Sqyaring the Bottom of a Bottlestopper Blank

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TonyL

TonyL

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After 2 years of owning Ruth Niles' complete kit, I finally opened the bag of goodies (no reflection upon Ruth). These are beautiful stoppers. I may take-up drinking! Anyway, I have a few 2" x 2" blocks of wood that I bought as BS blanks. How does one square these? Remember, folks...I was serious when I said that I only turn pens :-). I will Google around and see what I can find in the meantime and call Ruth in the morning. She is such a nice gal.

Thanks!

I may take up spelling.. I meant "squaring"
 
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Look no further than our own search engine. Found all that I need. Thanks anyway!
 
Hey Tony !

Can you give us the link(s) to what info you found, please ... could be better than my method.
 
I don't know how to give links, but I simply entered squaring bottle stopper in search tool. I believe it was published in Dec 2014.
 
Thank you. I didn't think that it would work the same way as any other link. Thank you.
 
Tony, I square the bottoms of my bottle stoppers the same as any other blank... I turn all of my stoppers on a pin chuck, so there's a 3/8" hole that the pin goes into and I just use a parting tool to square to the hole.

I've never used Ruth Nile's chuck, although I did use the PSI stopper chuck for a while, but prefer the pin chuck method now... I can turn, sand and have a stopper ready to put a finish on in about 10 minutes with the pin chuck.
 
I put the blank between centers and turn roughly round, and then put a tenon on the end that will become the top.

Remount using a scroll chuck to grip the tenon. Then, with a jacobs chuck in the tailstock, drill the 5/6" hole, and then use a spindle gouge to smooth the bottom around the hole. I prefer to have a recess in the bottom so that the seam between the bottom of the turning and the top of the metal stopper is hidden when the finished item is viewed from the side. It's also possible to use a forstner bit to cut a shallow mortise around the hole, but I find the gouge to be easier. Sand the bottom. Put a tap in the jacobs chuck and thread the hole.

Drip a little thin CA into the hole, shake to distribute over and around the threads, and allow the CA to cure. Then run the tap in one more time to clean up the threads.

Remove from the scroll chuck, and remount on the threaded stopper mandrel. It helps to smear a little wax on the threads of the mandrel. Turn, sand and finish. I usually use either Minwax WOP or a shop-made long-oil varnish, or sometimes pure Tung oil.
 
monophoto said:
I put the blank between centers and turn roughly round, and then put a tenon on the end that will become the top.

Remount using a scroll chuck to grip the tenon. Then, with a jacobs chuck in the tailstock, drill the 5/6" hole, and then use a spindle gouge to smooth the bottom around the hole. I prefer to have a recess in the bottom so that the seam between the bottom of the turning and the top of the metal stopper is hidden when the finished item is viewed from the side. It's also possible to use a forstner bit to cut a shallow mortise around the hole, but I find the gouge to be easier. Sand the bottom. Put a tap in the jacobs chuck and thread the hole.

Drip a little thin CA into the hole, shake to distribute over and around the threads, and allow the CA to cure. Then run the tap in one more time to clean up the threads.

Remove from the scroll chuck, and remount on the threaded stopper mandrel. It helps to smear a little wax on the threads of the mandrel. Turn, sand and finish. I usually use either Minwax WOP or a shop-made long-oil varnish, or sometimes pure Tung oil.
Click to expand...
What size fostners bit do you use to recess them?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
Now I'm worried I'm missing something! I don't square the blanks. I'm not sure I understand why I should.

I use the Ruth Niles stoppers and mandrel. I mount the blank as is on the headstock and drill an 11/32" hole. Then I make a 13/16" recess around the hole (matching the size of the stopper's top) using a parting tool. If I had a 13/16" Forstner bit I guess I would use it, but I dont, so... I could use a 3/4" bit and then expand it, but I dont see the advantage
The mandrel actually comes with a 13/16" OD washer that I dont know the purpose of, but it makes a good sizing gauge for the recess, just keep enlarging the recess til the washer fits in (if its tight, thats good but sometimes you have to pry it out). Then I shape what will be the bottom of the piece and finish it as well.

Unchuck, flip it around and rechuck onto the mandrel and turn the rest.

Where does squaring come in? unlike a pen where a few thousands out of round is immediately noticeable, I don't think I see an issue, but I'd love to know if i'm missing something
 
Shock me

By turning a 13/16 mortise on the end of your blank you are in effect flattening it. The mortise helps to ensure a nice tight seam between the stopper and the turning. Some people do not turn a recess preferring to allow the stopper portion to butt up against the turning and for that you do need to flatten the whole bottom of the piece you are going to turn.
 
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What size fostners bit do you use to recess them?
Click to expand...
I use 7/8th, that is what Ruth recommended. Remember, this is a design/style factor. It has to do with one's desire/preference for "hiding" the top edge of the stopper. I would guess as long as the bit is slighly larger than the OD of the top of the stopper, one is fine. Happy Turning!
 
Shock me said:
Now I'm worried I'm missing something! I don't square the blanks. I'm not sure I understand why I should.
Click to expand...

What you say is quite true - there is no really need to 'square' the blank. However, you do want the bottom of the finished stopper to be at 90degrees to the axis the threaded hole used to mount the blank for turning, and also to attach the finished turning to the stopper 'hardware'.

If the finished turning doesn't seat flat against the top of the hardware, there will be an uneven gap that will be visible from the side. Achieving that 90 degree angle assures proper seating.

It's easy to make one end of the blank flat. The challenge is in drilling a hole into that end that is exactly perpendicular to the flat surface. The suggestions made here address HOW to achieve that perpendicularity.
 
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