Looking to make small, round, wood boxes - good starter wood?

[TonyL]

Hi Folks,

My 2 year old granddaughter loves little boxes for storing her trinkiets in. I have enough lathes and tools to do this and watched a ton of videos.
What is a good wood to get started. I was think of boxes bewteen 3 and 4 inches (even 2 inces is fine) in diamater and aroud 4 inches tall (including the friction-fit lid).

Thanks for any and all advice.

Enjoy the balance of your Sunday.

 

[KenB259]

Hi Folks,

My 2 year old granddaughter loves little boxes for storing her trinkiets in. I have enough lathes and tools to do this and watched a ton of videos.
What is a good wood to get started. I was think of boxes bewteen 3 and 4 inches (even 2 inces is fine) in diamater and aroud 4 inches tall (including the friction-fit lid).

Thanks for any and all advice.

Enjpoy the balance of your Sunday.

I love making these. Since you're planning friction fit lids, any wood will work. I've gotten in the habit of cutting wedges and gluing them together so I don't have to deal with end grain while turning. It makes for a much more pleasant experience. I also have a treen mandrel system, I bought from Beall before they closed. It makes turning a small thin wall box much easier. I think they are still available. They used to have videos on their website on how to use it. Not sure if those are available or not. It's cool little item though.

 

[NJturner]

I agree with @KenB259 - any wood will work as long as it is dry. Little boxes, with or without a finial, are fun to make out of anything you have scrap lying around. Turning club members typically want to hear the 'pop' when the lid is removed, but I'd suggest making them snug enough to stay closed but not too hard for a child to open. For longer wear and hard use, soft maple, walnut, and most fruit woods when dry all make really nice boxes. A friction finish is easy to apply and usually pretty durable for these as well - or leave it unfinished and just wax and buff. Have fun, your grandkids will love them!

Kevin

 

[TonyL]

Thank you very much.

 

[Mortalis]

I was gong to say Cherry or Maple turn really easy. Walnut can be a little tough at times.

 

[TonyL]

Thanks again!

 

[jrista]

I would say, any normal wood, will work fine. Where it starts to get tricky, is anything "punky"...I have a bunch of spalted wood blanks for boxes...I had to stop turning them until I can fix my stabilization system, because spalted woods are very difficult to turn well into boxes if they aren't stabilized. Anything soft, or with an unusual grain (burl) can get problematic when turning boxes.

But any normal, strait grained spindle blank is very easy to turn into boxes. I've had to take a lot of broken branches off my trees the last few years...lot of those branches range from 2-4" or so in diameter, some are even a bit bigger. I chop off a segment, and they turn real nicely into boxes without a lot of hassle. Especially my maple, really nice wood. I have pine, plum, elm, ash as well. Also have a few branches of Lilac that are 2-3" in diameter that I've slated mostly for boxes and candlestick holders. Nice wood.

As John T stated, you want it dry. Nice and dry. Any green wood will warp, which with a box, is not good...usually means the lid won't fit onto the box anymore one all the movement is done. Dry wood, spindles, good to go.