Well, we had one partly sunny day this past week- fitting enough that it was on Mother's Day!

 

Early entry this week as we are once again preparing to entertain relatives.

 

I actually got to spend a little time at the lathe. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Ruth Niles' shop. Ruth is the owner of the SS Niles bottle stoppers and she live about 40 minutes from here. While I was there she showed me a bottle stopper she made that resembled a Mennonite man- we live in an area with a large concentration of Mennonites and Amish folks- so I thought I'd try my luck with one. It will ultimately be a gift to my brother who recently has a fascination with photographing the Mennonite/Amish lifestyle.

 

 

This is turned from hard maple, painted with acrylic paint and then clear coated.

 

 

The stopper is "internal" and threaded into a tapped hole then fixed with a dab of epoxy. The stopper is one of Ruth's #A-301 stainless steel stoppers.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I was considering making a rolling pin style noodle cutter. Epic Fail!

 

At first things went pretty good-

 

But the best laid plans of mice and.......

 

 

I think instead of trying to cut the coves and "ridges as one operation, the sharp ridges need to be made first- most likely using the skew- then creating the coves. My Easy Wood Finisher does a fine job making the coves. I just need to figure a way of leaving the sharp ridges un-touched.

 

From another site, I stumbled upon a shop made turning tool that looks really heavy duty. It's called "The Big Ugly Tool". Here it is in operation-

 

 

And here's a video showing the process of building one-

 

 

Safe Turning

Awesome stuff Lew! Love the bottle stop. That rolling pin seems so easy to make, yet so complicated!

Lew , Don't know if you solved your problem. My experience says carbides other than Hunter style , do not leave a good smooth surface. I would go with a Detail Gouge, in particular Thompson. My Henry Taylor just will not give me the cut that I can get with the Thompson.

 

As you have guessed cut the ridges first and do not go back once the edge is established. I have not tried that small of a cove so this is all conjecture, but I do know that if you hit that point it is gone .

9 minutes ago, Gerald said:

Don't know if you solved your problem

Thanks, Gerald. That particular turning idea was on hold until recently when a friend had the idea of using stainless steel fender washers and wooden spacers. Might have to give his idea a try.