February 2013 – Simon Hope Demonstration
Making a Sea Shell Salt Shaker and a Whistle
Cheam Woodturners
February 2013 Demonstration – Simon Hope
Salt Shaker in the shape of a sea shell
Whistle (page 5)
Simon started his demonstration telling us that he
always turns at the highest speed possible. He likes
to use elm or sycamore for these salt shakers because
they are food safe. He used a bowl gouge for
roughing down the wood because the shavings go off
to the side rather than up into his face.
With a parting tool he cut a spigot at each end, with a
slight dovetail, it’s important to make sure the
shoulder is parallel or undercut. He then parted down
for the 2 halves – approximately 1/3rd to 2/3rd and
used a Japanese pull saw to cut the two pieces apart.
The smaller part, which would create the inside of the
lid was mounted and he used a spindle gouge to
hollow out the end grain. He also used one of the
tools he sells for this purpose – with a carbide tip it
creates a 45° shear cut – cutting not scraping. It has a
small cutter mounted on a square bar that is held flat
on the tool rest. The carbide tip cannot be sharpened
but can be turned round as necessary. The 8mm mini
tool is particularly good for end grain. Care must be
taken not to chip the carbide wheel.
The block was shaped and hollowed out and then
sanded. Simon uses his own rotary sanding tools
which have a Velcro backing so the range of sanding
disks can be easily mounted – see Simon’s website for
more details.
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February 2013 – Simon Hope Demonstration
Making a Sea Shell Salt Shaker and a Whistle
Simon used a technique he referred to as ‘wet
sanding’ where he uses a paste, which is combination
of beeswax and paraffin oil, both on the wood and
the sanding disks – this creates a sort of slurry which
is excellent for filling any coarse or open grain and
also means the sanding dust falls more easily rather
than being spread through the air where extraction is
not available. Mick Hanbury sells pots of this wax, but
it can be made with baby oil plus 20% beeswax
granules melted into the oil. Simon’s sanding
technique is to sand at high speed – not the usual
recommendation. He sands with short positive bursts
and stops before the wood heats up.
Having finished off the inside of the lid (this only
needs to be a shallow hollow) Simon turned a small
lip on the edge. He then remounted the other piece
of wood, cut a spigot that would fit inside the lip
previously cut (this should be a slow process taking
off a small amount at a time until the pieces fit
together tightly) and the smaller part is mounted the
on the spigot as an internal jam chuck. If the fit is too
loose it is possible to wet the inside of the wood to
make it swell, paper towel can also be used to make it
fit.
The other end was then hollowed out using his
carbide tipped tool – listening for vibration and easing
off if necessary. When cutting the end grain the tool
should be kept moving quickly with a light cut.
The wood was hollowed out and sanded (Simon
showed us a home-made wooden stick with Velcro
attached that he uses for sanding). Because the
sanding has been done in both directions there is a 2tone effect – Simon uses the waxed sanding
technique to blend in the tone.
A slice was then sawn off one side of the hollowed
shape, which would create the shell shape.
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February 2013 – Simon Hope Demonstration
Making a Sea Shell Salt Shaker and a Whistle
Simon had a useful sanding block which he mounted
in the chuck, consisting of a turned block covered
with a sheet of hooked velcro so that sheets of
sanding grit could be fixed in place for sanding. He
then went through the grits – normally starting at 180
and finishing with 600 grit.
Sanding down the shell shape
Sanding block
The larger block
was then
remounted and
turned to a
triangle shape,
which was then
shaped further
as shown
Simon
showed us
how the 2
pieces fitted
together
then
removed
the lid and
hollowed
out the
inside approximately down to the last 1½ cm
remembering the end will be pointed and being
careful to keep the hollowing within the shape – if
you see daylight you’ve gone too far! It is important
to constantly stop and check and having the tool rest
centred across the shell will help reduce vibration.
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February 2013 – Simon Hope Demonstration
Making a Sea Shell Salt Shaker and a Whistle
On the lip that fits into the other part of the shell
Simon turned a 1mm deep groove with a parting tool
and the spigot was adjusted to be a loose fit with the
lid.
A jam chuck was then turned for the lip to fit inside –
this is done by marking the width with a vernier gauge
then turning an external jam chuck, which is initially
tapered. The spigot should be pushed in to where it
fits and the taper reduced until the spigot fits tightly.
It was then turned round, mounting it into the jam
chuck and the end was turned to a point, tidied up
with a small skew with a small dimple in the end for
locating a drill bit.
Holding a 2.5 mm drill bit in a pair of pliers Simon
drilled a hole into the pointed end of the shell to go
through to the hollowed out inside. He finds this size
allows the salt to be shaken out while staying inside
the shaker while it is laying on its side.
The outside was finished by sanding to 600 grit.
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tapered jam chuck
February 2013 – Simon Hope Demonstration
Making a Sea Shell Salt Shaker and a Whistle
To make the 2 parts fit
really well together
Simon uses wax hemp,
which can be bought
from Bagpipe suppliers.
The hemp is wound
round the groove
previously turned on the
spigot until it has enough
to make a good fit with
the lid finished off with a
knot and broken off. It was suggested that dental
floss might be another option, which Simon
considered to be a possibility.
Making a Whistle
The last part of the evening was taken up with
making a whistle, which was a quick and easy
production and proves very popular with
children.
A 2.5cm square piece of timber, about 150mm
long, was held in pin jaws. The end was trued
and a dimple was centred, then a 16mm saw
tooth bit was used to drill a hole 50mm deep,
with the drill bit held in a Jacobs chuck in the
tailstock.
It was then roughed down so that the wall of the
whistle would be 5-6mm thick. The whistle was
then marked at 19mm and 34mm from the end
and then sawn down at 90° on the 19mm mark
and 45° at the 34mm mark. This creates the
sharp edge which splits the air an produces the
whistle – Simon assured us the note would be A
sharp!
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February 2013 – Simon Hope Demonstration
Making a Sea Shell Salt Shaker and a Whistle
A 16mm piece of dowel was sanded flat on one
side along about 25mm of its length and glued
(with the dowel flat at the top) into the end of
the whistle to align with the 90° cut.
The end of the dowel was sawn off and the
whistle sawn at an angle to make the
mouthpiece
It was then sanded to a finish and parted off.
A quick blast to prove it worked finished off the
evening’s entertainment.
Along with the other hints and tips Simon gave
us throughout the course of the evening he
mentioned using the Golden Ratio to give our
pieces the right proportions. This is not
precisely the rule of thirds and is known as Phi –
1:1.618. There are several ways of finding out
what the correct proportion according to phi is,
apart from the use of a calculator. One is to use
a website where you put in one of the sizes and
it gives you the other –
www.goldenratiocalculator.com . A 2nd option
is to buy a pair of calipers – available from,
among other places, www.weirdsky.com . A 3rd
way is to make your own calipers, which could
be made in ply or metal – the correct sizes can be found at
http://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/golden-section-gauge.gif .
He also mentioned that one way to save and harden crumbly, overdried wood is to soak it for a
month in a 50% solution of washing up liquid and water and leave it to dry.
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