(upbeat country guitar music) - Hi, welcome to the American Woodshop.

I'm Scott Phillips.

- And I'm Susie Phillips.

- And I'm Barry Todd.

- And today we're getting into the world of decorative turned boxes.

Turning, it's the most== fun you can possibly have but one thing I want to do is thank everyone everywhere and all the viewers for supporting the American Woodshop for this is our 26th season.

So we're gonna have a ball so don't go anywhere.

We're gonna get into it.

- [Announcer] The American Woodshop with Scott Phillips is brought to you by... - [Narrator] Woodcraft since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(violin music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] For every wood working reason, for every woodworking aim, Rikon power tools.

Pro tools for everyone.

Rikontools.com, proud supporters of American Woodshops everywhere.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft magazine.

Projects, plans and weblinks designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood home of Timber Wolf Swedish silicon steel band saw blades and super sharp skill saw blades.

- [Narrator] A bed to sleep on.

A table to share meals.

A house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio providing furniture to neighbors in need.

(upbeat rock music) - Susie, whaddya think of this?

- Okay, I love it, it's absolutely amazing.

When I first saw it, I just I couldn't believe it.

- Okay, and I felt the same exact way.

Everything about this is right and Barry Todd out of New Carlisle, Ohio, you are on fire.

Now tell us how you came up with this design idea?

- It was an accident.

I started to turn a bowl and I got so far into it and I thought I think there's something else there and I wound up with this thing.

- That's amazing.

- Turned it into a lidded box.

- That's awesome.

- And what I love about it, it's just perfect dimensionally.

It's graceful, it looks right and this became a jewelry box for someone (Susie laughing) I love very much.

Now show us how all the pieces come together here with this piece.

- Sure.

Take a base, turned that out of African Blackwood and a stem, same wood, put a little stabilizer on top for the box to fit on and then finish it off with a lid, a little piece of African Blackwood for a finial and you gotta box.

- Boy, that's amazing.

- And the natural edge of that bowl, and describe what woods do we have here?

- These are, all the black is African Blackwood and the this is Red Malay although it doesn't show as red.

- Red Malay, huh, wow.

- It's beautiful.

Well we're going to turn this today and the other thing, after we turn a couple advanced pieces we're going to get into how you can use a simple chuck, four jawed chuck to turn your own boxes and when you turn something, if it has a lid on it, it's a box.

- Yep.

- So, Susie, we're off to the races.

- Hey well, I'll let you boys get started.

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

- Look at the shade.

Now you call this what?

- I call that the shade.

I call the series, Shades of Tiffany.

- Beautiful, I love the look and this natural edge hanging down is what we're working on right now.

And this is the epiformic buds of the burrel here that are hanging down, that create that beautiful edge.

And before we turn, be sure to read, understand, and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your woodshop.

Work safely and no rings on here.

Face shields are a must and when we're doing dusty things like sanding, we'll have a dust collector an N95 dust mask on.

So let's get on to turning now.

Take it away Barry Todd.

- Oh, terrific, thanks Scott.

I'm gonna start out knocking this edge off.

This way I'll just continue to take this down and create the curve that you see in this piece.

- Right there.

- Until I get back to what is the, what we call the spigot, which is a round piece that we'll chuck or clamp into the chuck.

So I'm just gonna turn it on, probably about 600 rpm and just start gradually taking this off.

(saw grinding) - [Scott] Boy, that looks really dry Barry.

- Yeah, it is.

- [Scott] And this is a dense wood.

How do you get the best cut with that 3/8ths inch bull gouge?

- Taking the lower part of your sharp edge here and just lightly, just let it engage and then bring it around.

- [Scott] And you're rubbing the bevel and the edge?

- [Barry] Rubbing the bevel and as you're going further away from you, turn it in and raise your handle up.

- Mkay.

- Think I'll speed it up just a little bit.

- That helps with the more dense wood but boy you wanna have it secure and he does.

(wood grinding) - Now to shape the top, I'm actually using a jaw cut, which I don't like to do because you can get a little more tear out (metal grinding).

I think this one's gonna shape up fairly nicely.

Okay, I'm gonna try to go down and they're all the way past the end of the white.

I'm gonna try to do this in one pass.

Not in any rush.

(metal/wood grinding) - Well by Jobe, I think you've got it.

- Look at how close we are.

- Oh yeah, oh you're ready to reverse chuck it.

We'll let you get that done and then we're off to the very hollowing to create this form right here.

Looks nice Barry.

- Thank you.

- If you look at this, what he's done it's called reverse chucking.

He took the piece that created this form and there's the spigot or tenon that the four jawed chuck holds onto and light ball bearing center here helps to capture that piece and what he did he flipped it around because we've got the curved to the shade now with the spigot and he can evacuate this area right here.

Okay once he gets that done and defined he can also hollow this part of the shade.

So, tell us what chisel you're using and the technique Barry.

- 3/8th inch Bull Gouge, and I have the tail stock pulled up because I like to have it a little bit more secure while I'm taking the, I'll call it bumps off the burrow.

- Gotcha.

- Once I get most of that off, I will back this off so I can start hollowing.

- Excellent, okay.

(wood chipping) - [Scott] What is the most important technique to remember as you make this hollowing cut?

- With any, actually with any cut, it's riding the bevel.

Getting your tool engaged and then rolling into the cut and getting it so your riding across this part of the cutting edge which is the bevel.

- Gotcha and that's exactly what we're seein', beautiful.

(scraping) - [Barry] Hear it pull.

- Now you're ready to pull that tail stock back so you can have access the rest of the way, that's good.

And boy, whatever you do, you wanna make sure that point of the live ball bearing center, is way back 'cause you can lay your hand open on that fine point.

In a bit of time, Barry has evacuated the under part of the shade and now Barry, what are you working on?

- [Barry] I'm forming a spigot on the bottom here in the same location where the screw had been used to turn the piece.

- M'kay, so that spigot, again, what we're going to do is reverse chuck it now-- - Yep.

- So you can hollow the very top of this shade for the box.

- Correct.

- Okay, get that done and you'll get a close look at that.

So what he's done now is reverse chucked it again to create this hollow that creates the box.

And so, these four jaws are down on that spigot and it's securely held and that's shapin' up so Barry, I'll let you slide that in and get to it.

- [Barry] Alrighty.

- [Scott] And boy, the tricky thing here is making sure that you get the wall thickness the right way.

You don't wanna cut through this side (Barry chuckling) into that.

- [Barry] That would not work very well.

- [Scott] Okay.

- [Barry] One thing you do when performing the hollowing cut, is try to create a line from the line of your spigot to the bottom.

- [Scott] Gotcha.

- [Barry] Try to visualize a straight line between those two.

- [Scott] M'kay, so it's secure, it's locked, and on to hollowing.

- Now, I'm gonna take this part down, the old spigot just about an eighth of an inch.

I have a reference to what's gonna be the outer limits of the box.

(wood scraping) - [Scott] Then you just hollow that out to make the cavity part of the box.

- That's your box.

Just a little final cut in the corner and that should do it.

- M'kay.

- Now, take the lid, it's gonna go there.

So what I'm gonna do is use a parting tool to create a little recess for the lid to set down in.

(wood scraping) And you don't wanna go real big the first time.

You sorta work up to the dimension you want.

It doesn't have to be real deep.

- Would you look at that?

He's a pro, okay now, let's bring this out so they can see the backside with your bars here.

Okay, and I'm gonna slide this rascal outta the way.

There we go.

Boy what a beautiful, graceful, delicate, piece that is.

M'kay.

- [Barry] And this will set on top.

- Okay so now, with the finished piece, you can see exactly what's going on here.

It's an OG curve up to the finial and then flip it over so they can see the bottom Barry.

And you can see how all the pieces come together.

Now that's the tough part and honestly, this is a master piece the likes of which I've never seen before.

Shades of Tiffany, Barry Todd, a good Buckeye and I guarantee you one thing.

This is a master piece.

Put 'er there.

- Thank ya Scott.

- It doesn't get any better than this.

- I appreciate it.

- And so, the bar's been raised to turners everywhere.

This is what you can end up but I'm going to get setup for a basic box that beginners can turn and I'll give ya few tips on how to size things for a perfect fit.

So again Barry, thanks a million.

Now, time for more fun.

We're going to turn this chunk of wood into a turning billet or blank.

You can see the circle on there, just shy of five inches and right there, it's flame figure box elder.

And moisture contents wicked high right now so first thing I have to do is slab off a flat by holding this work piece flat to the table using a half inch, four tooth blade.

That works best.

Turn on the dust collector, turn on the band saw, slab that off and once that's flat, I rotate this down 90 degrees, cut this billet into two pieces.

One just a bit over four inches, one just a bit over three inches and then we can go to the wood lay.

(saw scratching) Now, that cut round.

When that blade comes to a stop, you crank this up and you're going to back outta that cut.

You never back out of a cut on a band saw with the blade rollin'.

And look at that.

We've got some really cool flame flicker in here that's gonna really start to pop when we turn that down.

We'll do the same thing here with that piece.

When it comes time to turn, I let the wood tell me what to do.

In this case, that color said, "You're done."

And I just (laughing), that's amazing.

And what we're going to do is turn a spigot here, a spigot there, make that the lid and the base, now stands proud so you're off to the races.

Now in the billets or blanks that we just cut out this chunk has hidden treasure in there.

There's flame figure in there and that's awesome.

So this is obviously the base.

We'll turn that first and I'm looking at what has the most color, which will be seen on the base.

When we hollow this, all that goes away so I want this down, we'll turn the spigot down here.

We have a drive spur.

We mount the billet up.

I've pre-malleted the drive spur into this turning blank.

So the spurs in the drive spur definitely latch on to this work piece.

I unlock the ram, that's a piece that's a metal, shiny piece that slides a live ball bearing center into the center point.

I lock that ram, make sure the tail stock's securely locked always, bring the banjo forward that holds the tool rest, and now I'll use the roughing gouge.

I love this tool.

You marry it to your body.

That's what that long handle's for.

The cutting edge, when you drop this handle, you aren't going straight in, you drop this so you get a shearing cut.

The cutting edge should be right at or slightly above center line.

Let's turn that on, get it up to speed.

Face shield down.

This blank is five and a half inches long.

We'll net this out to four and a half.

Now watch what I do.

Handle on my leg, now I lay this down and I take the roughing gouge straight in, and I roll this flute so it's at a 45 degree angle and I rub that bevel and raise the handle until the bevel and the cutting edge kiss the wood at the same time.

And some folks like to do it a different way.

But the thing that I'm going for is a really smooth, balanced turning blank here.

And once we have that, then we can figure out the shape of the box.

Next I use a 3/8ths inch bull gouge to sculpt in a graceful base.

There is some spectacular color in there.

How can I tell that?

Because I'm getting that beautiful red shaving.

Can't wait to turn this off, take a look at it.

I think we're deep enough to really make this piece spectacular and then on the end here I'm going to the parting tool.

Right here, diamond parting tool, diamond because the shape of the blade not the point.

It triangulates the blade, gives you a good, stable cut and holding this at a 45 degree angle to the tool rest, I now can go straight in and create a square base for this.

And I take that into but not touching that point of the live ball bearing center right there.

And now what I need to do is create the tenon and that tenon is gonna be what we use to forge all of the chuck to hold onto.

And that tenon needs to be a little bit smaller than two and 3/8ths of an inch.

I like that right there.

Here's the form.

We have the spigot.

I put on the four jawed chuck.

The spigot goes into the jaws of the four jawed chuck, press is flat in, and in this chuck it's right to tighten.

Those jaws close down on that spigot or tenon.

And let's see how we did, how it's balance.

It's always a good idea to use that tail stock when you can until it gets in the way.

I don't want this piece to be more than six inches long and it's well under that so now what I can do, turn this up to speed.

And dial the speed up a bit now that it's remarkably well balance.

Now what I can do with this bull gouge is do a draw cut where I'm rubbing the bevel and just balancing the outside form right there.

I'm going to sweep this up just to create a little bit more detail right in here.

And I'm really rubbin' that bevel down to the very bottom of the valley.

Same thing over here.

Getting it balanced and then what we can do is reconfigure everything.

Let's take a look at that.

So that now that it's balanced and boy, look at that color, that's amazing and the knot that comes out right there.

I can use the tap out bar right here to tap out the ball bearing center and now what I do is I bring up this.

It's a one and 3/4 inch diameter forcer bit and I can use that to establish the hollow depth.

I'm gonna use that.

Tool rest comes off.

And I need to dial the speed down to around 450 so let's do that.

We'll turn up to speed now and now I can unlock the ram and this establishes the depth of cut.

Okay, now I hollow it until we establish the depth.

Now this multi tool tells me exactly how deep I need to go but I'm going to just take nice, light cuts with a 3/8ths inch bull gouge to work this wall down and then when it gets a little bit difficult, I'll use this hollower.

It's a carbide cutter and these are interchangeable shakes so you can put different cutters on here for different challenges.

That little 3/16th inch scraper, carbide scraper right on center line, melts away the wood.

So I'll just make a series of cuts here with the wall thickness down to about 3/8ths of an inch.

And I want that speed to be right around 800 so I need to dial that up just a hair.

So the first cut you establish a shoulder by bringing the bull gouge in just like that and once you have a shoulder you can swing that bevel down and rub the bevel and make the cuts all the way down to the bottom.

And with the four jawed chuck hangin' on to this piece what I'm doing as I make this cut is pressing it down into the base.

So I've just hollowed this down.

I'll use the other round cutter to help in that tricky transition, the curve at the bottom.

(scraping) Now that is the best scraper I've ever used right there.

Carbide cutter, can't beat it.

And now what I'm going to do is show you the secret to this box.

The top is is turned exactly the same way as the base.

Okay, the spigot and all but for that lip to fit into that hole, I have to use these dividers.

And so I size that so it's slightly under size because you can't put anymore back on but you certainly can take a little bit more off.

Right on center line, watch this, this is how you determine the size of the box.

This is swingin' up so you don't don't touch this point over here, you touch it over here and you make sure that the lines match up.

And that way, you'll have a perfect fit.

Remember, just this point on this side and then when the lines match up like that right there, I'll get a perfect fit.

So now I finish hollowing the rest of the way and once it's hollowed to a 3/8ths inch thickness then I need to lower that tool rest just a hair.

That's too high now because the cutting edge needs to be right at center.

Alright, and this scraper is level to the tool rest.

Level to the floor.

I'll hollow that, friction sand it and that sands it dry.

And friction finish it and we'll get a look at how everything joins together.

(buzzing) Alright now I just buffed a natural wax all the way around, inside and out.

And the friction sanding drys this piece of maple which box elders in the maple family out and it turns beautifully green.

So let's see how everything comes together here.

This is just a gorgeous piece.

So, here we go.

Look at that flaming figure right there.

I love it inside and out, it's beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

You can't beat it.

Now, the lid is turned exactly the same way.

So I'm already have one turned here and you press it together and you know it's a perfect fit if you can do that right there.

You want it to be tight but not too tight and the lid should definitely be able to lift the piece off the ground.

Well that's it from the American Woodshop this week.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you Barry Todd, one in a million.

Next week it's on to live edge, air dried walnut.

Don't miss it, see ya.

Oh boy, now look at that, look at that.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft since 1928.

Providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(violin music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] For every woodworking reason.

For every woodworking aim.

Rikon power tools, pro tools for everyone.

Rickontools.com, proud supporters of American Woodshops everywhere.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft magazine.

Projects, plans, and weblinks designed to help you make wood work.

- [Narrator] PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish silicon steel band saw blades and super sharp skill saw blades.

- [Announcer] A bed to sleep on.

A table to share meals.

A house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information behind the scenes at the American Woodshop, go to our website for complete details on tips and like us on Facebook.

(upbeat music)