When cutting round blanks for platters or large bowls from boards or burl slabs, there are always bits leftover that can be used. Indeed in many cases these leftover bits can be turned into boxes which will sell for enough to pay for the board or burl slab. In order to get the most out of these bits, it is essential that the blanks not be damaged on the ends by the lathe centers. This point cannot be over stressed. Instead of mounting the blanks between centers, the blanks should be gripped in a chuck for roughing. It is unimportant which chuck us use; use what you have. (My own approach is to use a Vicmarc chuck with shark jaws for roughing out the box and then switch to an Axminster chuck for hollowing and finishing.) For these boxes, the chucking spigots are NOT wasted but are incorporated into the design. The design must accommodate the loss of diameter due to the chucking spigots being present. There are many ways to accomplish this, but it essentially boils down to turning a lid and base that make use of the spigots. This can be accomplished by turning a pavilion or a spike finial on the lid. And so on. On the base, this can be accomplished by having the base of the box smaller in diameter than the diameter at the join. If the design needs to flare out at the bottom, then there will be no chucking spigot there. In that case, turn the box true and round where the chucking spigot would otherwise be and turn the bottom flat or concave so that it will register nicely in the chuck jaws.
The figure below shows a block diagram for a box blank 50mm in height.
The following figures show some possible lid and body shapes that incorporate the chucking spigots into the finished box.
