Shopsmith Forums

Inspired by Ed Reible's bottle stopper tutorial back around Christmas time, I ordered a mandrel and some stoppers from Ruth Niles right away. Some time later, I spotted some small Ebony blanks on sale at my local Woodcraft, and decided that they could look mighty fine atop those stoppers. I squirreled all the goodies away for a while, and then pulled them back out a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to hand-make a special gift. A single blank was just large enough to make two stoppers.
This was my first time working with ebony. It's very interesting stuff -- 30% denser than white oak, and over twice as hard, according to wood-database.com. The label on the blank says that it's Gaboon ebony, which is supposed to be very slightly buoyant. But when I put the blank in a bucket of water, it sank like the rock. So I'm wondering if it might actually be African Blackwood, which is denser and harder yet. I had to sharpen the lathe tools several times, even working on such a small workpieces. Tapping them for the stopper felt just about the same as tapping aluminum. The mandrel didn't stand a chance, so I tapped them with a regular metal tap, and got perfect threads.


The ebony makes the strangest sawdust that I've ever seen. It looks almost like ground coffee. Fortunately, it's not nearly as messy as it looks -- I had no problem with it staining stuff.
The auxiliary spindle came in mighty handy during the finishing process. I found a 3/8-16 bolt that I could chuck up in a drill chuck, mounted the chuck to the aux spindle, and threaded on the second stopper handle. Then I could apply finish to both stoppers, without swapping them about. The finish was gloss wipe-on poly, which I applied with a piece of old T-shirt while the stoppers were spinning at low speed.
The ebony finished well, and turned almost jet-black as soon as I wet it. I kept applying the wipe-on poly until the pores were filled -- something like three coats a day for most of a week. Occasional sanding with wet-or-dry paper, using mineral spirits for lubricant, knocked down the inevitable imperfections. I started at 320 grit on an early coat, and worked up to 1500 for the final sanding. Then two final coats of poly put the gloss back on.

The stoppers were gifts for my brother and sister-in-law, and match their counter tops rather nicely!
By the way, I swapped a couple of emails with Ruth Niles after I bought the stoppers. She mentioned that her mandrel also works with ice cream scoop handles, shaving brushes, light pulls, beer tap handles, many cheese spreaders/pizza cutters, etc. -- basically any of the products on the market with a 3/8" threaded stem. It's very well made, and a nice accessory to have for your Shopsmith.

No problem with the back side mount tending to 'unscrew'???

JPG wrote:No problem with the back side mount tending to 'unscrew'???

Nope -- the ebony has ample thread strength to screw the knob on tightly. I could have used a jam nut if needed, but both the sanding and the finish wiping were light operations. And of course, I didn't do any actual turning on that side.

Very nicely done. The ebony and stainless make a great contrast. Paired well with Cabernet Sauvignon.

Beautiful work. I like the simple shape very much. Good idea with the drill chuck for finishing!

Great looking. I have made ebony pens years ago on my Shopsmith. Only thing I have ever done with ebony.

NICE!!

Now I guess I have to get some of that wood to try.... So many projects and so little time.

Thanks for sharing.

Ed

Thanks for the kind words, guys, I appreciate it!

Chris, I originally set out to turn spherical knobs. But while turning, I decided to go with the "egg" shape -- it seemed more organic, plus I was afraid that spheres made from those little blanks would look too small. It was only after test-mounting one on a stopper that I realized I had virtually cloned an old-style bayonet tail-light bulb.

Absolutely stunning Dennis! I'll bet your brother and his wife were thrilled.

As usual, you do amazing work!

BuckeyeDennis wrote:Thanks for the kind words, guys, I appreciate it!

Chris, I originally set out to turn spherical knobs. But while turning, I decided to go with the "egg" shape -- it seemed more organic, plus I was afraid that spheres made from those little blanks would look too small. It was only after test-mounting one on a stopper that I realized I had virtually cloned an old-style bayonet tail-light bulb.

Taillight Bulb.jpg

Looks like a single filament 1156!