I won the "Battle of the Bottlestoppers"

Bottle stoppers and I have had a difficult relationship over the last months. While I had turned several stoppers several months ago, I have had nothing but trouble since then. I bought some stopper kits from a different source that turned out to have a different size thread. Then I purchased some brass inserts from Lowe's which turned out to be totally wrong for the task. I ended up with a small box of stoppers all with the wrong size or wrong type of insert in the wood.

Well this last trip to the wood shop was a positive one. I was able to use the style and size of insert that I needed for the Woodcraft kits. Essentially, in order to make things work I had to ignore the recommendations that come with the inserts. Because of the hardness of the wood I was using - Cocobolo, Jabota, Maple, etc - I had to increase the size of the hole for the insert - the recommended hole for the insert is 3/8" while the outside diameter of the threads on the insert is 1/2". So somewhere in that remaining 1/8" was a happy medium - large enough to not strip the threads off the insert yet small enough to allow the threads to bite into wood.

This is a picture of one of the successful stoppers. It is maple with an Ohio state quarter embedded in the top. I turned and polished three stoppers to send as Christmas gifts. The second used a blue plastic to which I added a clear jewel on the top. The third was a beautiful cocobolo wood with a dark stone insert. I still have several kits to try with other wood and decoration combinations. It's nice to find the correct methods to make these.