Bottle Stoppers

[bassman00]

Here's the first batch of stoppers I made. They're not pens so I hope it's ok to show them off. They're from PSI's 10 piece starter kit (except the maple).

(L-R) Zebrawood, Wenge?, Cocobolo, Bocote, Zebrawood, Paduak, Wenge?, Curly Maple & Paduak (in front). The five on the right all have loose rings. I did one as a test to see if I could and everyone loved it. So now I do most with loose rings. Unfortunately, the PSI kit didn't label the blanks so I'm taking an educated guess with the Wenge as it closely resembles my Wenge pen blanks. The 2nd one could be EI Rosewood because of the color but the grain doesn't look like my EI Rosewood blanks. I'm quite sure it's not Bubinga like their catalog states.

These are all on consignment at a store my sister-in-law works at. It was her idea as I'm very new at this and wanted to hone my craft more before venturing out. I also have a some friends and coworkers interested in buying some for gifts.

 

[dougle40]

Nice work Paul ,
I've always wanted to try the loose ring turning but , for whatever reason, I've never gotten around to it .

 

[WoodChucker]

They look great, but there's only nine. Come clean, did you screw one up? [] J/K

R.T.

 

[bassman00]

Thanks.

Two actually. [:I] A cocobolo and bocote. Both had catches and the blanks became loose on the screw chuck. Unfortunately, that number has grown since too. I guess I'll drill those out and glue in a dowel and try again in the future.

 

[Fred in NC]

Very nice stoppers, Paul. I like the stand too.

 

[Old Griz]

Just ordered 20 of those kits from Bill B.. he has them for $1.99ea. Also ordered some of his nice eyecandy stopper blanks that he has on sale... going to see how they do my Spring crafting booth.... first time attempting stopper sales....

 

[YoYoSpin]

Paul, you might be able to solve the loose turning on your screw-chuck problem by wrapping 2 or 3 turns of masking tape around the screw and then re-chucking.

BTW, there is a Yahoo group dedicated to bottle stopper turning. Dial in if you'd like: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopper

 

[melogic]

Really nice work Paul.

 

[wayneis]

Paul the second from the left does look like Wemge but the other one unless its just the way the light is hitting on it looks like ebony to me. If its black or mostly black then it is ebony not wenge.

They all look good no matter what they are, you did a really nice job.

Wayne

 

[jkirkb94]

If these are your first ones, I can hardly wait to see what yours will look like after you have gotten some experience!! Sometime you will have to explain in detail how you did the loose ring on the last one. Wow! Kirk[8D]

 

[C_Ludwigsen]

WOW!!!

 

[PenWorks]

RT. must be the dectective in you. I can't believe you BUSTED Paul just looking at his photo.Your Goooooood. No ugly green pen for you. Anthony

 

[bassman00]

Wow. I certainly didn't expect this kind of a response. Thanks!

Fred - The stand is something I threw together from some scraps. The base is ash that was a cutoff from a bookshelf I'm making for my daughter. The top part is curly maple I resawed off a block that I cut up for pen blanks.

YoYo - I've tried the tape thing and it didn't work. I must've opened up the hole A LOT. I assume gluing in a dowel and redrilling will work. The dowel will be hidden and hopefully will hold while I finish turning it.

wayneis - The second one is definitely darker but has a grain pattern almost identical to the first. At first I thought it was EI Rosewood but it doesn't look like any EI RW I have. I don't think it's ebony as it wasn't difficult to turn. I've heard ebony can be tricky as it's brittle. This was closer to rosewood in how it turned.

Kirk - The maple one has two loose rings. I watched a Richard Raffin video and he puts a loose ring on a spindle and I decided to give it a go. First attempt was the cocobolo and it chipped out. The second attempt worked. I did learn I had to sand and basically finish the ring before cutting it off.

My procedure is pretty basic. I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who can provide better instruction, but here goes.

After turning the blank round. I put the basic shape I'm going to use on it. Then I determine where the ring will be. I use a parting tool to dig deep grooves to isolate the ring. Then I use the skew (source of almost all my blank wasting catches) to round off or shape the ring and the rest of the stopper. Once I have the stopper complete with the ring still attached, I sand and apply EEE on the whole stopper. I put the final finish on the ring since onces it's loose, it'll be tough to finish. Then I use the skew to shave off the ring. That part is tricky if there's not a lot of space. Once the ring is off, I'll turn the spindle the ring will slide on, sand and finish that off along with the rest of the stopper. Hope this isn't too confusing. I'll try to document what I do better the next time I turn more.