Own State Of a Mind.

Completed Scrap Pile box prototype, with its first coat of Varnish/Oil. 9"x4-½"x4-½", made from 3/8" square assorted wood rods.

To make the Okin stems I made this duplicator jig for the lathe. 

I first built a perfectly square and flat wooden box that clamps onto the bed of my lathe, this flat surface will give the cutter/follower something to move around on. 

The holder for the cutting bit and template follower was made from mahogany. 

The brass template was cut with the help of a paper template. To make the paper template, I took a prototype Okin stem, glued it to a piece of paper and traced around it’s shadow that was created by the afternoon sun. This gave a fairly accurate profile to follow. 

After the template was cut out and hand filed smooth, I attached it to the base with adjustable support screws. The positioning was micro-adjusted in relation to the lathe spindle center. After a bunch of test stems turned from maple I had everything dialed in. 

More detailed photographs of how the jig works will be in the next post!