Question for the stopper turners.

[imahic]

How do the stoppers attach to your turning? Are they screwed in or something? Reading all your posts about stoppers got me to wondering if I could make some carvings and attach to the stoppers. May be dangerous when I start thinking.....lol.....wife wants to know what is smokng

[maverick31]

the wooden ends are drilled/tapped and the metal end is just screwed in. All you would need to do is buy stopper kit and drill a hole in the bottom of you wood and tap before you carve. once your done carving screw the 2 pieces together and thats pretty much it. hope that helps

[Joe Lyddon]

That's sure an easy way to do it!
Cool & clever... ;D

[Doug B]

I think that hand carved stoppers is a great idea!

Just like Mav said. The hardware uses 3/8 x 16 threads so you drill the hole somewhat smaller than 3/8" and then tap it. The bottle stopper mandrels will tap the hole for you if you want to do it that way, but without the mandrel you will probably want to tap the hole.

You can then put your piece of wood on a 3/8 x 15 threaded bolt and bolt it to something solid like your work bench to do your carving if you want. This pic shows the bottle stopper hardware and the carriage bolt I use for doing a "Lacquer dipping" finish.



If you look closely you can also see that I'm using Tim's method of using a forstner bit to square up the bottom of the stopper blank and then drilling the hole while the stopper blank is still held in my pen vise. This is working great with the added benefit that you don't have to square up the stopper blank at all before putting it in a vise and drilling it. This is a chunk of Mesquite that I cut on the band saw and you can see the end was not even close to being square to the sides, but that is not a problem using this method.

[sachbvn]

Doug - NICE.... I'm so glad someone tried Tim's "wooden surface grinder" idea.... it is such a great, simple idea - I haven't had time to try it yet (barf, I know....weeks away from the lathe) but now that the coffee table is done, it's full throttle on the lathe again. Got lot's of irons in the fire currently.

Yes Mike, these guys have it correct - in fact, it would work great for carvings. I have seen some things that other guys have done, carvings and what not, on bottle stoppers - really pretty dang cool.

Doug - also - that long bolt for a dipper, great idea. I had the same idea only I was going to use a spare chuck....then I thought about a bolt - hadn't thought about a REAL BIG bolt though!

I didn't care for the lacquer dip on pens, but I will try it on the stoppers....to be fair - I didn't give it a fair chance, but we'll try it on the stoppers.


Zac

[Doug B]

Zac, Tim's method for squaring the stopper blanks works incredibly well. Just think about it - you no longer have to have four sides square to the base. It takes the place of the jointer, planer, table saw and miter saw all with just a single change on the drill press. You have to have a pen vise or something similar to keep the blank oriented the same for both the forstner bit and the twist drill bit, but other than that you can take any shaped object and keep it squared up to the drilled hole. Simply amazing ;D

I have also been using the same method for doing segmented pen blanks - especially with antler which is irregular shaped, you can make sure everything is going to be square to the drilled hole by using a forstner first to square up the end. There are still some issues when you need to square up both ends of a piece, but that is what a barrel trimmer is for

I cannot believe how useful this method has been for me, both for pen making and bottle stopper making. You just have to try it out Zac - it really works!

And, as for Lacquer dipping, I'm becoming a big big fan of that too. Especially for bottle stoppers. That big bolt was just something I happened to have available in 3/8 x 16 thread but it has really been working well too. I can hang the dipped stopper on my workbench by opening the vise just enough to allow the bolt to slide in. Then the stopper is protected by the vice jaw from overhead sawdust nibs falling on it. Or I can stick it in a plastic container I have that is very similar to a Pringles chip can and it stands upright instead of head down. I've had better luck with the heads up holding of the stoppers because the heads down tends to accumulate extra Lacquer right on the tip when the stopper is hung upside down to cure.

[boodrow]

Mike I posted a tutorial on makin the stoppers , If I remeber correct it was a reply to one of Zac or Mavs post. I will see if I can find it and let u know.
Boodrow

[boodrow]

Mike I found the thread, here is a link to the second page , maybe this info will help.
Boodrow

worldofwood.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=woodturning&action=display&thread=1355&page=2

[imahic]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I might have to look into getting some of the stoppers and try carving something to mount on them. Do you glue them on with epoxy or anything or do they seem to hold fine just screwed on? There is a winery just down the road from where I live and they might be interested in something like that. I need to go down and talk to them.

[boodrow]

Mike I always epoxy the stopper stud into the wood. And just screw on the bottom part with no glue. Hope this helps .
Boodrow

[Doug B]

I like the idea of being able to change out the stopper hardware so I do not glue any part of the stoppers. I have had some that fit so tight that I could not remove the stud without ruining it, but for the most part, if someone prefers a different metal part on the stopper I can change it out for them.

[autobodyman]

Mar 10, 2010 21:15:20 GMT -6 imahic said:

How do the stoppers attach to your turning? Are they screwed in or something? Reading all your posts about stoppers got me to wondering if I could make some carvings and attach to the stoppers. May be dangerous when I start thinking.....lol.....wife wants to know what is smokng

Not mine but one I found online:


~Mike

[Doug B]

Cool Mike...that looks like Bullwinkle takin' a crap in a bottle of Budweiser ;D

Looks like a neat project that would take up a good 30 or 40 hours for me to do someday...if I had the talent to carve that is

[boodrow]

LOL Doug
Boodrow

[sachbvn]

Mike - any chance you can run one of those bad boys through your computer carving machine???


Zac