Woodturning Blog

Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category

This year I took on the challenge of making pepper mills for Christmas.  That’s one for each of the 3 sets of my kid’s grandparents, one for my sis’s family, and one for my wife.  As you can see, I had a good helper during the process.  Left-to-right, they are made of mahogany, purpleheart, 3 pieces of unknown woods + 2 colored veneers laminated together, maple, and mahogany.

  Kaitlin and I decided to make her teacher a pen for Christmas.  This style of pen is called a Teacher’s pen, and has red ink on one side and black on another.  We decided to use red acrylic on one side, blue on the other, and wood in between.  Kaitlin was a huge help in completing this project, and no work was done while she wasn’t downstairs working with me.  She is excellent quality control, as well as a great safety coordinator!  We sure hope Mrs. Taylor likes it!

  Mom’s birthday is coming up, so I decided to attempt to turn her some earrings…. Read the rest of this entry »

    I’ve finished making a bottle stopper with one of the Torne Lignum kits, and I’m pleased with the kit itself.  It uses the same drill bit as some off the other stoppers I have made, so no additional investment needed there.  It was able to fit on my previously-purchased mandrel, as well. I believe that making stoppers would be considerably easier with a tap to thread the wood after drilling, but I prefer my current ‘screw onto the headstock’ mandrel over one that has a morse taper.  (TL has a MT2 mandrel that is also a tap.)  My drill chuck (which has a morse taper) tends to pop out at times with any pressure at all being exerted towards the tailstock.  I don’t want to deal with that on my bottle stopper mandrel as well.  It is easy enough to solve with some all thread, a washer, and a nut, but why bother?  What I have works, so I’ll keep using it.

    I chose to insert a Sacagawea dollar that my daughter found in my change jar into the stopper.  Whereas the design itself is rather plain this time, I believe that the figure of the red malle burl combined with the insert gives it some character.

Last year I made several Christmas tree ornaments for family and friends. Not pictured here are three angel tree-toppers that I turned after Nick Cook’s visit to CCW last November. He has a great write-up on how to turn them.

The globe style ornaments are the most complex of the ones shown because they are turned in 3 parts, and the globe itself needs to be hollowed a bit in order to make the ornament light enough to hang on a tree.  The top and bottom need to be undercut a little for a snug fit, as well. 

The snowmen use some puff-paint for the nose, buttons, and eyes, and using a 2nd type of wood for the hat gives them some character.  They are fairly easy to turn, but you need to remember to flatten the top of the head so that the hat will sit correctly.

The Christmas trees are simple projects that only require a parting tool, roughing gouge, and spindle gouge in order to turn.  Your smallest drill bit can be used to get a hole started for the eye screw used to hang the ornaments.

This past Father’s Day, my wife asked me to make a fishing pole stand for her stepdad.  She thought it was a 20-minute deal, but I of course made it more complicated. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I worked on a couple of pens made from a material called ‘tru-stone’.  It is pulverized stone mixed with resin.  It is much harder than wood, and resulted in 2 pens becoming 1 pen when the 2nd blank blew apart while turning.   Here are a couple of pics.

Last night I finished turning a lamp. I had seen the kits at Craft Supplies, and wondered how they would work out. A month or so ago I ordered a couple of the kits and 2 nights ago was the first chance I had to try one. You’ll need a lamp auger to do one, as well as the matching hollow center. I also picked up some dye, so I gave that a shot as well. This is red maple, dyed blue.