Book Review: Turning Boxes with Threaded Lids – Bill Bowers

I hate to admit it, but this is one of two books in my collection that fail to impress me.  Both of these books are on the subject of thread chasing, something that fascinates me and keeps me endlessly entertained.  It is one of the most rewarding turning skills I have ever attempted to master and it may be because of this fascination that I blindly bought this book.  Don’t get me wrong, the book contains some great information and instruction on thread chasing and turning some fairly unique boxes, but the format is dire.  It reminds me of high school French lesson material.  The pages are filled with endless photographs, with just a short caption accompanying each one and little formatted text to tie the book together.  Of course if I had read the beginning of the book before purchase I would have seen that it is described as a ‘caption driven instructional text’….





But that’s not all.  The majority of the pieces are decorated with a Rose Engine Lathe.  Though it doesn’t mention this on the front cover, I enjoy to see Rose Engine work, but it leaves my pieces looking incomplete and lacking.  There is a decent sized chapter on Rose Engines within the book, but this just leaves me even further out in the cold!  The photographs in many turning books leave you agog at the beauty or complexity of the pieces.  But again, this is an ‘instructional text’ and the pictures are definitely more instructional than beautiful.

Containing 80 pages,  it is split into 7 chapters:

  1. Cylinder Boxes with Dyed Epoxy Threads
  2. Cubic Boxes with Threaded Pyramidal Lids
  3. Threaded Spherical Boxes on Pedestals Embellished with Rose Engine Ornamental Designs
  4. Threaded Rotating Ring Capsule Boxes with Rose Engine Lathe Decorations
  5. The Nuts and Bolts of Threaded Boxes
  6. Threaded Pierced-Through Boxes with Rose Engine Lathe Embellishments
  7. Gallery

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Turning Boxes with Threaded Lids by Bill Bowers

Turning Boxes with Threaded Lids by Bill Bowers

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