First Stoppers

[Patrick Doody]

Hey guys I turned my first 2 stoppers today, they're going out the door as gifts, the maple burl was taken from my dad's hunting land and is going to him as a gift. the flame maple was a little scrap. this was a fun little project, i made a little mandrel to hold the blank, and i got to try out my new sorby detail gouge. Fun and quick project!


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5031275462_9d31857b35_z.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/5031274450_c1f0243144_z.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/5030656619_76a9678c21_z.jpg

[Tom Sherman]

Nice stoppers

[John Keeton]

Nice work, and a beautiful piece of burl! Your Dad will appreciate the history behind the gift!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Patrick - very nice work on both stoppers! Really like the burl! Your Dad will love it!

[Patrick Doody]

Thanks! the burl is by far my Favorite too, the other one i think the proportions are off a bit... but that burl is pretty neat, I only have a few small pieces left from that burl and i was wondering how I could use them. glad I can give something to my dad from this because he's been letting us cut some trees down.

the mandrel that I made is simply a 2" long 3/8" x 16 bolt that i cut the head off of and ground it down a bit, then i threaded a nut on to get the proper spacing. I then mounted that in my drill chuck. seems like a good way to hold small work. i finished these with some BLO and a coating of Ren Wax and buffed on the lathe.

i think i'll pickup some more stopper kits from craft supplies soon. These were the Stainless ones that they sell. good way to use up some small scraps.

[Phil Hansen]

I like the burl.
Having never had the chance to get or use any sort of burl I would like to know what you fill the cavities with or is it left natural with the holes/cavities/imperfections.
If left natural what about catches while turning?
Thanks
Phil

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice looking stoppers. Burl is really nice.

[David E Keller]

Nice looking stoppers. Is it just me, or does that look like cherry burl? The little black pitch lines and the color remind me of cherry. Whatever it is, it's nice.

[Patrick Doody]

I like the burl.
Having never had the chance to get or use any sort of burl I would like to know what you fill the cavities with or is it left natural with the holes/cavities/imperfections.
If left natural what about catches while turning?
Thanks
Phil

Hey Phil, I pretty much left as is, I picked the really punky stuff out with a dental pick. It turned really nicely, I didn't have any issues with tearout or anything, i had to watch it a little when sanding, one of the voids wanted to grab the sand paper but that was a minor issue, no complaints.

David, I'm fairly certain it's maple, we cut the tree down to harvest 2 burls, the tree was in bad shape, it was dying, but it did have a few maple leaves on it as i remember. I still have one nice sized burl left that i haven't cut up, not sure what it will end up as, it's not the greatest shape for a bowl... that said i still have a few small scraps that will probably end up as some stoppers or accents for HF's

Thanks for all the great comments! I had fun with these, can't wait to make some more, but first i have to rough out all of that spalted apple that I found last weekend.