For the 2021 Beer Swap I put together a pair of can koozies. I started by asking the group which wood to start with and then I went and did what I wanted anyway. I selected some spalted dogwood with walnut and padauk for accents. I cut up the dogwood stock into a trapezoid with 30 degree bevels, maybe 1.5 inches wide on the long side, about 16 inches long. I also ripped a thin strip of the 4/4 padauk. I glued up the trapezoids with a padauk spacer into several half circles using the masking-tape trick, then flattened the mating faces and glued up the full circle blanks. After drying for several days, I chucked the blanks in the lathe and roughed out the cylinder. I added a tenon to one end of each and made a matching mortise groove in the walnut end caps which I had already drilled out. After gluing one end cap on, I flipped the blank and repeated for the other end so that I had a hollow cylindrical turning blank with holes on either end. You can see how I chucked the inner diameter rather than the outer by this point in the process. I got the outside to a shape I liked and sanded it for finish. I did epoxy fill a few cracks as well. Then I used a china pencil on the bottom of a can to show me the high spots while I was turning out the inside. Its by no mean very flat or smooth, but it is relatively tight and can hold some full cans upside-down. I was surprised at how much difference I found in can diameter, so this usually won't work.After I got the inside close, I sanded as far as my fingers could reach and figured my recipient couldn't reach any further either, and then I slapped on a couple coats of Minwax Tung oil.Cheers to Kenny and crew for another fun swap. Any ideas for the 2022 beer swap item?-JD
For the 2021 Beer Swap I put together a pair of can koozies. I started by asking the group which wood to start with and then I went and did what I wanted anyway. I selected some spalted dogwood with walnut and padauk for accents.
I cut up the dogwood stock into a trapezoid with 30 degree bevels, maybe 1.5 inches wide on the long side, about 16 inches long. I also ripped a thin strip of the 4/4 padauk. I glued up the trapezoids with a padauk spacer into several half circles using the masking-tape trick, then flattened the mating faces and glued up the full circle blanks.
After drying for several days, I chucked the blanks in the lathe and roughed out the cylinder. I added a tenon to one end of each and made a matching mortise groove in the walnut end caps which I had already drilled out.
You can see how I chucked the inner diameter rather than the outer by this point in the process. I got the outside to a shape I liked and sanded it for finish. I did epoxy fill a few cracks as well. Then I used a china pencil on the bottom of a can to show me the high spots while I was turning out the inside. Its by no mean very flat or smooth, but it is relatively tight and can hold some full cans upside-down. I was surprised at how much difference I found in can diameter, so this usually won't work.After I got the inside close, I sanded as far as my fingers could reach and figured my recipient couldn't reach any further either, and then I slapped on a couple coats of Minwax Tung oil.Cheers to Kenny and crew for another fun swap. Any ideas for the 2022 beer swap item?-JD