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Assistance with first box and natural edge platter

broadsea

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Sep 17, 2014
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195
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Fraserburgh
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John
I am about to embark on two new projects. Firstly my first box. I was thinking of turning the lid and cutting it off before hollowing the actual box. Is this correct and are there any does and donts. The natural edge platter is from a burr log. Do I round off the two ends first on the bandsaw? and again any tips on does and dont's. Thanks for the help in advance and I hope you dont think these are daft questions. I have watched a few videos on you tube but still not that confident.
 

Phil Dart

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Nov 28, 2014
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Oooh! Two big subjects John. I'm not sure how much experience with turning you have, but I'll give you my two penneth worth and I'm sure others will come by with some offerings too.

With regard to the box, generally you've got to find some way of reverse chucking the lid to finish its underside, so the generally accepted order of play is to make the outer side of the lid into a tenon fist, then part it off. There's a little trick about leaving a so called "witness mark" when you do so, but you've probably picked that up from youtube already. Make and finish the inside of the box section and as far as possible the outer side, then remove from chuck. Mount the lid using the tenon on outer side, make and finish the underside. Reverse chuck the lid using the underside as a chucking point, so think about how that's going to happen when you design your box, before you even mount any wood on the lathe. (Often it's possible to remount the box section and locate the lid in it, using the box section as a jam chuck with support from the tail stock, and often the underside features either a step of a recess which might conform to your chuck jaws, so you can mount it directly in the chuck, with a bit of tissue or something else to protect the finish). Make and finish the outer side of the lid. Reverse chuck the box section, make and finish underside. Remove from chuck. Put two halves together. Show partner. Price. Sell. Drink red wine. Sober up. Make another one.

With regard to the natural edge bowl, anything you remove on the bandsaw means less time and effort making shavings on the floor. I find it helpful to at least remove the corners on the bandsaw to make it an octagon. Cutting a log on a bandsaw can be a perilous task if you value your fingers, as it can rotate under the blade or kick back at you, so bear that in mind too and take great care. Youtube probably has lots or jigs on it for bandsawing logs.

And no, they're not daft questions. If you don't ask, you don't know. We all have to start somewhere.
 

brody2123

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Feb 13, 2014
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redditch
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Brody
Morning John.

Box wise, there are a few different ways of doing them.
if you plan on using a nicely grained bit of timber then the parting cut between the lid abd box section needs to be as small as possible so you have good grain alignment.

The way i do a box is:
Rough your chosen blank to round and turn a tennon for your chuck at either end
Then mark where you want your lid to be
Take a 1/4" parting tool and part down to where you want your tennon on the box to be
Then take a thin parting tool, and part off straight through the middle of the first one.This will give you a reference of where you will need to turn the recess for the lid
Hollow and partially shape the bottom section and refine the tennon.
Now remove this, and put the lid section on and refine the recess for the tennon on the box.
put the box section back on the lathe, fit the lid and finish turn
Then, part off the bottom of the box, leaving enough wood to be able to reverse turn the bottom of the box, and voilà

you can turn the lid first, and even have a jam chuck from another piece of wood to reverse turn, or even use your chuck in expansion mode. Once you found a process that you like, there's no stopping you.
Hope all this waffle makes sense:funny:
 

Dalboy

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Mar 20, 2014
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Kent
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For a box with matching grain first find your piece of wood longer than the box and mount it onto the lathe between centres.

Turn to a cylinder and form a tenon at both ends. Now decide where you want the parting for the lid top and bottom and mark these.

Using a thin parting tool part in about 3/4 of the way through at the joint mark now cut off with a saw.

Remount the bottom of the box into a scroll chuck use the parting tool and just make a parting cut part way through where the bottom will be this is only a reference at this point, turn the bottom section on the inside and outside and include a lip at the top for the lid to locate onto (to be turned later).

The bottom can be sanded at this stage and finished. What you will now have is the bottom all turned except the very bottom which you will need to turn around and mount on something like a jam chuck so you can clean up the bottom sand and finish.

You should now have a completed bottom section.

For a straight forward style box the lid is turned and finished in the same manner as the bottom the only thing is that where you turn the joining part you will need to make a mating join for the lip to fit into this needs to be either a pop fit or a very close fit depending on what you like.

Again this will need reverse chucking or a jam chuck to finish the very top.

You should now have a complete matching grain box.

Just hope that all makes some kind of sense

That is how I turned this one below. The other photo of the box open is to show the lip

Should of read Brody's post first Oh well that will teach me
 

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