The tea jar lids have been well received at the honey farm. Owner told me the ladies love them. She said a lady bought two of them and remarked: "it's too bad you don't have them to fit the jars your herbs are in". Cindy, the owner said, "I started texting you before she was done talking". Do you think you could make even a smaller size?" So, I'll deliver these in the morning. They are much smaller at only 2" I. D.

 

 

I did nine of them to start, we'll see how they do and go from there.

 

 

The jars are pretty small, only 2" diameter at the top.

 

 

The jars are so small one of my concerns was that the wooden lid would "overpower" the jar and look unbalanced. I kept them as small as I could. Of course that doesn't leave a lot of material to work with.

 

 

This one didn't make the cut for this batch.

 

In other news, I've been turning with next Christmas season in mind. Little bitty bird parts for birdhouse ornaments.

These bodies are about 3/8" by 1/8", heads are probably about 1/8" by 1/8"

 

 

 

Fantastic! 

Do the wood lids get glued to the jar lids?

I love those tiny birds. 

1 hour ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Fantastic! 

Do the wood lids get glued to the jar lids?

 

 

Thanks Larry. The metal lids get glued into the wood cavity. For these I'm using thick CA and accelerator after scuffing the lid with 120 grit.

Cool ideda, expanding already.  

Another job well done.  Smaller but same amount of work.  Get the same price I hope. 

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by HandyDan

Those are very nice Steve!  Do you plan to put designs on them?  I suspect that is one of the big draws on the tea lids, and would surely kick these up a notch...  Really super job!

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by Cal

21 minutes ago, Cal said:

Those are very nice Steve!  Do you plan to put designs on them?  I suspect that is one of the big draws on the tea lids, and would surely kick these up a notch...  Really super job!

 

 Thanks Cal, I would like to but as yet I haven't found anything I feel would work well. It's a pretty small area so that also limits what I can do. I talked with the owner and she would like them kept generic instead of being specific to a given herb. That's something else to work around. I'm sure eventually I'll come up with something. I do know with the other lids I make they sell about 50/50, some people like the ditties and some like the wood grain. 

16 hours ago, Steve Krumanaker said:

The jars are pretty small, only 2" diameter at the top.

 Steve would it be worth the time to do a glue up, couple of feet long, for the small lids and cut it in a hexagonal shape. Slice off the thickness that you'll need for the lid & turn the inside and then just soften the edges on the outside. This might be some help for older people with gripping the lid. They all look great, just an idea. 

Awesome work, Steve!

 

You doing pill bottles next?  

48 minutes ago, lew said:

Awesome work, Steve!

 

You doing pill bottles next?  

 

How quickly you forget!!

 

1 hour ago, DuckSoup said:

 Steve would it be worth the time to do a glue up, couple of feet long, for the small lids and cut it in a hexagonal shape. Slice off the thickness that you'll need for the lid & turn the inside and then just soften the edges on the outside. This might be some help for older people with gripping the lid. They all look great, just an idea. 

 

The hexagon shape is a good idea. With that, it's important to remember these are a fairly inexpensive gift shop item and I have to leave room for her to make a profit. With my current process I can do 8-10 an hour pretty easily, lathe time. Doing a glue up and machining a hexagon would radically alter that.

Great job.  Now you have another job.  

You could just turn a couple beads or cove on the small ones for decoration.

6 hours ago, Steve Krumanaker said:

With my current process I can do 8-10 an hour pretty easily, lathe time.

 Didn't realize your piece per hour. Glue up would definitely slow that way down.

..Could possibly cut blanks with a hole saw?

25 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

..Could possibly cut blanks with a hole saw?

 

I do, after that about 1.5 minutes to true the face and drill the cavity. Reverse and finish cut/sanding takes 2-3 minutes. I never try to turn fast but I do strive to be efficient on something like this. Knobs, if the lids get one take another couple/three minutes. The real time saver is doing them in bunches.

Edited February 4, 20215 yr by Steve Krumanaker