Small Lathe project

  I hate to throw good stuff away.  Recently we bought some creme fresh at the store and it came in lovely little bottles. So I decided to make an oak stopper/top to enable us to reuse the bottle.

  It was a pleasant little project. I began with a square of 3/4 oak, a piece left over from a church pew. The corners were knocked off before putting the piece on my mini lathe.  I have used my lathe to make an assortment of small things for our house over time.

  The finish is Hemp Oil. Oak is water resistant and hemp oil is neutral so the small jar can be used to store just about anything. 

  Making things like lid, and cutting boards, vases and bowls enables you to fill you space with 'your' work. I find it makes me happy to see things we've made and used in our space, try it, you may like it.

cheers, ianw

Three Lids

 I began a lathe project a while ago and made a 'screw chuck'.  After some more quality grand kid time I was back into the shop to finish this up-cycle project.

  Having been too cheap to throw these yogurt jars away I now have three usable jars with lovely wooded lids.  It was a cheap lathe project given that all the wood is left overs from the scrap bin and the jars were from the recycling bin.

  I have one lid of oak with a wax finish.  The middle lid is made from a tree branch.

  I really liked the result.  I used hemp oil as the finish.

  And the third lid is Brazilian cherry. It chipped the easiest of the three woods but did give a nice result with an oil finish as well.

   Wood turning on the lathe is an artistic outlet for a wood worker.  Lathes aren't that costly, you can do many projects on smaller lathes. Chisels can be as basic as home made or as costly as custom made. The only place you shouldn't cut corners is on dust masks and eye protection.

  It is always nice to knock off a little project that turns out well.

cheers, ianw