What do you call.........

[Richard Jones]

a lidded box without a lid? Practice!!

So I turned a gorgeous napkin ring out of the lid part of this piece of cherry. Instead of tossing the whole thing, why not use it for practice? So, I continued on, hollowing, shaping the exterior, etc. Just to see what the cross section looked like, I took a pic. The inconsistent wall thickness won't win any awards per se, but, it's a box, or at least it was going to be, and I don't really care about wall thickness to the nth degree..........253251.

Took away a few lessons, as always, that I will apply to my next attempt.

1. Don't hollow the lid so much that you don't have any room to design. Shallow is better than a napkin ring........
2. The flange/lid intersection doesn't have to be square. The lid rests on the bottom of the lid flange, not the top........
3. Cutting on the right side of center with the lathe in reverse can be very helpful.
4. etc.

Things don't always work out, but there's always something to learn.

[Brian Kent]

It's like studying geology from a road cut. That is actually really informative since you are otherwise working on something you can't see.

[Michael Stafford]

Richard, I use to turn my demo boxes from cherry. I would pass around boxes in various stages of completion so that folks could see up close and personal the various operations I was demonstrating. I had several cherry boxes dropped as they were passed and invariably they would split or chip. I no longer use cherry for that purpose as I believe it is too brittle.

If I were you I would sand that split edge until it is smooth and in the same plane to illustrate the shape one is trying for with this particular box. I will say that I thin the area under the shoulders a little more than on the piece you show and leave the bottom a little thicker. The bottom is short end grain and can have little strength depending on the timber.