How do others go about turning these ones ?

[Brown Dog]

hello all

I was just wondering how other turners go about mounting their blanks for turning these kind of bottle stops.

The one in the pics is my first/prototype and was'nt as succesfull as I would have liked. The profile looks a little wierd, I think the flare should match the taper in the bottle stop more.

Shape is not my main beef with this one though...I dont know if you can tell from the photos but when it is screwed together it is not quite centered:- . This could be from sloppy drilling of the center hole or a dodgy chucking/mounting arrangemet.

For this one I pre drilled on the drill press the stepped hole for a bolt to be glued in. I then mounted the blank on a mandrel that I made from a piece of 20mm dowel, with a hole drilled part way down the centre for a bolt. The bolt stuck out one end of the blank and then a nut is screwed on to hold it all together. The piece of dowel was then mounted in the pin jaws on a scroll chuck. Needless to say the dowel mandrel didnt quite live long enough to make a second :C

The idea im thinking of now is to make up a similar arrangement made from steel, to mount in the pin jaws.

The reason I would like to be able to do it this way is you can utilise very small pieces of timber (roughly 40mm cube) without any wastage...good for those tiny bits of nice timber lying around:D

I was just curious as to how you guys go about making these type of bottle stops, and if anyone has any ideas that are easier or better. I would be very interested in hearing them.

cheers
BD:2tsup:

[Cliff Rogers]

I'd take the fitting to a fastner supplies & ask them to match the thread & buy a bolt of the same sort & make a small screw chuck from it.

You'd have to be careful & turn with a light touch 'cos if you had a catch you could rip the thread out of the blank.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I've used jam-chucks. :shrug:

However, if I was going to do a lot of 'em I'd look at locating a nut to fit the thread and braze it into the end of a short pipe. Keeping the nut squared and centred would be important, but is do-able with care. I'd just square one end of the blank, drill it and glue in the thread as per usual, then mount it on the pipe and hold the assembly in pin-jaws.

A slightly more elegant solution involves a tame engineer: grab some 1.5" round steel stock, drill and tap one end to fit the headstock thread for your lathe and then drill/tap t'other end to match the bottle-stopper thread. Bingo!

As Cliff has already said, a light touch would still be a damned good idea.

[Sprog]

I used aluminium rod to make my mandrel, more forgiving on the chisel than steel if the chisel should accidentaly happen to touch it :)

This is what I did to get a perfectly centred top that was quick and repeatable.

Mounted the aluminium rod in my scroll chuck, faced off the end with a skew chisel. drilled and tapped the aluminium rod to the appropriate size.
Turned down the end of the rod to the same diameter as the chrome stopper, this makes it easier to size the blank to the stopper, no measuring. :)

Square off the end of the blank. Drill and tap the blank, epoxy the threaded rod into the blank. When set, screw the blank into the mandrel and turn to your desired design.
Make a mark on the mandrel and chuck so you can accuratley align the mandrel next time you use it. Use the tail stock to align the mandrel when you next mount it.
Make yourself a gauge to set the depth of the threaded rod in the blank.
Just a hole in a piece of scrap wood two or three mm less than the depth of the hole in the chrome stopper will do it. The chrome stopper is not threaded right to the bottom of the hole so you need to allow for this.

Hope this helps.

[Brown Dog]

thanks fellas some thing to ponder there.

I like the idea to get it machined to fit the head stock thread...nice one Skew. I was planning to get a fitter and turner to make something like the pic below. I spose it wouldnt be much more work too drill and tap the other end aswell:2tsup:

I also hadnt considered using aluminium...thanks sprog

Skew and Sprog. My idea is kinda along those lines, but instead of tapping the timber and gluing in the threaded rod I was thinking of using a 1/4" bolt ( they seem to fit) inserted through the blank as shown below to give a little more holding force...as cliff suggests a light hand is needed the other way and Im afraid both my hands are too heavy:; . Then the head of the bolt is hidden with a contrasting or decorative inlay.

cheers
BD:2tsup:

[rsser]

How would you go if you drilled and tapped the blank for the threaded rod, leaving extra length on the blank to hold it in pin jaws or the like; then turn the wood to shape, part off, and clean up the thread.

[Edit: with threaded rod expoxied in at the end you could avoid having a cap to cover a bolt head. OTOH the cap looks good.]

[rightuppercut]

http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=packard&Product_Code=114916&Category_Code=proj-supp-botstop-botc
Why don't you go the easy way and just get a bottle cone chuck?

[rsser]

We don't do easy here uppercut. If it can't be done with fencing wire, euc slabs and three hours of friggin around it ain't worth doing. :U

Any case, reasonable postage from the US means a six week wait.

[powderpost]

I haven't turned this type of bottle stoppers, but I have turned many walking sticks with the two brass threaded joints. The brass threads are held without protection, in a standard drill chuck in the headstock. Haven't damaged a thread yet, can't see why that wouldn't work for a bottle stopper.
Jim

[Brown Dog]

We don't do easy here uppercut. If it can't be done with fencing wire, euc slabs and three hours of friggin around it ain't worth doing. :U

Any case, reasonable postage from the US means a six week wait.
:lolabove:

Sorry rightuppercut but rsser is 100% spot on. I know our American friends can pretty much just wander down to the corner store and buy what ever you need that day for a reasonable price. But where is the satisfaction in that ???:p

And as rsser also points out, postage is kinda prohibitive anyway...by the time I got that little $10 item to my door it probably would cost me $40 to $50 of my hard earned Aussie dollars.


cheers
BD:2tsup:

[Frank&Earnest]

However, if I was going to do a lot of 'em I'd look at locating a nut to fit the thread and braze it into the end of a short pipe. Keeping the nut squared and centred would be important, but is do-able with care. I'd just square one end of the blank, drill it and glue in the thread as per usual, then mount it on the pipe and hold the assembly in pin-jaws.

A slightly more elegant solution involves a tame engineer: grab some 1.5" round steel stock, drill and tap one end to fit the headstock thread for your lathe and then drill/tap t'other end to match the bottle-stopper thread. Bingo!



Skew, knowing your expertise with the lathe I am very surprised that you would feel more confident with the first solution, that, as you say, would be a bitch to keep centered and square, while I am sure it would be very easy for you to put a short cylinder of mild steel (even a softer metal might do) in the chuck, drill it using the lowest speed and tap it. No real need to thread it to fit the headstock. Am I missing something?

Cheers
Frank

[Gil Jones]

BD,
Here is a pic of a stopper I turned from Mesquite wood. And here is the web site of Ruth Niles > http://www.torne-lignum.com/Turning_Processes.htm <. Ruth shows how she turns stoppers, makes the mandrel, and she also sells the stopper part. I know her solid stainless steel stoppers are fine quality as I just bought 100 of them.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Skew, knowing your expertise with the lathe I am very surprised that you would feel more confident with the first solution, that, as you say, would be a bitch to keep centered and square, while I am sure it would be very easy for you to put a short cylinder of mild steel (even a softer metal might do) in the chuck, drill it using the lowest speed and tap it. No real need to thread it to fit the headstock. Am I missing something?

No, not really. You're right, that probably is how I'd do it, given that I had the need and took the time to sit down and think it all the way through. :-

However, I stand by my 2nd option: I have a similar set-up for large bowls, a pin-chuck (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showpost.php?p=364246&postcount=27) that threads directly onto the headstock. This removes the need for a chuck altogether and has two advantages: there's one less physical connection, hence less chance of it moving off-centre improved access all the way around without risk of barking knuckles.
It'd be simple enough to make one on a metal-turning lathe and you know it'd be accurate. :)

[Frank&Earnest]

It'd be simple enough to make one on a metal-turning lathe and you know it'd be accurate. :)

Of course, and, as you said, it is the "elegant" solution. Off hunting for wild engineers to tame, then!:D

(my problem is that I am a frustrated wannabe engineer myself....)