I shared this on another forum and had a good response, so I thought some Creekers might like it. Here's an easy project that you can put to good use in the kitchen, or add to your craft show arsenal. It's my take on a clothes pin style snack keeper. I made several of these years ago and ran across some partially completed blanks while cleaning up recently. I couldn't remember how I made them, so here is how I reconstructed the crime. Apologies for the cell phone pics.
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It starts with a blank about 8" long by 1-1/4" square. On the band saw, cut a 3/16" wide kerf about 4-1/2" long into one end of the blank to create the two pin legs. Be sure to orient the grain so the pin won't easily split. Cut a set of duck lips on the legs, then insert a 1-1/2" long piece of scrap the same width as the kerf into the end and tack in place with a drop of CA glue, as shown. You will be removing this later, so don't get carried away.
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Mount the blank and turn the end that will be the the head of the pin round to fit in the small jaws of whatever chuck you have. I use a Steb center and the cone from my Oneway live center to do this. The cone centers the block. I don't want to put a lot of pressure on the waste wood at this point.
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Mount the blank in your chuck and use the waste block to stabilize the blank with your tail stock. Rough the pin round. I'm using a cup point in the tail stock here because the oneway point was a bit large.
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Lay out your design. I turn the body of the pin down to about 3/4".
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And turn, turn, turn, sand, sand , sand. If you are good with a skew you won't have to do much.
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I add a coat of Mahoney's Utility finish at this point while the lathe is spinning. Then cut the blank off and touch up the end with sand paper.
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