Turn a Wooden Pumpkin Box | How To
This cute wooden pumpkin box makes the perfect autumnal decoration to be used time and time again.
With a threaded lid, this charming little box is turned and hollowed on the lathe, complete with pumpkin features including a stalk lid.
A great project for practising some more advanced skills and to practice threading, this pumpkin also makes a great hiding place for keepsakes.
Watch Colwin in our Woodworking Wisdom demo or follow our step by step guide below.
Select and mount your blank
Start with your blank of 100mm x 100mm x 100mm and in this instance we've used spalted beech, but any light coloured timber would work.
Create a tenon on the blank to hold the piece in your chuck, then measure the jaws with a set of callipers and size the tenon to a good fit.
Turn the blank around and hold the tenon in your chuck and refine the top shape to be pumpkin like. Repeat the pumpkin shaping on the underside, but leave a good strong hold point for hollowing later.
Begin hollowing the box
Using a 35mm drill bit, drill a hole to three quarters of the depth of the pot. This acts as a clearance hole allowing easy access for hollowing. With the hole drilled, refine the top of the pumpkin shape into the hole.
Mark and cut the veins
Using the index facility on your lathe, and a sanding table in your banjo, mark out the lines where the veins of the pumpkin are to be carved into the pot.
Starting with a pull saw, cut the lines 5mm deep but tapering off toward top and bottom. Then, using a rasp start to form the pumpkin vein.
Using a piece of scrap wood and abrasive start to sand down through the grades to achieve a good finish.
Finish hollowing the box
To complete the hollowing we used the Easy Wood Tools Hollower 1 and 2.
Finish by sanding all over the pumpkin and clean up any areas that need to be refined. Give the pot a coat of sanding sealer and part off from the lathe.
Create a jam chuck
Using the piece of waste wood left in the chuck, create a jam chuck by tapering the waste to grip the pot. Then refine the underside of the pot and sand.
Pair off and hand sand the underside before giving a coat of sanding sealer.
Create the liner and threads
The threaded liner for the inside of the pumpkin needs to be made from a dense timber to allow for the thread to be cut crisply. We've chosen a piece of satin wood. Start by rounding down your blank to hold in your chuck, then clean the face off ready for drilling.
Using a set of external callipers, size the blank to the 35mm drill bit you used to drill out the pumpkin box. Then drill the liner with a 25mm drill bit to a depth of 30mm.
Start thread chasing by cutting the corner first then slowly bringing the tool around with each cut you make until the tool is parallel with the hole. The lathe needs to be running between 250-320 rpm for this process. Once you have a good crisp and tidy thread you can part it off.
Turn the line around and hold back in the chuck gently and clean up the back side of the liner.
To make the male section of the thread, rough down and clean up the next blank, again from a dense hard timber.
Cut the blank to size, which should be around 1.5mm larger than the internal thread.
To cut the thread, start running the chaser angle across the front corner with the handle high. Now start bringing the handle around using the thread as a tramline and allowing it to feed in the thread.
When your happy with the, thread and it fits the internal thread, you can use the parting tool to create the tenon used to insert into the lid. Add a little wax to help the thread slide nicely. Then you can now part off.
Make the lid and assemble
Rough the blank for the lid down to a round and hold in your chuck.
Create the hole that will match the tenon from the thread just made and then sand to a good finish.
Turn the top of the lid to a door knob shape, Most of this will be sand away in the next few stages. Then part the lid off.
Using a sanding disc on the lathe, sand the stem to shape.
Position the lid and mark out where any texturing needs to be placed. Then sand in any veins or texture.
Glue the lid to the male thread and allow to dry. And there you have your completed pumpkin box.
Enjoyed this? Try this!
If you enjoyed Colwin's pumpkin box, why not try Jason's turned acorn box. Watch our video below.
If you have made either of these projects, we would love to see them. Share with us your pictures. Take a picture, and share it with us on social media. Search and tag @axminstertools on Facebook and Instagram or upload to our online gallery.