Winestopper crash course, help plzzz

[Jamie Straw]

I'm hoping against hope to get some winestoppers, and perhaps some other small items, made for Christmas presents. The biggest party is on Dec. 13th, so not much time left -- turning to you for some advice!

• First of all, since I can't use wet wood (which is sooooo much easier to turn), which woods would be relatively easy for such a newbie to turn when dry and still look half-way decent?
• I've been advised that stainless steel for stoppers is the only way to go. Are there any particular designs I should stay away from, or ones that you think are particularly good?
• I don't have a chuck. Can the winestoppers be turned using a glue block? I haven't really looked at any intructions yet.
• The last.....I might turn a couple of tool handles for garden tools. What's the best choice there? What about the finish??

Thanks in advance, can't tell you how much it's appreciated!

[Mark Burge]

Jamie, I only have limited experience with turning stoppers as the two I just posted are my first two. I am using the dowel and plastic-like plug type. I think I got them from Lee Valley, but I know that Craft Supply also sells them. This type is easy to hold in my drill chuck. I wouldn't want to use a glue block with them, but, absent the chuck, I would put a block on the faceplate, turn it round and drill a hole in the center to make a friction chuck for the dowel. Oh, and I was using dry wood without much problem. There is not a lot of waste to remove if you use the bandsaw to get your blank close to round first. Hope this helps. Have fun.

[Jeff Nicol]

Jamie, Most of the stoppers that have a threaded stub on them like all the stainless, and plated ones, all you need is something to drill and tap the wood with the correct size thread. Then mount a bolt in your drill chuck if you have one, and screw on the blank and turn it. If all you have is a faceplate you can mount a block of wood and drill the correct size hole centered in the block after it has been trued on the lathe, keep it on the lathe and drill and tap it for the corresponding bolt again. You could either epoxy the cut off bolt in the block or if your faceplate has a hole all the way through like most of them you could leave the head on and thread it through the hole in the faceplate and when you have the bolt threaded all the way through you should have plenty of threads sticking out to mount the blank. If the bolt is to long you can either cut it off or add some sort of spacer so you don't have to thread in on to far. You can buy the mandrels to do the stoppers from most all the suppliers, but if you are cheap like me making one is more fun anyway!

Good luck,

Jeff

[Steve Trauthwein]

Jamie,

I would recommend the Ruth Niles stainless steel stoppers. They come threaded or unthreaded. I just recently bought her mounting system, which is basically a #2 morse taper with a threade tenon that cuts its own threads. It is really slick at $25.

I think the stoppers area great idea as you can turn dozens of them in a day. Any close grained hardwood is good. I really like box elder with a flaw in it, look great and sell great.

If you don't want to invest in a mounting system you can easily make one out of a piece of 3/8" round stock. Grind the stock as if you were making a chisel /\. Then turn this and grind the center out so you have two prongs /\/\. Drill a 3/8" hole in your stock a little longer than your tenon and drive the pronged mandrel into the hole. Bring the tail stock up and start turning. Remove the tail stock to carefully, light cuts, clean up the end. Your choice of finish.

Look on line or in woodturning catalogs for ideas for shapes, then go wild. You can turn a half dozen in an hour or so for practice.

Regards, Steve

[ROY DICK]

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f

Give this a look.

Roy

[Steve Schlumpf]

Another vote for Ruth Nile's stoppers. She has a kit for beginners - which is what I picked up when I wanted to try stoppers. Kit has the mandrel, drill bit and comes with 10 threaded (#301) stainless stoppers. I thought it was a great deal!

Check it out here, the intro offer is 3/4 down the page: http://www.torne-lignum.com/stoppers.html

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Get a kit from PSI, They have a pretty nice mandrel, for thier stoppers, it's just a 3/8 - 16 screw on a 1X8 thread gizmo. The proper name escapes me right now. It works well, I guess you can make your own too. I have not used Ruth's stoppers, but I've had a PSI chrome stopper on my vodka bottle for over a year.

Use the tailstock as much as you can when shaping your stopper. I stop using it only when cutting the very tip.

Any wood would make a nice stopper. Well, any hard wood. Since it's a small solid piece of wood, drying may not affect it as far as moving around, if you turn green wood.

[Steve Mellott]

I've had to replace 3 PSI stoppers in the last 12 months. All were in a wine bottle almost continuously (obviously not the same bottle for that length of time) and all pitted. I've started to use the Ruth Niles stoppers.

Steve

[Jamie Straw]

I've had to replace 3 PSI stoppers in the last 12 months. All were in a wine bottle almost continuously (obviously not the same bottle for that length of time) and all pitted. I've started to use the Ruth Niles stoppers.

Steve

Based on earlier advice, I'd decided to stick with stainless steel, no chrome. The only other temptation is the black titanium, which I've seen in the Woodcraft catalog. I'm off right now to check out Ruth Niles stuff, thanks everyone for the links.

[Jamie Straw]

Jamie, Most of the stoppers that have a threaded stub on them like all the stainless, and plated ones, all you need is something to drill and tap the wood with the correct size thread. Then mount a bolt in your drill chuck if you have one, and screw on the blank and turn it. If all you have is a faceplate you can mount a block of wood and drill the correct size hole centered in the block after it has been trued on the lathe, keep it on the lathe and drill and tap it for the corresponding bolt again. You could either epoxy the cut off bolt in the block or if your faceplate has a hole all the way through like most of them you could leave the head on and thread it through the hole in the faceplate and when you have the bolt threaded all the way through you should have plenty of threads sticking out to mount the blank. If the bolt is to long you can either cut it off or add some sort of spacer so you don't have to thread in on to far. You can buy the mandrels to do the stoppers from most all the suppliers, but if you are cheap like me making one is more fun anyway!

Good luck,

Jeff

Hi, Jeff. No chuck (yet -- next week I hope). Only face plate I have is big, 8" or so.

??Type of stock?? -- I'd still like some advice on easier dry woods to turn. I've learned the hard way that some are easier than others -- maple, pretty OK; Ash? Yikes!! not so easy. Are any of the exotics pretty easy to turn? How about cherry?? Normally, I'd spend lots of time reading and trying different woods, but what with it being Dec. 2nd, I need to fast-track this whole thing. Appreciate the help!

[Jamie Straw]

Jamie,

I would recommend the Ruth Niles stainless steel stoppers. They come threaded or unthreaded. I just recently bought her mounting system, which is basically a #2 morse taper with a threade tenon that cuts its own threads. It is really slick at $25.
[snip]
If you don't want to invest in a mounting system you can easily make one out of a piece of 3/8" round stock. Grind the stock as if you were making a chisel /\. Then turn this and grind the center out so you have two prongs /\/\. Drill a 3/8" hole in your stock a little longer than your tenon and drive the pronged mandrel into the hole. Bring the tail stock up and start turning. Remove the tail stock to carefully, light cuts, clean up the end. Your choice of finish.

Thanks for the detailed instructions, Steve. Off to find Ruth.

[Joe Denney]

Jamie,

FWIW, I just started turning stoppers a couple of months ago, and they really are easy! I did Ruth's beginner kit, and it works great. If you have a Rockler or a Woodcraft close, I've also had good luck w/the 1/2" silicone stoppers, in lieu of the stainless ones. I use the silicone on the stoppers I'm giving away, and my total cost on most of the stoppers I've made so far is < $3 per, including the wood. As far as wood goes, I've done maple, cocobolo, jobillo, zebrawood, redheart, and blackwood. I've got some acrylic stopper blanks waiting for me to get a couple of hours lathe time. Again, if you are close to Woodcraft or Rockler, get any turning spindle you like in a minimum of 1.5" x 1.5"x whatever length, and cut them to length yourself. Much cheaper that way and you can experiment w/a variety of exotic woods fairly cheaply. I sand through 600, hit it with some sanding sealer, then spray deft gloss (4 coats) then polish w/micromesh. Nice deep shiny finish that should last a really long time.

Hope this is helpful to you.

[Jamie Straw]

Hope this is helpful to you.

Absoutely, Joe, thanks! I'm making a list for Woodcraft, hope to go tomorrow. (Ferry to Seattle, have to make it worth my time and ticket $$). Some of my giftees are pretty top-drawer oriented folk, so I think they will get the Stainless. Thanks for giving me details in your post.

I have a really large plank of Madrone in the lumber pile (4" (or 5"?) x 12" x 10 feet!). I think I'll saw a hunk of that off and divvy it up, see how it turns.

[Jamie Straw]

Jamie...
If you don't want to invest in a mounting system you can easily make one out of a piece of 3/8" round stock. Regards, Steve

For any other newbies that come along, I stumbled on a page with pictures illustrating what you describe above.

I'd like to run a list of supplies by you (or y'all) to make sure I understand this process -- I'm reading the on-line stuff in fits and starts between appointments and work-stuff, so it's difficult to get a coherent picture.

Starting with the fact that I do not have a scroll chuck right now, seems I can go the following route:

• Order the Ruth Niles morse taper/tap, and the stub 23/64" drill bit, to go with....
• ...a handful of stainless steel stoppers, #301, which have the threaded stud (or get the set for $80)
• Since I don't have a scroll chuck, will need to tap the turning stock at the drill press? then insert the MT mandrel into the headstock, thread the stock on and proceed to turn

Is that an accurate and complete list?

As to the silicone stoppers, I guess I'd just drill the 23/64" hole in the stock, glue in the hardwood dowel, sans silicone, chuck the fat end of the dowel in a Jacobs chuck in the headstock, turn, and then push on the silicone part? Will that work?

Thanks again! Off to help a client....

[Ian Parish]

I have the PSI bottle topper mandrel, its about 10 bucks and works great for me. It just threads on to the head stock and the topper threads to it, and it has the right diameter for the topper at the base.(until you cut and sand it down.) I round the blank on the lathe in my bowl chuck, drill it on the lather using a jacobs chuck and the proper drill bit in the tail stock.(The drill bit came with the topper mandrel). One note make this hole a bit deeper than you need it to be something like an 1/8 or 3/16. Then I hand tap the threads into the hole. I tap it deeper than needed so the threads on final assembly are not too tight. If they are too tight it's not so easy to disassemble to drill and tap it deeper. You will understand the first time this happens.

Topper blank length for me is an issue I make them all too tall. I seem to make each one a bit longer and after final assemble they are in the 3 inch long range for just the wood. I get complaints that these will not fit in the fridge once in a wine bottle. Which is true. So I have set a hard limit of 2.25 inches long for the wood for a topper. This seems really small when in the shop but does work very well once I have finally assembled the topper. I am using the PSI chrome topper that is pointed with a black rubber part for the bottle seal. I have not had them pit or had problems. (so far). I like the $3.25 cost for them.

I have turned Purpleheart, Quina, and Apple from the apple tree at our house. The Apple is the most stunning, but prone to cracking.

Have fun!
Ian