gift ornament - Woodworking Talk

john lucas · 09-09-2008, 01:47 PM

This is a new concept I'm trying out. I call them gift ornaments because they screw apart and you can hide gifts inside. This one is Cocobolo. I used the Baxter threader from Bestwoodtools to do the threading.

Terry Beeson · 09-09-2008, 02:07 PM

I think you have a great idea there, John. Nice work.... Now, for the Easter Eggs...

Mitch Cholewinski · 09-09-2008, 07:30 PM

John
Beautiful ornament and a great idea. Mitch

firehawkmph · 09-09-2008, 10:51 PM

John,
Very cool idea. Cocobola is one of my favorite woods to work with. I'm not familiar with the threader you used. I'll have to look it up. Good job,
Mike Hawkins

The woodsman · 09-09-2008, 11:04 PM

Fantastic work,I love it

jdixon · 09-10-2008, 01:28 AM

That is quite simply; Gorgeous! Very cool idea.

John

Night Mill Bill · 09-10-2008, 05:02 AM

That is beautiful work!

What do you think about carving/engraving them with some sort of dedication, or something like the usual gift labels on christmas presents that tell who its for? "To Sally, from John, do not open till 12/25/08", that sort of thing. That way, they'd know who its for, and when. That way, they would always have the ornament to remind them of that special year.

It might be a bit sneaky, but dating the ornaments with personalized messages might be good for business, too. If folks can just reuse it every year, they wont buy many.

john lucas · 09-10-2008, 08:41 AM

Mike Go to www.bestwoodtools.com and you can look at the threader. They are expensive but mine has already payed for itself. I'm not getting rich off it yet but I've sold enough threaded boxes to pay it off. Now I need to buy the 10TPI adaptor. I have the 16TPI and it's great for small boxes but the wood movement would become a problem on larger sizes unless I increase the size of the threads.

Nightbill I thought about all sorts of things like that but I would have to buy a lazar engraver to do it right. I could pay someone to do it and will look into that but I think it would be too expensive if I do it one at a time.

Terry Beeson · 09-10-2008, 05:39 PM

By the way, John... where would one find these to order if one would like to have one of them?

john lucas · 09-10-2008, 05:56 PM

Are you talking about the ornament or the Baxter threader

Terry Beeson · 09-10-2008, 05:57 PM

The ornament...

john lucas · 09-10-2008, 09:08 PM

Terry since I only have one of these I'm a little hesitant to part with it just yet. I need to look and see if I have any other wood that would work for this. I also have another design in mind that I want to try out. It will still screw apart. Since I don't have a website and haven't put them in any galleries yet you will have to contact me directly. johnclucas@charter.net

Terry Beeson · 09-10-2008, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john lucas

I need to look and see if I have any other wood that would work for this.

Look out your back door, John....

You live in some beautiful country. Love that drive from Nashville to Cookeville....

Eugene In NC · 09-13-2008, 12:44 AM

John, That is great!! Your work is a real inspiration for someone who is considering getting in to turning. I know I will enjoy turning if I can ever manage to build my skill levell to where I could do work that is even half that good. Thanks for posting the gift ornament.

Eugene

john lucas · 09-13-2008, 11:15 PM

Eugene Most of it is just time at the lathe. Turn anything. Especially turn things that are scrap. By that I mean stick a scrap limp or 2x2 on the lathe and just practice turning shapes.
If you want to turn bowls start really small, maybe 4". Again turn green pieces that you can throw away. Concentrate more on the cuts and the form. Since you know your going to toss it you won't worry about little things like catches. After a catch try to figure out what happened and then cut the bowl some more. When you work on a good piece of wood you often try to hard and end up getting bad shapes.

realfEZ · 09-19-2008, 04:30 PM

Nice work John, but how on earth did you manage to work on the screwable part (I mean all the part that fits in the other) and keep the grain continuity?

john lucas · 09-19-2008, 11:36 PM

It's always off when you first screw it together. You remove some of the shoulder on one side or the other, usually the last piece that is in the chuck. Since it's a 16tpi thread 1/16" equals a whole revolution so as you can tell it usually only takes 1/32" or less to get the pieces to align. The problem is wood movement. Sometime the wood swells or shrinks slightly so the parts don't align anymore.