Thread: Tear drop boxes! - the evolution....

They look great TL! Can I get one with "Measure Once, Cut Twice"

Originally Posted by Ozkaban

They look great TL! Can I get one with "Measure Once, Cut Twice"

Thanks Ozka! but.........NO!

Lovely work TL, i'd done a small box recently and had to turn the tops inside first, then do the outside jammed onto the lower, by looking at your grain matching (far better than mine) your doing the tops separated at the grain line you want then turning. Kind of reversed to the way i do mine...hmm...must get my lathe mounted and running again, i could turn a spherical knob...dammit you got me thinking now..lovely boxes.

Neal.

Love the shape and proportion Have to agree with artme, forget the finial

Originally Posted by thompy

Lovely work TL, i'd done a small box recently and had to turn the tops inside first, then do the outside jammed onto the lower, by looking at your grain matching (far better than mine) your doing the tops separated at the grain line you want then turning. Kind of reversed to the way i do mine...hmm...must get my lathe mounted and running again, i could turn a spherical knob...dammit you got me thinking now..lovely boxes.

Neal.

Not sure what you are gertting at! I am not really choosing any grain line. Just lucky I guess. I am cutting the parts apart with a jap pull saw so I don't loose much wood and upset the grain too much. Tassie oak one matched almost perfectly when finished. More A(*$$ than class I assure you!

I'll have a better go at explaining the way i do mine better than i did, i was rushed when i posted, and rushing my thoughts, and your idea got me thinking.

1. hotglue workpiece to sacrificial wood on faceplate.
2. turn to round.
3. mark and cut into with parting tool roughly 1/3 of workpiece down from tailstock end.
4. from tailstock end hollow out box lid allowing for the parting tool mark/cut in in step 3.
5. sand/finnish lid inner.
6. part off lid.
7. cut tenon on base at tailstock end to lid inner dimension.
8. flip lid 180 degree's pressfit/mount onto tenon and shape/sand/finish lid outer.
9. turn base outer to match lid outer dimension.
10. remove lid and hollow out base.
11. shape/sand/finnish base inside and out.
12. parting tool base off sacrificial chuck and hand finish box base.

Thats the way i do mine in a nutshell, so i have mismatched grain by 180 degree's to my lids, and i lose a bit of grain as well. The way you do yours got me thinking about how to do mine with matching grains. And as that thought occurred to me i had another, i could do them the same way as i do but i could add a finial / turned knob.

The small things i learn on here excite me, lol, i turn my boxes inside out basically, and you got me thinking about outside in..


Neal.

How I am doing mine! (Which is also how the guy did it in the book, seeing I actually read it yesterday.)

1, Put length of timber that is the length if the box plus 20mm each end between centers. (Can be less if you use a bit of pine for the jam chucks) Turn to round. cut tennons on both ends. mark the top and bottom and the lid flange position with small parting tool. Turn the beginnings of the outside tear drop shape. Don't take the lid down to much to a point yet. Ya just need to know where things are at the moment..

2 Make a groove at the bottom of the lid flange with the point of a skew. ?Then saw apart with trusty jap pull saw! (Can also use super thin parting tool if you have one! )

3 .......

Damn! Now I have to go to work. Will continue this tonight!

Awesome work. I prefer the 'plain' ones, just the teardrop (the first photo, and the one in your second post).

I look forward to reading your process!