Robert111
Member
This is olive swirl ebonite. It's easy to turn and thread and I got a bunch of it for low $$.
After I finished it last night, I had second thoughts about the shape, so I spent a few hours this morning with it again. It's straighter now than before (less curve in the cap and barrel.
The biggest problem I had was with the dies. I had a hard time predicting what size tenon to make for a given die. Did a lot of experimenting with acrylic pieces to get that right. I think maybe the correct tenon size is a little larger than a given die; i.e., for a 12 mm die, I'll start with a tenon size of about 12.2 mm. That may not work with all 12 mm dies, but it seemed to with the 12 X 1.5 that I was using for barrel-cap threads.
I liked making the section the most. I used George's tutorial from the library. Got it on the first try! Thanks George!
The cap gave the most trouble. In trying to keep it short, I planned on drilling out the center of the finial tenon. That didn't work because the finial tenon diameter turned out to be too small to allow the point in--it caught the edge. I solved this by shortening the threads on the end of the barrel by 1/8". That's why you see the barrel-cap treading on the barrel is only about 1/8" long.
Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome and appreciated.
After I finished it last night, I had second thoughts about the shape, so I spent a few hours this morning with it again. It's straighter now than before (less curve in the cap and barrel.
The biggest problem I had was with the dies. I had a hard time predicting what size tenon to make for a given die. Did a lot of experimenting with acrylic pieces to get that right. I think maybe the correct tenon size is a little larger than a given die; i.e., for a 12 mm die, I'll start with a tenon size of about 12.2 mm. That may not work with all 12 mm dies, but it seemed to with the 12 X 1.5 that I was using for barrel-cap threads.
I liked making the section the most. I used George's tutorial from the library. Got it on the first try! Thanks George!
The cap gave the most trouble. In trying to keep it short, I planned on drilling out the center of the finial tenon. That didn't work because the finial tenon diameter turned out to be too small to allow the point in--it caught the edge. I solved this by shortening the threads on the end of the barrel by 1/8". That's why you see the barrel-cap treading on the barrel is only about 1/8" long.
Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome and appreciated.
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