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This is a spice box I made for my wife for Christmas. She loves to cook and had shown me one for sale at Target (Paula Deen brand) that I figured I could make myself.

I bought a myrtlewood burl online. This was my first time working with either a burl or myrtle. Once I cleaned off the wax, I sent it through the planer a couple times to give me a clean block to work with. I then drove a finish nail into the bottom of the block to mount it to a 1/4" plywood runner (picture #2) that I used to turn the block into a circle. I cut off the corners, then made a series of smaller and smaller straight cuts until the block was nearly round, then sanded it smooth. I then cut the top off and routed out the insides with a 2" straight bit. The pictures don't do the burl justice; the grain has a shimmer to it, much like quilted or curly grains, that doesn't show up well in my camera phone pictures.

My wife loves it. The only things I would do differently this time are I would drill holes through the top into the base for the pegs, and then use the tops of those pegs to make a handle on top. I had quite an adventure trying to drill holes that lined up on the top and bottom pieces separately.

Finished with about 6 coats of Minwax Tung Oil.

Gallery

Comments

· In Loving Memory
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196 Posts
Neat turning. Almost blends so well with the table top you can't see it.
 
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