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As some of you know, I'm a neanderthal woodworker and the only thing I plug in when I work the wood is a fan. I'm back in the States for a few months and wanted to give woodturning a spin. So I called up a buddy of mine who I knew had a mini lathe and he was gracious enough to show me the ropes.

Here are a couple bottle stoppers that were the first things I tried my hand at. The simple olive wood stopper was my first attempt, and as you can tell I had a little more fun with the cocobolo stopper.

All in all, turning was great fun! I don't necessarily see myself with a lathe in the immediate future but I can definitely see its usefulness. I also turned a chisel handle, which I'll post here once it's finished (I still have a few more things to do to it).

Thanks for looking!

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Looks like you got a good start.
Turning is even more addicting than the LJ web site.
I think it is on of the really fun things in wood working because you start out with a raw chunk of wood (in my case often what other people would call "fire wood") and are usually surprised by what you find inside.
 

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If you have used the lathe for the first time then the results are amazing. Was the turning smooth or there were some hiccups? We now expect more turned projects from you.
Sharad
 

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Nice first turnings….... bottle stoppers are fun, and fairly easy to make. ... And everyone loves getting them for gifts. I just gave away a half dozen of them.

Now that you have done some of these, it's time to get yourself a lathe and really get " turned on! "
 

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Very nice turning work. Now you make a turn actually, from manual to power tools…!
Glad to see you again on LJ's after quite long time (a couple of months maybe) you left us without any news.
So you will be celebrating this comming xmas in the state, I guess.
Merry Xmas and enjoy wood turning.
 

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Those are some great looking stoppers. I really like the grain of the wood too.

Keep it up!!!!!!!!

..............Jim
 

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Thanks guys! Yeah, bottle stoppers are fun. To answer your question Sharad, there weren't really any hiccups. It seems that (at least for me) you can't really screw up something like a bottle stopper. It might not look exactly like you envisioned (like my olive wood stopper - I don't much care for the final shape), but it still looks nice thanks to the nice wood and wax finish.

The guy who showed me what to do never does the same design twice, but I don't think I'm creative enough to do that. I think if I had to do bunches of these, I'd find a profile that worked for me (in terms of ease and beauty) and just stick with that for all my stoppers. (Especially if used as gifts.)
 

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Great Looking Stoppers .Just started myself to turn stoppers.
Very addictive.
 
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