Wood Turning a Shot Glass on a Lathe! Beginner Turning Project!

I've always thought it would be cool to make some wooden shot glasses for camping, and now that I have a lathe, I finally could! One thing I really like about this project is that you do NOT need an expensive lathe chuck to make these little wooden cups. All you need is some wood, some turning tools, a lathe (obviously), and a lathe face plate (your lathe probably came with one of these).

Now let's go make some wood shotglasses!

Besides some scrap wood, you may want some of the following tools: (but these are not necessarily required)

1 3/8" Forstner Bit

Carbide Turning Tool

Sanding Spindles

Mineral Oil

To create the blank for the shot glass, we need a block of wood that is approximately 3" long and 2.5" square. I used some scrap wood I had leftover from a cutting board I made last Christmas. Because the scrap wasn't thick enough, I had to cut it down on the table saw, then use a hand plane to flatten it.

Once the glue dried, I could cut out my blank. You could save a lot of time on this step by just buying some pre made blanks from your local wood store. :-) (Note: These blanks might be a bit small, but they should work if you are careful. )

If you have a lathe chuck, again this step would be easy. But those are expensive, and really unnecessary for this type of project. Instead, I cut out a circle of wood that was about the same size as my faceplate that came with my lathe. I then attached the block of wood to the faceplate using screws.

I free handed this circle, but if you want to make perfect circles on the band saw, check out this jig that I made: https://youtu.be/SJuroGtZBa4

To attach the blank to the faceplate, I used a single screw through the center of the face plate, into the center of the blank. Generally, this would not be enough to hold the blank in place, so I use some hot glue around the edge of the blank for a little bit more staying power.

With the faceplate now attached to my lathe, I used my carbide turning tool to face off the end of the blank. This ensures a nice flat, square surface.

Then, I used my 1 3/8" forstner bit to drill a very shallow hole into the blank. I only drilled about 1/8" deep. My goal here was simple to identify the exact center of the piece as it relates to the drill bit, which will be important later on.

Now that I had a nice center mark on the blank, I used the dead center to support the wood while I used my roughing gauge to shape the cup. I wanted to nice sweeping shape with smooth edges.

Since the bottom of the cup is essentially glued to the face plate, be sure to leave enough room to get a cutoff tool in here. I also used my small pen sized spindle gauge to shape the bottom of the cup, since my carbide tool was too large.

Now that the outside is all shaped the way I wanted, I then installed my forstner bit again and drill down into the cup. It is really important that the lathe is turning as slowly as it can, and that the forstner bit is super duper sharp.

Here is a quick tutorial about sharpening forstner bits: https://youtu.be/fodt56fDdHk

We all hate sanding, but it needs to be done. Spend the time now to sand up to a fairly high grit. I prefer 220.

Very very carefully, I then used my cutoff tool to sneak in under the cup and separate it from the rest of the blank. Depending on your lathe, you will probably want to stop BEFORE cutting all the way through, and switch to a saw for the last few cuts.

You wouldn't want your new wooden shot glass to go sailing across the shop, now would you?

There will probably be a little piece of wood sticking out from the bottom of the cup. I used these little spindle sanders for my drill press to sand it off, but you could use a Dremel, file, or even your teeth if they are sharp enough.

Anything that could contact food (or drink) should receive the most food safe finish you can think of. In this case, I decided on pure mineral oil (the same stuff we use on cutting boards), and some beeswax. This will give it a nice, water resistant finish that wont hurt you if a little bit of it dissolves into your drink. (Hey, some of us like our liquor strong!)

I hope you enjoyed this little Instructable about making shot glasses on the lathe! This was a super duper fun project and all of the techniques used could be applied to bowls too!

I hope this inspired you to make more things in the shop! I am so happy with how these turned out (lol) and I'm pretty excited to make more!

Full build video: https://youtu.be/NeXTUTU5jVk

Thanks again for reading! Catch you in the next one!

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