thanx tim, but I saw you post too late.
I cast some things in the liquid acrylic, name bracelet, something else not worth mentioning, I used 5 ounce Dixie cups, and did the castings a little at a time.
These castings were for bottle stoppers. I have no pictures, it was a disaster, and turning it was an even bigger disaster.
I did use the final liquid acrylic and casted a bunch of pen blanks for future use.
the past weeks Ive been turning bottle stoppers, giving them out as gifts with bottles of wine, without bottles of wine, and also gave out close to a dozen pens, most of them from Olive wood blanks I purchased a few months ago.
Nice touch to include a little card with them informing the recipient its made of genuine olive wood from Bethlehem, everyone loved the pens.
back to bottle stoppers.
My most well liked stoppers, (people inquired about purchasing more as gifts, which I don't do, I don't sell anything)were always the ones that I laminted 1/8 to 1/4 flat strips of wood together, common woods I use, walnut, cherry, maple, Spanish cedar, sapele, etc......glue them up, and turn them.
So I decided to just make a bunch of them, seems even with my amateurish turning ability, most like the different/constrating wood colors.
I also tried some pen blanks, but each one I turned so far blew/chipped out on me......always with the Spanish cedar. I will keep trying.
Heres some of my bottle stoppers. I stopped purchasing stainless as it gets expensive to give them as gifts, and the original ones I made years ago, with chrome plated, which are used, still look as good as the day I made them.
Its easy to see my turning ability for stoppers leaves a bit to be desired, but its not so much about the shape as it is about the contrasting woods.
I also took some old cutting boards that didn't make my cut, some old maple, glued it all up and turned a bowl, still in the process of applying wipe on poly. I think it came out ok.
some pics of work, or mistakes
ted-I ordered the new tool rests , a system that allows me to put different shape and size rests on a post
dan-one of those stoppers is from the blanks you sent me couple of years ago? don't remember when, I used most of that stuff, its beautiful wood, I have no clue what wood they are.
jim-the beech? bowls blanks are above my pay level........the catches actually scare me....its like turning stone, but I did cut apart one and made some pen blanks out of some nice silver maple? you gave me.
Jon-thanx always for casting lessons this past visit, my pen castings didn't dry completely to the touch for 4 weeks.
I think the reason they kept cracking out is because I didn't let them cure completely.
(the bottle stopper tops laying off the rack are the ones that didn't make the cut for a bottom, the blue one will be chipped apart and I will use the stopper on another one.)