Dan Forman
05-29-2013, 7:07 PM
Well, Roger's gremlins evidently felt unfulfilled by the havoc they wreaked upon him, so paid a visit to my shop last night as well.
I turned my first box a couple of days ago, and wanted to have another go at one, so started this one out of some dried apple I had laying about. It was to hold cue tips. While the wood was dry, I know that it will sometimes still move a bit after being hollowed due to relieved stresses sorting themselves out, so I was going to give it a day or two after the major hollowing before fitting the lid. I guess in the future I need to leave a "note to self" to remind myself of the strategy, or think a little bit before starting back on the project. Well, in my case, maybe both. :)
Unfortunately, it turns out that the wood moved very little, which actually hurt rather than helped in this case. When initially hollowing, I had left some wood in the top and bottom to allow for ovaling, which ended up to be so slight as to be nearly undetectable. Here is where the gremlins began their nefarious activity. They took full advantage of my lack of experience with boxes, and made me forget to remove a touch more wood from the inside diameter of the top, which I would have done had it gone a little more oval. I did turn it true, but didn't take off as much as I'd planned when sizing the bottom rim that first night.
So, moving on to the bottom, I chucked it up and commenced truing and sizing the rim for a suction fit. As I removed wood and checked the fit periodically, it was becoming clear that something was amiss, the thickness of the rim was getting much too thin for comfort. I was sure I had allowed for more material than this. Being somewhat challenged in the visualization skills department, it hadn't occurred to me return the lid to the lathe and open the diameter a little more, rather than continuing to turn away the bottom rim. I believe the gremlins had a part in this lack of insight. Well, this wasn't a fatal miscalculation, there was still barely enough wood left to serve for a rim by the time I realized that I could open up the top a little more.
So I replaced the top in the chuck, but it didn't run exactly true, which led to me taking off more wood than I had intended, which ended up to be just enough to lose a suction fit. I figured that I could still get a good fit by building up a little finish on the mating surfaces, and if not, it was still close enough to make do, so I soldiered on. Two layers of masking tape on the rim gave me a nice, tight connection, enough to put the pieces together and use the bottom as a jam chuck for the lid, and finish turning the outside of the top. Remarkably, this went without further incident.
In order to finish the bottom, I needed to make a jam chuck, and it needed to be deep enough not to risk damaging the somewhat fragile rim. This was also accomplished without incident, perhaps making me overconfident that I would be able to bring this project to a successful conclusion. This is where the gremlins did their most dastardly deed. As I was happily removing wood from the bottom, creating a slightly concave base for the box, I experienced that peculiar sensation which accompanies the realization that one is no longer turning wood, but turning air. It's quite strange really, actually happens in an instant, yet there is still a sense of it developing over a greater period of time.
A wise man (or woman) once said "If you cant change a situation, then change the way you think about it", so I prefer to think of the gaping hole in the bottom of my box as a "secret compartment", one so vast that can contain the whole world, indeed the entire universe. It is, however, not suited to cue tips. It's such pretty wood that I might see if I can salvage it by turning a contrasting base. The base would have to be too tall in order for the box to serve it's intended purpose, so I would shorten the bottom portion significantly, making the top dominant, and use it for something else, or perhaps ditch the bottom and make a short tray-like base out of walnut. I t would then resemble one of those covered cake pans.
Well, on to the sad pictorial evidence of this whole sad episode.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1150.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/T-Caster/media/DSC_1150.jpg.html)
As you can see, the top and bottom ended up being too close to the same height. The top ended up being taller than intended, and the bottom, obviously, shorter. On thing about the way boxes must be turned, is that the final outside turning is done in jamb mode, so you don't have instant access to the inside of the object to check your progress. I had pencil marks as landmarks, but they got turned off. I'll have to start using a thin parting tool for my landmarks if I'm to avoid such problems in the future ... or maybe it was just the gremlins.
And here is the secret compartment.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1145.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/T-Caster/media/DSC_1145.jpg.html)
Lastly, I guess this could truly be called "over the top figure".
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1146.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/T-Caster/media/DSC_1146.jpg.html)
Dan
I turned my first box a couple of days ago, and wanted to have another go at one, so started this one out of some dried apple I had laying about. It was to hold cue tips. While the wood was dry, I know that it will sometimes still move a bit after being hollowed due to relieved stresses sorting themselves out, so I was going to give it a day or two after the major hollowing before fitting the lid. I guess in the future I need to leave a "note to self" to remind myself of the strategy, or think a little bit before starting back on the project. Well, in my case, maybe both. :)
Unfortunately, it turns out that the wood moved very little, which actually hurt rather than helped in this case. When initially hollowing, I had left some wood in the top and bottom to allow for ovaling, which ended up to be so slight as to be nearly undetectable. Here is where the gremlins began their nefarious activity. They took full advantage of my lack of experience with boxes, and made me forget to remove a touch more wood from the inside diameter of the top, which I would have done had it gone a little more oval. I did turn it true, but didn't take off as much as I'd planned when sizing the bottom rim that first night.
So, moving on to the bottom, I chucked it up and commenced truing and sizing the rim for a suction fit. As I removed wood and checked the fit periodically, it was becoming clear that something was amiss, the thickness of the rim was getting much too thin for comfort. I was sure I had allowed for more material than this. Being somewhat challenged in the visualization skills department, it hadn't occurred to me return the lid to the lathe and open the diameter a little more, rather than continuing to turn away the bottom rim. I believe the gremlins had a part in this lack of insight. Well, this wasn't a fatal miscalculation, there was still barely enough wood left to serve for a rim by the time I realized that I could open up the top a little more.
So I replaced the top in the chuck, but it didn't run exactly true, which led to me taking off more wood than I had intended, which ended up to be just enough to lose a suction fit. I figured that I could still get a good fit by building up a little finish on the mating surfaces, and if not, it was still close enough to make do, so I soldiered on. Two layers of masking tape on the rim gave me a nice, tight connection, enough to put the pieces together and use the bottom as a jam chuck for the lid, and finish turning the outside of the top. Remarkably, this went without further incident.
In order to finish the bottom, I needed to make a jam chuck, and it needed to be deep enough not to risk damaging the somewhat fragile rim. This was also accomplished without incident, perhaps making me overconfident that I would be able to bring this project to a successful conclusion. This is where the gremlins did their most dastardly deed. As I was happily removing wood from the bottom, creating a slightly concave base for the box, I experienced that peculiar sensation which accompanies the realization that one is no longer turning wood, but turning air. It's quite strange really, actually happens in an instant, yet there is still a sense of it developing over a greater period of time.
A wise man (or woman) once said "If you cant change a situation, then change the way you think about it", so I prefer to think of the gaping hole in the bottom of my box as a "secret compartment", one so vast that can contain the whole world, indeed the entire universe. It is, however, not suited to cue tips. It's such pretty wood that I might see if I can salvage it by turning a contrasting base. The base would have to be too tall in order for the box to serve it's intended purpose, so I would shorten the bottom portion significantly, making the top dominant, and use it for something else, or perhaps ditch the bottom and make a short tray-like base out of walnut. I t would then resemble one of those covered cake pans.
Well, on to the sad pictorial evidence of this whole sad episode.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1150.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/T-Caster/media/DSC_1150.jpg.html)
As you can see, the top and bottom ended up being too close to the same height. The top ended up being taller than intended, and the bottom, obviously, shorter. On thing about the way boxes must be turned, is that the final outside turning is done in jamb mode, so you don't have instant access to the inside of the object to check your progress. I had pencil marks as landmarks, but they got turned off. I'll have to start using a thin parting tool for my landmarks if I'm to avoid such problems in the future ... or maybe it was just the gremlins.
And here is the secret compartment.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1145.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/T-Caster/media/DSC_1145.jpg.html)
Lastly, I guess this could truly be called "over the top figure".
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1146.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/T-Caster/media/DSC_1146.jpg.html)
Dan