The November 2024 Competition was set to turn attractive piece(s) that can be worn for personal adornment

The September 2024 Competition was set to turn piece(s) without any sanding - although oil/sealer finishes are acceptable

  Soft Metal
Andy had brought along some "Wood's Metal" bars of bismuth/lead/tin/cadmium alloy which have a surprising low melting temperature of 70ºC (not much hotter than solder) and would melt in a spoon with a hot air gun, particularly when the alloy bar is cut into tiny pieces.  He warned against using solder as it tended to be difficult to pour without solidifying before it filled up all the space and it doesn't polish up as well as the alloy.  Pewter is a suitable alternative but requires higher temperature to become molten.

As we are relying upon gravity to help us, trying to cast a metal ring around the side of the box is a difficult process. However, flat surfaces like a box lid are perfect.
So while the lid section of his box was still connected to its body on the lathe, he prepared as he had done for the putty by forming a countersunk recess into the end of the piece but then added a slight bevel to the edges of the recess; these bevels encourage the molten alloy to fall into the recess.
After cleaning the surfaces, he again treated with a coat of sanding sealer.

With the lid now set flat, the chips of alloy were placed in a spoon and heated with a hot air gun until molten about 45 seconds later when it was poured into the recess. Enough alloy was dropped in for the meniscus to just bulge above the prepared bevel. This was to allow for any dipping as the alloy cooled & solidified. Dependent upon the volume of alloy used, it should be ready to work within 10 to 30 minutes. The aim was to minimise wastage and to have very little to turn away with a gouge. Before any sanding, another coat of sanding sealer was applied and subsequent  abrasives were carefully used lightly with fine grits only & at a slow speed to avoid frictional heat re-melting the alloy.

  Integrated Resin
A quick Google search for "resin for beginners kit" will show there are many suppliers out there, which might seem daunting but can be rewarding with a little perseverance.  There are 3 types of resin; Epoxy, Polyester & Polyurethane but epoxy is best for gaining experience.  Many starting sets are for thin projects but woodturning projects tend to require several centimetres thickness, which you will need to consider before buying.
They all require mixing of the resin with a hardener. The deeper the cure mixture, the more that stirring and higher curing temperature can create bubbles which would detract from the finished article.  To overcome this problem, some suppliers sell specific epoxies & hardeners for different depths while some guide you to different ratios of resin to hardener. Others explain how to remove bubbles using heat guns or even toothpicks!  One method includes using pressure pots that will compress air bubbles to sizes so small that you will not be able to see them, in order to achieve a high quality clear casting at the cost of several hundreds of pounds Sterling!
Not surprisingly, the duration of the curing process is variable from maybe 10 - 24 hours so it is always best to leave the turning for at least a day.

"How to make a combination of wood and resin blank for turning" is best done by asking Google that very phrase and watching one of their helpful videos.
The basis is :
 Prepping the mould with the wood;
 Put in some means for the chuck jaws or screw chuck to grip;
 Tape the wood down so that it doesn't float away when the resin is poured in;
 Mix the resin and hardener;
 Stir in colour/sparkle as desired before pouring;
 and leave for at least 24 hours.

            (click for close up view)

Next day, you should have something like Andy's photo above; the Polyfilla tub acted as the mould and he has already used the lathe to create a new spigot for the base of the bowl whilst mounted in the jaws using the wooden spigot partially buried in the resin. Andy had found that warming up the hardener/catalyst seemed to help it mix with the resin more efficiently and he advocated leaving the mix still for 15 mins to give bubbles a chance to dissipate.  He had added a blue tint and some sparkles.

Much of the initial sanding of the resin piece was with a 50mm padded drill attachment but after fine abrasives and spray lacquer to finish, it looked like this ...

 (click for close up view)

The July 2024 Competition was set to turn any piece of combination, decorative or integrated styles that incorporates two or more Mixed Solid Media

A Cautionary Tale - Having seen some bamboo stalks encased in resin on You-Tube, Andy told of his attempt to incorporate this idea into one of his projects.  To the left, you can see the pot within which he had arranged a circle of bamboo to be set in some resin, somewhat mimicking an orange. After allowing to cure and fitted into a chuck, Andy experienced a catastrophic failure when upon starting the lathe, the resin failed to hold the whole piece together and the orange suddenly broke up into 'segments'.  You might spot in the photograph that some significantly large pieces detached themselves and indeed there is one piece still in the workshop somewhere he cannot find. The reason is uncertain but possibly a combination of excess moisture within the bamboo and the thinness of resin bridging the edge to the centre. As Andy is accustomed to do whenever he starts turning a new piece, particularly with an irregular shape on the lathe, he was wearing his face shield, which did exactly the job as its name implies.

(photos by Rick Patrick & Paul Reeves)
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As there were several newcomers to the Club, Paul started off with some Revision of Spindle Work. 
An account of this subject can be found <HERE>

Honorary Member, Greta Reeves worked many years at Lymington Auctions and it became practice that her boss would arrange for a replica of his own Auctioneer's Hammer be turned as a retirement gift for long standing employees.  His original was of Cocobolo but the replicas were turned from more readily available Laburnum. This original was tactile & small enough to grip the head comfortably in his hand.  Consequently, the handle didn't have to cope with much blunt force and didn't need a strong thick connection to the head. The 3 examples below are Box, Laburnum and Mohonia.

The head and the handle are both spindle components turned separately and subsequently glued together.
Despite recent demonstrations venerating the 'Golden Ratio' of 1.618, the dimensions of these gavels are such that the handle is twice the length of the head. The length of the head was twice its own diameter.  Additionally, dividing the head into four gives a far better proportion for the two hammer faces taking a quarter of the length each, leaving the neck between them for the remaining half.

  Head
A prepared cylinder of Laburnum was mounted between centres. Paul advised against using sprung steb centres at either end as he found the sprung central point applied to end grain tended to split the piece when under tension.
He had planned this project to have a 1½" face diameter, 3" head length and a 6" handle.
He used a narrow Parting Tool to mark out the ends of the head and pencilled in the quarters between them.
Using a wide Parting Tool making half-width overlaps, Paul quickly removed waste from the neck.
Having prepared callipers to ¾" for the diameter of the neck, he used the Parting Tool to finish blocking out accurately.
As both hammer faces were to be near spherical, he pencilled in marks around the piece about ¾" from each end which is where the face would be at its maximum diameter.
He then started making bead-like cuts off the ends gradually working back towards the pencil line but leaving it visible. It was important to avoid getting the end pointy; it should look more like a puffed-up cushion. The final cuts were made while maintaining a slow, smooth and light-touch pass with good bevel contact throughout. If your hands end up moving quicker than needed, the bevel will lose contact/support and the tip will catch the wood and dig in.
The trick now was to turn the other end to match!  If you have changed hands when holding tools to work in the opposite direction from your early days of turning, you will find that very helpful in this case.

The next details were to put in a small cove centrally where the handle will go and to finish off the hammer heads from the pencilled line back towards the neck. Paul favours a small decorative feature in these beads called a quirk, which was achieved with a 2mm ridge left about 20º down from the pencil lines so that a Skew could create a shallow crisp-edged V-cut and the bead continues down to the neck. This was only a tiny detail but it certainly helped to focus attention on the heads.

One might think it more sensible to drill the hole for the handle earlier - perhaps even while the Laburnum blank was a square. However, now that the current dumbbell shaping is nearly finished, the patterns of the grain lend themselves for you to decide where to drill the hole in order to show them off to their best when the gavel is at rest on a desk. Once marked with an awl or similar, one could finish the sanding and drill the hole once removed from the lathe. For the demonstration, Paul drilled the hole on the lathe by eye using smaller drill bits as pilots and gradually building up to the final size.

Using a Skew, he decreased the supporting end nibs to about 4mm diameter which would be strong enough to hold the piece while sanding. With the lathe speed reduced to alleviate the piece overheating while sanding, Paul prefers to follow the curves by supporting abrasives underneath the piece and taking care to avoid sanding away detail and decoration by sanding the shape and not sanding to shape. Laburnum will abrade down to 1200 grit or finer with considerable success but Paul was going to finish this piece with buffing so down to 400 grit was going to be sufficient.

  Handle
Another prepared cylinder of Laburnum was mounted between centres. Once again, Paul avoided using steb centres following a previous attempt turning a Mahonia cylinder down to an 8mm tenon for inserting into the head, because it split as soon as he tightened the tail stock.
He aimed to carry out all the shaping and decoration prior to weakening one end as a result of the small tenon being turned. Paul also advised that if the intended gavel was to be used while holding a longer handle rather than a grip around the head, you might want to consider reinforcing the tenon with a steel brad/nail.
He also planned to turn the piece with the tenon at the tail stock end so that when checking fit into the head, it could be easily remounted in the lathe for further turning.
The decoration was a homemade creation from an old square-ended scraper with 3 grooves made with the corner edge of a grinder wheel. This results in 3 evenly spaced and shaped tiny beads. Because he had carefully spaced the grooves relative to the width, he could easily increase those matched beads to 4 (or 40 of them if you wanted) by using a previously cut bead to fill an outer groove of the tool and guide further matching cuts.

An elegant handle is all about shape and curves. Paul used a thin Parting Tool to mark out the ends, the tenon and the diameter of a spherical shape at the bottom end. He quickly turned away the bulk to leave a rough shape before changing to a short Spindle Gouge to refine to the shape below.  Be aware that keeping the tips of narrow spindles cutting at the optimum height on an up and down surface isn't easy and needs a gentle contact pressure throughout to avoid digging in. With close grain woods like Laburnum, there will be minimal compression of the spigot so that requires starting from slightly oversized and gently approaching the necessary diameter with regular retracting of the tailstock to check the fit into the head.
When satisfied with the cut shape, start sanding up to the edge of any decoration but be careful not to wipe away small beads and sharp corners, particularly with your initial grits; they can be polished up with the edge of the finer grits when you progress to them.  Whenever sanding spindles with the lathe turning, keep the abrasive moving and keep in mind that it is sanding across the grain fibres so they will inevitably stick up. A technique to overcome this tendency is to stop the lathe and finish that grit along the grain before changing to the next. Don't sand the spigot because if it fits, you won't want it made smaller and besides, a very smooth finish doesn't help the glue to adhere to the wood.
A Skew reduced the ends with a series of enlarged V-cuts to a very small diameter (still stable because the wood is so dense) and finally parted off with a fine toothed saw aimed away from the piece so that the tiny pimple left was abraded away with the last grit used.

<Competition Results> 

The spigot was to fit his 40mm set of C-jaws with a 7mm depth. Andy used his thin parting tool to create the groove for the jaw lip at the bottom of the spigot and then a similar groove half way up; this was for a later process.
Andy initially sanded with the lathe turning while using a power sander rather than hand held abrasives in order to avoid the remaining sharp corners causing injuries. He then stopped the lathe and hand sanded along the grain before finishing with a coat of sander sealer.
The piece was then fitted into his C-jaws ready to hollow out the bowl. Andy sawed off the newly exposed tip to accommodate support from his tailstock.  Taking care to avoid flying corners, he gradually turned away towards the centre but leaving a stub for his tailstock.
As he cut closer to the flying corners, he regularly stopped the lathe to check that his inside cut was keeping parallel over the entire length of the outer edge of the piece.  Any disparity quickly showed just how far down the cut his Bowl Gouge needed to remove more wood to return the edges to parallel.  Halfway through the hollowing, Andy turned his toolrest into the hollow to avoid a long over-hang of the gouge near the bowl's bottom.
Once satisfied with the inside parallel shaping, he removed the tailstock as well as the stub to about 5mm from the bottom.  Using a smaller Bowl Gouge, he continued cutting to clean up the bowl's centre with just the chuck jaws supporting.

When it came to sanding, Andy took care to avoid the abrasives damaging any of the sharp edges.  He didn't do any hand sanding with the lathe turning, instead used his selection of various hard-backed shaped pads without applying too much pressure.  He found that his power sander with a soft padding was ideal for sanding the central bottom of the bowl when applied to the opposite side of where he was standing.  With the lathe stopped, he hand sanded to finish but again being careful of downward pressure near the edges.
The piece was sander sealed and when dried, microcrystalline wax was applied using some webrax.
The piece was repositioned so that the C-jaws now engaged the mid groove (formed when turning the spigot initially) which made the parting off an easier process.

(click for close up view)

 The examples in the above photo show that the RH green bulb is probably too long for its width.

It doesn't have to be a plain colour. Paul had inherited some glitter paint from a past Member which he applied to a second bulb.  This was not only the first time he had demonstrated glittery decorations but also the first time he had ever used it, so we all learnt together that it needed to be thoroughly shaken before use and that it was best to brush on fairly thickly as the supporting clear varnish did a good job of smoothing the finish.  Paul did wonder if a coloured base coat might be beneficial the next time he made one.

October 2023
Toothpick Holder with Paul Reeves
Thu 19^th Oct at MWCC Club Night 

September 2023  -    DEMO 4
Decorative Mushrooms  with Paul Reeves
Thu 21^st Sep at MWCC Club Night

August 2023  -  DEMO 3
A Splash of Colour  with Paul Reeves
Thu 17^th August at MWCC Club Night

The staining works best when a combination of colours are selected to complement each other; typically a couple of dark colours applied first followed by a light colour to produce highlights.
In the wine mat example to the right (click photo to enlarge), purple, green & finally yellow stains were applied with individual pieces of cloth/paper and sanded back once each colour had washed dry revealing lighter areas. Paul then went back to add or sand off colours until the balance looked good. When happy with the combination and spread of colour, a light mist of alcohol (eg Meths) was sprayed on to help blend them together and remove any definite edges/streaks. The mat was allowed to dry thoroughly. Several coats of gloss acrylic lacquer were sprayed on and once the surface had cured, were polished to a very high shine. This enabled the light penetration to accentuate the figure and give a beautiful holographic effect.

June 2023  -  DEMO 2
Kitchen Items  with Paul Reeves
Thu 15^th June at MWCC Club Night

  Piping Nozzle
Basically, a thin walled cone with it's top removed.
The first consideration was to decide whether the cone should be mounted point towards the tail or the head stock.  As the critical surface was going to be the inside, it seemed beneficial to work with the piece pointing towards the headstock for easier access.
Paul had prepared a cylinder from a 30mm cube of rippled Maple with a spigot to fit the Club's lathe chuck.
With it remounted, he quickly trued it up with a Roughing Gouge and a Parting Tool to square the end and leave a centre point for drilling. A small Skew was used to create a clean cut for the outer section of the end.
The tail stock was fitted with a Jacob's chuck complete with drill (sized to the diameter of the required nozzle opening) that was used to drill out the centre of the cylinder to more than the length of the planned nozzle. (Diagram A)

(click for close up view)

The Roughing Gouge was used to start creating a conical shape but leaving a 2 or 3mm square spigot at the outboard end. This spigot will eventually become a tiny bead that prevents the contents of the piping bag getting past the join between the nozzle and the bag when under pressure. At this stage, Paul just used his Parting Tool at 45º to cut off the two exposed square corners. The job would be finished to a circular bead with the finer abrasives at the end.  (Diagram B)

The plan now is to hollow out the centre so that there is a straight inside edge from a thin wall at the widest point to meet the central drilled hole at the desired length of the nozzle.  (Diagram C)
Paul used a Box Cutter to nibble away the inside of the drilled out opening to a small depth and to a few mm from the outside edge of the cylinder. When using this tool, it must be absolutely level. Working with a Scraper, the handle is invariably higher than the tool rest but if that happened with a Box Cutter, the hollowing would get wider than intended as the cutting corner of the tool moved further away from the tool rest.
He checked the thickness and found the outside diameter (ignoring the bead) was 31mm while the inside was 26mm, making the wall thickness 2½mm. With this Maple, Paul was happy to take it a bit more off. However, as the wall becomes thinner, the tendency is for the piece to start vibrating and screech. This was countered by a lighter bevel touch and supporting the piece with a couple of fingers on top of the revolving piece.
Keeping in mind the intended length of the nozzle, Paul continued passes with the Box Cutter to achieve the required straight inside edge.  He then worked on the outside edge by increasing lathe speed and using his Roughing Gouge to remove waste quickly. He finished with a recently sharpened Parting Tool slightly tilted on the tool rest so that just the corner was being used. This works like a Skew but is more controllable. Paul regularly stopped and used Outside Spring Callipers to ensure the wall thickness was constant over the nozzle's length.

For the Piping to work efficiently. it's important for the inside of the nozzle to be very smooth. When using abrasives on thin pieces of wood, there is a tendency for the paper getting clogged and heat friction quickly building up with a likelihood of the wood splitting.
Paul reminded us when using abrasives in our fingers, how quickly it gets too hot to handle and then we reach for a sanding block!  The heating effect can be reduced by a combination of slower lathe speed and regularly clearing the dust from both the abrasive and the wood so the abrasive is able to cut as intended.
He also recommended new & unused abrasives because they would abrade evenly.
Paul made regular use of his small piece of carpet to unclog the abrasive very effectively.  He also changed the lathe direction between grits to cut off wood fibres that had only been flattened by the previous grade of abrasive.
As the piece was quite deep, he used abrasive wrapped around a pencil to sand the narrow part of the nozzle, which needed him to support the outside with his fingers again as well as regularly clearing the dust.  He avoided touching the outside bead until he reached 240 grit.
For a really smooth finish, Paul recommended to dampen inside & outside surfaces with water and let it dry before using the last abrasive grit. This will raise any loose fibres and allow them to be cut away with the final sanding.

A Skew Chisel was used to part the nozzle off and revealed that despite taking considerable care to check the wall thickness, it still needed 1 or 2mm to be removed from the outside.
This was achieved by trimming a Jam Chuck with the corner of his Parting Tool so that the nozzle had a tight fit at both ends.
With the nozzle jammed secure, the Parting Tool could then be used to trim the outside surface as required.  Serrations could be marked up for sawing should a star-shaped piping be required.
All marking up was done with a soft graphite pencil to avoid leaving dented marks and still be easily rubbed away.

The July Competition was set to produce wood turned item(s) you would find in a Kitchen.

 MAY 2023
Bowl from a Plank with Paul Reeves.
Thu 18^th May 2023 at MWCC Club Night
 

  Choice of Cutting Tool
The finished cut DOESN'T have to be pretty; we are only cutting to a size that will be turned away to the desired shape.
Parting Tools are more commonly used in spindle work and not so well designed to cut both across and along grain.  As the cutting edge works deeper into the piece, the wide straight blade of a basic Parting Tool starts to snag the outer edge of the circular cut.  This becomes even more difficult with smaller/tighter inner cuts.
This problem is alleviated by one or a combination of :
 ● having tip wider than shaft body - perfect for deep cuts but they tend to be very wide;
 ● taking a second pass - reduces chance of tool getting 'grabbed';
 ● creating a home-made narrow parting tool - reduces problem with tight circular cuts.

(photos by Andy Ogilvie, Rick Patrick & Vic Russell)
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Andy explained that following a visit to a workshop of fellow Member, David Game, he was fascinated by some twisted polygon shapes known as Streptohedrons (aka Wobble Balls in USA). David had discovered examples on a website by Englishman, David Springett (alas no longer alive).

'Strepto' is Ancient Greek for "twisted" while 'Hedron' describes a "geometrical solid". Streptohedrons are created by splitting a piece of wood and re-gluing them together, turning a shape before splitting and then re-gluing again BUT only after twisting one of the splits.
After band sawing the wood, Andy had planed both sides to make sure they made a flat joint. The join is done with glue (typically PVA) on each joint face sandwiching a piece of newspaper/paper, which will be strong enough to hold the halves together on the lathe but still be able to split again despite absorbing glue. Glossy paper should be avoided as it tends to restrict the absorption of the glue.
Cup centres were used on the lathe in order to reduce the chance of drive and tail centres prising the piece apart with only their central pins pressing against the join.

To make a successful Streptohedron, you must plan to have a shape with rotational symmetry (i.e. when a surface can be rotated and it exactly matches its starting surface) so that when the halves are twisted to the desired symmetrical position, the joint faces will still fit following shaping with your turning tools although some sanding will probably be required.

  StreptoHex
Andy had selected a 3" cube of Yellow Ash, which he had prepared at home by band sawing it in half, gluing as above, mounting between centres (with the joint running from head to tail stock) to turn a spigot for his chuck (which helped to secure the glued halves together) and finally turned to a cylinder so that the length exceeded the diameter sufficiently to allow space for working tools at the drive centre end of the piece.

This was mounted on the Club's lathe. The cylinder was trued up; the end was squared off and the final diameter measured.  His plan now was to turn the whole piece so that the join surface changed from its rectangular shape into a 'regular' hexagon, which required either a bit of technical drawing or some mathematics to work out the correct dimensions.

From the diagram above, he needed to work out the lengths of AB and Cm.
Since Andy had just measured the diameter, he could calculate the radius (AC) and drew a circle with compasses (either at true measurement or scaled) on a piece of paper. Choosing a convenient point on the circle, he marked 6 arcs along the circumference using the same compass with the circle's radius to map out the 6 corners of the required purple hexagon above and measured the two required lengths.
Alternatively using formula & trigonometry, the internal angle in degrees of a regular polygon with 'n' sides is 180(n-2)/n. A Hexagon's angle is therefore 120°, which means angle 'a' = 60° and the triangle CAB must be equilateral, so AB is the same as the radius AC. From trigonometry Cm = AC x sin60°(which is 0.866)
Andy's demonstration piece had a diameter of 60mm, which meant AB was 30mm and Cm was 26

(photos by Andy Ogilvie, Rick Patrick & Vic Russell)
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January 2023  -  DEMO 5
Buttons  with Paul Reeves
Thu 19^th Jan at MWCC Club Night

Paul took advantage of the lathe's ability to lock the chuck into a fixed position and used a 5mm drill for this size of toggle.
With the shape & hole completed, abrasives were used through the grits, (finishing off by being applied along the grain).  Some wax / friction polish / lacquer could be applied before parting off.  In order to get a clean cut to the toggle ends, Paul used a Skew Chisel with its point downwards.

With slightly larger blanks, sometimes you are able to mount them in the gaps between the o'Donell jaws while still square.
As with the Small Button procedure above :- turn a cylinder; trim end up square; dent with slope down towards button edge; pencil mark circle for where holes will be drilled.  Any texturing should first have its preliminary surface taken to its final finished standard.
Next, apply your decoration, colour or wax before drilling holes and parting off.
 Top Tip : In order to avoid damaging the detail created, take care when using abrasives / cutting paste/ buffing.
In the case of waxes, apply Acrylic Sealer before any other finishes.
 

  Shank Buttons
These buttons have a fixing hole within a post on the back of the button rather than on their faces.
The technique when using a Chatter Tool is to have a slower speed & move the tool rest further away than for a gouge.
The shank was formed with a Parting Tool once the face was finished. Paul created a 5mm shank to accommodate a 2mm fixing hole.
He used a Skew (with point down) to part off.

The January Competition was set to produce at least 2 examples of buttons/fasteners turned out of any appropriate material.

  DECEMBER 2022
Wood Thread Cutting with a Screw Box and Tap with Paul Reeves.
Thu 15^th Dec 2022 at MWCC Club Night
 

(click any photos in this demo for close up views)

You will need a matching set of Screw Box and Tap.
A size suitable for cracking nuts would be about ¾" diameter.
A close grain wood would seem a better choice but Paul has had mixed results when tapping into hard wood end-grains as the resulting threads would often crumble away.
He found that threads were more sturdy when cutting across grain for hard woods.
TOP TIP : If using soft wood, tap into the end grain after allowing some thin supaglue to soak into it. This will stabilize the resulting action of the cutter as it produces a thread.

Making a Nutcracker

  The Body
For the demonstration Paul had prepared a 3" square by some 6 to 7" length of Hornbeam to mount into a chuck.
The width of the holding bowl will depend upon which nuts you are intending to use : small nuts like almonds/hazel nuts would need about 1" diameter whereas larger nuts like walnuts would need more room. (Probably best not build one for a Coconut!)
In order to accommodate walnuts, Paul fixed an 1¼" diameter Forstner bit into a Jacobs Chuck held in the tailstock marked for a depth of about 2" - this would allow the walnut to be inside enough to be held steady rather than catapulting out the opening when applying pressure with the screw crusher.
With the bowl hollowed, the Forstner was removed.
A hole in the side was drilled with a size slightly less than the Tap's diameter.  (If you study the photo above for the ¾" Screw Box, you will notice Paul's Father had placed a ⅝" flat hole cutting tool as a starting point but Paul chooses to use a slightly larger Forstner)
The Tap is going to form the female thread. Once the Tap has started a thread, it will need to be reversed a quarter of a turn after about every half turn in order to clear the cutting debris.
With the thread completed, the outside was turned and shaped into a barrel with the thread hole at the fattest dimension.

TOP TIP : When your gouge passes over the thread hole, you will need to avoid any excess weight into the wood or else you will end up with a dent/cove in line with the hole.
Keep a check where the bottom of the hollowed bowl is relative to the outside in order to avoid shaping the handle too close and weakening the piece.
Abrasives were used through the grits but again, being careful of around the thread hole or else it would end up elongated. The first grit has to rid the scratches left by the gouge, while the finer grits get rid of the previous abrasive marks.

The piece was turned around and a Jam Chuck was used to drive via the Forstner hole.
The original spigot was turned away to a thin support, but strong enough to maintain the piece against the Jam Chuck. The thin support was sawn off and abrasives applied to finish.

  The Crusher
A square blank of Hornbeam about 8" long was mounted between centres and turned to a cylinder at the required diameter for the chosen Screw Box size. 
The length of thread required on the dowel was measured from the outer edge of the bowl though the thread hole to the opposite inside edge. A further 1" was added to compensate for the distance the dowel has to go into the Screw Box to reach the thread cutter, which creates the male thread, and for the space of a chamfer to be turned at the end point of the thread (to help avoid damaging the thread as it contacts the nut or else the curved inner surface of the bowl).  This is best achieved accurately by use of a Skew Chisel held with the long point down.

Unlike the Tap procedure, the Screw Box technique requires turning the dowel in the same direction (without any quarter turns in reverse) so that the off cut exits the box without breaking off and jamming inside.
A handle was then turned and sanded before being sawn off at the chamfered bottom of the thread and at the top of the handle.
TOP TIP : If using softer woods, a hard tip could be added to the bottom of the thread with a hob nail or gluing a button of hard wood, eg Box, Rosewood etc.

(photos by Rick Patrick & Paul Reeves)
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October 2022  -  DEMO 4
Animals  with Paul Reeves
Thu 20^th Oct at MWCC Club Night

The Internet can show a confusing scrapbook of examples but googling, for example, "animals for wood turners" should be able to give you more focused ideas.
The challenge to produce something unique is to see a picture of a finished item and then use your experience and wits to work out how to achieve it rather than just following instructions from start to finish.

Paul had seen a picture of a hedgehog and thought he could improve it with an up-turned snout using 'Off Centred Turning' principles and some 'Texturing' to suggest a prickly coat.
(You can find both of these techniques described in our previous demonstrations <HERE>)

When approaching a project where you have to work out the way of doing things, it is likely that you will need to experiment on your first attempt. Paul confided that the finished article he had shown at the start was his second attempt and that he had adapted it from his initial plan.

HEDGEHOG
He didn't need a big piece of wood - he had selected a 100mm length of 40mm square and marked diagonals on both ends. To achieve the eccentrical turning to come, he marked the centre and a small offset up one diagonal with a larger offset on the other side of the centre mark. He repeated this at the other end taking care to mark the same offsets adjacent to the same side edge.
The large offset would be used for the animal's underneath and one of the small offsets would be used to form the face.

The Body
With the blank mounted between centres, Paul turned it to a cylinder and then marked out the desired length of the hedgehog while ensuring that each end had sufficient remaining wood to be strong enough to support the head and tail drives for subsequent texturing and offset turning. He rounded off the back end of the animal (without parting off) and tapered the face end.
It was important to sand before texturing because it would be impossible to sand anything afterwards without spoiling the texture effect.

Paul's texturing tool was a metal-worker's Knurling Tool (although similar could be achieved with others available eg Henry Taylor Decorating Elf). To obtain the best result, Paul maintained a positive inward force to keep an even pressure on the cutting wheel(s) while the tool was moved along the tool rest making contact parallel to the surface of the piece.
Paul finished the body with some appropriately coloured stain applied with a cloth.

  The Underneath
With the blank now centred on both large offsets AND checking by hand-turning before starting that the piece cleared the tool rest, Paul started turning away the hedgehog's underneath. This called for smooth movements because of the the intermittent contact of the cutting edge of the gouge. The back and front ends were rounded away but importantly, NOT turned away more than the central axis of the starting cylinder (which of course is not the same as the central axis of this current configuration). Paul's intention was to get the end of the finished nose at the original central axis.
The underneath was then sanded with abrasives on a hard flat block held rigidly perpendicular to the turning surface such that it only sanded the newly turned surface without affecting the edge of the textured surface.

  The Face
The piece was configured with the headstock driving the central spot and the tailstock holding the small offset at the hedgehog's face end. Paul turned away the cylindrical wooden block end carefully so as to preserve the original cylinder's central spot, which allowed better access to turn away a curved face.
This was sanded with a flat block as above before reconfiguring both stocks to the original centres.
The tail and snout ends were turned away to almost parted. A Skew was the preferred gouge to finish off the cross-grain ends to thin stubs, which were then sawn clear.
The new cuts were tidied up with abrasives and fresh coloured stain applied to the tail end.
Paul set the headstock with a block holding an abrasive disc with Velcro in order to put a flat on the underside to aid stability.

-----o00000o-----

ELEPHANT
Another turned animal that caught Paul's attention was an Elephant, but very much in a Scandinavian style rather than life-like. The design was clearly in 4 separate pieces connected together; possibly by dowels or perhaps by gluing flattened bearing surfaces.
Inspired by the thought of a pink Elephant, Paul chose his recently planked Redwood. This is a soft and slightly brittle wood so a ring centred tailstock would be best.

  The Head & Trunk
He had prepared the body prior to demonstration as it was a simple shape. Paul felt the stylized head and trunk shouldn't touch the ground nor be much higher than the body. He shaped and sanded before removing from the centres with a Skew Chisel across the end-grain.

  The Ears
With an appropriately sized square blank, Paul had band sawed it in half and had taped the halves together again with double-sided sticky tape applied to the ends. (This can be done after turning but it helps to keep the ends square). Both drive and tail stocks needed to be ring centred types to avoid the piece from splitting apart while turned to a centre. Having ridden elephants himself while holidaying in Asia, Paul could vouchsafe that their ears were quite triangular so he turned the cylinder into an oval shape before sanding and then removing from the blank using a Skew. This resulted, after separating, into a rounded triangular shape.

For assembly, he carefully checked where the various components would need to be joined so he could then sand flat the corresponding surfaces using the circular Velcro-holding disc above ready to be hot glued together.

The November Competition was set for a turned example of an animal as a stand alone piece or else on / in something relevant.

(photos by Andy Ogilvie, Rick Patrick & Paul Reeves)
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  SEPTEMBER 2022

Taking on the Kilner Challenge with  Andy Ogilvie
Thu 15^th Sept at MWCC Club Night

Some thought should be given to which type of finishing to use.
As the most common contents of these jars will be foodstuffs, a 'food safe' oil or wax should be considered for at least the inside surfaces.

  Refinements
Andy explained that his first wooden lid & base attempt for a single jar was a design he subsequently rejected because it prevented the user to visually identify the contents, whereas a glass jar is obviously not as limited.
However, adding wooden lids to glass bases or wooden bases to glass lids overcomes this limitation and certainly enhances their style.

Another possible enhancement was by adding a flower decoration, which Andy demonstrated after the tea break using Box with a Purpleheart insert (shown above).
Finally, Andy produced a wooden top version for a Kilner bottle that he had made at home to complete the Kilner range as well as his Challenge for the night.

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For clarity, games like Solitaire (although they involve many turned parts) are not considered a puzzle in the sense we mean tonight.
We are looking for a teaser that cannot be easily or readily solved.
For example, Paul's Ball & Beehive puzzle with its apparently disappearing ball, is a precisely turned piece with a very thin walled half ball within a segment of a model skep (ancient straw beehive).

  Lipstick Puzzle
The Puzzle Maker demonstrates to his punter that the inner lipstick is able to slip out of its tube by turning it upside down.
The task is to remove the inner lipstick without tipping it over. The stick is annoyingly smooth, pointed and barely above the rim of the outer box.

The skills required of the woodturner are to fashion the lipstick to a close fit of a perfectly parallel inside wall of a box and at just the right height to be unable to grip with fingertips. Also, as a contrast of colours appears more striking, choose woods that have stood long enough to have stabilized their moisture content and are of varieties unlikely to shrink/swell differently to each other on dry/wet days.
The best way to achieve the parallel wall is by using a drill held within a Jacobs Chuck in your tailstock, (although if you don't have these tools available, next best is a Box Cutter).
As accuracy of this cut is paramount and there can be a tendency for a drill to 'walk' on its first touch, you might consider using a Centre Drill Bit (aka Slocombe Bit) which are designed to provide a starting hole for a larger-sized drill bit.

 ¤  The Box Section
Paul mounted a rectangular block clenched between the side edges of his o'Donnell jaws and turned the exposed end to a cylinder of sufficient length for the outer box.

A Jacobs Chuck was fitted to the tailstock and Paul selected an appropriately sized Forstner bit with a toothed rim. Originally, a Saw-tooth Bit was used for drilling down end grain and a Forstner Bit for cross grain.
The lathe was set to a slow speed and a hole was drilled to about 30mm depth.

 Top Tip : When using a Jacobs Chuck, the operation works well while under the positive pressure of winding the drill into the piece but upon withdrawing, the bit can bind onto the inside of the cut hole and get pulled out of the morse taper. Suddenly, a perfectly still drill chuck with gear teeth has started revolving at the speed of the lathe. Anticipate this by supporting the chuck to stay in the tailstock with your free hand gripping it clear of the gear teeth.

Having checked the depth of the hole, Paul marked where he planned the base of the box to be with a narrow Parting Tool and shaped the outside to a thinner body. He sanded through the grits on the outside and also, more importantly, the inside using abrasives wrapped around a pencil.
To add interest, Paul used his Decorating Elf, brushing off resulting fluff with a stiff bristle brush, used a Point Tool to define outlines and then a Taut Wire to burn mark them taking care to keep the burn colour similar.

He parted off (still using double width cuts to avoid jaming up his Parting Tool) and then converted what was left in the jaws into a Jam Chuck to fit in the drilled hole for reverse turning in order to finish the base.
He removed any centre pimple with a sharp Spindle Gouge or a shallow pointed Skew, which cuts end grain very cleanly.
Paul applied decoration to match the sides although the circular burn marks had to be done with a formica edge.
Finally, a touch up all round with abrasives, gently done to avoid any shrinkage through sanding heat.

 ¤  The Lipstick
For a contrasting colour and lighter weight, Paul mounted a Sycamore blank as previous.
Paul quickly turned it to a cylinder larger than the drilled hole of the box so he could then carefully turn away the end with a Parting Tool, little by little, regularly checking against the hole until the end could slide in & out without any slackness.
He extended that diameter down the piece until further than the depth of the box.
He used a Skew to turn the end to a point and at a slope that would leave the cone shaped top reach full width below the lip of the box.
Paul sanded and decorated to match before parting off at a length that would leave the point just proud of the box, Paul used the o'Donnell jaws to reverse mount the Lipstick and finish the bottom.
The entire Lipstick was finally highly polished and placed in its box.

And the solution to the puzzle - blow it!
Providing there is a step down inside the lip of the box, a sharp puff will be funnelled down the side of the lipstick and pneumatically raise it up and out.

(click for close up view)

  The Sticky Ramrod
The punter is told of the importance of packing wadding tightly in a cannon and that in Nelson's time, there was a device fitted to ensure the cannon would fire its shot properly every time without misfiring. It used a rubber rope fitted inside the barrel which the ramrod could hook up to and tamp the charge more efficiently.  Here is a scale model and this is how it works. The problem was that only a skilled seamen could twist the ramrod the right way to make it work. Let's see if you have what it takes to be a Master Gunner.

 ¤  The Cannon
Paul mounted a 5" x 1" block of Beech as above but supported with the tail stock while turned to a cylinder.
With the tail stock withdrawn, the end was squared off with a shallow pointed Skew.
The Jacobs Chuck was re-fitted and as the end cross-section was quite small, Paul elected to start with a Centre Drill Bit before using an 8mm twist drill to bore a hole almost to the end.
Paul turned the outside to the shape of a ship's cannon.
A tiny hole was drilled on each side opposite each other just short of where the internal bore ended so that a string of rubber could be threaded through and glued at the holes.
The cannon was sanded, decorated and the back end (the Cascable) was turned before it was parted off.

 ¤  The Ramrod
A dense piece of Yew was mounted between his o'Donell Chuck and the tail centre to make a stick in the shape of a ramrod.
Using a Roughing Gouge to start and a Parting Tool with an Outside Spring Caliper for turning the diameter away with precision, Paul turned the blank to a cylinder with 3 sections (evenly spaced out) having been carefully turned down to just under 8mm but keeping a cylinder of wood at each end.

The Roughing Gouge was then used to turn away the wood between the 3 sections.
As the piece was getting quite thin, Paul rested one hand on top of the piece immediately above where the gouge was cutting.  This allowed him to lightly press against the upward force of the gouge tip cutting the wood.
Each ramrod end was shaped as shown in the photo below before being well sanded and parted off.
The distance between the cannon lip and the rubber was measured and a notch was made on the ramrod at a position where it would engage with the rubber string before the rod was fully in the barrel. Finally it was touched up all round as necessary and highly polished.

June 2022 - DEMO 2
Bird Box with Paul Reeves
Thursday, 16^th June 2022 at MWCC Club Night

Finishing the Outside
As recommended by the RSPB, apply any finish to the outside only.
Paul wanted to leave the roof as turned but disguise the body by 'scorching' then using a Proxxon Long Neck Angle Grinder with a Carving Disc.

He used a blow torch to lightly blacken the body (executed outside the Fire Exit in order to avoid setting off the Hall's alarm!).
As the piece had to be removed from the lathe, a sensible precaution was to wear an appropriate glove on his hand in front of the flame.
The Proxxon carving tool looks intimidating but isn't when handled with respect and a bit of practice.
With the piece secured in the chuck, one hand held the body of the grinder while the other hand remained on Paul's side of the cutters, either switching the motor on/off or supporting the other hand or rotating the chuck.
When switched on, the rotation of the cutters will be trying to move the grinder away from your body.
Paul's technique was to just gently stroke the wood while pulling the grinder towards himself using just the corners of the teeth to cut.

If this is your first attempt with a carving cutter, it is probably best to practice on scrap wood before attempting on your hard worked piece. You might find it helpful to control the motion of one hand by supporting it with your other - rather than have both hands gripping the tool.

The first cuts Paul made were horizontal just below the entrance hole to give something for birds to grip upon landing. He specifically made the horizontal cuts angled downwards so any water would drop away rather than collect in the groove.
The rest of the cuts were vertical.

April 2022 - DEMO 1
Unnatural Natural Edge with Paul Reeves
Thursday, 21^st April 2022 at MWCC Club Night

Natural Edge pieces rely upon the outside parts of the tree to improve the final look of the turned piece, whether it is by retaining the bark or stripping the outside edge to the Cambium Layer as seen in the Banana Bowl below.  The latter's often unexpected shape is produced by turning a log 'end over end' as if you were making a two-bladed propeller.

An Unnatural Natural Edge is when the edge has been 'embellished' prior to turning the intended piece.

(click for close up view)

These shapes can be achieved by first turning between End-Grain centres (like a spindle) to create an outside shape, a tiny part of which will become the edges of the piece when subsequently turned 'end over end'.

 Individual Method.
A log was turned into a cylinder and the ends were squared off.
A pencil line was drawn down the length of the cylinder and its midpoint circumference marked.
   Top Tip  :  Now is an opportunity to draw the pencil line so that any flaw on one side of the cylinder will be part of the wood turned away from the finished piece.
Then the point 180° opposite was found using either the index of the lathe/chuck; alternatively if your lathe hasn't any indexing, then by carefully extending the pencil line through the end-grain centres and down the opposite side so that the opposite centre will be found where this new line intersects the previously drawn midpoint circumference.

With the cylinder still being in/returned to its end-grain centres, a profile was turned into the sides.
Ideally, the shape should be a mirror image either side of the midpoint circumference and avoid any sharp outward points as these are vulnerable to breaking when turning end to end. 
The shape was sanded through the grits as it will be the finished edge of the final piece.

The piece was now mounted between the end over end centres previously marked.
The photo below shows the planned outline for two spigots to be turned
The inside spigot (labelled ❶ in photo) is the first to be formed while between centres.
Then with that first spigot being mounted in a chuck (and if you feel necessary, the opposite side being supported by the tailstock), turn away the outside to your desired shape while creating the second spigot ❷ to where the base of the piece will be.
  Top Tip  :  With the shape formed, sand through the grits with a flat block held vertically so that it only touches the wood perpendicular to its surface; this will ensure all leading edges will remain crisp.

The piece was then reversed so that the base spigot (labelled ❷ in photo) was now mounted in the chuck.
The piece was hollowed out to match the finished outside shape by carefully maintaining an even thickness down the length of the profiled edge.  Get the thickness of the edges furthest from the centre accurate before progressing inwards in order to maintain strength & integrity while working on the outer wings.
Eventually, the inside spigot will be either turned away or shaped to accommodate an embellishment (eg a candle holder; a box).
The inside surface should be HAND SANDED carefully to keep all edges crisp.
Reverse chuck to remove the remaining base spigot and to create a base/foot.

 Pair Method.
Sometimes you will want to create a matching pair of intricate edged pieces.
This is easily accomplished with two identically sized rectangular blocks.
Paul's happened to have two 6" x 3" x 1½" Ash blocks, which he hot glued together to result with a single square ended block of 6" x 3" x 3".
He then hot glued plywood squares marked so that they could be mounted exactly on the centre line of the combined block before turning between centres to a cylinder.
Then as above, a midpoint circumference was drawn followed by two opposite points for the end over end centres, but this time, of course, both had to be 90° from the glued joint.

(click for close up view)

Again as above, your chosen profile should be turned into the cylinder; avoid leaving sharp points (unless very dense timber is used).
Sand to a finish before taking apart the ends and glue joint, and divide the cylinder into an identical pair of rectangular blocks.

Once the centres of the resulting flat rectangular surfaces were marked, repeat the end over end turning guidance described above <click here to find>

 Factors to Consider
►Lathe speed is important  -  the faster the better in order to decrease the time the tool is turning 'air gaps' (although speed is limited by any imbalance of the piece);
►Move the tool in a controlled smooth curve and allow the rotation to do the cutting;
►Don't press the bevel onto the wood  -  else you will end up pushing the tool into the 'air gaps' and the leading edges will become damaged.

The May Competition was set for an Unnatural Natural Edge turned piece or matching pieces.

<Competition Results>

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  MAY 2022
Revision of Bowl Turning Techniques with Paul Reeves
Thursday, 19^th May 22 at MWCC Club Night

  FEBRUARY 2022
Demonstration of Sphere Turning Plus with Paul Reeves
Thursday, 17^th February 22 at MWCC Club Night

Spherical shapes are predominantly used in games and for decorations.
If a large number of same-sized wooden balls are required (for example a solitaire set) then purchase from an eBay supplier might be the quickest, most economical and accurate method rather than making them yourself. (Feb 2022 price for 50 of 20mm diameter beech wooden balls = £10).

But a perfect sphere is not always necessary.  For example, a ball used in a coconut shy needs to be more robust, dry and stress-free than be perfectly round.
For a decorative ball in natural finish then a perfect sphere would be preferable and the choice of wood should be something interesting; for example burr or figured or chatoyant.

The 'Plus' element is referring to starting with a ball and then enhancing by carving, hollowing out or colouring.
In fact, you don't even have to start with a ball.


There are several options to turn your own sphere :-
            Buying a Ball-Turning Jig - expensive
            Roughly turning with a round cutter - difficult to control
            Rubber ring chuck with a rubber ring tail stock - inaccurate if rubber flexes
            Wooden Cup Chuck method


Paul demonstrated using the Wooden Cup Chuck method.
A rectangular block of Yew had been prepared with it held between centres and turned to an even cylinder.
He set an External Caliper to the diameter of the cylinder (which would become the diameter of the sphere).  With this set Caliper resting approximately centrally on top of the cylinder, he marked the two ends of the Caliper with a pencil and then with the aid of the tool rest, drew two pencil lines around the cylinder to mark the extent of where the edges of the sphere would be.
Using a ruler, he calculated and marked another circle around the cylinder half way between the previous two lines. This circle became his starting 'meridian', which from now on, SHOULD NOT be cut any smaller (although might end up being so later to correct errors!).
The two sphere edges had to be kept clearly defined with a Parting Tool so that the outer edges of the sphere wouldn't get lost.
A spindle gouge was used to turn a curve like a giant bead which started at the untouched centre meridian and would have eventually ended vertically at the centre of the wood but for Paul refraining from completely parting through.
As the curves progressed, Paul had to return to using the Parting Tool in order to prevent losing precisely where the ends were going to be.
Once he had reduced the attached ends to about 5mm (and the curves not quite yet vertical), Paul stopped the lathe and after taking the pressure off the tail stock, used a saw to detached the approximately shaped sphere with 2 small stubs at opposite ends.

Making a Cup Chuck
End Grain is preferable as it is less likely to distort into an oval shape as the wood moves with age/humidity.  A softer wood than the object wood is also helpful.
With a suitable blank mounted between centres, turn a spigot at one end to fit your lathe chuck.
Then with that lathe chuck fitted and holding the spigot of the Cup Chuck, square off  the face and drill/gouge a hole down the centre in order to help hollowing out.
The hollow across the face should be fractionally less than the diameter of the sphere but definitely deeper than its radius to avoid the sphere from 'bottoming out' when fitted into the cup.
Should you inadvertently hollow out the width too much, then further squaring off will reduce the diameter because of the bowl shape of the hollow - but remember you might need to deepen it further to avoid bottoming out. 

Working with the Cup Chuck
Fit the sphere into the cup with the starting 'meridian' at right angles to the face of the chuck. A slap with the palm of your hand should result in a good grip provided the two small stubs from the previous turning do not protrude too much.
The aim now is to use a narrow Parting Tool to create another meridian just deep enough to match the depth of the starting meridian at the 2 points where they intersect.

To achieve this, increase the lathe speed, then very VERY gingerly move the narrow Parting Tool inwards so that it gently nicks the stubs. Stopping to draw a pencil line along this new meridian will help to judge when your depth is enough. Continue to gently part away until the pencil line almost disappears before stopping and checking the depths where the meridians intersect.  Repeat until the intersections are of matching depths.
A Spindle Gouge can then be used to turn away any excess above the two meridians.  Move the tool rest so that the gouge bevel can touch the rotational axis point or 'pole' where the surface will be perfectly level and therefore no buffeting vibration will be sensed through the gouge when the lathe is turning.  However, once you move away and come across something higher than the meridians, you will feel, hear (and possibly see) the tool buffet.
The next steps require precise and delicate control of the gouge tip.
Slide the bevel back sufficiently for the gouge tip to reach where the buffeting started and allow the tip to just cut some dust; then carefully and steadily move the tool forward to cut away a very thin layer; stopping if the tool starts to run smoothly. Backtrack using the bevel and test for buffeting. Repeat the delicate cutting until the buffeting dissipates.  Smoothness can be assessed with a light touch of the surface at the top of the piece with your thumb pointing towards the direction of rotation.

Once this hemisphere is nearly even, a straight edged skew can be used to gently smooth out any bumps sensed by your thumb, but keep the tool's contact moving at all times.
When satisfied, slow the lathe speed down and briefly sand with abrasives.  If abrasives are used too much, there is a likelihood that more surface will be removed on the side-grain than the cross-grain sides resulting in the sphere appearing pointed.
The abrasive can be hand held or used with a flat block, but in both cases keep the abrasive moving and parallel to the point of contact.

Next, the sphere was removed.  It might require a mallet to tap the Cup Chuck in the direction towards the head stock, but be ready to catch it when it pops out with the first tap. (Do try to avoid hitting the sphere of course!)
The sphere is reversed to tackle the remaining hemisphere.

However, the Cup may be too large for the previously trimmed hemisphere so a quick squaring off the face of the Cup Chuck as described above will narrow the opening. Remember to check if the bottom of the hollow needs deepening.
Repeat as above to remove all the surface that is standing proud of the meridians.
Short use of abrasive and your sphere will be complete.

Once the tape mark on the Auger reaches the back of the tail stock, Paul stopped, changed the 4-prong drive centre for a Counterbore Drive, reversed and remounted the piece for boring the rest with the Auger.  Paul advised that he could feel the Auger in his hand go soft just as it broke through the first hole.

The hollow ring tail centre was replaced with the pointed tip centre and the stem returned to between centres with the tail stock supporting the end destined for the Lamp's base.
After setting his Spring Calipers to the size of the drilled hole in the base, Paul used a Parting Tool to turn a spigot of appropriate length & diameter to fit the base, remembering to account for the depth of the first Corian-like embellishment he had turned.
He then continued to finish shaping the stem and added a shoulder plus another Corian-like knop to go beneath the light bulb socket.

 

Hollowing out base.
With the lid removed and the lathe started up, Paul used the tip of a skew to mark the centre of the spigot.  He now calculated how deep he wanted to go inside the base measured from the top of the spigot and allowing for just how thin he wanted the base of the box to be.
He took his old drill with its handle that he used above and marked this depth with the aid of a piece of tape around the drill so that when its bottom edge was flush with the top of the spigot, he would be at the correct depth.
With the lathe at a moderate speed, the tail stock well out of the way and his old drill in his hands, Paul gently presented the drill tip to the centre mark keeping it as level and square as he could tell before pushing the drill into the wood. As it went deeper, the rotation naturally guided the drill to run absolutely true. Paul only allowed the drill to go as deep as the leading edge of the tape before withdrawing.
This hole made it easier for a gouge to remove the centre. Also, by keeping close attention to the bottom of the box, he was able to see when he was nearing the bottom of the drill hole and hence his selected depth.
The next decision was whether the shape of the base inside be curved (use a round scraper) or square (use the box cutter). His audience opted for round.  Whichever is used, it is vital that the scraper/cutter must move horizontally in and out. 
Any slight deviation from level will result in the cutting edge digging deeper into the wall of the piece as the tip travels further away from its pivot point on the tool rest.  The same problem arises if the tip moves away from being parallel to the 'ways' (the rail-like metal bars that the tail stock slides on).
One aspect to remember when hollowing is that the walls will become heated by the friction of the cutting tool.  This results in driving moisture out of the walls (the thinner the walls, the more the effect) and the diameter of the box will shrink slightly.   Suddenly your previously perfect fitting lid has become very loose!  Don't panic.  Leave the piece alone and after some 12-24 hours, the wood in the walls will have cooled, had time to re-absorb the lost moisture from the natural humidity in the air and come back to that perfect fit.  [  Top Tip  : don't try to turn the inside of a lid to fit a spigot immediately after you have hollowed out the base. You will probably end up with the lid welded tight onto the spigot ].