Mark St. Leger is a career carpenter/ cabinetmaker who, for the past fourteen years, has been teaching high school woodshop and has incorporated creative turning in his student classes. He is an active demonstrator and workshop leader for woodturning clubs. He has participated in both regional and national symposia. Marks first visit to our club was in June of 2000. Currently Mark is serving his second term as an AAW board member and is an active member of the Blue Ridge Woodturners of Southwest Virginia. His work has been shown at the Artisan Center of Virginia and the Art Museum of Western Virginia. Mark specializes in small-scale turnings, off center work and boxes, as well as thread chasing and tool making. He especially enjoys sharing with others what he has learned throughout the years.

Mark began his demonstration making a fliptop or tippy-top. Using hackberry, centers were marked and punched. It was then placed between centers and was rounded with a half inch roughing gouge. Mark anchored the tool on the rest and used his index finger against the tool rest to guide it and keep the cut parallel. He then turned a taper on the headstock end. He used a template to form the number 2 taper shape on the piece. The tapered piece was then placed in the headstock. Using a one-quarter inch Bedan Tool he then formed the tops handle three-eighths inch long and one-quarter inch in diameter. The top was then shaped with a three-eighths inch spindle gouge. Mark then hollowed the upper portion of the top to about three-eighths inch deep. The outside shape was then further refined. (The general shape of the top was similar to a putty ball that was dropped to partially flatten one surface.) After sanding the piece Mark parted the piece with a sharpened butter knife. The small bottom nub was removed. The tippy top was demonstrated and it worked!

The second project was the dancing top made with blue Corian and maple. The maple was the tapered portion fitted with a Corian washer or ring about one-quarter inch thick. The Corian was fitted to a wood number 2 taper and the ring tapered so that the edge was one-sixteenth inch thick and the center portion around the hole about one-eighth inch thick. Mark then made several detail marks on the Corian. The surface was then polished with ScotchBrite. Mark reversed the Corian ring and again tapered it so that the finished edge was about one-sixteenth inch thick. This side was then detailed and polished. At this point both surfaces of the Corian ring were convex in shape. A stem was then formed for the top. Mark first trued up a short number 2 tapered glue block to provide a good glue surface. A two and one-half inch long, one-half inch thick maple piece was used for the stem. This was glued to the glue block using medium CA glue and accelerator. The tailstock was not used. The maple piece was turned into a cylinder. The handle end of the stem was formed first to about one-sixteenth inch in diameter using the Bedan Tool. Mark supported the tip of the stem with the left index finger. The lower portion of the stem was then formed. A tenon was formed to accept the Corian disc. The stem was sanded starting at 220 grit and progressing to 600 grit. The bottom of the stem was then formed with a chamber to match the Corian ring shape. The bottom of the top was then formed with the small point and parted off.

A stand or base was then made for the dancing top. A one-half inch thick 2x2 inch piece of maple was used. This was placed in a Talon chuck. The top of the stand was domed using a one-half inch spindle gouge starting at the four corners. The dome was shear cut and a small dimple was formed in the center to accept the point of the bottom of the top. This permitted the top to stand up on the dome. The dome was then sanded. The piece was reversed in the chuck and the base of the dome dished out so that the top could spin in it. This was done with the one-half inch spindle gouge, riding the bevel. It was then shear scraped to improve the surface quality and sanded. (When sanding you have to be careful of the existing four corners. The edges of the base would then be sanded and either textured, carved or burned.)

The edges were rounded with a power carver and a sanding disc attached to the chuck. Mark then used a three sided carbide cutter for texturing. A Detail Master was used to burn areas of the texturing to accentuate details. The dancing top was then demonstrated and it worked quite well.

Mark began the afternoon session with a chasing threads project. First a jig was made from a two and one-half inch long block of maple. It was placed between centers and rounded. A taper was formed to correspond to a 2 M.T. A Bedan Tool was used to form the taper. The taper was placed in the headstock. The cylinder was reduced to the required diameter. Two jigs were made from the piece -- the first for the tailstock. This was hollowed to accept a sphere. It was then parted off. It will eventually be used on the live center. Then the second, headstock jig was made. It too was hollowed. At this point there were two jigs to accept the spherical box that will follow.

The box was then formed from hard rock maple. Centers were found and punched. It was placed between centers and turned into a cylinder. A Stebcenter was placed in the headstock (safe drive center). A tenon was formed on each end using the Bedan Tool. (A parting tool could also be used.) The center of the piece was pencil marked and then parted into two halves. Before parting, a line was drawn across the two halves so that the grain could be matched later in the project.

A chuck was placed in the headstock and one half of the cylinder placed in the chuck. This represented the bottom half of the box. A three-quarter inch deep hole was drilled and the bottom hollowed. Two hollowing tools were used. First, a three-eighths inch number 2 fluted double ended ball end mill cutter was used. Later, a hook tool would be used on the top of the sphere. (Because it will be a spherical box, the inside also has to be spherical.) A recess was then formed for the thread chaser. The interior was then shear scraped to clean it up keeping the spherical shape. The recess was checked to be sure it was 90 degrees to the edge. Thread chasing was then done at a speed of about 300 rpm to form the threads. Mark used 20 threads per inch. He lubricated the wood where the threads were to be formed with Magic Juice (50% Joy and 50% water). The inside was then cleaned and waxed. The piece was marked between the number one and two jaws so that it could be accurately placed back in the chuck later, if needed.

Mark then placed a template in the chuck to practice outside thread chasing. The top of the box was placed in the chuck. Again, a mark was made between jaws number one and two. A tenon was then turned just a little larger than the opening in the box bottom. The lathe speed reduced to 300 rpm and the thread chaser used to form the threads on the lid. Then the top was hollowed out using the hook tool after boring a one-inch deep hole. Again, as with the bottom, the spherical shape of the inside had to be maintained. It was then shear scraped and waxed.

The top was removed and the bottom placed in the chuck. The face was cleaned with the shear scraper and the grain aligned between the top and the bottom. The two halves were screwed together and the piece placed between centers. This was in preparation of making the 2-inch sphere. The outside was cleaned up and marked one and one-sixteenth inch on either side of the centerline. The Bedan Tool was then used to turn away the ends up to the two lines. At this point all wood was removed outside of the spherical shape. A shallow fluted spindle gouge was used. Detail lines were made around the sphere to hide the centerline. Both ends were then parted and sawed off.

One pre-made cup chuck was placed in the headstock and trued-up. The other was placed at the tailstock end. The ball was then placed between the two cup chucks. The nub ends from the parting were removed and the sphere trued using three axis positions. It was then sanded in all axis positions using 220 to 600 grit. The threaded sphere was completed. However, it could not be unscrewed so it was placed in the freezer for about 20 minutes and then it could be taken apart.

The final phase of the demonstration consisted of a pop top box made of cherry. Centers were determined, punched and the piece placed between centers. A cylinder was formed with a three-quarter inch roughing gouge. Tenons were formed at each end with the Bedan Tool. The center of the piece was parted to form the two portions of the box. The bottom of the box was placed in the chuck and hollowed out as was done with the spherical box. The interior was cleaned up using the shear scraper. Mark then tapered the outside of the opening with a beveled cut. The piece was marked between jaws number one and two for future reference. The top of the box was then placed in the chuck and a tenon turned to fit it into the bottom. A bevel was formed down to the tenon. The top was then hollowed and the tenon refined to give the pop-top sound when the two halves were separated. The two halves were put together and placed between centers but this time the new centers were three-eighths of an inch off the previous true centers on opposite sides of both ends. Mark started with a three-quarter inch roughing gouge. He then used a skew to form the egg shape. Both ends were parted off with the butter knife to about one-sixteenth of an inch. It was removed from the centers and the nubs cut off and smoothed. It did make a pop when opened.

This completed a wonderful demonstration. Details of the entire demonstration will be available in January 2004 when the edited tape will be in the club library.

Bob Gunther

Mark's Previous Demonstration

More about Mark