Thread: My Box Turning Learning Journey.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

I think you're right, the drawing in the book was also thinner, but when making it I felt it was too delicate for holding and removing the lid.

Another lesson learned is to sometimes to accept the book's drawing without any changes.


Peter.

No harm in trying your own theory. But it is suprising how thin the wood can be and still function. That does change with the hardness of the wood.

interesting journey
keep up the good work

I was wondering whether the chinese hat box series actually needed the feet

Still too hot to go outside and finish of the conversion of the old partly demolished shed to an outdoor gym that we did most of last week, so alas I had to stay in the workshop and do some more turning.

So I made box no 6 which is a spherical box. Timber is Cypres pine and finished the usual way. This was a fun and easy to do box as I was able to use my sphere cutting jig to get a lovely rounded ball.

Pictures shows the front / top, insides and the bottom views, each with a 50 cent piece for size indication.

Attachment 300807 and Attachment 300806

Attachment 300805

As tomorrow will again be very hot I might make the next one as well, as it only got to 26 in the workshop.


Enjoy,

Peter.

Peter,I am sure that I am just one of many watching this great post. Great to see you taking the time to post it all. My interest shot up a notch at your mention of your sphere cutting jig. I know you are very handy (from other posts) and would be very interested in details of your jig.cheersMick

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Still too hot to go outside and finish of the conversion of the old partly demolished shed to an outdoor gym that we did most of last week, so alas I had to stay in the workshop and do some more turning. So I made box no 6 which is a spherical box. Timber is Cypres pine and finished the usual way. This was a fun and easy to do box as I was able to use my sphere cutting jig to get a lovely rounded ball.Pictures shows the front / top, insides and the bottom views, each with a 50 cent piece for size indication.Attachment 300807 and Attachment 300806Attachment 300805As tomorrow will again be very hot I might make the next one as well, as it only got to 26 in the workshop.Enjoy,Peter.

Originally Posted by mick59wests

........ My interest shot up a notch at your mention of your sphere cutting jig. I know you are very handy (from other posts) and would be very interested in details of your jig.cheersMick

Originally Posted by mick59wests

Peter,I am sure that I am just one of many watching this great post. Great to see you taking the time to post it all. My interest shot up a notch at your mention of your sphere cutting jig. I know you are very handy (from other posts) and would be very interested in details of your jig.cheersMick

Thanks Mick, I'm glad you are enjoying these posts.

As I'm getting into it I really start to enjoy making these little boxes as they are challenging, especially the hat series boxes that are still to come.


With regard to the sphere cutting jig I must admit that we bought the one from Vermec, which is an extremely accurate jig and a joy to use, although it was a tad expensive, but I got it at a good price at the WWW Show. I looked at making one myself but the ease of position and adjustment made me buy Vermec's jig.

The one I was looking at was this one and could be made of wood and using a small scraper.


Peter.

Today I made two versions of the vase box. The book says that it is loosely modelled on a Grecian urn showing that even such shape can be turned into a box.

The first is made out of Cypres pine and follows the plan and finished as usual with EEE and Shellowax. Pictures shows the front / top, insides and the bottom views, each with a 50 cent piece for size indication

Attachment 300921 and Attachment 300920

Attachment 300922


The second one is made of some unknown wood, which is hard and difficult to turn, as it chips very easily but looks great. I think it's some kind of Mahogany.For this version I shaped it more like a vase and it needed the base to stabilize it. Pictures shows the front / top, insides and the bottom views, each with a 50 cent piece for size indication

Attachment 300925 and Attachment 300924

Attachment 300923

I prefer the second one more then the first, what do others think.


Peter.

Hi Peter, I prefer the cypress pine shape.
Jim

More nice work Peter.

My taste is a little different - I like the body of the second box, with a foot, but prefer the lid of the first. The more flattened shape of the knob/handle and the slightly thinner 'stem' leading up to it on the first appeals more.

Looking forward to the next installment...

Edit: Is that second timber possibly Blackbutt? I've been using some recycled stuff here for a while that looks virtually identical, and on posting a 'timber ID' thread some time back, was told that it was most likely Blackbutt.
(Mind you, I'm completely hopeless at identifying timber, so am probably wrong.)

Looking good. I think you can go finer with the knobs still.

That wood might be jarrah. It can be very variable. I had some that was terrible to turn as you describe and some that was great.

I agree, the second one for me too.

I wanted to make the lid of the second one the same as the first.

From a previous box I knew that timber, whatever it is, tended to chip when cutting thin lids so I allowed an extra 75 mm for that to happen. Even that was not enough as at each of the first three attempts to get a thin edged lid it kept splitting away at the edges. Finally I ran out of timber so in desperation I made a rounded knob.

Then to balance it I felt that a base would compliment it, so I managed to cut that out of the section clamped in the chuck, leaving only 3 mm to cut of with the band saw, before reverse turning.

May be because of the difficulties I had with that one and the spectacular grain when polished I like that one the best but it's good to hear of contrary opinions.

Still having great fun doing these.


Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

I wanted to make the lid of the second one the same as the first.

From a previous box I knew that timber, whatever it is, tended to chip when cutting thin lids so I allowed an extra 75 mm for that to happen. Even that was not enough as at each of the first three attempts to get a thin edged lid it kept splitting away at the edges. Finally I ran out of timber so in desperation I made a rounded knob.




Peter.

Ah yes. Some woods just have absolutely no short grain strength.

Yesterday was too hot to turn and the lack of sleep caught up with me so I stayed near the AC all day but today it was nice again so here is today's effort being a beaded lid box. In this one the lid slips over the lip which is the opposite to the earlier boxes and has a small raised bead on the lid top.

Again out of Cypres pine and finished the usual way.

Attachment 301154 and Attachment 301155

Attachment 301156



Although this is box number 8 with the variations I have made 16 boxes so far. Starting to run out of room soon and I realize that I will have to build a special display rack for them when I have finished.


Enjoy,

Peter.