Every time I used the gauge block I’d think to myself, surely you can come up with something better than that!  Well, I finally did.

I mounted a 2″ x 2″ x 4″ piece of scrap wood between centers, trued it up and turned a tenon on one end.  (Actually it wasn’t a piece of scrap it was a nice piece of Mango.)  Then I mounted it in my chuck and using a 1″ Forstner bit drilled a hole 2 1/4″ deep.

Then I glued a Florida State Quarter in the hole with some thick CA glue.  The coin was glued in the hole so that over time, the bottom of the hole wouldn’t get messed up by the sharp point of the gouge.

The piece was mounted back in the chuck and parted off so that the hole, with the coin in the bottom, was exactly 2″ deep.  I also marked a line 2 1/2″ from the tailstock end of the piece.  This line indicated where the piece would be parted off.

I gave the piece a bit of shape and turned two beads at the base.  The two beads signified 2″.  It’s important to have a lot of deep, significant meaning attached to jigs that you make

Then I parted the piece off.  On the section that was left in the chuck I turned a 1″ tenon to use as a jam chuck.

I mounted my gauge block on the tenon and finish off the top of it, including a little bit of chatterwork, which for some unexplained reason I promptly colored with black sharpie ink.  Note to self, don’t do that again.  I also applied a coat of shellac.

Using the gauge block is so much easier than my previous method.  I can rest the base of the tool on the workbench, drop the gauge block over the tool and all I need to support is the Sharp Fast Jig.  It almost makes sharpening fun again!

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I recently turned a bowl and the bottom was a lot thinner than I liked and getting dangerously close to becoming a lampshade.  So I decided to make myself a better bowl depth gauge.  Something more accurate than my current method of holding my gouge at the center of the bowl, eyeballing along the rim of the bowl and then bringing the gouge up and out of the bowl to eyeball how deep I was with my hollowing.  I wanted something that would be accurate, but would still be quick and easy to use.

A visit to the plumbing section of Home Depot and I returned with a couple two foot sections of 3/4″ PVC, two tee sections, a 90 degree elbow and a cap.  The wooden morse taper I turned and the rifle laser was purchased off Ebay.

I cut one of the PVC pipes in half and then cut an 8″ section off the other.   (The length of the 8″ section was determined by the swing of my lathe, half of 16″.  I cut the other pieces to 12″ as with the current tools that I have I’m unlikely to be turning a hollow form any deeper than that.)

Depending on the laser sight you get some adaptions may be needed to one of the PVC tee pieces. In my case the diameter of my laser sight was slightly greater than the internal diameter of the tee piece.

I mounted the tee piece in the pin jaws of my chuck using a 60 degree live center to help mount it true.

Then, with the lathe speed slowed down, I drilled it out with a Forstner bit that matched the diameter of the laser.

A nice snug fit.

I turned a tenon on the wooden morse taper that matched the internal diameter of the PVC pipe and then I pieced all the parts together.

Here is the depth gauge mounted on the lathe.  The wooden morse taper is inserted in the tail stock.  It is not necessary to jam it into the tail stock.

Side note: With a self ejecting tail stock it is not considered a good idea to use a wooden morse taper.  Click here to read a discussion on this subject.

So, throwing caution to the winds, I mount my bowl depth gauge in the tail stock.   Once everything is adjusted and the laser is shining on the tip of the cap, a couple of drops of CA glue can be applied to each of the PVC joints.  Don’t glue the laser into the tee piece though, at some point you will need to take it out and change the batteries   The laser sight I got has a switch to turn the laser on and off,  a lot more convenient than the lasers you get from stationary stores which require you to constantly depress a button for the laser to be visible.

I’m still trying to get a good shot of the laser on the outside of the bowl.  When I do I’ll update this post with a picture of the depth gauge in action.

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The first step is to mount a piece of hardwood between centers, or as I have done, in a chuck with a live center at the tailstock for support.  True the piece and turn it roughly to size.

Take one of your centers and transfer two marks to the piece indicating the two sides of the taper.

Set a pair of calipers to the diameter of the morse taper upper end, and using a parting tool, part into the piece until the calipers slip over the parting cut.  Repeat the procedure for the lower end of the morse taper.

Make a relief cut to the tailstock side that is smaller in diameter than the lower end of the morse taper.

Turn a straight line from the larger diameter to the smaller diameter.  You’ll need to sneak up on this slowly and check the line often with a straight edge.  I cut up one of those plastic discount coupons to use as a straight edge.

With the piece still held in the chuck, remove the live center from the tailstock and slide the tailstock forward to check the fit of your taper.  Rotate the headstock by hand while the piece is in the tailstock to identify the high spots to be turned down.  Once the fit is good, round off the end of the piece.

Remove the chuck and insert the new morse taper into the headstock.  You can now shape and true up the area that will be used to mount a work piece to.   Wooden morse tapers are useful for holding small turnings.  They can simply be glued to the morse taper.  Bear in mind that there are limitations to the size of a turning as a wooden morse taper is nowhere near as strong as a metal dead center!!

Why did I need to turn a morse taper?  Stay tuned

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Cutting your own blanks does have some advantages.  The primary advantage is that of re-using or recycling wood that would otherwise be destined for the chipper or the burn pile.   There is something very satisfying about holding a finished bowl and knowing that you were involved in the complete process from log to bowl, and you created a functional and beautiful object from some timber that could have just ended up in a landfill somewhere.

However, there is a lot of work involved in processing a log for blanks, and it is frustrating when the end results are just a bunch of checked and cracked blanks.  Two very important things that will help you avoid this are:

• Process the wood as soon as you can.  Ideally you will want to process the log the same day as you get it.   When this isn’t possible, try and at least get the chainsaw part of the process done as soon as possible, which will remove the pith and then seal the end grain with Anchorseal.
• Remove the pith, remove the pith!!

The picture below shows how I plan on cutting this small camphor log to yield both bowl blanks and some spindle stock.  If the log were bigger the spindle stock could be used for hollow forms.  This layout is just one possible scenario, the most important thing is that the pith, marked with a red x, is going to be removed and discarded.

Make two cuts down the length of the log, either side of the pith.   Don’t cut all the way through with the first cut.  In the picture below I have made the first cut and then paused towards the end of the second cut to take the picture.  Normally I would have just cut all the way through the log with the second cut.

Complete the first cut.

For the most part this is all that I will do with the chainsaw.  I then take the three pieces of wood inside to my band saw.  However, some of the cuts that I make with my bandsaw can be made with the chainsaw.  I just find the bandsaw more accurate, less wasteful and it’s in the shade

If the log is fairly straight, I set my fence and then cut off about an inch of the live edge.  If the log is not very straight then I will just free hand this cut.

Then using the flat section I just created, I will rotate the log 90 degrees and cut it to the desired thickness.  If you do not have the capacity to do this on your bandsaw, then this step can easily be done on the lathe when you first start turning the blank.

I have a set of 1/4″ plywood circular discs in 1″ increments which I use to gauge how large a bowl blank I can get out of the log as well as guide me in the cutting of the blank.

From this section of the log I’ll be able to get two small blanks, one 7″ and one 6″.  I draw around the discs with some white chalk and mark the circles to be cut out.  I could also just nail the disc to the log and leave it in place while making the cuts.

I would then process the other log half in a similar fashion before moving on to the slab I removed from the center of the log.  On this slab I cut off about an inch from both live edges.

Then I would set the fence to the same dimension as the thickness of the slab and cut out as many sets of spindle stock as I can, working towards the center of the slab from either side, being mindful of where the pith is.  In the picture below, you can set two pieces of spindle stock either side of the pith section which will be discarded.

Here is the yield from the log.  Three bowl blanks, two pieces of spindle stock and a section of questionable orientation that I will probably make a sphere from.

This is the reason why the one log half only yielded one blank and the piece of questionable orientation.  The chainsaw cut revealed that I had cut through two nails embedded in the log.  This illustrates the importance of inspecting the logs carefully before cutting with either the chainsaw or bandsaw.  It also confirms my theory about there being no such thing as “free wood”.  My chainsaw blade needs to be resharpened now and if I had not noticed these nails they would have trashed my bandsaw blades.    I think I may look into buying a metal detector!

The final step is to coat the blanks with Anchorseal.  I cut the entire blank, however many people will just coat the end grain and leave the face grain bare.  I’ve found the horizontal section of my new log processing platform to be perfect for this.

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To make the head of the mallet I started with a piece of cherry just over 3″ square and about 4″ long.  I turned it round between centers, turned a small tenon on one end and then mounted it in my chuck jaws.  After re-truing it I turned a slight taper from the headstock side to the tailstock side.

I then drilled a 7/8″ hole in the tailstock side, about 2 1/2″ deep using a forstner bit.

I mounted a scrap piece of wood in my chuck and turned a tenon to match the 7/8″ hole I had drilled in the mallet head.  I mounted the mallet on the tenon, brought the tail stock up and turned most of the end of the mallet head concave.  After moving the tail stock I removed the last bit of the nub.  I turned this side concave as I wanted to be able to stand the finished mallet on end with the handle up.

For the handle I used a piece just over 1 1/2″ square by about 12″ long.  I measured the handle of one of my other hammers that was comfortable to use and found the maximum dimensions where 1 1/2″ by 1 1/8″.  I found the center of each end of the piece that was to be my handle and marked it.  I also marked a point 3/16″ either side of the center point.  I calculated the 3/16″ as follows:  1 1/2″ minus 1 1/8″  equals 3/8″ (the difference between the long and short dimensions of the oval), therefore my offset needed to be half of that.

I mounted the piece between centers and turned it to 1 1/2″ round.  Then I moved the piece towards the tool rest by 3/16″ using the offset marks on each end.  I double checked the piece would rotate with out hitting the tool rest and then turned the piece so that it measured 1 5/16″ on the narrow side.   I took my time with this as I did not need to remove much wood and I was also turning a fair amount of air.

I then moved the piece away from the tool rest and aligned it on the other marks offset 3/16″ from the center.  After checking the piece could rotate freely I carefully turned it down so that it measured 1 1/8″ on the narrow side.

Now that I had established the maximum dimensions of the handle, I turned a profile on it that gave me a nice hand hold.  I did this using the two offset marks in turn, again proceeding slowly and taking care not to touch the last 2 1/2″ close to the head stock.

Finally I mounted the piece on the center marks, turned the first 2 1/2″ down to 7/8″ so that it would make a snug fit in the mallet head, and finished the end of the handle before parting it off.  I then glued the handle in the mallet head and once the glue had dried applied a coat of wax to the mallet.

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This is an article on how I made the board game.  The techniques here could be adapted for a number of different games.  You can download a copy of the rules for Quarto here.

This is the wood that I received from him.  The first step was to mark out how I was going to use the  pieces and to calculate the size of the pieces I needed for the stave construction of the sides of the box.  I used a program I downloaded from  Tutorials, Projects & Tips section of Woodturner’s Resource.

After milling some of the oak pieces using my jointer and planer, I set the angle of my table saw blade using my Wixley Digital Angle Gauge.

The next step was to cut them to length.  I use a fence clamp and a scrap block of wood to offset the table saw fence so that the pieces do not get trapped between the blade and fence as I am crosscutting them.

The last piece is cut using a stop block on my crosscut sled as it was to short to hold safely any other way.

A dry test fit to check that all the joints were nice and tight.

I then laid the pieces flat, end to end, and placed a strip of clear packing tape over them.

Then I flipped it over so the packing tape was on the bottom, applied glue to all the joints, rolled the tube up and clamped it using a couple of Merle clamps.  These are awesome clamps for this sort of work, they have flexible jaw inserts and the banding is steel.  You can also get extra jaw inserts and add as necessary depending on how many corners the piece you are clamping has.

Once the glue was dry I turned a groove in a piece of 3/4” plywood so that the piece fitted snugly in the groove, centering it on the lathe.  The plywood is attached to the lathe with a scrap peice of wood that had been turned true and tapped using my Beall Spindle Tap.  The piece was glued to the plywood.

I then trued the piece on both the outside and inside and cut a shallow groove into which the lid of the box would be glued.  I also parted the box sides off.  I did not part all the way through using my parting tool.  I finished the parting cut off with the lathe off using a hand saw.  Note:  don’t discard the section that is left still attached to the plywood!!  This will be used later.

Using my band saw I cut both the top and bottom walnut pieces round.  I mounted the piece that was to be the bottom of the box on the lathe, turned it true and turned a tenon on one side.  This side would be the outside of the box.

I turned the piece around and flattened the side and turned a recess in it that matched the groove turned in the box side.  As this side would be the inside of the box I sanded it at this point.  Once it was glued to the sides of the box it would be difficult to sand it.

The bottom piece was then glued to the sides of the box.

Once the glue was dry it was put back on the lathe by mounting the tenon on the bottom in my chuck.  A groove was then cut in the box side where the top piece would be glued in.

The piece of walnut that was to be the box top was then mounted on another chuck, put on the lathe and trued up.  The side towards the tailstock would be on the inside of the box so it was turned flat and sanded.  A recess was cut that was a snug fit to the groove turned on the box sides.

The top was then glued to the box sides.

Once the glue was dry I attached the chuck back on the lathe, brought the tail stock and parted the lid off.  Once again, I did not part all the way through using my parting tool.  I finished the parting cut off with the lathe off using a hand saw.

The lid was then mounted in a chuck and a recess turned.

Then the base of the box was mounted in a chuck and a groove turned so that the lid was a snug fit.  The second picture shows the test fit.  I’m fortunate to have two chucks, so that made this whole process a bit easier and more accurate.

The lid was then mounted in the lathe and the base fitted to it.  Because of the size of the box and the fact that I did not try and get a super snug fit of the lid, I taped the joint with a couple of wraps of masking tape.  I also brought the tailstock up while I finished most of the bottom of the box.  I sanded the bottom and turned some details on the bottom so that if ever another woodturner picked it up they would know that I knew how to finish the bottom of a piece

Remember the plywood with the stave off cut from earlier that I didn’t throw away?  This was then mounted on the lathe and a recess turned in it so that the lid could be fitted to it for finishing.  I made this a nice snug fit.  With the tailstock up I finished off the majority of the top of the lid.  Then I moved the tailstock out of the way and carefully removed the tenon and sanded the top of the lid.

After much head scratching I figured out how to lay out 16 small circles symmetrically inside of one big circle.  I did this on some scrap plywood and it took a while!  I’ll try and recall how I did it and explain it:

• Draw a circle that is the same diameter as the lid
• Draw a circle with the same center that is about 1/2” less in diameter.  This is going to be the circle that contains the pattern.
• Set the compass to the same diameter that the inlay pieces are going to be and draw four circles, one on each of the lines, so that the outside of that circle touches the outside of the circle that will contain the pattern.  Circles 1 through 4.
• Draw a square joining the center of circles 1 through 4.
• Layout circles 5 through 12 so that the are equidistant.  i.e the gaps between circles 1 &5, 5 & 6 and 6 & 2 are all equal.
• Draw horizontal and vertical lines connecting the centers of those circles.
• Where those lines intersect will determine the center of circles 13 through 16.  i.e the intersection of the line between 12 and 7 and the line between 5 and 10 will be the center of circle 13.

Sounds pretty simple now, but it took a couple of scrap pieces of plywood to figure that out!!

Then transfer the pattern to the lid of the box.

Then I took the lid to the drill press and drilled holes about an 1/8” deep using a forstner bit.  I used the stop on my drill press so that the holes were all the same depth.  As the lid was still attached to the plywood with a tenon on the other side I cut up some scrap two by fours and used them to hold the lid steady and level.  I took my time, doing this, knowing it would really ruin my day if I drilled a recess in the wrong spot.

I then mounted a piece of oak in a chuck, flattened the end and using calipers turned it to the same diameter that of the forstner bit I had used to drill the recess in the lid.  I mounted it in the same orientation as I would a bowl blank so that when the inlays were parted off the face grain would be showing in the lid.  After each piece was parted off, I did a dry test fit and then glued the inlay into the lid.  I took care not to use a lot of glue as there was no place for any excess glue to go.

Once all the glue had dried, the lid was mounted back on the lathe and the protruding inlays were turned down.  The lid was turned flat and sanded.

With the box complete, it was time to make all the pieces.  I needed a total of 16 pieces.  Each piece needed to have one of each of four attributes.  It needed to be tall or short, light or dark, square or round, solid or hollow.  For example the piece shown in the drill press is tall, light (oak), square and hollow (the 1/4” deep hole).  The piece shown on the lathe a couple of pictures later is tall, light (oak), round and hollow.

So I needed 4 short oak pieces, 4 short walnut pieces, 4 tall oak pieces and 4 tall walnut pieces.

Four of the short pieces (two oak and two walnut) would be square and four of the tall pieces (two oak and two walnut) would be round.

Four of the short pieces (one round oak, one square oak, one round walnut and one square walnut) would be hollow and four of the tall pieces (one round oak, one square oak, one round walnut and one square walnut) would be solid.

Simple, hey?

First they were milled and cut to size.  Half of the pieces would be completed on the table saw and the other half would be completed on the lathe.  Those that were to be square and finished on the table saw were cut to final size.  The half that were to be round and would be completed on the lathe were cut about 3/4” to long to allow room to grip them in a chuck.

Using a crosscut sled, a stop block and a pencil with an eraser to hold the pieces while cutting, a decorative groove was cut in each of the square pieces.  No prizes for guessing that I watched David Marks in Woodworks!

The edges of each piece were then rounded over at the router table using a scrap piece of MDF as a backer block.

Finally two of the tall pieces and two of the short pieces were held in my pen drilling vice and a 1/4” hole drilled in the top of each piece.  I finally found a use for the pen drilling vice!!

A similar procedure was done to the remaining pieces on the lathe.  The decorative groove was made with a parting tool and the 1/4” deep hole was drilled on the lathe.

The final step was to apply the finish to the box and pieces.

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One of the fun things about turning a closed end pen is that it frees up more design considerations as you are not restricted by the hardware on the end of the pen.

This pen is made using the Navigator kit from Woodcraft. It is the same kit that is sold as the Baron/Sedona by Arizona Silhouette.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

I started with a piece of spalted pecan, approx. 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ x 7″. After mounting it between centers, I turned it round and then turned a tenon on one end that would fit in the step jaws of my chuck. I then measured 2 1/4″ from the end with the tenon, and parted the blank.

Next I mounted the blank with the tenon in the step jaws of my chuck, and drilled a 15/32″ hole 1 13/16″ deep. I checked to see that the tube for the upper barrel would fit completely in the hole.

Then I mounted the other piece in the step jaws and drilled two holes. The first hole was drilled to a depth of 2 7/8″ with a 11/32″ bit. Then I drilled a slightly larger hole, 25/64″, to a depth of 2 1/16″. I checked to see that the tube for the lower barrel fitted in the larger hole and sat flush with the face of the blank.
The reason for the step hole is two fold. Firstly the extra room created at the end of the hole by the smaller bit, allows space for the spring behind the rollerball cartridge. Secondly, a shoulder is created for the tube to rest on so that it does not go to deep into the blank while being glued in.

Having drilled all the holes in the upper and lower barrels, rough up the brass tubes and glue them in.

In order to turn the pen you need an expansion mandrel of some type. It is relatively easy to make one. Well, lets just say some people might find it relatively easy to make one! I tried a couple of times with not much success. If you would like to try you can find instructions in this tutorial.

I ended up buying a closed end mandrel for the lower barrel from Arizona Silhouette. It looks similar to a concrete expansion bolt and operates under the same principle.

Insert the mandrel in the upper barrel, tighten the bolt using a couple of wrenches and insert the mandrel in the step jaws. Take care not to over tighten the bolt, it is easy to crack the blank, especially if you are working with an acrylic blank.

Turn the blank down to approx. 5/8″ and then measure 3 1/4″ from the end and part the blank off at this point. Then turn the blank to the shape you want, sand and apply the finish. You will find that you need to support the blank with your fingers on the back side while turning to help reduce vibration. It also helps to take light cuts.

The next step is to turn the upper barrel. Because the brass tube is a different size the mandrel will not work. You have two choices at this point. The first is to buy another mandrel sized for the upper barrel. This could get expensive, especially if you want to also make closed end pens from other kits as well.

Fortunately, for the frugal amongst us, there is another solution. I got this idea from Ben “DaVinci27″ Brown.

Take a spare lower barrel tube and glue it in a blank. I would recommend using 5 minute epoxy as you want to make sure you fill all the voids between the tube and the inside of the blank. Mount the blank on the lathe between a 60 degree live center and a 60 degree dead center. Turn the blank down to a diameter that makes it a snug fit inside the tube from an upper barrel. Go slow and use calipers to check your progress. Then take that blank to your band saw and cut it in half along the length. Don’t cut along the whole length of the blank, just about half way.

Insert that tube in the tube of your upper barrel, then insert the mandrel and tighten. The cut in the tube will allow it to expand as you tighten the mandrel and hold the blank snug on the mandrel.

Turn the upper blank to the shape you want, sand and finish. Once again you will probably find it necessary to support the back of the blank with your fingers while turning. Light cuts also help.

Here are a couple more shots of the finished pen.

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You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

I started with a piece of spalted sweetgum just over 2″ x 2″ square. I placed it on the lathe between centers and turned it round. I formed a tenon on each side to fit my chuck jaws, marked the line dividing the base and the lid and then parted at that line.

I then mounted the lid section in my chuck and turned it true. I rough hollowed the inside of the lid and then cut the lid flange. It is important that the lid flange is the same diameter throughout its length. The sides must run parallel to ensure a nice fit to the base flange. I then finished hollowing the inside of the lid and sanded that. I trued the rim and rough shaped the outside of the lid.

Next I mounted the base section and established the approximate diameter of the base flange. I hollowed out the base and marked the depth on the outside of the blank. I parted to the headstock side of that line to a depth of about 1/2″. I then sanded the inside of the base. The next step was to refine the flange so that the lid was a tight fit. Go slowly on this step, it is very easy to overshoot and end up with a loose fitting lid.

I mounted the lid to the base and shaped the outside profile of the lid and base, including detailing the joint with a small bead either side. Just to be safe I brought the tail stock up during this stage.

I then parted off the lid and refined the fit of the base flange to the lid. I sanded the base and then parted it off.

Using the piece of wood left in my chuck I formed a tenon to make a jam chuck that the base was reverse mounted on in order to finish the bottom of the base.

As you can see from the next image the piece that I used for my jam chuck proved to be to small and punky. I had to make another jam chuck from some scrap wood in order to reverse mount the base. Here it is with the bottom finished and sanded.

The completed box, ready for a coat of finish. If you plan on applying a friction polish then it is best to do that on lathe after each sanding step. I finished my box with a couple coats of spray lacquer.

A great book to read is “Turning Boxes” by Richard Raffan. He covers all the details of turning a box, from cutting out the blanks to design considerations.

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If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools

I got a chance to turn the handles today. I mounted the blank between centers, locating a 60 degree live center in the channel opening at the headstock. After turning it round, I turned a tenon at the headstock side, sized to accept a brass coupler. I used a 1″ brass coupler cut in half. The coupler was originally just shy of 2″ long. I also marked the high points and low points of the handle and using a parting tool cut down to the final diameter of the handle at those points.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Here is a shot of the handle, sanded and ready to be parted off.

I used 5 minute epoxy to secure the tools in the handle and to secure the brass coupler on the tenon. I finished the handles with a couple of coats of spray shellac. While not as hard wearing as some other finishes I like the feel of shellac. It is also not as shiny as some other finishes, which is fine by me for a tool handle. Lastly shellac is very repairable, any future coats will melt into previous coats.

I’m looking forward to trying out the tools tomorrow and giving a review of them.

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If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools

My tools arrived today! I’m glad I waited before gluing the handle blanks together. Either my 1/2″ router bit is not exactly 1/2″ or 1/2″ square bar is not 1/2″. Either way the tool bar did not fit in the grooves I had routed. The depth of the grooves was fine, but the width was a hair to small. I increased the width fractionally on the router table and the fit was perfect.

Here is a shot of one of the blanks glued and clamped. I left the bar in the groove temporarily while doing the glue up to make sure the channel lined up nicely. As soon as I was done clamping, I pulled the bar out. I also marked on the bar the depth it receded in the channels. I know I will have some clean up to do in the channels due to glue squeeze out and I want to make sure the bar is able to fit in as deeply as it did during the dry fit.

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Here are a couple of shots of the business end of the two tools. One has the carbide cutter in place, the other just the holding screw.

Making a Tool Handle – Part Three

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