Some cross grain boxes

[Dave Mount]

Posts about tools and lathes and sharpening are an essential part of a turning board, but I really like seeing pictures of what people are making, and it seems like there's less and less of that (with a couple notable recent exceptions).

I've been playing around with boxes with lids and bases out of different woods. These are kind of at the other end of the turning spectrum from Bruce Jones, super simple, very basic turning, just showcasing some pretty pieces of wood. This has enabled me to use some nice pieces of wood that aren't well suited to make a box from a single piece, and they're also good for figured wood that wouldn't show as well in bowl form. They are straight cylinders, though the camera makes them look otherwise. All 5-6" in diameter and 4-ish inches tall. The second two haven't been buffed yet, they should gain some shine and depth with buffing.

I like the clean look of a flush joint between lid and base but when using mismatched woods they just don't stay flush, so I've resorted to putting a small chamfer on lid and base to obscure small differences in diameter that occur with the seasons. Piston fits on the lids are not a great idea either, for the same reason. I'm a little leery about whether I've left enough room; worst case I'll remount the base and cut the rabbet back.

In order, black ash burl and beech, crotch walnut and cherry, spalted "near crotch" maple and walnut. The ash burl was collected off our land, the maple was in the firewood pile, the walnut crotch was a gift from someone on this board (thanks again!).

Best,

Dave

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[Earl McLain]

Great work!! i need to do some mixing--not just in turned boxes, but in the rectangles too. Might be a weekend inspiration to get back out to the shop.
earl

[Tim Elett]

Really nice, great job and its always fun to save save a piece of wood from the fireplace.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I like the mix and the way you're addressing the fit, very nice!




I really like seeing pictures of what people are making, and it seems like there's less and less of that

.....be careful what you ask for :)


I made this bowl to fit the Walmart styrofoam throwawaybowls so Fester my mouse killing barn cat wouldn't have to eat out of a dirty dish. I have no idea where I got the piece of cherry...If I remember correctly it was about 5' long and split pretty bad. Ive got 2 garbage cans full of drops 2x2 and up waiting to be glued up and become something..

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

All very nicely done!

[Dave Mount]

Now that is a high class water dish! Not sure I want SWMBO to see that...

[John Kananis]

Beautiful boxes. I really enjoy these posts.

[Edward Weber]

Attractive boxes, nice work

[Keith Outten]

Very nice work Dave and Lawrence.

[Gary Pennington]

Wonderful work. I like the plain, simple but elegant shapes that let the gorgeous wood take center stage.

At the risk of showing less than stellar work, here's the latest piece from the lathe.

Back story: Some years ago a 150 year old pig barn on my step-father's farm that had been in the family for three generations was torn down with him keeping some of the wood. I didn't start woodworking til 15 years ago so was late to the party to acquire a few remaining chunks of hand hewn chestnut from the barn. Chestnut responds to ammonia fuming similar to white oak so with years of exposure to pig urine fumes the surfaces were well darkened. When he passed away I had very little left but wanted to make a gift for my step-sister that would celebrate the dairy farm and the hand hewn fumed chestnut. At long last I came up with the plan to make a scale model of a milk can that was used to ship milk from the farm to the Sealtest Dairy in Baltimore. Presented this to an appreciative girl the weekend of his service.

Gary

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[Dave Mount]

Jeez Gary, who couldn't get behind that story! Nice work as well as a fitting tribute, I wish you'd put it in it's own thread so it didn't get buried.

When we moved to Minnesota from Missouri, we built our place from scratch and it took me a few months to get a workshop built (hats off to SWMBO, she agreed that getting the workshop up was more important than starting the house). In the meantime my white oak workbench went into storage in my father's barn. The ammonia from his draft horses did the same thing to my workbench, fumed it a really pretty medium brown. The exception was a little "tattoo" it got where the mover's inventory sticker was -- it protected that little rectangle of wood from the ammonia and it's a little light patch to this day.

Best,

Dave

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Wow! The OP and others sure are pretty. I love the burl, the figure, and the near crotch = figure! spalt.

[Gary Pennington]

Dave,
The workbench story is just too cool, especially the tattoo!!

Gary

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Great story Dave.



I made this for some friends that lost the tree to bugs. The oak was huge when they bought the house some 30+ years ago so the tree was pretty special to them.

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[Lawrence Duckworth]

Gary, Love the milk can!
great story too!

[Dave Mount]

Lawrence, did you do the glass as well? Glass has always fascinated me. And the turning and carving are wonderful as well. Even though it's not what I do myself, I love seeing the range of approaches, talents, and creativity. Thanks to everyone that posted something.

I do have to ask about the photograph -- did you alter it digitally? It looks like the piece is floating.

Best,

Dave

[Gary Pennington]

Gary, Love the milk can!
great story too!

Thank you Lawrence! Love the creativity in your piece.

Gary

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Lawrence, did you do the glass as well? Glass has always fascinated me. And the turning and carving are wonderful as well. Even though it's not what I do myself, I love seeing the range of approaches, talents, and creativity. Thanks to everyone that posted something.

I do have to ask about the photograph -- did you alter it digitally? It looks like the piece is floating.

Best,

Dave


Dave, if you like spheres :) you'd love glass.

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The photo is probably cropped because of the size of the object.
I tried selling my glass pumpkins for a while on etsy. the photo booth has a glass bottom and is covered with a sanded plexiglass sheet. Then I place a light under it for effect....

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[John K Jordan]

Quite nice work, beautiful wood!

The concern about the fit is valid. For Beads of Courage boxes I've been teaching the use of beveled fits instead of straight rabbet/recess, not only to avoid sticking with seasonal changes but to allow kids with possible limited coordination or mobility to more easily replace the lid. This diagram is from one of my handouts (typically made in sections from dry cross grain blanks, all prehollowed before glueup.
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A visualization aid I use in demos, showing how easy it is to drop the lid into place with extra clearance from the bevel:
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This photo show typical pre-hollowed pieces just before glueup.
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I've done them with both inside and outside bevels.
The first one here is from face grain blanks with the beveled "tenon" on the base and the beveled "recess" on the lid. The second one has the beveled tenon on the lid and the beveled recess in the base. Even though the second was from a big piece of dry endgrain poplar and unlikely to warp much, I beveled the join to make it easier to replace the lid.

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Once at a symposium I looked at 10 BOC boxes turned in for distribution to hospitals. All of them had straight straight "piston fits" for the lids. Although the lids were turned with a little slop FIVE of the lids were stuck and couldn't be removed easily! The potential problem is much worse with the large diameters typical for BOC boxes. All the potential lid fitting problem is eliminated with the beveled joins.

(Sorry, these pictures are not of recent work!)

Dave, since you make far better use good wood I should send you a care package of burls, spalted, figured, crotches, and exotics!!

JKJ


...
I like the clean look of a flush joint between lid and base but when using mismatched woods they just don't stay flush, so I've resorted to putting a small chamfer on lid and base to obscure small differences in diameter that occur with the seasons. Piston fits on the lids are not a great idea either, for the same reason. I'm a little leery about whether I've left enough room; worst case I'll remount the base and cut the rabbet back.

[John Kananis]

John, what an amazing tip to bevel the sides. Simply hasn't occurred to me (likely because I'm new at this). Beautiful.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

These boxes you guys are making would make great Christmas gifts!

Nice tutorial John. I did something similar with the mandolin sound boards and it takes the stress out of trying to get a perfect fit. btw the adjustable fixture you recommended a while back was perfect for holding and scraping the sound boards.

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[Dave Mount]

JKJ, beveled joints are a great solution, I feel kind of foolish for being so tunnel visioned to have not thought of it. And good on you for having put so much effort into helping others, recipients of either your turnings or your teaching.

Best,

Dave

[John K Jordan]

JKJ, beveled joints are a great solution….

Thanks! Maybe eventually it will be commonly used. I’ve shown it in 4-5 demos so far.

I got a surprise after teaching this technique to our turning club members. A couple of years later I attended a different club as a turner from our club demonstrated making BOC boxes. I felt a warm satisfaction when he suggested the beveled lid design!

BTW I got the idea from Harvey Meyer to prehollow and stack dry wood layers to build up a deeper box. He did two layers but I added a third layer in the middle made of basswood - I wanted to chip carve words in the basswood layer AND provide more internal volume. Since then I’ve made some with as many as 5 layers, some thin. Prehollowing several layers of dry wood is s LOT easier than first gluing then deep hollowing dry hardwoods!

Also, like everyone, I'm learning better ways as I go. This was my first glue up. I was afraid it would clamp unevenly so I went overboard:

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Then on the advice of Frank Penta I bought this inexpensive book press. I bolted it to some wooden riser blocks on a sturdy base and now the one big clamp is sufficient!

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This one, walnut and cherry, has a carved handle. Maybe I'll make one like it and color it like a big apple or watermelon.

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JKJ

[Lawrence Duckworth]

more lid options....

The metal hemisphere and solid metal balls are from King Architectural https://www.kingmetals.com/Catalog/Catalog.aspx?CatalogId=c39... the flat and round stock I get from the little metal rack at HD.
I rolled the metal ring cold by hand around a wood template the same diameter as the box lid. For the stem I use a 3/8" round and grind it to a taper and weld it to the metal ball and then weld the ball/stem to the hemisphere from the backside, and finish with a "puddling" texture.

For puddle texturing I use a #4 torch welding tip. I go heavy with the gas torch mix to get the top of the metal surface molten and not burn. it may seem like slow going at first but once the metal starts to move it goes pretty good....after it cools :)..... a light sanding to knock off the tops and a good buffing.

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[Lawrence Duckworth]

here's an example of some extreme torch puddling I did on the falling dinosaur.

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