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This was my woodworking item for the 2019 Beer Swap. I made them for LJ Steve . I decided to use my Ringmaster to make a can koozie and made a simple prototype using Douglas Fir that I re-sawed from a 4×4 with a bradford pear rim (4th and 5th picture, right koozie). The quarter sawn vertical grain resulted in a really cool pattern on the side. The rings were cut about 1/4" thick, glued on and turned and sanded on the lathe so that the walls are about 1/8" thick. The prototype turned out to be a little rough due to tearout of the DF endgrain so I made a second one to send to Steve from silver maple with a walnut rim. It had a somewant punky heartwood that I managed to orient to form nice pattern.

I personally like my beer poured into a glass so I ordered some can shaped glasses that were supposedly the same diameter as a standard can but proved to be about 3/8" larger in diameter. I decided to make a larger koozie just for the glass. Again I started with a Doug fir prototype but the koozie exploded as I was shaping the second to last ring. I then used some wedges I had left over from the vase I made last year to make a second one and managed to complete it without totally screwing it up. This was made by gluing walnut and maple wedges together, cutting it into squares and cutting rings on the Ringmaster. Here is a picture before glue up.


BTW, I was able to find all of the pieces of the doug fir glass koozie and glue it back together to make a glass koozie for myself. It had less chipout than the first prototype but you can definitely see the glue lines where I put the piece back together so I decided the maple and walnut one was a better one to send.

You can see the beer that I sent Steve along with the 2 koozies I sent here. His pictures are are probably better than mine so you can check those out too.

Gallery

Comments

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Nice work Nathan.
 

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Very good stuff Nathan! I really love the branch marks in the koozie. I also like how the glass fits in the other one. I've been wondering how I could make a nice wood beer mug but still have at least some ability to see my beers. This prompts my little brain to ticking :))
 

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Unfortunately Kenny,even though I intentionally made it a little shorter than the can koozie so you can see more of the beer in the glass, with the wider dimension of the glass, a 12 oz beer will just barely show the head above the rim of the wood in the walnut and maple one, though obviously you can see and smell the beer as you drink it. The DF prototype is a little shorter so I think that it will show the beer better. I remember you saying how beer in stainless steel tastes funny to you so when I stumbled upon these I had to get them for a koozie.
 

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I was actually thinking about turning a sleeve that went almost to the top of the glass then maybe using a router fixture of some sort on the lathe and indexing it and routing windows in the center section. If that makes sense…
 

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That's a good idea Kenny. You could make a router fluting jig for the lathe to cut some slots every 60 degrees or so.
 

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Nice one! I did koozies last year. There's a koozie kit I found on crafts supply USA I think if you ever want to make more.

Rich
 

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I actually bought a kit on a clearance table for 75 cents at Woodcraft a couple of months ago. It was basically a foam liner and a plastic ring for the rim. I couldn't figure out why you would put s plastic rim on it, though I did include the foam liner.
 

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Nathan, that is some awesome turning. I really like the style of these. Super job.
 

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Very nice craftsmanship in that project.
Something beautiful and original from nothing more than otherwise re sawn scrap.
Very nice work, What did you finish them with Nathan?
They certainly popped great.
Regards
Anth
 

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Thanks Anth. The silver maple and the douglas fir glass koozie were simply finished with a spray on oil based polyurethane, inside and out. The maple/walnut wedge and the doug fir can koozies were finished on the outside with CA but I just used the spray on poly on the inside. I didn't get the inside smooth enough for the CA to work well in there, plus it is just too hard to apply inside.
 

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Thanks everyone!
 

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Nathan - great project - as always. They have a hint of a rustic look but they are definitely upscale.

When I read that you used a ringmaster I thought of some of the translucent segmented bowls Dick makes (Recycle1943). Maybe you can incorporate some acrylic panels in one of your coozies?
 

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Thanks Earl. I was thinking the same thing after Kenny mentioned cutting slots so you can see the beer. I've been following Dick and his translucent bowls for a while now too.
 

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Very nice! I'm going to make some Ringmaster mugs and vases soon, I actually taught Dick the finer points of epoxy resin and he taught me his method of making bowls with a ringmaster lathe that he actually sold me, LOL He had an "extra" one that he got at a county fair by trading a guy that bought one but wasn't interested in using it anymore. You can see my bowls and bowls with epoxy and lampshades with epoxy in my projects.
 

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Very nice! I m going to make some Ringmaster mugs and vases soon, I actually taught Dick the finer points of epoxy resin and he taught me his method of making bowls with a ringmaster lathe that he actually sold me, LOL He had an "extra" one that he got at a county fair by trading a guy that bought one but wasn t interested in using it anymore. You can see my bowls and bowls with epoxy and lampshades with epoxy in my projects.

- MJR
Your very Lucky that Dick past on his skills and ideas to you. Hes the Master around here.
Kind Regards
Anthony
 

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Very challenging project!
 

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Very nice.

CtL
 

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Nathan,

All those years I lived in Wilmington and never heard of Ringmaster! I could have visited the factory!

I really like your coozies, especially the wedge one!

Mike
 

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Yes, We share techniques and methods with each other all the time
Very nice! I m going to make some Ringmaster mugs and vases soon, I actually taught Dick the finer points of epoxy resin and he taught me his method of making bowls with a ringmaster lathe that he actually sold me, LOL He had an "extra" one that he got at a county fair by trading a guy that bought one but wasn t interested in using it anymore. You can see my bowls and bowls with epoxy and lampshades with epoxy in my projects.

- MJR

Your very Lucky that Dick past on his skills and ideas to you. Hes the Master around here.
Kind Regards
Anthony

- anthm27
 
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