I had posted this earlier in what's on your lathe, it's the first lidded box I've tried. As I mentioned this piece of wood is what Tim Yoder might call "durnifIknow" and it was a tough piece to work with, very dry and hard...had quite a few cracks as well. You can see some of the splits around the cracks in the lid and the foot.Overall, the learning from doing this was priceless. I worked some more on the bottom and never got it the way I wanted but I'm pretty happy about the way the rest of it went. I realize this isn't one of those top caliper turnings you guys do, but someday (maybe) I'll get there.

Edited June 4, 20241 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

Looking good Fred.  I like it.

Looks great, Fred! The splits just add to the character. End grain is challenging to turn. The grain match is super!

Not bad for a piece of firewood.

Looks good Fred. Boxes are a lot of fun to turn. That seems to be all I have been turning the last few months. My mentor and I keep challenging each other with different things. His latest is a triangle box. He knew it would drive me crazy and it is. Now I have to try them. You can do straight sides, tapered sides, twisted sides, the possibilities are endless.

 

You do those by shifting the center for each side? (Pretty cool , BTW)

Yes it is turned off center. Cindy Drozda has directions on her site.

 

Good job. The hard part of turning off center is getting the sides even and turning lots of air. Real simple to draw a circle on the end of blank and set 2 or more points for mounting.  I tried the twist but first try did not match grain and just have not tried again.

On 6/4/2024 at 9:36 AM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I had posted this earlier in what's on your lathe, it's the first lidded box I've tried. As I mentioned this piece of wood is what Tim Yoder might call "durnifIknow" and it was a tough piece to work with, very dry and hard...had quite a few cracks as well. You can see some of the splits around the cracks in the lid and the foot.Overall, the learning from doing this was priceless. I worked some more on the bottom and never got it the way I wanted but I'm pretty happy about the way the rest of it went. I realize this isn't one of those top caliper turnings you guys do, but someday (maybe) I'll get there

Turned out (no pun intended) great Fred. Awesome you're getting shop time in as well as upping your game. Just curious, what type of finish did you apply?

Sorry Dave, I guess I  could have posted these pics. At first i wasn't going to finish this thing, after all it was just me trying to screw around and learn something. But the grain on the piece is attractive so i went ahead and put a couple of cats of wiping varnish on it.

Well done Fred it looks great!

Love the grain, Fred! Turned (Pun intended!) out great.