What size stock for turning?

[Alan Tolchinsky]

What size turning stock do you use for small boxes? I see some 4x4x12 on ebay which I think would yield several small boxes. What do you use? Thanks. Alan

[Jason Clark2]

Depends on your definition of small.

The boxes I posted last night (http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=116405) are all about 2" diameter. This size was determined not only by the size of the stock used for the body but also by the size of the wood being inlayed.

4" diameter seems pretty large to me, a bit too large to fit in a hand nicely which is what I believe a box should be as they will likely be held in one hand while the other is used to remove or replace the lid.

Jason

[Bernie Weishapl]

Alan I use 2 X 2, 3 X 3, and 4 X 4 on lidded boxes.

[Jim Underwood]

You could slice that up and get several boxes out of that.

I dunno why anyone buys wood though. I have so much given to me that I couldn't turn it all in a year. I just had a friend take down 50 trees because of disease, and I got a few chunks of Elm, but likely won't even get to all of that. And another friend is giving me some Peach and some birch this weekend...

So I get some green wood, and turn box blanks. I just rough out a couple boxes and let 'em dry for 6 mos to a year, and then come back and finish 'em up. They're like bowl blanks now.... stacking up.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Thanks Bernie and Jason. As soon as I assemble my boring tool I'm off to the races. I've drilled the hole in my 3/4" square tubing for the bit and all I have to do is glue it in. Thanks again guys.

[Richard Madison]

Alan, If using a tool bit in boring bar, consider drilled, tapped, hole w/ socket head (Allan) set screw rather than glue. Fast and easy to remove the bit for sharpening. I might be missing something, but would never consider gluing a tool bit in place. YMMV.

[Mike Peace]

Richard, CA glue seems to work for a lot of folks including Dave Ellsworth and Trent Bosch for tools they sell. YMMV.

[Richard Madison]

Mike, I did not mean to suggest that glue does not work, and I should have made that clear. I just meant that it seems much easier (to me) to loosen/tighten a set screw when sharpening a tool bit, than to unglue and reglue. There are almost always two or more good ways to do almost anything. Am pretty sure that my way is sometimes not even among the good ways.

[Brian Novotny]

glue is a cheap solution. anybody that glues their bits in ( and I'm refering to the big names) is making a substandard tool. bits need to be easily taken out and put back in......unless there is no need to remove to sharpen or that the life of the bit is the life of the tool.