Here is southern Pennsylvania, today was warm and sunny! Maybe spring is on its' way.

 

Recently, my sister sent me a picture of a seed starter pot maker. She thought that it would make a nice gift. I'm not sure if that was a hint, but.....

 

I spent a little time searching for dimensions and drawings but couldn't really find too much. How tough could it be?!

 

I had a cutoff chunk of butternut left over from a bowl turning and made it into a squared blank. 

 

Mounted it on the lathe

 

Turned a dovetail tenon for chuck mounting

 

remounted the blank

 

Turned it round

 

Used a 1 3/4" Forstner Bit to drill a recess. Just guessed at the depth needed. Close to 3/8"

 

Set the depth for the diameter of the finished "pusher"

 

Reduced the diameter to the desired amount ~ 2"

 

Created a "knob" head to make it comfortable to apply pressure

 

Final sanding and parted off this piece. Butternut is pretty soft . As I was parting it and holding the piece- to catch it when it released- I squeezed a little too hard and the wood fibers twisted off before the cut was complete.

 

Even the Forstner bit used to drill the recess, tore some of the fibers

 

I still needed to make the base. I had some hard maple scraps left from a rolling pin and some pieces of pine from another project. I used the pine for a waste block, glued to the maple.

 

Knocked off the corners on the bandsaw and then turned it round and added a chuck tenon.

 

Remounted the base in the chuck and flattened the face

 

Next, I laid out and cut a groove into the base. The groove is slightly wider than the "rim" at the base of the pusher piece.

 

 

Added some chamfers to knock off the sharp corners

 

I went back and reduced the height of the "crimping" area to allow for the thickness of the newspaper at the bottom. I guessed at the correct spacing. Made it about 1/16"

 

Sanded and parted off the base from the waste block. The completed "Seed Starter Pot Maker"

 

Using it is pretty easy. Tear off a sheet of newspaper (1/4 sheet works well)

 

Roll the paper around the pusher

 

Fold the open end in on itself

 

Press the pusher into the base (pix taken while testing for size)

 

The paper is compressed and locks together

 

I found that I need to modify the base recess slightly. The pusher rim has straight sides as does the recess. When pressing the two parts together, the paper would sometimes tear at the bottom lip. I think that either making the recess in the base wider or adding a taper on the inner edge may eliminate the tearing.

 

Here's a JPEG of the SketchUp drawing (and the Sketchup file). It has the taper mentioned above

 

Modified seed mold.skp

 

Here's a video from Ernie Conover about using a bench grinder to sharpen lathe tools-

 

And here's a nifty little setup for holding smaller diameter stock in your lathe

 

Full details are at- https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p/101/6510/Turners-Select-Drawbar-Collet-Chuck?term=drawbar collet chuck

 

Finally, check out the latest edition of Woodcraft Magazine (April/May 2016). There is a great article on turning "tricky" wood.

 

Safe Turning!

Looking good. You have nice toys!  

I noted with interest your vacuum behind the lathe. I do not have one and am wondering how effective yours is. If you were to make some changes with it, to make it better, what would it be?

 

Thanks

Thanks for the kind words, Ron, they're really appreciated.

 

 

I had  hoped the vacuum would be more effective than it is. It does pull some of the sanding dust but, as it is, it is too far away from the turnings to do a really good job. I need to either make or buy some form of collection hood. I've seen some made from large diameter PVC drain pipes that wrap about half way around a turning. I guess a couple of different diameter pipes would take care of most situations. On problem unique to my situation is the location and mounting of the lathe. There just isn't much working room to set up some sort of a mounting device.

 

Another device 

For me, this just seems to be too intrusive and would probably just be in the way most of the time.

 

I think the easiest thing, right now, would to be to extend the length of the collection hose to bring it closer to the turnings. Then devise some sort of holder that would allow the hose to stay positioned, where I need it, along a turning.