text: Need Small turned pulls for desk drawers
  Author Topic: Need Small turned pulls for desk drawers (Read 6170 times)
  « on: March 30, 2011, 09:17:24 AM »
  I'm in need of a contact who can turn three small pulls for the cubby drawers for a desk that I'm finishing for my daughter. The drawers are in cherry and measure approx. 13-in. wide by 3-in. high. She would like to have wood pulls. I was thinking of a dark contrasting wood such as ebony or such. The constraint is that they protrude no more than 5/8-in so as to not interfere with the writing surface when it is opened to gain access to the storage area. Since the pulls need to be small, I expect that they would be turned from a dense, hard wood.
  I do not have a lathe and expect to pay for this work.
  If you are interested in helping me with these pulls or can make a recommendation on whom I might contact, i would be most appreciative.
  Re: Need Small turned pulls for desk drawers
  « Reply #1 on: March 31, 2011, 01:25:55 AM »
  Do you have a dimensioned sketch of exactly what you want the pulls to look like ?
  I have a lathe and ebony stock.
  « Reply #2 on: March 31, 2011, 03:16:00 PM »
  I do not have a sketch but was thinking of something with a mushroom shape (the classic wooden knob sort of thing) and approx. 3/4-in in dia. at the widest point. Ideally, I'd like to keep their protrusion from the face of the drawer to under 5/8-in. Now, I don't know if that shape, even in a hard wood, is do-able? The piece is basically an adaptation of shaker design, so I think that style would look good. Another possibility is a simple tapered shaft. Do you have a suggestion: I'm open to other ideas.
  « Reply #3 on: March 31, 2011, 04:05:12 PM »
  As I live not far from you, I was considering doing these as a courtesy since I have the lathe, and keep a modest stock ebony for my own projects.
  I do not want to get involved in the design, so if you want me to try to help out, I need a dimensioned sketch or a photograph with overall dimensions noted, and some information about how you plan to attach the pulls. It would be really good for you to draw the pieces now before anytning is cut, and I don't really want to make this a devlopment project s as my time is limited. Also, I do not really want to get involved in the design since it is your piece.
  I gave you my direct email in the previous reply so we can take this offline if you wish.
  « Reply #4 on: April 01, 2011, 09:58:24 PM »
  Frank and I have hooked up offline and he sent me a sketch.
  I have tried a few samples, and am finding ebony quite challenging to turn because it is much softer and tending to tear the grain and splinter much more than I expected.
  I am begining to suspect that many of the ebony small parts used on things like the small knobs sterling silver tea sets may actually be "ebonized" not ebony.
  BTW, the reason I happen to have a stock of ebony is to repair old wood tants.
  « Reply #5 on: April 27, 2011, 01:54:55 PM »
  Frank, I live in your area and might be able to help. Send me the sketch and I will give it a look and try. I am surprised to find that ebony is soft as it is about the hardest wood out there. Karl suggestion to ebonize the pulls is probably a good idea if you don't have access to the ebony
  « Last Edit: April 27, 2011, 01:58:11 PM by Dan_B »
  « Reply #6 on: April 27, 2011, 09:46:08 PM »
  I have turned a number of small knobs for a spice cabinet out of ebony and it went well. Being so hard, ebony has a tendency to chip. The hardest part was cutting the larger boards for small pieces to turn!!
  « Reply #7 on: April 27, 2011, 09:59:41 PM »
  In hindsight, describing the ebony as soft was a poor way to express what I was experiencing when I made the knobs.
  What I was observing was the splitting tendancy you mention; yes, the wood itself is quite hard as you say in the cells, but the inter cellular boundary areas seem to be weak, giving the impression of a soft wood; at times,it felt like I was trying to get a fine finish on balsa wood. What was at work is that the knobs required were quite small compared to the size of pieces I normally work with; so small that the scale of the grain boundaries was large compared to the size of the finished piece.
  I ended up using a set of "miniature" turning tools , not the ordinary lathe size, and in particular resorting to using a model making metal lathe and some metal cutting tools to do some of the turning, and shaping the fine edges by sanding, not the scraping that a turning tool uses in an effort to reduce chipping.
  « Reply #8 on: April 27, 2011, 11:44:25 PM »
  « Reply #9 on: April 27, 2011, 11:50:56 PM »
  Sorry, should read tant - I have over the years repaired ebony tants and made reproduction tant boxes. Interesting challenge with dovetails on the end of a curved side; tant boxes tend to look like a slice of pie.
  « Reply #10 on: April 27, 2011, 11:54:27 PM »
  Apparently the site software edits the use of the letters "s" , "e", and "x" so when I try to type the name of the navigation instrument used to measure the altitude of the sun stars and planets relative to the horizon, it comes out "tant".