Squared Winged Red Gum Box


Andrew Potocnik reveals the negatives and positives of two processes of creating winged forms

Wooden urn with curved lid and base.
Wooden curved top stool on display


This project is an example of how to turn square or ‘winged’ forms with a slight variation, showing you how to turn them safely with sacrificial timber added to the outer edges, while turning a second form without the benefit of sacrificial material. My reason for going through this process is to highlight the positives and negatives of both processes. Of course, the smaller you work, the less risk there is in not adding sacrificial material, but as the scale increases, so does the danger.

Safety is paramount in any form of woodworking, especially in turning, where we are dealing with pieces of wood spinning at high speed, hence it is best to not have sharp edges of wood spinning where we can only see a ‘ghost’ of the edge at the best of times. Not only do we need to think about the safety of fingers potentially straying into the sharp edges unseen but, likewise, presentation of tools to the wood is equally precarious.

It’s also important to point out that there are many turners who take shortcuts and don’t add sacrificial timber to their work, be it square or any other ‘out of circle’ form, but let’s leave that to the experienced or ‘cowboys’ in our fraternity. For the majority of us, it’s best to work in a safe manner and pass on ‘best practice’ instruction as we aim to inspire others to engage in the craft we gain so much enjoyment from.

Wooden decorative containers with lids
Square wooden capped container on white background.

Health Safety

Using two methods to the same end

For this project I’ve made two near identical pieces, one showing the safe way of working: i.e. adding sacrificial timber to prevent fingers from being clipped by stray corners only seen as a ‘ghost’ but clearly evident once the piece is stationary and the square form revealed. Best to play it safe all the time.

Plans & equipment

Tools

  • PPE & RPE as appropriate, including full face protection
  • 25mm spindle roughing gouge
  • 2mm parting tool
  • 12mm beading tool
  • 12mm fingernail ground spindle gouge
  • 12mm bowl gouge
  • Square carbide cutter
  • Flat curved scraper
  • 12mm fingernail ground scraper
  • Scrapers with a swept-back left-hand grind
  • Diamond pointed scraper
  • Round skew

Materials

  • One piece, red gum about 70 x 70 x 150mm long
  • Scrap radiata pine 70 x 50 x about 150mm
  • PVA glue

The making

Woodworking tools: compass, ruler, pencil on wood piece.
1. I prepared two blanks for this project, both of red gum roughly 70mm squared and 150mm long. One was left as a square while the other had sacrificial radiata pine glued to each of the four faces, which is the safe method of turning a square form. The key requirement in turning a square box is accuracy, so I used the age-old method of drawing diagonal lines from one corner to the next and where the two lines cross is the centre of the blank. Dividers were used to scribe the circumference around sacrificial material so excess could be cut away
Woodblock cut using bandsaw in workshop
2. Standing on end, the blank was cut to a rough cylinder on my bandsaw. The red gum had been cut square and flat on a cross-cut saw, therefore the blank sat securely while being cut on the bandsaw
Woodturning machine shaping wooden block.
3. Mounted between centres, the blank was roughed to a uniform cylinder ready for the next stage of the project
Woodturning process on lathe showing detailed edges.
4. A tenon was cut at each end of the cylinder to enable the top and base to be gripped in a scroll chuck, later in the process. The pencil line you can see was a guide for the next stage in roughing
Woodturning on a lathe with dual-toned timber.
5. The magic of this technique is in exposing material you want as you cut through the unwanted stuff I’ve so far been referring to as ‘sacrificial material’. A sharp fingernail-shaped bowl gouge and a spindle roughing gouge made removal of unwanted material quick and easy
Wooden sculpture on lathe during shaping process
6. Gradual removal of waste material revealed the main shape of the box I was working toward, while still allowing ample waste material at both ends in preparation for final shaping of the winged top and bottom, and final refinement of the cylindrical body of the box
Woodturning process with wooden blocks on lathe
7. Time to introduce my second blank, which shows what is happening within the sacrificial pine edges of the safe turning option
Woodturning with a chisel on a lathe
8. Continuing with the safe option, edges of the top and bottom ‘wings’ were trimmed to a gentle curve using a fingernail-pointed spindle gouge. The middle section of the box was trimmed to a flat surface with a 6mm-wide beading tool and then a neat V-intersection cut between both surfaces with a skew. I like to use a round skew as it allows me to ‘ride’ the bevel on the curved surface with ease and then cut in from the flat cylindrical area
Woodturning process shaping a wooden piece.
9. Here you can see profiles of both the top and bottom wings which are hidden within sacrificial material. Obvious is the intended slight thickening of each wing as it approaches the body of the box, however, figure eight callipers are needed to indicate this change in thickness within sacrificial material
Wooden spool on a lathe in a workshop.
10. Inner areas of each wing and the body of the box were sanded to 320 grit, then the two sections cut apart through the part line using a narrow kerf pullsaw
Woodturning: lathe shaping a wooden bowl.
11. Next I mounted the lid section of the box in a scroll chuck via the tenon cut back in photo 4. The interior was hollowed first with a 12mm bowl gouge, followed by a 12mm fingernail-shaped scraper sweeping in a gentle curve from the centre, to a wall thickness of about 4mm
Wood being turned on a lathe machine.
12. This is the danger of turning a square- edged version of this box. I placed a small amount of white chalk on the tip of each corner, which you can see as a faint white ‘ghost’ as the wood spins. Apart from the risk of it catching a finger or knuckle, approaching the wood with a scraper or gouge takes a lot of guess work in knowing when contact will be made with the wood. Catches can be quite rapid and drastic
Measuring wood depth with a pencil
13. Determining the depth of the hollowed interior takes an age-old method – insert a pencil into the hollowed area and eyeball across the top of the form holding your thumbnail at the depth mark and then hold the pencil up to the outside of the form
Wooden bowl being crafted on a lathe
14. Once the lid was hollowed sufficiently and sanded through to 320 grit, a rebate of about 3mm depth was cut with a square- tipped carbide cutter. In this situation I like to tilt the cutter over to the left to prevent a catch and leave a smooth surface
Woodturning process on lathe with drill bit.
15. Now to hollow the body of the box, where I used a Forstner bit held in a Jacobs chuck, fitted into the quill of my tailstock
Woodturning machine crafting a wooden cup
16. The interior was refined with a couple of scrapers that aren’t part of the base turning kit. Both are rounded at the tip, the second with a swept-around edge that enables hollowing deep forms, but be sure to keep your toolrest as close to the inner part of the vessel to ensure ample support for the tool. Once thinned to about 4mm wall thickness, the interior was sanded through to 320 grit
Woodturning tool shaping a wooden cylinder
17. A tenon matching the inner recess in the lid was cut with a square carbide cutter, working lightly, cutting the tenon shorter than the depth of the recess cut in photo 13 so the top and base would meet without an unsightly gap
Close-up of wood turning on a lathe.
18. A chamfer was sanded on both mating edges for two reasons – to highlight the join, and to disguise any future movement in the wood. All I used to achieve this is 180 grit sandpaper followed by 240 grit. It only takes an angled surface of about 1mm and a shadow to create definition between the top and bottom of the box
Wooden object being crafted on lathe machine.
19. Pushed into place with the tailstock, and a tight fit on the lid, I could begin work on the top surface of the lid. However, to add a layer of safety, I applied a band of plastic tape while the lid was held securely via the tailstock centre
Wooden spindle and tools on a lathe.
20. Most of the waste tenon material was removed using a fingernail-shaped bowl gouge while the tailstock centre was in place, and then a finial was shaped using a round skew to undercut its base while a scraper shaped the top section. The round skew held on its side allows it to work as a negative rake scraper, to create a slight V-intersection between surfaces so I could sand both surfaces smoothly without losing clarity between each
Wooden bowl blank on a lathe
21. Here you can see that, even though I exercised as much care as possible, a couple of the corners chipped due to the lack of supporting material
Close-up of wooden wall sculpture detail
22. The upper surface of the box’s lid was sanded, working up to the V-groove using my fingernails and the sharply cut edge of my sandpaper to ensure there was no roll-over where surfaces meet
Caliper measuring wooden disc on lathe.
23. To complete the base, I used a carrier fitted to my scroll chuck, which accepted the tenon I had turned earlier in the project. Vernier callipers are my chosen tool for making sure measurements are accurate. I’ve become a convert to square carbide cutters, for cutting tenons and recesses, which is what I used
to enlarge the opening of the carrier until it matched the tenon of my lid
Wooden bowl being shaped on a lathe
24. Always conscious of safety, I added support to the wood with the tailstock kept in place for as long as possible as I removed unwanted material from the base of the container
Wood lathe carving a wooden bowl
25. Slowly, the tenon was reduced as far as possible before being parted free…
Close-up of woodturning project in progress
26 …so the remainder of the base could be gently be trimmed to a neat point, highlighted with a pair of lightly cut V-lines made with a diamond pointed scraper. Detail lines serve several purposes. They ‘break’ the form visually and highlight features, which is what a pointed centre in this piece really is. Also, they can also create another ‘break’ tactically, especially if you didn’t get the sweep of the form quite right
Wooden cylinder and square on a workbench.
27. With all sanding completed it was time to remove unwanted material on the bandsaw. You could use a handsaw to achieve the same result
Handcrafted wooden decorative pieces on display.
28. Sawn edges were sanded smooth on my wide belt sander. If you don’t have one, I now see there are many people who post material on electronic media showing how to convert commonly available power tools into workstations that will enable items such as a hand-held belt sander to perform the same function as my sander, but keep in mind, the key at this point is only removing sacrificial timber
Hand sanding wooden piece on sandpaper machine.
29. To refine edges and add detail to the ‘wings’ I made a platform of plywood supported with a 19mm piece of hardwood, which was placed on the table of my sander, changing the angle of the winged edges to about 10°. Masking tape was attached to the wings and registration marks added in pen so I could judge how far I had sanded each edge. Each edge was then hand sanded with sandpaper wrapped around a flat sanding block, and edges eased with 320 grit sandpaper, followed with an application of wipe-on, wipe-off polyurethane
Wooden handcrafted Japanese-style stools.

Conclusion

Once the project was completed and it was time to take photos of the finished form, a slight twist of the lid revealed an aspect not previously considered. The box took on the look of a temple, adding intrigue to the form and drawing it back to underlying images that have been lingering in my mind since seeing the temples of China, Vietnam and Thailand in pre-Covid years.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *