Bottle Stoppers

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I would like to get a thread going about bottle stoppers. Does anyone make them?? If so can you give us a little info as to how and what tools are needed for the lathe?? Where do you get you stoppers and what kind??? Do you use the dowel type or the screw type?? Do you use acrylics or natural woods?? What type of finish do you use?? If you don't mind how much do you charge??

As you can tell I am looking into trying this and would like a little info. The turners are awful quiet here. Wake up!!!! Join the party. Help me.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Either we have lost all our turners or no one makes bottle stoppers.

[Servcman]

sorry JT still ust trying to perfect turning pens before moving on to other things.
Dennis

[Gunny]

I've actually found bottle stoppers to be one of my biggest sellers and definitely one of the easiest projects once you get the hang of it.
I use a jacobs chuck and for a mandrel I use a 3 inch piece of a 3/8 inch carriage bolt.
I drill the blank (purpleheart, chechen, poplar - whatever you have is usually good) with an 8mm bit and then I use a 3/8 tap to thread the hole.
I screw the blank onto the chuck-mounted mandrel (carriage bolt end) and I use a 60 degree live center until I knock the corners off. Then I just use my imagination and try to find the shape hidden in the blank.

I sand at top speed with 120, 220, 320, 400, 600 then depending on the wood I'm using, I go up to 2500 grit (Just keep going up until no more wood comes off on the paper).

Then I use EEE Ultra followed by Krystal Coat, Shellawax or HUT Wax.

The standard Chrome stopper kit stud should screw right into the blank but the wood post for the Neoprene type stoppers require cleaning out the threads with a 3/8" bit.

I have some of the first ones I made posted at http://themeadow.us/wood/woodturning/

I never thought bottle stoppers would sell but they go really fast... One lady who bought six of them from my said she likes to give them as gifts with a bottle of wine.

I'll take a picture of the chuck and mandrel I use and post it later

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Gunny, where have you been??? Yes I want to try some of these too because that is all I hear about. Did not believe that many people drink so much wine. Boy what a bunch of alcholics!!! :) Anyway I am thinking of using the stainless steel ones because I hear the red wine pits the chrome ones. I too am thinking of using the threaded ones because you can take it apart to clean if you want.

I would love to see some photos of finished ones and yes the mandrill. Where do you sell them?? May I ask how much do you get for them?? Do you sell them in a plastic case or something?? I see Craft supplies sells a case for them. I am also thinking of using don't know what they are called but logos or buttons on the top. Do you know what I am talking about and do you have a supplier.??? Where do you get you stoppers??? Why do you like the ones you are using??

[wisconsinwoodch]

Hay Gunny , boy do you have some nice turnings on your sits . the wisconsin wood chuck :) :) :) :)

[Gunny]

Thanks WWC... I've only been turning since early last December but it becomes addictive... Now my wife is afraid to leave any wooden fixture unattended for fear I'll cut it up to make pens or bowls or bottlestoppers... Lately I've been making pens and the like for my neices, nephews and cousins out of broken artifacts (canes, tool handles, an old chair etc) that belonged to my father and my grandparents. They can't use a broken leg from a chair that belonged to Grandma but if I make a couple of pens out of that chair leg it's sort of an heirloom...

JT: I rearranged my lathe shop so I just replaced the pictures at http://themeadow.us/wood/woodturning/spinningroom/ and if you scroll down to the last one, it shows the mandrel I use for the bottlestoppers. There are several pics of some of the finished product if you scroll down to the bottom at http://themeadow.us/wood/woodturning/ (after the bowls).
I sell them at craft shows (I've only done about 4 small shows so far) and I've been charging between $12 and $15 for them. I display them on lucite stands that hold seven stoppers each but so far I haven't sold them in display boxes... I'm looking into that now. My wife picked up some of those little gift bags and wrapping tissue at the rag shop and that's what we've used up till now.
So far I've only used the chrome and the yellow neoprene stoppers. I've gotten them from a couple of sources (pocwoodworking.com, woodnwhimsies.com, Penn State Industries, etc) and frankly, since they all seem to be the same, I've been going with whoever has the best price at the moment. I just check out all the supplier sites before I make a purchase and grab the best deal. I've noticed that in the past few months, prices on everything (pen kits, keychain kits, the whole magilla) have gone up significantly.

By the way, nobody was interested in the neoprene ones until I decided to label the chrome ones as Wine bottle stoppers and the neoprene ones as Liquor bottle stoppers. (Oh yeah... be sure to use rubber cement to hold the neoprene to the wooden peg...)

So far I've used purple heart, mahogany, chechen, osage orange, poplar, spalted poplar, spalted maple, yellow pine, black walnut and bocote. I also made one out of a crotch of a small olive branch a co-worker brought me from his home in Crete.
That's the great thing about bottlestoppers. There are no specs you have to adhere to except for the 8mm hole you drill. If you make the shape interesting enough someone will want it. With that in mind, I like your idea about the logos... I've seen them in a catalog and I think that would definitely make them interesting.

[OPA1]

GUNNY; Just looked at your sites, there 4.0 in my book. Been wanting to get a lathe and start turning some stuff for a while. Now seeing your stuff has been an insperation for me. We live about 2hrs. drive from a wine region so the stoppers would probably be my first project. Hope to se more of your stuff. :)

ED






Sawdust, The ONLY Biodegradable Waste Product!!!!!

[Gunny]

Thanks Ed... I live about 2 hours the "other side" of that same wine region.
I bought my lathe a year ago and chose that particular model for several reasons - not the least of which was the $360 price tag. I didn't want to spend an outrageous amount since I didn't know if I'd be able to learn how to use it.

One consideration was the weight. It weighs 300 lbs so I didn't have to worry about ballast and even though it can turn a 42 inch spindle it has a relatively small footprint (Approximately 13" x 60") and I'm really tight on space in that 8x8 shed. The eaves are only 4' but there's a high gambrel roof so I can get it up close to the wall and still have room to work. I move it away from the wall when I'm turning bowls though...

Right now if I had a larger workspace (like a real basement) I think I'd take out a second mortgage and by a Cadillac like a One-Way or a PowerMatic with all the bells and whistles.

The chisels you see in the pictures of the shop all get a lot of use, but I wind up making a lot of custom chisels because I can create them to fit my own quirks.

The most valuable tool in my lathe shop however is my 8" slow speed grinder with the white wheels and the Tru-Grind sharpening jig. I can't begin to tell you how much easier that little gadget has made my life...

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I can vouch for the slow speed grinder with the white wheels and the tru-grind system because I have the same thing. When I got into it I went and bought good quality tools and all I kept hearing was I should not have but to learn how to sharpen on cheap set first because you go through them quick. Well let me tell you the tru-grind system does a great job and now I even grind using the flat shoe of the grinder. It was not hard at all to learn to grind them. But i did learn this is one case where sharpness counts. I only have the Jet mini but i am having a great time with it. For me I am not into bowls and plates. I am into small things that I can sell cheap. Don't get me wrong but I have no feelings for bowls unless they are segmented and have unique designs. But you see one bowl you seen them all. Yes different woods is nice but not for me. Someday I do want to take a stab at segmentation to a high level. But I do know I will have to learn the basic hollow form cuttings and that is more tools. This hobby is a big drain on the finances that is for sure. That is why I want to sell some small stuff to get back some of those funds. Anyway my next adventure is the bottle stoppers. When I get some of these birdhouse ornaments together and finished I will post photos.

[Gunny]

As a matter of fact JT, I bought that grinder on sale from Woodcraft after reading what you wrote a while back. And the TruGrind jig is really a time saver. They should send you a commission check.

I do bowls mainly to get experience with the fingernail gouges and to practice the hollowing techniques for turning hollow forms. Making something out of an irregularly shaped piece of stump or trying to work knots, voids and bark inclusions into the design can be a real challenge.
I've also found that turning bowls and plates from fragile species like Buckeye burl is a great way to master some of the cutting tools like the skew chisel and hollowing tools.

I've talked with some guys I met on line who do segmented turnings and the best tell me that the hardest part of a segmented turning is planning it... collecting the various woods, cutting the shapes and visualizing the glue-ups... It's also the most time consuming part. Right now I'm about 30% finished assembling the layers of an urn out of Redheart, Maple, Gaboon Ebony, Purple Heart, Osage Orange and Padauk... I've been putting it together for three months. Don't know how it will turn out.
My very first turning was to be a tall vase turned from a 9"x12" round of Siberian elm. I fixed my mistakes by turning it down a little further each time. It finished up as a 1/4"x 3" coaster. :rolleyes: