My 5th & 6th turnings

[Tim Thiebaut]

Apple & Maple Lidded boxes. For some reason the maple box gave me fits when it came down to sanding, I wont tell you all how long I spent sanding that thing, but it was a long time, some areas just wouldnt seem to smooth out no matter what I did, eventualy things worked themselfs out though. The Apple is the taller thinner of the 2 boxes, Maple is the shorter & wider box. I know my pictures arent the best, learning to turn is my focus right now, I will worry about better pictures down the road a ways. I have to say I loved working the maple much more so then the apple for some reason, anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.

One of the things I came up with while making these was I needed a way to hold the partialy finished boxes in my chuck without messing up the finish so I could work on the other side of them, I had some Cold Fusion Tape in my tool box, it only sticks to itself, I wrapped a couple of turns either around the jaws, or box depending upon what I was doing, and had my own home made soft jaws.

All comments are welcome!

[tom martin]

Very nice Tim! I love turning maple too. Were your blanks dry when you turned them?
Tom

[Bill Hensley]

Nice boxes Tim. I'm also partial to maple. I turned a HF out of maple today.

[Carol Kinney]

Tim,
you did a very nice job on those. It's great that you're using different types of wood but don't be afraid to try apple again.

To hold your boxes there are a number of ways to reverse finish. One is using a jam chuck with a piece of leather or other soft material at the end to protect your finish. Another way is using those nylon self-turned jaws (cost is about $10) or you could make some wooden jaws with small recess turned in them to hold the piece while you finish. With boxes that small I normally use the jam check method but make sure you bring the tailstock up just as a safeguard.

BTW - I love the way you finished the inside and the bottom of the pieces - that could end up being one of your signatures. But it isn't finished yet, you did a wonderful job but they aren't finished until you sign them. With your signature it means it has your approval and that you did the best job you could.

[Roger Chandler]

Tim,

I think Carol's post above said it all, especially the jam chuck methods for reverse turning. These are real nice! I mean real nice! I really like the inside of the lid, and the form you gave........these will be useful items, and now your skill set has gone to another level! Congratulations.

[Ron Stadler]

They look good Tim, I have the same problem with sanding sometimes, grrrr. But these turned out real nice for ya.

[bob svoboda]

Nice boxes, Tim. Carol's comments are right on. I've had some success wet sanding Maple with BLO when I have stubborn marks.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Hi Everyone, thank you so much for the kind remarks, I am very happy with the way these turned out! I have used a jam chuck on some items I have been working on, but sometimes you just dont want to spend extra time, and waste extra wood to make one for each piece, so useing the soft jaws on this instance worked well for me. And Tom, yes they were blocks of wood I picked up from Rocklers a couple of weeks back so they were pretty darn dry, however as I noticed an issue with tightening of the lid on one of my first lidded boxes, I rough turned both of these about 2 weeks ago, lids and boxes, and then sit on the shelf in my shop for a couple weeks to acclimate, then finished them up this week. And Carol, I will most certainly be working with apple again, I have one really nice piece still left over...I had actauly cut the piece I had in half, so I have an equal size piece waiting for something down the road.

What kind of Pen/marker do you all use to sign your pieces, is it something special that you use?

Question for anyone that has used Mylands friction polish. - I have used Mylands on each of these boxes, should I be useing a top coat of laquer or poly or...?? Or do you normaly just leave it at just the friction polish? Thanks for any input you could give me here. And again, thank you very much for all of the help in the past weeks, and the kind words! Tim

[Roger Chandler]

What kind of Pen/marker do you all use to sign your pieces, is it something special that you use?

Question for anyone that has used Mylands friction polish. - I have used Mylands on each of these boxes, should I be useing a top coat of laquer or poly or...?? Or do you normaly just leave it at just the friction polish? Thanks for any input you could give me here. And again, thank you very much for all of the help in the past weeks, and the kind words! Tim

Tim,

I have found that I get less movement [warpage] from turnings I finish with wipe on poly than those I did with mylands friction polish. I think the poly seals the wood better for better equilibrium in the wood, and thy mylands allows the moisture to escape the pores more.

For wood that is good and dry, it probably won't matter much, except to say that the poly is generally a more durable finish for those things that will get heavy usage.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Thanks Roger, I am heading out on some errands here in a minute, I may run by the hardware store and see if they have any wipe on poly, which brand do you prefer if you dont mind revealing that?