I've had a lathe since May and so far I've made one turned box out of a bit of a branch which fell off a banksia tree in the yard. I was expecting it to split (I couldn't hollow far enough in so the bottom was quite thick) and indeed it did!

What I'm aiming to do is to use the challenge as an opportunity to make some headway with turned boxes. So, I'm planning on spending about an hour each day in August making boxes and we'll see what happens!

I don't expect to make anything very exciting but I hope that posting about what I'm doing will be interesting for other beginners. I'll try and post every day after turning.

When I made my first box I had trouble hollowing (with a 3/8" spindle gouge) beyond about 25mm, I got to about 37mm in the end but it was getting too out of control so I stopped there. I decided to make an Oland tool for next time and I had Cliff's 5/8" drill bit for the handle so I got on and made that last weekend. Hopefully it will help - picture attached, the handle is 16" long to give an idea of scale.

Tell me to stop if this gets boring!!

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Keith

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anne-maria.

Tea Lady
(White with none)

ceramics exhibition and blog I am part of.http://www.jacpromotion2011.com/

The oland tool should be a big help in reducing chatter on those long reaches.

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I have Richard Raffan's (I'll call him RR from now on to save typing!) Turning Boxes book from the library and this box is the one from the book to learn his suggested box making method. So, there's no creativity going on yet, just learning the technique today!

I have photos of each step if anyone is interested but I'll just post a few for now.

I decided to use my Gary Pye 'midi' tool set as far as possible and explain why if I use other tools. They are the first tools I bought and for $50 or so I reckon they are a goods starting point for small work.

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The blank is part of a piece of cedar I was given when I bought some other wood as it has some problems - ain't the only one! Hopefully I've dodged them cutting the blank which is 75mm square and 125mm long.

I roughed it out with the roughing gouge which felt kind of small with that blank but managed. I turned shoulders on each end to fit my chuck with the parting tool rather than the skew as suggested by RR - measured using vernier calapers.

Next I cut part way through with the parting tool to separate the top and bottom and finished the cut with a saw. I could have gone all the way through with the parting tool but would have had to make a wider cut.

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Next trued up the top with the skew. 1/2" skew cleaning up the surface of the blank feels kind of small, less room for error than a wider skew but does the job fine. Cleaned up the end fine too. Hollowing with the spindle gouge wasn't really on as the grind is not swept back enough - anyway, I had my Oland tool to try out which worked a treat!

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I needed a square scraper to tidy up the flange, there isn't one in the GPW set.

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The inside of the top is finished and the outside partly shaped. That's it for today!

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Keith

It was one of your posts that out me on to the Oland tool

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Keith

Thanks for that - now I know what a square scraper is for!!!

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Eliza

www.elizasart.com
www.elvenhair.com - wooden hair stuff

"Help! I'm *in* the box!"

...so far, so good

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Cheers,
Ed

Do something that is stupid and fun today, then run like hell !!!

I just discovered I don't have a square scraper. damn

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Eliza

www.elizasart.com
www.elvenhair.com - wooden hair stuff

"Help! I'm *in* the box!"

Eliza, do you know about using a caliper to get the lid flange straight? I've got a picture if not - I didn't mention it above (forgot).

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Keith

Keith, that would require that I have a caliper.

I have lots of wood though...

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Eliza

www.elizasart.com
www.elvenhair.com - wooden hair stuff

"Help! I'm *in* the box!"

It does require that . I got one from Trade Tools Direct.

I'll cover the caliper thingy with my next box.

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Keith

I'll leave all the pictures at the bottom this time - it takes a surprising amount of effort to get the right pictures in the right place otherwise!

Chuck up the base of the box and with the parting tool roughly fit the lid flange - left oversize but close enough so that hollowing doesn't encroach on the rim. Hollow with the oland tool. This is not the way RR does it (his method is beyond my current skills) but is as described by Mike Darlow in his 'Fundamentals' book, and by Jefferson in one of his recent posts.

Inside sanded and finished.

Parting to depth and width - I measured the depth and width of hollow and added a bit to width for wall thickness. This marks the bottom of the box, when the box is finally parted off it will be below this cut.

Trim flange so that top fits tightly - I'll talk about this more when I get better at it. The fit was fine but the process was very slow!

Cut beads with skew and shape outside of box. Wave a spindle gouge a long way off the rest and get a catch!! I softened the landing of the lid with my foot and the catch didn't damage anything that mattered. Lesson learned - keep toolrest as close to work as possible. I should add I am not using the spindle gouge from the Gary Pye set here. It is too wide (5/8") for my liking - I used a 3/8" gouge.

Trim flange so top fits nicely - ended up a little too tight but never mind.

Part off bottom of box below the earlier parting cut that marked where the bottom was. There should be enough material left to make a jam chuck but there wasn't (for me at least) so I made a jam chuck with a fresh piece of wood. I made a mistake here whilst fitting the box to the chuck and ended up with a scorch mark inside the box. I'll live with that - I can't think of a way to rechuck to sand it out.

Finished off the bottom of the box and that's it.

I aim not to talk about tools much again but I think it is worth summarising what I learned by trying to restrict myself to the very cheap set I started with:

I have used that set to make pens and bowls and to do endless spindle work exercises. It will do most things but:
1/ A wide skew is much easier to use for truing up blanks and 'planing' the surface.
2/ A larger roughing gouge is nicer to use with blanks this size - and will do smaller blanks quite happliy too.
3/ The spindle gouge with the set is too wide - this is the biggest fault with the set as far as I'm concerned.
4/ Hollowing requires a heavy tool of some sort. An Oland tool is a good cheap solution if you have the capability to make one - at least for starters.
5/ A square scraper is necessary - and that is just the start of it with scrapers I think!

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Keith

Nicely done Keith

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Cheers,
Ed

Do something that is stupid and fun today, then run like hell !!!

The finial is a bit squat...

Nicely done! How'd you find the oland tool to use?

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Thanks Ed.

I agree Skew, the finial is, um, minimal, chunky, whatever. I have to admit I was kind of keen to produce something finished, especially after launching the lid off to space!

Expect a few more 'basic' boxes then I'll try and pretty them up a bit - still 29 days to go

The Oland tool works really well. Leaves a nice finish that doesn't seem to need scraping - with cedar at least.

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Keith