March 2024 – West Northants Woodturners

This evening, Ken Garratt demonstrated making an egg-shaped box. For this, he used a sapele blank about 65mm diameter x 125mm length.

To start off, he mounted the blank between centres and put a chucking tenon on each end, after which he mounted it in the chuck.

Next, Ken marked the top and bottom of the box and the widest point of the body, this being one third of the overall length from the base.

He then made a groove to mark the lid and proceeded to shape the egg, before parting off the lid.

With the body still held in the chuck, Ken hollowed it out with a spindle gouge and refined it with a scraper. A mortice was formed in the body with the top edge slightly undercut to ensure a clean fit with the tenon.

Sanding was carried out with the abrasives on a stick for safety, and taking care to avoid the mortice.

It was then dismounted from the chuck – but not before marking its position in the jaws so that it could be accurately re-mounted later on.

With the body out of the way, Ken mounted the lid in the chuck and hollowed it in a similar fashion to the body. Once this was done he made a tenon to fit the body mortice, bringing up the body repeatedly between very fine cuts in order to get the right fit. A very slight taper on the tenon can help this process, with a friction line on the taper establishing an accurate diameter to work to.

As there is no knob or other shape to grasp on the lid, the tenon must not be too tight or it will be very difficult to remove the lid. At this juncture, however, Ken left it just a bit tight and assembled the two pieces before refining the external profile of the two pieces together on the lathe.

The box was sanded overall and the lid removed and Ken then made a shallow “shadow line” to act as guide to the lid position when opening the box. With the lid replaced on the box, he carried out final refinement of the shape and then parted the lid from its tenon at the tailstock end before tidying up the nub with a light touch of the gouge and some sanding. The lid was now finished and Ken put it to one side.

Ken now removed the box body and mounted a disc of wood in the chuck which he fashioned into a jam chuck to fit into the mortice.

With the tailstock brought up for support, he reduced the chucking tenon to a minimum and then shaped the bottom of the box, leaving some flats so that the box will stand up.

Finally, the box was parted off, the nub removed, the base sanded and the mortice checked for any marks left by the jam chuck.

Ken’s usual finish is Treatex hardwax oil, applied by bush and any surplus wiped off after about 15 minutes; this will give a pleasing satin finish. If left overnight, it can be buffed the following day for a shine. On this occasion he wiped it off a bit quicker than he would normally do and the box was left with a low satin finish.

Apologies to Ken – I forgot to align the grain of the lid and box before taking the picture. They did indeed line up seamlessly!

Mick Denton confirmed that the club visit to the Proops Brothers shop in Leicestershire is now on for 11^th April, and it will include a factory tour. Details are on the website home page, but Mick will give an update at the next meeting on Wednesday 20^th March. Proops sell a wide variety of hobbyist and craft items, and visits in the past made for a good day out. Best to go equipped with a list of must-haves!

Mick was our demonstrator for tonight and promised us an oak bowl with a raised foot, made out of another piece of his especially horrible dry oak (a piece of which made Adrian’s life harder at a previous demo).

Approx 150mm diameter x 70mm thick, the blank was mounted on a screw chuck and a chucking recess turned.

It was then reversed onto the chuck and he turned another chucking recess. Mick explained that two chucking recesses are not strictly needed, but it’s something he usually does as it adds flexibility to the turning process and provides an option to reverse top and bottom of the bowl if required for some reason.

Now he trued up the circumference before reversing the blank once again and starting to shape the underside of the bowl. Here, the wood showed its true nature and quickly blunted his bowl gouge so Mick gave it a quick tickle on the grinder and resumed work.

With a sharp tool, he quickly achieved the desired bowl and foot shape, finishing off with light shear cuts for a good finish. A point tool, with all three sides of differing length for different uses, was used to add some detail lines to the underside of the foot.

Final sanding was carried out with the lathe running in reverse, using very light pressure to avoid scoring the wood.

Reversed once again, hollowing out began, with Mick switching to a gouge with a steeper bevel angle for the bottom of the bowl.

In order to undercut the rim, Mick used a small round carbide-tipped tool which allowed him the access he required, and then a final thinning inside the bowl with the bowl gouge. After a quick sanding the bowl was done, although Mick may thin the walls a bit more at home with a smaller bowl gouge. He will also apply sanding sealer in his workshop at home (volatile – can’t be used in the village hall), rub it down and apply hard wax oil.

A tiny natural edge vase was next on the agenda, as Mick had a little time left. He mounted a small piece of yew in the chuck and hollowed it out with a bowl gouge, rounding the top edge internally with the point tool before returning to the bowl gouge to shape the outside of the vase, taking care to leave a natural edge at the top. The shape at the foot was refined using the point tool.

To complete, the vase was sanded with the lathe running in reverse and stick wax applied. The wax was polished with a paper towel, taking care not to apply too much pressure or the wax will drag and come off onto the towel. Finally the vase was parted off and the underside of the foot sanded.