Some bottle stoppers, pens, and assorted projects

[Alan Zenreich]

For your entertainment.

Having fallen into the woodturning vortex, there's not much flat-work being produced in my little shop these days.

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/shop/images/thumbnails/bottlestopper_2a_small.jpg

Please refer to my Personal Profile page for my website address. There is a page with my first two bottle stoppers, turned today

... and some other recent projects

... and a little photo tour of my basement shop.

Now to get back to work on my first bowls.

[David E Keller]

Wow... somebody's been busy.

The zebra box is fantastic, and you did a great job on the pens. The spalted grouping is really nice.

Looking forward to the bowl.

[Alan Zenreich]

David,

Thanks for the kind words. Did you see the photos of the oval box build process? This was my first attempt at bandsaw boxes... pretty interesting process, and learned some things about keeping all the parts labeled until assembly <vbg>

[Alan Zenreich]

In that grouping of 5 pens, from left to right:

Three zebrawood (leftover from the oval box build)
One black and white ebony
One spalted maple
I just finished my first couple of acrylic fountain pens... will photograph them soon, and post better photos of the pens in the larger group shot.

[Donny Lawson]

I really like the Blue/Black pen.What is it made of? I will have to make my daughter one.
Donny

[Alan Zenreich]

the blue/black, pink, and red pens are all acrylic, either from Rockler or Woodcraft. Recently I've taken to turning the acrylics with EasyRougher and EasyFinisher carbide tools... great tools for this material MUCH faster than using a gouge and skew... and straight to micromesh for finishing.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Alan - real nice work on everything! Really like the Blue/Black pen and the way it grabs your attention. Very vivid! Also like the way the colors contrast with the brushed metal. Nice work!

[Alan Zenreich]

Steve,

I turned a deep red/black fountain pen the other day, really nice rich looking results. I'll make some photos in the next couple of days.

My wife is going to turn her first pendant tonight using a very nice eccentric backer plate made by a guy who participates on the penturners site. So I'll set up photograph a few items at the same time.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Those are some really nice turnings. The bottle stopper really looks great.

[Alan Zenreich]

These were my first attempts at bottle stoppers.

I'll post some build photos soon. The nice thing about them is that you do whatever you want. Turn to the bushing, or ignore it entirely. Make it tall, short, thin, fat... plain or ornate... it all works <vbg>

Very low stress, a fine thing.

[Alan Zenreich]

Bernie, we seem to frequent some of the same forums <vbg>

[Alan Zenreich]

I just updated the bottle stopper page with photos of the build process.

It also shows me using several different chisels... just playing with new toys.