Hello Everyone,
Long time lurker, first week posting. I thought in addition to my blog (listed in sig), posting the things that I do on the Creek would be good self promotion.
This is a little picture/essay on how I turn bottle stoppers. Mostly I was looking for a way to make then with what I had on hand over a weekend, and not have to buy $6-8 dollars worth of materials per.
First I make blanks, I rip up whatever scrap/stock I want for the stoppers to somewhere around 1 1/2" sq. and cross cut these to between 2" and 3". This operation is a little loosey goosey, and I hardly measure anything.
Next I drill a 3/8th hole centered on the blank to a depth of 1" (okay, I do measure, just not all the time). I also cut 3/8th dowels into 2" sections in a little miter box I've made for the purpose. I keep dowels on hand to glue into blanks as I make them. I'll do batches, cut 10 blanks, glue em, turn em. Glue corks. etc.
If I'm out of "parts" I'll cut pins or drill corks while glue is drying. To drill the corks I have made a "Cork Chuck" which is a block of pine, threaded for the spindle nose with a cork taper cut into it. Match the taper to that of your cork. With the lathe on and the cork backed up to a block jam the cork into the chuck. With the lathe on, the cork is centered and tightly wedged into the chuck, drill, pull out, replace and repeat. I order a batch of corks and I drill all of them at the same time. I can drill 50 corks in about 20-25 minutes.
Then I grab the bottle stopper blank in the chuck, and turn it. Since the wood lathe is relatively new to me, I make a dedicated effort to use only a skew to turn these.
I've had to fiddle with work holding methods. My chuck jaws are just at that 3/8ths capacity, so they slip on the blank. I've made wooden split chucks that I grab in the 4 jaw, but I don't like this as much. I just ordered a morse taper collet that I will now use that instead. If I make a lever closer for the collet I'll never have to turn of the lathe between blanks.
When finished I apply beeswax and friction polish it, then glue on a drilled cork and sand the end flush.
Furthermore, Robert is your mother's brother, or something to that effect.
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