Turning Wood Buttons

[Walter Ambrosch]

I know there must be some info out there on how to make wood buttons for garments.

I need to make a bunch of 1" to 1-3/4" natural wood buttons out of hard Maple, but not sure how to start.

Most old wood buttons were not end grain but flat grain and it looks like they made a patterned cutter to use so that they are all identical.

Ideas?

 

[Joe Greiner]

Essentially, a bowl or platter, but smaller. I'd turn the outside rim between centers, of a size to just barely fit inside a standard pvc pipe. Which will be used to hold it for turning the inside. Cut 4-8 partial slots in the pipe to allow squeezing with a hose clamp. Grip the pipe in a scroll chuck, with a spacer dowel to place the part near the end of the pipe. Depending on complexity, a patterned cutter might be best for the inside, although a simple template works well too.

For large quantities, I'd do each step on all the pieces in one setup - all the outsides, then all the inside back or front, then all the inside front or back. Finally, drill the thread holes. A cross-slide drill press vise can help to align the holes, with 3 or 4 buttons temporarily attached to a wood block with hot-melt glue. (The vise grips the wood block.)

For spray finishing of very light objects, I've used push pins in a piece of cardboard, with double-face tape on the back to hold the heads against wobbling. The pins leave little evidence of contact.

To assist "identical" buttons, make several extra, and group them by eye, placing each group in small plastic baggies.

How many are in your "bunch?" 50? 100? 1000? And how many different sizes?

 

[Richard Jones]

http://woodturner.org/Member/journal/2006.asp

p. 40 or 41, I think, in volume # 4

Rich

 

[Bill Hunt]

There was an article in one of the magazines 2 or 3 years ago showing how to turn buttons. I did some on my 3520. the difficult part was getting the holes done. You might do a search on here, maybe it was the AAW Journal??

that was the smallest thing i've turned on my big lathe.

Bill

 

[hockenbery]

If you are doing lots of buttons you want to make the mount on off fast.
making a 2 pin drive mandrel that fits in your 4 jaw chuck or better yet on a wooden Morse taper will be well worth the time.
the two pins fit in opposite button holes.

drill the holes first. either make a template or a jig on the drill press easy to do with square pieces.
This is a mind numbing job so remain alert or you'll get hurt.
put brass rods in two holes to stack the buttons 10 to 20 deep. Mount the stack between centers centered on the holes.
Cut the outside diameter. If you aren't good at turning cylinders, you will be. In the beginning you could cut 3 or 4 pieces to diameter very carefully an insert them in your stack to use as a guide. After the first stack the two end button will have center marks an you probably just reuse these. I would use a cup drive center or steb center.

turn all the faces
then make a wooden jamb chuck with a hole in the bottom.
press the blank in the jamb chuck turn (and sand if needed) the face.
pop out with a knock out rod.

make a wooden mandrel with two pins (brass rod sections) that fit opposing button holes. on the tailstock you'll need a small diameter flat 1/2 or less covered with leather. You can turn a wooden cover for most any live center that has straight sides on the revolving part. If you have a oneway live center get a Flat extension point from Bruce Campbell http://www.artisansworkbench.com/Product info/Extension Points/extension_points.htm
glue on a piece of leather with CA or something you can clean off.

put the button on the mandrel bring up the covered flat live center, turn the edge. This has to be done last as you may change the diameter ever so slightly. sand if need


have fun.
Al