Date Night at Woodcraft!

[Charlie_W]

Last night was Date Night at our local Woodcraft and I was the instructor.

We had three couples and turned bottle opener handles. While prepping for the class, I asked my contact at Woodcraft if they had mandrels such as bottle stopper threaded mandrels....No.... I asked if they had chucks with pin jaws...No....they have six chucks with #2 jaws.....and they have one chuck with Pen jaws..no help.....six mini lathes, a scheduled project and no method to mount and turn one inch square stock for the bottle openers....time for a solution.

The solution: I cut longer cherry stock for the handles and turned a #2 Morse taper on each blank with the hole drilled and tapped in the other end. I also had some maple learning blanks for them to turn between centers and get familiar with the spindle roughing gouge and spindle gouge.

I did a quick demo and got the group working. Two guys and one of their wives had turned just a tiny bit but that was a help. Well, I was super busy with all six by myself (Wifey was at a quilting event), and time went more quickly than planned but we did make it with six finished handles and six happy campers!

Here are some pics. One of sample openers I turned, a pic of the blanks I prepared and a pic of their finished handles.

Thanks for looking!

 

[tomtedesco]

Nice work. A "date night" at Woodcraft could be more expensive than a steak at a top end restaurant. LOL

 

[ebill]

Last night was Date Night at our local Woodcraft and I was the instructor.

- clever solution to what could have been a 'show stopper'

- my wife and combining on a turning project has 'divorce court' written all over it. I don't mess with her sewing stuff and she stays out of my wood-shop. We get along fine .....

- ebill

 

[magpens]

Nice going, Charlie !!!

 

[mmayo]

Last night was Date Night at our local Woodcraft and I was the instructor.

- clever solution to what could have been a 'show stopper'

- my wife and combining on a turning project has 'divorce court' written all over it. I don't mess with her sewing stuff and she stays out of my wood-shop. We get along fine .....

- ebill

My wife cleans my shop at least once a month. I put away tools, kits, bushings, wood and clean out the dust collection system. I do not force her a bit. I make stuff for sale, she makes tags and keeps the books. She helps at the craft shows and is the better salesperson. No way I would ever get it as clean without her help. Thanks Barbie!

 

[sbwertz]

My husband and I are both woodworkers, but he is not a turner....he CAN turn, it just isn't his favorite thing to do with wood. He made me beautiful kitchen cabinets, so I don't try to convert him. He does help me prep stuff for the blind center. He does all the blank drilling for me. I cut them on the bandsaw and he drills them. Assembly line!

We turn all those handles on the bottle stopper chuck that threads directly on the headstock. I also turn salt and pepper shakers and pen stands on them. I just put a felt bottom on them to cover the hole. I don't like to use a 4 jaw chuck with my blind turners because they have those sharp edges when the jaws are open very wide. When I do have to use a 4 jaw, I wrap them with vet wrap bandages to protect the blind turners from the sharp edges.