Hi Everyone,
I like to try new things from time to time and in order to spot and work out problems ahead of time I like to make prototypes and give them to friends who like to cook. This gives me a chance to work out design and production problems before I jump into making things out of more expensive materials. And by giving them to friends to test, I can see if my designs work out in a busy kitchen environment.
Ive been wanting to make both small tea boxes and salt cellars and since I had some thick pine left over from a previous project I decided to use a pine blank and make a salt cellar.
Salt cellars have been around probably as long as there has been salt. They are open containers, not salt shakers per se, and they allow the cook to grab a pinch of salt so the container has to be wide enough to admit an adult hand and shallow enough so that a person doesnt have to dig around trying to get every last grain of salt.
So Ive cut out an approximately 5 1/2" blank and mounted it on the lathe and began turning it to a round shape:
You can see that Ive cut a tenon and a foot. I like to cut foots on bowls because it gives a nice transition between the table surface and the bowl. The tenon is the attachment point for the lathe.
Since pine is a very soft wood it only took about 10 minutes to completely cut and finish the outside. I then flipped it over and hollowed out the inside. Ive purposefully left it rather shallow so grabbing the last couple of grains of salt isnt so difficult:
I like to try new things from time to time and in order to spot and work out problems ahead of time I like to make prototypes and give them to friends who like to cook. This gives me a chance to work out design and production problems before I jump into making things out of more expensive materials. And by giving them to friends to test, I can see if my designs work out in a busy kitchen environment.
Ive been wanting to make both small tea boxes and salt cellars and since I had some thick pine left over from a previous project I decided to use a pine blank and make a salt cellar.
Salt cellars have been around probably as long as there has been salt. They are open containers, not salt shakers per se, and they allow the cook to grab a pinch of salt so the container has to be wide enough to admit an adult hand and shallow enough so that a person doesnt have to dig around trying to get every last grain of salt.
So Ive cut out an approximately 5 1/2" blank and mounted it on the lathe and began turning it to a round shape:
Since pine is a very soft wood it only took about 10 minutes to completely cut and finish the outside. I then flipped it over and hollowed out the inside. Ive purposefully left it rather shallow so grabbing the last couple of grains of salt isnt so difficult:
This is also an interesting piece of wood in that it has a lot of pitch in it. If you look at the rim you can see an area that is really soaked with pitch (and the wood shop smells great at the moment). This is typical of pine and a reason why you dont want to burn this in a fireplace.
Here is the underside of the lid:
I didnt realize how much 6 stock I had picked up. This was mostly because the old rack couldnt handle 8 stock in an easy manner. Now that I have a much better rack, I can go back to buying longer, and thus more versatile, stock. 
The body of the chest is made of 3/4" birch plywood that I found buried at the bottom of the old wood rack. I dont use plywood very often anymore, but this was leftover from my table saw days and much too nice to send to the landfill. 
The tape is first applied to the face of the faceplate. The surface has to be perfectly clean and the wood has to be smooth and dust free:
Next I placed the face plate exactly in the center of the blank and pushed down:
Since this type of tape is pressure sensitive, I placed several bricks on top of the faceplate and let that whole thing sit for about 20 minutes:
Here we are after about 30 minutes of work. Ive cut a small cove for fingers to grab onto, and smoothed and sanded the surface. The tenon is still there.
I flipped over the blank and attached it to the chuck and turned the surface. It had to be smoothed and flattened, another cove cut at the edge for fingers to grip on and a juice groove along the edge. This is the top of the cutting board...
...and this is the bottom.
I took the larger of the two blocks and sanded the sides smooth and then I drilled a 2 1/4" diameter hole into the center of it with a Forstner bit and that finished the box portion. Then I took the other block and drilled a 1"diameter hole into it and used the hole to put it on the lathe. I cut a small tenon on it that is the same diameter as the hole in the block so the two fit together:
Then I shaped the outside of the top to smooth it and to create a small knob. Total turning time was about 30 minutes from beginning to end:
I have been planning on making a newer, and possible smaller, version of this brand. To do this without the Dremel would be a new challenge. Ive been thinking that I could make one out of an old tinsmiths soldering iron, as the copper would be much easier to work, and it already has a nice handle attached - not that I dont like the Visegrips...
