cornucopia
Established Member
hello all, a rare mid week day of for me today so i went in my workshop 
heres how i do my box's but as with so many other things there are lots of ways to skin a plum!!
so the blank was mounted between centres and a dovetail spigot made on one end ready for my o-donnell jaws.here it is in my chuck
mark out where you want the lid to be and form another dovetail spigot for that
mount the lid in the chuck and hollow out and form a parallel spigot.
it very important that the spigot is as good as you can get it, i check mine with a pair of calliper things!!
sand and apply your finish now, i do not sand the spigot.
take the lid out the chuck and mount the base into it, hollow out the majority of the inside
form a spigot to match your lid, i dont measure it, i get it close to the size then form a taper, i stop and try the fit until it just goes on, it should leave a little burnish mark, i reduce the spigot now to slightly larger than that burnish point and try the fit again, i want a tight jam fit, but not that tight that i cant get it back of!!
once i'm happy with my fit i sand and finish the inside of the base
now the lid gets jamed on and i can see how my grain is going to line up.
i shape the lid at this stage, you can take it on and of tto check the wall thickness as often as you want.
now i shape the base, and then sand and finish it all.
now is the make or break point for me, the final fit of the lid!!! some people like them tighter than others but we all agree we dont want them too loose!! :roll: no photos of this bit i was concentrating too hard :lol:
i mount a scrap in the chuck to make into a jam chuck for the base
jam the base on, i use a little insurance tape here, this wont hold a bit on but it will stop your base flying of and getting damaged
sand and finish the base- and thats it
i dont normally make a box from start to finish like this, the fit of this lid should stay o.k but to be sure i would have normally roughed the box out first and set it aside to stabilise before returning it to the lathe to finish.
heres on i did in 2004 so it should be stable by now :roll: :roll:
to rough turn you partially hollow out of the lid and base, date it tape them together and forget about them for a few months (or years)
be sure to store them in the house eventually but not too soon if the wood was really wet. on the day you want to make the box take it from the house into the workshop and then back into the house dont leave it in the workshop overnight.
heres todays bits
heres how i do my box's but as with so many other things there are lots of ways to skin a plum!!
so the blank was mounted between centres and a dovetail spigot made on one end ready for my o-donnell jaws.here it is in my chuck
mark out where you want the lid to be and form another dovetail spigot for that
mount the lid in the chuck and hollow out and form a parallel spigot.
it very important that the spigot is as good as you can get it, i check mine with a pair of calliper things!!
sand and apply your finish now, i do not sand the spigot.
take the lid out the chuck and mount the base into it, hollow out the majority of the inside
form a spigot to match your lid, i dont measure it, i get it close to the size then form a taper, i stop and try the fit until it just goes on, it should leave a little burnish mark, i reduce the spigot now to slightly larger than that burnish point and try the fit again, i want a tight jam fit, but not that tight that i cant get it back of!!
once i'm happy with my fit i sand and finish the inside of the base
now the lid gets jamed on and i can see how my grain is going to line up.
i shape the lid at this stage, you can take it on and of tto check the wall thickness as often as you want.
now i shape the base, and then sand and finish it all.
now is the make or break point for me, the final fit of the lid!!! some people like them tighter than others but we all agree we dont want them too loose!! :roll: no photos of this bit i was concentrating too hard :lol:
i mount a scrap in the chuck to make into a jam chuck for the base
jam the base on, i use a little insurance tape here, this wont hold a bit on but it will stop your base flying of and getting damaged
sand and finish the base- and thats it
i dont normally make a box from start to finish like this, the fit of this lid should stay o.k but to be sure i would have normally roughed the box out first and set it aside to stabilise before returning it to the lathe to finish.
heres on i did in 2004 so it should be stable by now :roll: :roll:
to rough turn you partially hollow out of the lid and base, date it tape them together and forget about them for a few months (or years)
be sure to store them in the house eventually but not too soon if the wood was really wet. on the day you want to make the box take it from the house into the workshop and then back into the house dont leave it in the workshop overnight.
heres todays bits
