The last few months I've been obsessed with making pens. Seemed to me like a good introduction to the lathe. I was going though my scrap box today and the figured what the hell I'll try and make a tamper. I glued some scrap pieces together and drilled a hole through the middle to fit my mandrel. I turned it to some sort of shape that struck my fancy. Really I had no plan going into it. I pulled it off the lathe and glued a bolt into my now half done tamper. When the glue set I took it to my belt sander and rounded off the bolt. I also did some more shaping before sanding the whole thing by hand. I started with 150 grit and went up to 600. I then waxed it with Dactur no buff wax. Its not perfect but The plan is sound.