How I Made It
Project 06-019
Urchin Box Number One
Up-dated 03/02/06
I have been focusing on boxes for awhile and
decided to try something different from the usual straight sided box. The idea of making something that looked like
a sea urchin had been in my head for some time.
The actual inspiration for this box came from a sea urchin I collected
when I was in the Army and on temporary duty to an
Click HERE to see larger image.
Click HERE to see larger image.
This project required careful planning and is the most complex project I have done to date. The project would have to be divided into 4 main sections. I would have to make the box first, then turn the spines, then drill the holes for the spines and then make some kind of presentation board or something. The most difficult task would be to drill the holes for the spines and glue them in.
This is what I did to make this project.
I started with a cocobolo block about 4” by 4” by about 6” long. I mounted the box stock to a glue block on a face plate and turned it about round and then turned it into a round box. This is really a rather straight forward part of the project. The photo on the right is the finished inside of the box. The actual wall thickness here is thinker then it is going to be.
I finished the outside of the box and then applied carnauba wax to it.
The next part of the project was to turn the spines. I decided to make several sizes and randomly position them on the box. The longest would be 3” long and the short ones would be 1” long. Three of the spines would be legs and they would have to be positioned at specific places on the bottom of the box. I planned to put the other spines around the box in an approximate circle. The spines would be turned from cocobolo mainly to maintain a similar color and figure of wood for both the spines and the body of the box. These are three of the 3” spines.
I had a block of cocobolo that was about 6” wide by 2” thick by 8” long. The wood was about half and half sap wood and heart wood so there would be some of the pieces that I was going to cut that were going to be too light colored for this project. I cut that block up into 1/2” square pieces 8” long and then cut them into 4” long blanks. These would be all of the spines. The 3” spines had to be glued to a glue block and turned that way so I would have all the wood. This is my set up.
I figured that I would use a roughing gouge to rough the blank down to round and then use a skew to finish each spine.
The 3” spines looked like this. I just chucked the blanks directly into the chuck for the rest of the spines because I did not need that extra wood. The photo on the right shows the completed spines. The tenon on each spine was about 1/8” diameter and longer then would be needed.
Now back to the box.
I reverse chucked the top of the box to a waste block on a face plate.
I parted off the bottom and reverse chucked it to a waste block and finished the bottom. The box would not be round but somewhat elongated.
I had a problem that I needed to solve. I was going to place the legs 120 degrees apart around the bottom of the box in the same plane. I could not draw on the box without leaving a permanent mark so I taped a plastic lid to the box as shown in the photo on the left. I used a protractor to determine 120 degrees and used an awl to make tiny marks on the box bottom.
The next problem was how to drill holes accurately in the box. I made a table that could be mounted in the banjo of the lathe and taped my Dremel tool to a small piece of thin wood. I aligned the point of the drill with the point of the live center. This would allow me to accurately drill the holes.
The three holes on the bottom were critical because that would be the holes for the leg spines. The other holes would not be as critical. I used a brad point drill, 1/8th inch bit for the pilot hole and later I would use a larger drill to enlarge the hole for the tenon on the spines. I only drilled in about 1/8 inch except the leg holes were a little deeper.
One more problem. I couldn’t just drill a hole and then glue the spine in it because the spine would get in the way. Besides, each spine and hole was custom fitted for each other. To solve this problem I put small pieces of tape with the number of the hole and then lined up the spines in a box in order of their installation number. Once I drilled all the holes in the top or bottom, then I could glue the spines in place. The photo on the left shows the holes for the leg spines, the photo in the middle shows the tape markers and the photo on the right shows the spines lined up ready for installation.
This is a test fit of the legs. I thought it worked OK so I continued.
I finished drilling the holes for the bottom of the box and marked them with tape and lined up the spines.
I glued up the spines on the bottom. Because the spines (other then the legs) are random, the spines do not look like they are placed at regular intervals in a row around the box. This is deliberate.
I drilled the holes in the top of the box and marked them with tape just like I did for the bottom. Then I glued the spines in place. I wanted a little “crown” of spines on the top so I put 1” long spines here.
This is what the box looked like with all of its spines.
I did encounter a problem with the gluing. I put a tiny drop of CA glue in the hole and sprayed accelerator on the spine tenon. Then I put the spine in the hole. Some glue oozed out of several of the holes and made a tiny mess on the surface. I don’t know if this is noticeable to everyone but it is noticeable to me.
This is the final box. The dimensions are 8 ¼ inch maximum width and 6 5/8 inch maximum height.
The Base
I didn’t take any photos of the display base. What I did was to cut a piece of pine to a shape that I wanted and sand it. I applied spray-on adhesive and poured sand on the adhesive. I was hoping that the sand would stick to the glue pretty good and cover the wood but it didn’t so I sprayed another coat of adhesive on the base and poured more sand on it. The edge was not getting any sand so I picked the base up and rolled it in the sand pile to pick up sand on the edge. This was a really dumb idea. The adhesive got all over my fingers and there is nothing in the universe to clean it off. I had gobs of glue and sand on my fingers and the base was still not covered properly. Anyway, to make a long story short, I sprayed more adhesive and poured more sand until I got enough sand on the base to look good. Next time, I’m going to use white glue for the adhesive.
NOTE
There are several art pieces out there that have spines or thorns and it might be suspected that I used them for inspiration or that I am copying their work. I assure you I am not and do not want to diminish the fine work those artists have done. Below is one of the sea urchins that was my inspiration.
Thank you for looking at this page.
PT
