A couple of hollowing questions

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First suggestion would be to get the Chris Stott book on making small boxes. Until then, Try this:

1 Turn your blank to a cylinder between centers, spindle style 2 Part off to give yourself a square shoulder for your chuck 3 Mount your blank in the chuck with the part to be the bottom in the chuck 4 Shape the portion that will be your lid 4a Make a shallow cut with your parting tool to set your lid tenon to later fit into the box 5 Part off the lid 6 Using your small gouge or drill, make a center starter hole (a large Forstner drill in a tailstock mounted Jacobs chuck works well, but be sure not to drill too deep or you'll end up with a fancy toilet paper roller {:-) !) Your small gouge can be used like gun drill by pushing straight into the end grain. 7 Finish hollowing with a fingernail gouge or scraper to the final size that will match the lid tenon 8 Sand and apply finish

There are other details, like finishing the inside of the lid, precision fitting the lid for vacuum fit , etc., but you can pick that up as you go along.

Hope this helps.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

You have to plan ahead, no doubt. For instance, if working from green to get something which demands a precision fit, you have to turn, dry, turn. With the pith in, survival nods toward thin, which isn't really compatable with TDT, so you make it thin in the bottom and what will become the top, with thicker walls. Then you have to dry it down slowly to hold the end grain at the same MC as the walls. Your initial hollow can be with whatever gives you comfort. I like pointed gouges with long wings, you may prefer less grab and use your mild fingernail or one of the ring/hook tools. Scrapers work, too, but they're taking as big a bite as the point gouge on a duller face, so use a small scraper if you're catching.

You also have to make your hold over/under size, because it will distort. You may then take advantage of the fact that end grain will keep the top and bottom pretty well parallel as you chuck inside, turn for your bottom hold, and then procede with final dimensioning. For your narrow mouth hollow you can make a shouldered taper to help with recentering. Of course your prior planning left the original spur center mark underneath to help you?

One thing I've found with the pith is that if it's contained within a slope, it makes it through drying better than if it's within a flat area.

I sometimes use a short piece of dowel with a slit sawed across the end about 2 inches deep. A 2 inch strip of sandpaper slid into the slit and wrapped around the dowel can sand the interior without risking a digit.

Would doing something a little

I think the rocks would arrange themselves around the perimeter and stay in one place, unless you have an extremely slow lathe speed, then it would be an extremely slow go to smooth out the wood.

I often turn a jig that fits inside the hollow and also is large enough on the other end to fit in the chuck. Make it a hair small and put a strip of paper towel down the side, over the end and back down the other side to make a snug fit. This works great for a piece with straight inside walls, and holds steadier that a cone would. You could also turn a cone to use as a jam chuck. As much as possible I make all my jigs and glue blocks so that they fit in the chuck.

A round piece of plywood about 3/4 in. diameter with a small hole in the center will fit on the point of my tailstock center and I use that to hold an item without punching a hole in it.

Ken.. I've made a LOT of boxes over the years, but the above is a great way to tell others how to do it.... I'm printing it out and adding it to my mentor list.. Mac

03 Tahoe Widelite 26GT Travel Trailer replaced 1958 Hilite tent trailer 99 Dodge Ram QQ 2wd - 5.9L, auto, 3:55 gears

A variation of your dowel that works well for me is the roll ends of wet/dry paper from Klingspor's

(Bargain bin/roll ends/turners box?) It's very stiff backed and will roll up to the size needed to either run it in and out of the box opening or wrap it around a dowel or chunk of closet rod and get a good smooth "bore".. Mac 03 Tahoe Widelite 26GT Travel Trailer replaced 1958 Hilite tent trailer 99 Dodge Ram QQ 2wd - 5.9L, auto, 3:55 gears

Looks pretty similar to what I've tried so far- but it's nice to have it laid out like that to see that I wasn't way off-base!

Sure does- as noted above, it's pretty much the technique I was using, but it's always nice to know that I'm not doing things the hard way!

Sorry, but what does TDT stand for? I'm guessing that it needs to be thinner in the bottom and top when hollowing into end grain, to keep the pith as thin as possible?

Does applying the finish in the same session do the trick, or do I need to try something else, like the paper bag full of shavings method?

I'm in luck there, at any rate! The original mark is still intact.

Do you mean roughing the blank slightly off-center to begin with, to keep the pith oriented at an angle, or just making sure that the exposed pith is on an angled feature of the piece? Come to think of it, either may work- right?

There's the bit I was looking for! I kept trying to hold paper in place with spray adhesive, but it wasn't strong enough. The slit should be just what the doctor ordered. Should have thought of that myself!

I think you're right there, now that you mention it. I was thinking of a rock tumbler, but they don't move that fast!

Not a bad idea. I may have to go with the cone on this one, as the hollowed area is not straight, but follows the outside curve, so it's much wider inside than it is at the mouth.

Another good one. Thanks (to everyone) for the tips! Finally get a real weekend this week (no OT), so I'll be able to put in some quality time on this.

Turn, Dry, Turn

yep.. George turned me onto them about 6 months ago, so I bought the bargain box.. not expecting much except good paper.. I was expecting a lot of little rolls in different sizes and stuff.. like scraps..

What I got was 4 HUGE rolls of about 3" wide wet/dry paper with a very stiff backing... in 120, 150, 180 & 400 grit... They're probably about 12" in diameter, so I hung them over the lathe on a pipe clamp, so I can roll off what I need... I don't even cut this stuff, just roll off what I need, bend it in half and snap it off.. really convenient!

I turn every night and quite a bit during the day, and my wife sands a lot for her pyrography, and we're maybe 1/3 of the way through the rolls.. the stuff lasts forever!

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Turn,dry, turn. The end grain area is the fastest to lose, but also the easiest to gain water, so you want to give it the least "hold-on" help. It pulls against something else, so don't give it too much to pull against, and it may not pull apart.

Applying a finish does not dry the piece. It may slow moisture loss, but when the piece gets below the FSP (Fiber Saturation Point), the cells walls will thin and the piece shrink. Not conducive to good fits. Drying it slowly in a bag, newsprint, or such is your money move. Shavings have lignin, and may promote mold.

It's the don't give much to pull against move all over again. With the pith located in a sloped or curved area of the wall, it has less to grab below, because there isn't enough continuous fiber across the grain. Little loss (1%) of dimension along the grain.

Use a sanding sponge gripped in a haemostat. Just don't put your fingers through the holes, in case you get a grab and twist.

or, if you're not in George's line of work, needle nose pliers..

I've also used some of my cheapo HF sanding drums, too.. (hand held)

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I tried out the dowel method, and that seemed to be a winner, though I'll keep the other suggestions in mind. I can see the haemostat coming in pretty handy on the inside of a tight curve where a dowel might not fit.

Got ya. The piece I finished up tonight is going to have a lid made of a contrasting wood, so I just turned it really thin (about

1/4"-3/16" throughout, and as thin as I dared in the area with the pith) and finished it. Was starting to have some minor cracking, but I spun that sucker fast and hard, while sanding it until it was close to smoking, so I'm hoping that that minor cracking will be all that happens- if I'm lucky, it'll just be visual interest for the piece.

That sounds perfect- the order is going out tomorrow, I think.

Maybe I can throw away my big box of "almost still good" sandpaper scraps I keep under the lathe once I get that stuff. I was really starting to really scrape bottom tonight- finished off the piece with a bit of 400 grit that was about 60% covered in spilled shellac. :)

I'm sure my wife'd like it too- she's a pyrographer and scroll sawyer as well.

Any good rules of thumb for drying times:thickness? I know with lumber it's about 1 year:1 inch, but that seems like a lot with a small hollowed peice.

Good deal- That's what I've got going, but it was more for aestetic reasons to begin with.

.

Well, it's _not_ an inch per year, as the boys at Madison will be pleased to tell you,

and in the free downloadable wood handbook. Then there's the fact that end grain loses at ten times the face grain rate, and a whole bunch of other neat things. Further, wood once dry gains moisture along with rising relative humidity, which is the problem with tight-fitting lids. Weigh your piece, check it every three or four days until it loses no weight for two checks, and it's as dry as it will get for the present conditions.