Aaron Craven
03-06-2016, 11:37 PM
I've wanted to make myself a shave brush for some time, but didn't want to spend the money for a bottle stopper chuck just to make one shave brush. But my old shave brush (a cheap job from Wal-Mart) was getting pretty ratty, so I decided to take the plunge. I decided to take a chance with real wood (I had some small Walnut pieces that would be perfect), so I took a blank and rounded it between centers. Then I cut a blank, cut a depression for the decor cup and used the included bit from the bottle stopper chuck to drill the screw hole. Then I put it on the chuck and it immediately slid all the way on -- without screwing it in...
It turns out (after looking at reviews online), the bit that comes with this chuck (manufactured by PSI) is basically useless. It doesn't leave enough material behind to screw into. So I tried a smaller bit, and that sort of worked, but since the screw on the chuck is not self-tapping, it eventually tore out while trying to screw the piece on. I ran out of time and decided to sleep on it. A few hours later, I had a very simple solution: create a jam chuck and run a wood screw through it (from the back) into the work piece. Voila -- $0.25 shaving brush chuck. Lesson? Put a little extra thought into things and you can probably save yourself some dough.
Anyway, a quick question on making these... the little decor cup (metal cup that inserts into the piece which you then glue the brush into) gave me fits. I filled behind it with epoxy, then inserted it, but I had a hard time getting it seated because there was nowhere for the air and excess glue to go; I could press it in, but it would pop back up if I let the pressure off. I finally ended up putting the piece in a clamp. The squeeze out gave me more trouble, but I was able to deal with that relatively easily. How can I make inserting something like this easier? It's like I needed to create a relief hole, but I'm at a loss as to how to do that without it showing. Of course, I could go without the metal cup, but I rather like the way it looks. Surely someone else has run into this and can give me some tips.
Finish is an oil/CA finish technique I picked up somewhere (Tim Yoder, maybe?). Hopefully it sealed the wood well enough that regular usage in the shower won't cause problems. But if it does, I can always just make another.
333181
Apologies for the crappy cellphone picture.
It turns out (after looking at reviews online), the bit that comes with this chuck (manufactured by PSI) is basically useless. It doesn't leave enough material behind to screw into. So I tried a smaller bit, and that sort of worked, but since the screw on the chuck is not self-tapping, it eventually tore out while trying to screw the piece on. I ran out of time and decided to sleep on it. A few hours later, I had a very simple solution: create a jam chuck and run a wood screw through it (from the back) into the work piece. Voila -- $0.25 shaving brush chuck. Lesson? Put a little extra thought into things and you can probably save yourself some dough.
Anyway, a quick question on making these... the little decor cup (metal cup that inserts into the piece which you then glue the brush into) gave me fits. I filled behind it with epoxy, then inserted it, but I had a hard time getting it seated because there was nowhere for the air and excess glue to go; I could press it in, but it would pop back up if I let the pressure off. I finally ended up putting the piece in a clamp. The squeeze out gave me more trouble, but I was able to deal with that relatively easily. How can I make inserting something like this easier? It's like I needed to create a relief hole, but I'm at a loss as to how to do that without it showing. Of course, I could go without the metal cup, but I rather like the way it looks. Surely someone else has run into this and can give me some tips.
Finish is an oil/CA finish technique I picked up somewhere (Tim Yoder, maybe?). Hopefully it sealed the wood well enough that regular usage in the shower won't cause problems. But if it does, I can always just make another.
333181
Apologies for the crappy cellphone picture.