The middle of June, already!

 

On another social media forum, Patriot member Charles asked about the process of how I made some bottle stoppers. To help him, here's the information. If anyone has questions or needs additional information just let me know.

 

 

Three of the stoppers have the Celtic knot configuration and the forth (rite most) has more of a swirl design. Both designs are made in almost identically the same manner.

 

To simplify the operations I made a jig for the table saw. I imagine the same thing could be accomplished with a "chop" saw or even on a bandsaw. The pictures of the jig were taken just after some modifications. The 2 x material has not been cut thru by the blade, yet.

 

 

 

 

A hardwood runner slides in the saw's miter track. The stopper blank sets into the cradle made by the thin material fastened between the 2x material. The jig/blank pushed thru the blade to create a kerf in the blank. 

 

For a Celtic knot, the blade is raised so that, when the cut is complete, there is about 1/32" to 1/16" of material left uncut at the top of the blank. For the swirl design, the blade is only raised to cut about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way thru the blank. 

 

After each cut, a thin piece of contrasting wood, the same thickness as the saw kerf, is glued into the kerf. Then the excess is trimmed off flush with the sides of the blank. The blank gets rotated 90° and the process is repeated until all 4 sides have been cut and filled. 

 

Here's a drawing of what the SWIRL blank would look like after 2 passes thru the saw and the wooden strips glued and trimmed.

 

As I do on all my jigs, I record pertinent data about the use of the jig (the minds not what it used to be).

 

Attached to this post is a Sketchup SKP file that can be manipulate for additional viewing. If you don't have the Sketchup program, this link is to a free Sketchup viewer.

 

For turning bottle stoppers, I have a shop made mandrel. It's just a bolt, head cut off, nut and flat washer added. I put a Jacob's chuck in the head stock to hold the mandrel. My stoppers come from Ruth Niles. Her threaded stoppers have 3/8" x 16 threads so the bolt matches those dimensions.

 

Woodworker's Journal has made available free plans for a turned lidded box-

 

 

The PDF is available here-

http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/WJC250-Lidded-Boxes.pdf

 

Woodturning OnLine released their latest newsletter-

http://www.woodturningonline.com/index.php

 

"Rick Turns" posts You Tube turning videos. He also has taken on the task of listing all the You Tube woodturning videos for May 2016!  If you are bored, you can watch all 256 videos!  

 

Safe Turning

 

blank.skp

Edited June 16, 20169 yr by lew

Thanks much Lew, sorry I hadn't got to see this til now. I'm trying to figure out how I can get it to work for me.