Mini Coring With a Saw

[James Combs]

I had a thought the other day(yeah I get one of those on occasion), "How would a hole saw work to hollow mini birdhouses" and that went to "Hey maybe I could reuse the core". Take a look and tell me what you think. I will probably only work with cross-grain blanks because of having to "break" the core out at its bottom.

Had a fairly large(for a birdhouse) diameter Cedar blank, went to Lowe's and picked up a cheaper 1.25" hole saw and proceeded as shown. The top row of thumbnails is making the core into a bottle stopper. In the second thumbnail I am enlarging the through hole for the size of my bottle stopper mandrel tap.
In the 2nd row I have turned a piece of Honey locust into a jam chuck and used it to finish turning and finishing the birdhouse. Turned a roof for it out of another piece of Honey locust.
In the third row I have processed the "jam chuck" into another bottle stopper.
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Here are closeups of the finished stoppers and the birdhouse. The cabochons are turned from the 1/2"-3/4" pen blank left over offcuts. My apologies for the close ups of the cabochons being a little out of focus. Not use to doing macro close ups.
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C&C Welcomed.

[Ronald Fox]

I really like your stoppers. I am going to have to find my pen blank cutoffs and try your techinique. I have just started making the bottle stoppers and they are a lot of fun.

Ron

[Roger Chandler]

You sure don't waste any wood, JD!

[James Roberts]

Frugal turning indeed! And I love the cabochons, I already save pen blank off cuts but didn't really know what I was going to do with them, now I do! Thanks.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Those are beauties JD.

[James Combs]

I really like your stoppers. I am going to have to find my pen blank cutoffs and try your techinique. I have just started making the bottle stoppers and they are a lot of fun.
Ron

Thanks Ronald, they are a lot of fun.

You sure don't waste any wood, JD!

Thanks Roger, its the result of a random thought I had the other day while in Lowe's.

Frugal turning indeed! And I love the cabochons, I already save pen blank off cuts but didn't really know what I was going to do with them, now I do! Thanks.

Thanks James, someone on another forum asked me how I did them. I will put together a series of pics that show my process.

Those are beauties JD.

Thanks Bernie. Not sure who it was, did some searches but couldn't find them, I saw them a few weeks back and they had cabochons in them and they inspired me to try it.