OTI

[waitdrvn]

Bill Ooms,

Your square spiral box has brought no small speculation on how you did it. Would you care to share? Have you made a spiral for your lathe? It's really cool.

David Lindow
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David Lindow
527 Gravity Rd.
Lake Ariel, PA 18436
570-937-3301

[billooms]

David --

Then next time I do one of these, I'll take some photos and post them. The thing I enjoy about this site is that people are always willing to share the little details that help everyone.

The general process for the boxes is as follows: I start with a 2x2x3 block of wood and put a 1/8" tenon on the top. Then I cut the lid off with a bandsaw and hollow the base on my regular lathe and put a 1/4" tenon for the lid. Then I turn the lid (holding it by the tenon) to fit the base and put a subtle decoration inside the lid. Now I cut the bottom off so that the box is slightly taller than 2". This way, I can grab the box with a 4-jaw chuck on my O.T. lathe. It will leave marks only on the top/bottom, but that's OK because they'll get turned off later. Then I decorate the 4 sides. Make a jam chuck for the lid and turn off the tenon then decorate the top. Make a jam chuck for the bottom and do a subtle decoration on the bottom. No doubt, a dome chuck would lead to a different approach, but I don't have one yet.

For the spiral pattern, it's all about phasing. You need pumping to make this pattern. I used a SIN8 rosette with 0.050" peak-to-peak amplitude. Each successive cut was phase shifted 90 degrees.

I would encourage others to share their "secrets" of making neat patterns. I think that's one of the most common questions from people new to O.T. because there is not a lot of information about how to make neat patterns.

Bill