Great video, love the tool shots and the info you give us !! Thanks a million for sharing .... The stops look awesome Sam !! look forward to the next mate ;-).... Steve.
Great job, gave me an idea with the inlays! I love turning bottle stoppers, great little projects and they sell well. I too do the CA in the hole to stiffen the wood for tapping. I use a tapping T handle when making the threads. When I assemble them, I use 2 part epoxy at the end of the threaded hole.
Nice looking bottle stoppers. Having turned several, allow me to offer three suggestions: 1) Mount your square blank in your chuck and with a Jacobs chuck mounted in the tailstock, use a Forstner bit to cut a shallow recess (about 1/16") in the blank. The recess should be just slightly larger in diameter than the top of the metal bottle stopper. This will give you a perfectly flat surface that will mate perfectly with the bottle stopper. 2) With a Jacobs chuck in the tailstock, drill an appropriate sized hole for mounting the bottle stopper. This will give you a hole that is perfectly centered in the recess you just turned and that is perpendicular to the bottom of the recess. 3) Use a dedicated bottle stopper mandrel. You can make your own or buy one. The top of the mandrel will match the size of the metal bottle stopper and will serve as a solid shoulder to hold the blank against when turning. This will make sizing the bottle stopper easier and will reduce vibration. Please forgive these suggestions. I hope many of your viewers will find them helpful. With this setup, you can prepare and turn bottle stoppers quickly and efficiently.
+David Walser as I have never turn these before I was somewhat in the dark as far as the process. I appreciate your comments and ideas and I will certainly give them a try. The first suggestion is what I have heard before in other comments and I will certainly start with that one. I was drilling my hole on my drillpress but they were seldom squared up so I need to find a different process. Thanks again I will try these ideas Sam
+As Wood Turns I have no doubt turned hundreds of bottle stoppers over the years. I first turned many with a cork but that wears out. Then I went to a plastic on the end of the bottle stopper. I have never turn these but I intend to make this my bottle stopper of choice. Everything I have heard indicates people will pay fairly good money for one of these thanks Sam
+Steve Smith Steve most of the time the bottle stopper is threaded on the end grai. Adding the glue and using one drill bit smaller than the tap chart recommends like Sam suggested to stiffen the fibers and so tapping holds the threads better. You can turn it "side grain" its all about the look you are going for.
Hi Sam, I got some Bottle Stoppers that my wife brought me from her last trip the States visiting the family and I was searching for ideas for turning when I found your video. I must say that I was impressed when you made reference to wood turners in Perú and Argentina. I´m from Lima, Perú and would like to know if you have reference of other wood turners here in Perú. I´ve been following you for quite a time and I enjoy with all I´ve learn from you. Thanks.
Hey Sam, I have turned a few of these now, maybe 10. Started out with a few I picked up at Woodcraft. Gave them away as gifts. Then I was at a woodworking show down here in Florida and I picked up a dozen from Stainlessbottlestoppers. I also bought their mandrel since it has a #2 MT. After turning another 6 or so I finally had an opportunity to try one. Yes, that right, we drank a bottle of wine so now I have a bottle to stick one into. Guess what, doesn't fit very well. I started measuring all my bottle stoppers and they seemed to be all within a half mil. I then started to measure wine bottle openings and that is where I am seeing variability. I measured bottles from .70 to .703. Those 3 thousands make a big difference when popping in a stopper that measures .701. So, are these bottle stoppers really usable or are they for decoration? With variability in wine bottles, either the bottle stoppers need to adapt or they cant be used. maybe the stoppers I have are just not made to fit properly in wine bottles. Your thoughts????
John, my wife is the wine drinker.....But I have never heard these won't fit. I looked at the video and didn't see if I mentioned a source for these. I will check one in my bottle stopper tote to see if i can find one. Sam
Great video Sam and some beautiful stoppers you have turned. If I may offer a plug for Ruth at SS Niles bottle stoppers. I have purchased many stoppers from this company and all are stainless steel without the chrome plating and they are manufactured in the USA. Just a thought if you are into turning bottle stoppers.
+The Hamlin Woodshop I spent some time on the Ruth at SS Niles bottle stoppers/website, very impressive. I have turned lots of stoppers but not with the stainless steel. I got this batch from craft supplies and they are stainless. But in the future I will check out the Ruth' site. thanks for the heads up Sam
Very nice Sam. My mother would love a set of these. She collects wine stoppers. Have you ever considered getting a wireless microphone setup for making your videos?
+Zerostar369 No I really have never considered a wireless microphone. I never thought I needed one. What do you know about them. I would love to hear your comments. I do struggle a bit keeping the sound level constant through my videos. One place that is difficult is when I am very close to my camera, and the sound is very loud. Do you have a recommendation for a microphone I could check out. I don't want to spend a lot of money Thanks Sam
My experience is with the Canon wireless microphone systems. I get very even audio and no back ground noise. As with all things audio, you get what you pay for. At $175 I think the Canon system is mid range. Go check out Amazon and do a search. Entry systems can be had for as little as $40-$50.
Hey hello, well pronounced "amigos por el torno" don't forget to mentioning Dominican Republic. Nice, beautiful. loved it. I would like to try making bottle stoppers, where you buy the steel parts? please. thank you.
+You Can DIY by EmeSantosS I would love to learn Spanish. I should have studied more in high school spanish. I bought the stainless steel cones from Craft Supply. Thanks
+WYOMINGWOODTURNER craft supply? is that a company name? I googled it and just found many craft suppy stores such as michaels, and woodturnerscatalog, I have bought from woodturningz.com before
Very informative video. I have a question regarding truing the blank, you do this beginning at 7:00 in the video. Specific to trying the bottom of the blank, is there more to completing this, as the mandrel, and the resulting insertion of the metal stopper will still be sitting on the “nub” of the old base which is not trued? Thank you very much, I appreciate your work.
I am not sure where the "nub" is on the stopper? The center has been removed for the screw chuck to hold the piece of wood. It was squared off before screwing it on to the mandrel. There really is not a problem. At 2:56 into the video I show how it is attached. Sam
Hello Sam. I'm really a fan of your work. I have been watching you ever since your first video. I think the name was "the worst video ever". Your talent never ceases to amaze me. To me you are in the top 5 of the best turners on RU-vid. I hope many more videos are yet to come from your shop. You have shown so many types of projects is it becoming harder to think of the next video? I hope not. Here's to future days pal!
+Tom Wilcox tom, thanks for the amazing compliment. I really attribute any benefit of my videos to my camera work. I have worked very hard on making good shots in setting up clips that people Can clearly see. I think there are dozens and dozens of really fine tuners on RU-vid. As far as picking other projects...... My wife once asked me if I would ever run out of things to video, I said I will just do woodworking videos. I probably know more about Woodworking than I do Wood Turning. No worries, it is gotten to the point where I just videotape what I'm doing on a particular day and kill two birds with one rock. Thanks for watching. I appreciate your support it means a lot Sam
I have been thinking about turning one of those but haven't yet. At 5:40 into your video you are butting the blank up to the end of the pin jaws. Wouldn't it be better to back the blank off a half turn, then butt it up and finally retighten the blank until it really is secure against the pin jaws? - Just a thought.
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+James Templeton I would say it is more like 50 or 55. I usually don't measure the angle on this tool. I have another with a more acute angle maybe 45 degrees.....I need rot find that wood James-thanks for the reminder. Sam
+Manoj Gupta I pretty much use what I use on pens. I have been using EEE somewhere in the process. But I also sand the resin or acrylic stoppers to 12,000 grit. I would just use a friction polish or CA glue. Sam
what program do you use to make the video or more importantly how do you remove the sound of the lathe? great work btw, I have a bottle stopper waiting to be turned and now I feel more confidant to start/attempt.
+Marney Smithies I use Adobe Premiere 11. It has tools for speeding the video/zooming in/removing the sound or decreasing the volume. It has many other features. Sam
+Uwe Hanneder I got this from Craft Supply USA. I would think it is available lots of places. But are you in Europe? I don't know the sources there. Sam
The inside of the drilled hole is taped with threads. Then it is threaded on to corresponding threads on the piece that fits into the pin jaws. It holds it very well.
After watching this I see two other tips. One I already do that is to drill a smaller hole, the other is putting CA glue in the hole to strethen the threads. Thanks
+Steve Smith I finally ended up putting a Jacobs chuck in my lathe which helped me to line up the tap. I had difficulty as well with many of the kinds of wood I turned for this project. I reinforced the threads with CA glue and that solved the problem. And eventually I used epoxy to glue in the bottle stopper into the wood thanks Sam
