Bottle stoppers are so easy even a cave man can do them[] Did these today, my 3rd and 4th. Question, is there a particular way to finish the end where the live center makes a little hole?
Becca,
The trick is not to make the hole in the first place, Use a small block of wood between the live center and the end of your stopper blank. Hold it in place with pressure from the tail stock.
I've only made one bottle stopper so far but I used a mandrel from PSI and it worked great- the only hole was the same hole where the kit screwed in.
I am curious though Bob- how do you use the Beall? What part of the blank does it hold? I'm trying to picture it and thinking that opening in the Beall wouldn't be big enough to hold a prt of the blank?
Becca
If you are using the screw chuck from PSI, you only use the tail stock to round the blank, then back of and gently cut your designs... then you can finish off the hole.. or better yet, as Phil said, use a little piece of wood to hold the blank til rounded.
Becca watch yoyo's video on turning his bottle stoppers. It shows him using the wood piece on the live center. I now do it with all bottle stoppers I make. Great for safety.
Edited forgot to asked, is that front bottle stopper that much bigger or just some trick photography?
Becca,
I had a big hit with christmas tree shaped stoppers over the holidays, they were fun to make and really gave me some practice with the damn skew chisle I was having so much trouble with. The only trouble is I ran out of winos to give them to so I drilled a small hole for a ribbon near to top and jammed a dowel in the hole in the bottom and voila an ornament.