Some Boxes

[drillbit]

I am normally a bit shy about showing my work on this forum, considering the standard. But it being a year since I started turning, I thought some of the people who have given me so much advice and help might like to see a few things I have been making.

These are 3 inch diameter push fit boxes - spalted beech. They went to my brother-in-law and his wife-to-be for an engagement present.

A little family of walnut boxes - about 1.5inches across.

Some large apple boxes - 4inch diameter.

A lovely smelling cedar box

Just to show I do sometimes turn something other than boxes..here are some rattles in oak,cherry and some unidentified wood..

And finally, I've just started trying to work with the bowl gouge. Here's a little bowl for the mother-in-law. My wife's family are Turkish, and it's traditional of an evening to sit and eat various nuts and fruit. I wanted to make a bowl you could serve the nuts in, and also have somewhere to put the shells.

All feedback welcome. Thanks for looking.

 

[Froggy]

Love the spalted beech and cedar boxes Toby.

 

[KimG]

I like the lot, nicely finished, I am surprised at how nice the Cedar looks too. The box's lids look very crisp.

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

Excellent work. Not just well executed but well though out and proportioned too!

 

[hughie]

What a great collection, my favourite would be the cedar. But all in all they a very well done the all of them.

 

[Grahamshed]

Looks like a year well spent to me If I had to pick just one it would be a toss up between the looks of the spalted beech and the smell of the ceder one. They are all excellent.

 

[nev]

+1 for what everyone says.
all to be proud of methinks.

 

[gregmcateer]

Lovely work - great grain alignment on the boxes.
Do you use a super-thin parting tool?
Greg

 

[drillbit]

Thanks for all the comments.

Greg - I used to use a parting tool, but I couldn't get the grain close enough even with the thinnest. So I use a bandsaw. I tend to make boxes in batches from a spindle. Turn the whole spindle to round, mark up the divisions between boxes, cut in some dovetails on the ends and either side of the divisions for the spigots, and then slice it up with a bandsaw. That way I end up with a bunch of blanks with a spigot each end. Then I bandsaw the top off each blank, leaving me with both halves ready to turn into a box. Just need to true up the faces when I am making the box.

It still isn't close enough for me. There is always a bit of drift in the bandsaw, and so you still have to take off up to 1mm either side. I think a table saw would get it closer with less truing up to do. But I can't afford one... I tried doing it by hand with a gentlemans saw, but I had more drift than with the bandsaw!!

 

[OldWood]

Toby - re. cutting off the lid section where the grain matching is important , the small Japanese pull saws have the thinnest cut I know (0.5mm) and I use them quite a bit for flat wood work. I do use them on occasions when I get fed up with parting off. The trick would be to create an equally fine cutting tool to create an initial groove to guide the pull saw. Worth exploring - first thoughts is that the cutting tip would need to be an insert into a bit of square section bar.

To really retain the grain continuity, the joining spigot on the lower half would have to be an insert.

Rob

 

[hammer n nails]

very nice work

 

[Mickfb]

Very nice. They give me a lot of encouragement as I have only started turning my self.
Mick

 

[woodyturner]

That is a nice collection and some very good examples of turnings well done

 

[babylon355]

Very impressive, well done