Maple Walnut Bottle Stopper

this is a nice combo as well.
how are you handling that silly little lip the stainless stoppers have?

Beautiful wood combination.

I, also, would like to ask how you allowed for the lip on the stopper.

looks great…

I presume you're using the mandrel, rather than turning between centers… at any rate, with this batch of stoppers, instead of drilling the blank on the drillpress, tapping the hole and proceeding with the turning…

I chucked the blank in my 4 jaw chuck, and rather than flatten the bottom I've been making it slightly concave. (then drilling with the bit in the tailstock, then chucking the tap, but doing that bit with hand power - turning the wheel, and allowing the tap to feed itself.) The concave bottom seems to allow for a very close fit without noticeable gaps - especially eliminates inconsistent gaps.
don't know what made me think of it… but it seems to make a huge difference.

I've been using a forstner bit to drill a recess in the bottom of the stopper to allow for that "lip". I think I need to get a brad-point 11/32 bit though because I don't always seem to get the thread hole exactly center. it hasn't been a huge issue yet, but it bugs me having it off center…

hmm, try cutting a shallow, wide bowl across the bottom of the blank first… if you drill it on the lathe, that might help get it centered too., and might not need the forstner bit afterall. Some bits do wander more than others.
I'm using my shopsmith in horizontal drill press mode to drill my pen blanks, I finally broke down and bought a centering jig from woodcraft, rather than use the homemade one that requires a lot of finessing if I change bit sizes… anyhow, after getting it perfectly centered on the drill bit - literally tightening it down on the bit and then positioning the table, and clamping everything in place, I still have the bit take a diagonal journey through the pen blank. Not blowing anything out yet, but I'm sure avoiding using the blanks that are closer to 1/2" than 3/4.

It might be a little bit of play in the shopsmith, or ???, but at least I'm not having blanks explode on me, which happened from time to time with the homemade jig - I've since learned not to drill all the way though as well.