Well, the old lathe finally got powered up this week. I've had this idea rolling round in that empty space called my brain and had a couple of hours to try and make it work.

A couple of years ago, my Christmas presents were wine bottle stoppers. The design was stolen  borrowed from a pen turner and they turned out OK-

Then the design started to morph, in my mind, but it was going to take some experimentation to get the design to work. Sketchup was a possibility for creating the new design, but since my talents there are limited to drawing boxes, it looked like it was going to be a trial and error (mostly the latter) process.

Here is what version 0.1 looks like. My end goal is to get the ends of the dark pieces to match exactly to make a flowing line around the piece.

For some reason, this example- to me- has an Asian characteristic. That's OK, just not my original idea.

 

My "Inbox" had a message form Craft Supplies USA. Following a link again turned up a very nice surprise in the form of an easily turned project that might sell at craft shows. 

This cute little Honey Dipper's turning instructions are easy to follow and these might be an attractive addition to your craft show products.

Don't forget to post your turnings. We would love to see stuff from our new members!!

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Nice looking stopper Lewis. I have several turning projects myself, I may have to add one of these to my list.

Charles,

The "inlay" is actually done on a table saw. Slots with a thin pieces of stock glued into them. This could probably be done with a hand saw and narrow chisel as long as the bottom of the slot is very flat.

Charles Nicholls said:

Thanks Lew, I still have to figure out how to make inlays like that since I dont have a router.

I will have a look at the honey dipper though, I have a nice long piece of black walnut that I can make a couple from depending on the diameter and length. After checking it out the length is ok I can do that but I dont have much 2x2" stock so I am going to try using 1 1/2 x2 and see if that works, I'll keep you all posted on progress.

Our rough piece Beech wood

Thanks for sharing.

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
http://www.nichollswoodworks.com
This website is new so it doesn't have much to it yet but you are welcome to take a look

Wow I love the bottle stopper Lew. I may have to steal borrow your design and idea. I really like that and it is so different.

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John Moody
Site Administrator


John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Sounds like a plan, Charles!

I made a small jig to hold the piece in the same position for each pass. I make one pass over the blade for each slot. The slot is about 1/4 to 1/3 of the thickness of the main block but is not critical. The deeper the slot, the more the "inlay" appears to curve around the piece when turned.

Charles Nicholls said:

I have a TINY bench top table saw that may actually work if I can get it stable enough to use I may wind up bolting that thing to the old lathe table that is now a rack for wood and my grinder.

Lewis Kauffman said:

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Cool!!!

Charles Nicholls said:

Ok challenge taken , here's the result, all but final sanding and finish.

It's approximately 6 inches long and about 1 1/3 inch at the widest point (for now until sanding is done).

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
http://www.nichollswoodworks.com
This website is new so it doesn't have much to it yet but you are welcome to take a look

Charles,

I don't think it is necessary to shape/round the "rings". A quick Google for honey dipper images shows a whole bunch with rings just like yours.

Looks great!

Charles Nicholls said:

Well here we are, just a bit of sanding to do and a finish and it's done. I made the grooves deeper as was suggested, but not really able to shape them like is in the instructions because they are too close together to get a skew in

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
http://www.nichollswoodworks.com
This website is new so it doesn't have much to it yet but you are welcome to take a look