Box making rough outs

[Nathan Hawkes]

There were a few questions about using green vs dry wood, so I thought I'd share some pictures of my rough outs. I don't have any in progress pictures unfortunately. You have to use your imagination. For the drying process, I tough turn a cylinder, turn shoulders on both ends, them part off the lid. After roughly hollowing the lid and base, I use masking tape to keep the lid and base together. initially I put thee rough turned sections in a loosely closed cardboard fruit box (the kind with holes in it) to keep initial drying fairly slow to discourage splitting. The box was placed on a shelf with no direct sun, and low airflow. After about a month, and some repositioning of the contents to keep air contact even, they all go on a shelf near the stove to speed up drying as much as possible. I had only a couple failures drying that were due to bark inclusions rather than moisture loss.



This is the first time I've tried posting a new thread from my smartphone. Pics won't upload. I'll try again from home.

[Jim Burr]

Same method Raffin uses in his box making video...still like dry wood better for boxes

[Richard Jones]

Nathan,

Pretty much the same thing here, rubber bands instead of tape. They're all in my basement, little to no heat, usually at least 65% RH, so drying is slow anyway. I haven't tried the stove thing. I do use an old wooden clothes drying rack to put bowls, etc., on the hearth in front of the gas logs for drying of finishes, maybe I'll try that with a couple of box roughouts to see how they do.

Thanks.

Rich

[Nathan Hawkes]

So I'm sorry for the teasing thread with no pictures! I tried posting the entire thing earlier from my phone, but I couldn't get the pictures to upload. When using the google Android platform, there is apparently a disconnect from when you press the 'choose files' and the phone's storage card. Nothing happens. Grumble grumble.

Anyway, here goes. As Jim stated, this is Richard Raffan's method for turning. I'm a big fan of his. Simple, down to earth instructions and easy to follow commentary is hard to beat! I'm still working on my Raffan back cut. I'm pretty good at it, but I wouldn't want to do a demonstration or anything. Quite a difficult cut to master. Just like Raffan, I like fast and simple. I have 3 tools for rough shaping; an Alan Lacer made 1 3/8" skew, a Hamlet 2060 1/2" spindle gouge, and a Sorby 1/16" parting tool. It helps speed, and keeps things from getting to fussy and complicated. I use the skew to knock the corners off with a peel cut, the spindle gouge for the hollowing "back cut", and the parting tool for, well, parting.

222893222894222895

[Nathan Hawkes]

So I'm sorry for the teasing thread with no pictures! I tried posting the entire thing earlier from my phone, but I couldn't get the pictures to upload. When using the google Android platform, there is apparently a disconnect from when you press the 'choose files' and the phone's storage card. Nothing happens. Grumble grumble.

Anyway, here goes. As Jim stated, this is Richard Raffan's method for turning. I'm a big fan of his. Simple, down to earth instructions and easy to follow commentary is hard to beat! I'm still working on my Raffan back cut. I'm pretty good at it, but I wouldn't want to do a demonstration or anything. Quite a difficult cut to master. Just like Raffan, I like fast and simple. I have 3 tools for rough shaping; an Alan Lacer made 1 3/8" skew, a Hamlet 2060 1/2" spindle gouge, and a Sorby 1/16" parting tool. It helps speed, and keeps things from getting to fussy and complicated. I use the skew to knock the corners off with a peel cut, the spindle gouge for the hollowing "back cut", and the parting tool for, well, parting.

222893222894222895

[Richard Jones]

Nathan,

I'm still trying to learn that back cut, it is eluding me so far. That's a tall box in that last pic.................:)

Thanks for posting.

Rich

[Nathan Hawkes]

You're welcome! And the last pic isn't that tall; I think its just the angle I'm holding it at or something. It gets really fun when the tool hangs over the rest more than 6". LOTS of leverage there.