Club Night Demo: 10th September 2025
Report by: Emma James-Ries
This was a fantastically humorous demo and if you missed it, you missed some good honest turning & banter! Starting the demo, Kieran danced & sang to the original song My-Ding-A-Ling by Dave Bartholmu from 1952. We wondered where this was all going… only to see Kieran produce a small lidded box in the shape of a counter bell! Fabulous introduction to a great little project.
To start the box you need 2 x 95 x 95 x 25mm squares of cross grain timber. Using a hot glue chuck, Kieran mounted the first piece, which was to be the base of the bell, to the lathe, locked the tailstock and knocked off the corners. A little tip he shared here, to avoid spraying shaving everywhere, hold out your little pinky to stem the flow of flying shavings, but be careful not to touch the timber!
Once the piece is round, face off the front, Kieran used a draw cut here. Now to make a 50mm dove tail recess of 2mm deep in the bottom. Next he shaped a bead for the base of the box, then shaped the curve of the bell and sanded to a high finish.
Next he heated up the glue with a heat gun to free the piece from the chuck. An audience member cautioned here to NEVER part off the glue chuck with a bandsaw, unfortunately speaking with experience of the pain of cleaning hotmelt glue off his bandsaw blade. Thanks for the tip!
Next Kieran mounted the base using expanding jaws in the prepared recess. Then he faced off the front and put a small chamfer on the rim. After he moved on to creating a recess for the tenon of the lid to sit inside. Then it was time to hollow out, being mindful of the recess in the base and not to go too deep, Kieran first used a spindle gouge in the centre to drill the depth, then hollowed out with a bowl gouge. To smooth the bottom he used a standard scraper above centre to avoid a catch. That was the base of the box finished!
Moving on to the lid, again mounting with a glue chuck and turning round. Kieran was turning at a speed of 1750 in this process, he faced off the front. With calipers to measure the fit for the lid, he made a tenon with a parting tool to fit the base. He then proceeded to drill out the lid using the same method as the base. He made sure to leave enough room for a recess to fit the finial later. Once again, he smoothed out with the scraper and sanded.
Turning the lid around and holding very gently in the recess, he cut a little bead to sit proud of the base, then proceeded to shape the rest of the bell head. He made a small flat at the very top of the bell, for the finial to sit. He then drilled a small hole for the finish to sit.
Using a blank of 20x20x100mm timber, he turned round, made a spigot to fit the finial recess and made a cute finial in the shape of a bell button. After a little touch of sandpaper he parted off and assembled the finished bell box! Fantastic and entertaining demo, thank you Kieran.
