End grain boxes, maximum practical diameter?

[Dan Forman]

Is there a limit to the diameter one should attempt on an end grain box, a point after which wood stability would make it a dicey proposition?

I'm thinking in terms of wide, shallow boxes, rough turned, dried, then final turned. Thanks,

Dan

[Roger Chandler]

Dan........I have done several wide shallow boxes......some in the 6-6.5" wide range.......no issues with them. If you use a piece of wood that is without the pith, then your chances of success are greatly increased. That means a blank will need to come off one side of a larger log and the ideal is to use wood that has been kiln dried........not too much movement with kiln dried. I would also tell you that an inset lid will work nicely on a wide box, but if you do a tenon and overlap, then just make the lid overlap just a tad big to accommodate the movement.

here are a couple of mine ...262432262433262434 as you can see, one here is not end grain and the other was a box elder burl.....not sure on the grain orientation on that one.......this spalted maple box is endgrain.......the wood was pretty dry for air dried.......262435262436 I believe if this blank would have been large enough, I could have gone 8 inches....then you are really getting into a canister style form and not a box, unless of course you keep it shallow as you were speaking of.

We have had a couple guys in our club make shallow boxes with lids in the 10" range, but they were not end grain.

[Reed Gray]

For threaded boxes, I won't go over about 1 1/2 inches. Any more than that, and wood movement will make them almost unscrewable. I have some canisters now that are in the 5 to 6 inch range. You do not want a lid that is a 'pop' fit, but one that slides off easily with a tiny bit of whoosh. They still move, but if you make the lid from the same piece of wood, they, at least in theory will move the same amount and you may not be able to twist them 360 degrees around, but they will still come off and on. Mike Mahoney does show some of this in his Heirlooms video.

robo hippy

[Kyle Iwamoto]

When does it become a canister? LOL

I've made boxes/cannisters 6 inches and over , but at that point, getting that lid to fit right is a challenge. Changes in temperature and humidity affect the fit. And I live in Hawaii where it is always hot and humid. Taller items move more. I think. Items that large, I go for the loose fiting lid vice the pop/squeak fit. Perhaps turning 3 times may help the fit. One of my 6 inch cannister lid no longer fits at all. I guess it's a salt bowl now. Perhaps 5 inches is a practical limit?

[Reed Gray]

I have a bunch of the base ball blanks, 3 inch diameter. I would never try to thread one, unless maybe it had been stabilized with that polymer infusion method. They do make good tea boxes. You still get some movement though. Most customers never seem to notice that the grain is supposed to line up. Maybe using a contrasting color wood would be easier, well, if movement is the same.

robo hippy

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for the replies. I have a few round end grain blanks that I had cut up when I first started turning, some are of considerable girth, that I thought I might have a go at. Maple with some nice figure. Might go the covered dish rout rather than suction fit if movement will be a factor.

Dan

[Eric Holmquist]

I saw a demo by Kirk DeHeer where he made an end grain tortilla box. He says that his family uses them every week to hold hot tortillas during meal time, so you can go fairly large.

[Curt Fuller]

I've seen some Mike Mahoney's "cookie jars" size boxes, canisters I guess they would be. They sure are pretty and seem to work out alright.

[Reed Gray]

I have been doing some of the 3 off set center twisty type vases with lids lately. I have some London Plane (sycamore) which I rough turned and let sit, returned, let sit, then final turned. The inside is around 2 inch diameter. I had the lids fairly loose fitting. I went out this morning and one lid had to be pried off, and the other wouldn't go on. Another one made from Walnut and Chestnut still fitted perfectly. The two Plane ones had not been finished on the outside, and the lids had didn't have any finish on them. Hope I don't have to return the Plane ones as I already removed the tenons.

robo hippy