Getting ready for the spring shows.

[TellicoTurning]

We had a few days of relatively warm weather last week and week before...so I got busy and turned a few new bottle stopper tops for the upcoming spring show season... I had let my supply run down... I still have about half a dozen in the shop being finished, plus another dozen or so set up and ready to turn... most of these are turned from Spectraply... I had a number of little pieces left over from my pepper mills... and I caught a few blanks on sale... the cones and tear drops are all 304 stainless steel that I bought from a company on the west coast... their prices are about half what Ruth Niles charges and really nice stoppers... I turn all my stoppers on a pin chuck using a 3/8" steel rod with a flat on it to take the pin and mounted in a Beall Collet... from mounting to finish takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Most of these are finished with the HUT Wax system, about six coats then topped with carnuba.

The next to last picture is PSI's adjustable stopper... if you turn the top it will turn the bottom portion of the stopper and compress the white rubber bands and cause them to expand .... not sure yet if I like them... the first one I did didn't work so well, but think I've figured it out for the future... I wound up buying 10 of the kits, so guess I need to make sure I do figure it out.

The last 2 are finished with polyurethane... they were turned last fall and never finished... just decided to put them together tonight.

 

[beck3906]

Very nice.

What finish do you use on the Spectraply? My CA finish often causes the finish to bleed colors across.

 

[JimB]

Very nice selection of styles and materials.

 

[Neededwill]

Very nice Chuck!!!!

 

[TellicoTurning]

Very nice.

What finish do you use on the Spectraply? My CA finish often causes the finish to bleed colors across.

I sand out through 400 or 600 and then just use the HUT wax system... usually 3 coats of the brown, then 3 coats of the white, than a coat of carnuba... polished at 1900 rpms... once in while I'll notice a bleed over from a darker to a very light wood, but that's usually sanding dust rather than a color bleed... I'll was down with acetone and usually solves problem.

I've used a polyurethane finish, but that takes so long with the drying and sanding between coats... with the HUT I can finish one from mounting to ready to install the stopper in about 20 minutes.

With no more handling than a bottle stopper will get, the finish should last a good long time.