the moment and spend a day looking at it:




My youngest son just walked in and said it looks like a muffin....sigh...

Ok, Im going to leave it and possibly shape it more. I may also stain the top and the bottom of the box to match. I think that would improve matters quite a bit. More about that tomorrow.

The last box is the camphor box and that needs some major work as well. Ill try and do another posting later today.


VW