Author: srdm1207gmailcom

The Show and Tell is one of the most interesting and informative dates in the calendar where members of all levels of experience share their turning tales with the rest of the group. As usual Russell navigated a path through the evening with his customary blend of humour and gentle probing to prise out the successes and mishaps of a wide range of members projects.

In turn Roy, Brian, Keith and Mark stood up and described their projects before Russell himself took the floor.

After the break Alan Jones” eclectic mix of projects from his archive informed us all before Dexter, Ian and Geoff made their contributions to the evening.

Alan Edwards finished up a great evening by telling us how he went about making (and correcting) a commission for his daughter.

As always ‘Hands On’ evening was a hubbub of noise and activity. Our 4 club lathes, manned by our experienced lathe leaders, were in constant action setting about the evening’s task of making a bud vase.

It gave a big opportunity to our newer members to have a go and come away from the evening with something tangible to take home with them.

Doughnut Chuck to make a Scoop

Although it was chairman Alan Pattison’s debut as a demonstrator he showed no sign of nerves as he embarqued on his project of turning a scoop. He began, as usual, by turning a sycamore spindle to round with his spindle roughing gouge before shaping the sphere to fit his doughnut chuck. He also shared the formula he used to calculate the diameter of this sphere which may have lost a few of the audience (including me) along the way!

He proceeded to shape the handle of the scoop before returning to fine tune the sphere with his bedan (or was it his bidet!)

Alan then described the correct method of mounting the work into the doughnut chuck before hollowing out the bowl using his adapted scraper. The result was a very attractive and functional piece for use in any home. A very entertaining and informative demo. Well done Alan!

After an 8 year absence we welcomed Steve Heeley back to the club. Steve has spent a lifetime working with wood as carpenter, joiner and woodturner and had demonstrated widely until a cancer diagnosis 6 years ago curtailed his activities.

With a nod to our many new members Steve chose to demonstrate how to turn an acorn box followed by a spindle turning masterclass. He began by turning an oak spindle to round, making tenons and parting off before hollowing and shaping the acorn.

Next he shaped the cup and fitted the acorn roughly to it before texturing the cup with his texturing tool.

Steve finished the evening with a masterclass in spindle turning which members of all abilities could benefit from despite the malfunction of the camera system. Our thanks again to Steve

The club held a couple of Sunday training sessions for some of our beginners and improvers and the concensus was that everyone really enjoyed it and hopefully learned something from the experience! Here is what they produced.

Thanks to all of our lathe leaders for giving up their time