Honey Dippers

I have a new favorite tool in my studio—the Proxxon Micro Woodturning Lathe DB 250. I've always been fascinated with woodturning, and am thrilled to finally get to try my hand at it. I began by practicing a bit on some generic hardware store dowels to learn about the lathe and the tools. My first real project was honey dippers.

For this project I used 5/8" oak dowels. The first step was cutting the 3' dowel into 12" lengths using my Proxxon scroll saw.

Next, I marked the center of the end of the dowel.

I drilled a small pilot hole at this center point to anchor the dowel at the tail.

With the oak dowel in place on the lathe, I used a pencil to mark guidelines to indicate the sections of the honey dipper—dipper section, mid section, handle, and top.

I used the parting tool to make the grooves for dipping the honey. The roughing gouge was used to establish the basic shape of the honey dipper, while the detail gouge was used to define design elements. The skew tool was used to smooth the turned shapes.

The piece was sanded while it was still on the lathe. Here is one of the honey dippers ready to part off.

After parting off—cutting away the waste dowel on either end—I sanded the top and bottom of the honey dipper. The last step in the project was to treat the honey dippers with a food-safe oil; I used coconut oil. 

I'm totally pleased with my first lathe project and excited to turn more projects on this remarkable micro tool.

Carole