The madness continues... But wait there's more.

I’m sorta kinda dumb-struck here. The “thump” you heard was my jaw hitting the floor.
Amazing bit of work Troy.

-- A family man has photos in his wallet where his money used to be.

one snort

might as well make something small be big

is it hollow ?

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

Amazing!

-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.

Let me guess, you needed a break from turning pivots.

Wow – that is amazing. I have to wonder how you kept from sneezing at the wrong time and what you made that giant penny out of!

-- I was walking down the street, something caught my eye, and dragged it 15 feet.

Moron,
Both box and grail are hollow, this is the easy part. I have drill bits down to 0.1mm.

Dell,
Pivots are boring and turning brass is just too much fun.

ChuckV,
You’ve caught me, I have a 3 foot diameter penny that I save for occasions like this. Sneezing wasn’t a problem but the grail did separate earlier than expected when I was parting it off from the stock. I spent almost as much time searching the floor for the stupid thing as I did turning it. This is known as working on the big bench.

All,
Kind words, I hate to shatter the illusion of skilled craftsmanship but this was really pretty easy and is certainly within reach of anyone with modest turning skills and an Optivisor.

-- Troy in Melrose, Florida

since we’re talking small

-- Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

I am guessing that these items were turned on a watchmakers lathe, since I have not seen that small a
chuck for any other lathe. Great work, optivisor and all, but unless you were using a compound slide
table on that lathe, this is indeed skilled craftsmanship. Thank you for sharing.

-- As ever, Gus-the 74 yr young apprentice carpenter

I believe it might be a Hardinge lathe with the collet head. Used extensively in Tool Making applications

-- Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

I did the work on my Moseley watchmaker’s lathe, a Christmas gift from my parents, it has remained my favorite WW type lathe. The lathe does have a compound slide that I use on rare occasions, for me it is much quicker and easier to cut free hand. For metalwork my main work horse is an 8” Habegger (same as Schaublin 102) here I rarely use the T rest. I would love a Hardinge but am sufficiently invested in Schaublin type tooling that switching is unlikely, unless I stumble across a well equipped Hardinge at a giveaway price.

The small lathe is not necessary for this project, just more comfortable, I could have done the work on my Jet midi lathe. Turnings like these can be done on most any lathe as long as you have collets. The stock I was using was 1/8” to 3/16” dia., collets of this size are available for virtually any lathe on the market. Turning small parts requires that your hands and face are far too close to the work to safely using a 3 or 4 jaw chuck.

The Moseley lathe:

-- Troy in Melrose, Florida

Beautiful old lathe.
Best thoughts,
MaFe

-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.

Hello. You probably know that I’m the nutcase that started this all off. Troy, I’m so sorry I missed this when all the madness was going on. Can you give me and idea of the outside dimensions of your work. It may yet be the smallest! If so I need to update my original post.

Regards

-- Martyn -- Boxologist, Pattern Juggler and Candyman of the visually challenging. http://www.theartofboxes.com

Martyn,
Thanks (I think) for starting all this, the project was fun and I may be considering another attempt. At least the cost of materials is reasonable and cleanup is a snap.

The box is 0.061” dia at the base and 0.045” at the top. The total height with lid on is 0.106”.
The grail is 0.025” dia and 0.038” tall.

Cheers,

-- Troy in Melrose, Florida

Troy, thanks for the figures. You are currently the micro box titleholder at 3.83 cubic millimetres. Congratulations

-- Martyn -- Boxologist, Pattern Juggler and Candyman of the visually challenging. http://www.theartofboxes.com

Hi Troy,
Since I went through the same “treasure hunt” during my version of this project, I certainly understand the part about trying to find the piece that you dropped.
Congratulations on being the new title holder!!!!!
Excellent job.

-- John, British Columbia, Canada