The Music Box Project-Making the Lid

 Hi Everyone,
I lost the chuck key for the Nova chuck for a few days. Not only did it prompt a total lock down of the wood shop to find it, I couldn't proceed with the project until I found it, which was today. It was sitting in plain sight on top of a cabinet. Oh well.

So I decided to get going on the lid today. It's out of a piece of hard maple and I'm going to make a small finial out of goncalo alves wood:

I spent a few minutes getting it on the lathe and truing up the blank:

And fortunately I stopped shaping it in time for it to fit the opening of the music box. I needed to reduce the thickness of the blank and I spent the next 30 minutes or so just turning away and enjoying turning a piece of maple. It turns so beautifully: 

Here it is when I stopped. It's still too thick and the top of the lid needs to be dished out some. When I'm done I'll place a small block of goncalo alves in the middle and turn that in place:

See you all tomorrow, chuck key in hand.
VW