Author: srdm1207gmailcom

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

A really well attended meeting with lots of new faces. Welcome to you all! And, as usual, there was a wide variety of projects on show, introduced immaculately by Russell.

The evening kicked off with contributions from two new faces, Sue and Richard, and the interesting stories attached to their projects. Eugene was then called forward to explain his involvement with ‘Men in Sheds’ and how that led to the production of his items.

Geoff next with an eclectic mix of top quality work ranging from a walking stick to a very complicated segmented piece. And, to take us to the break, Brian shared his latest projects with the group.

After refreshments the whirlwind continued with Steve’s fungi, Dexter’s tricky little pot, Angela’s apples and pears and a variety of items by Alan Edwards.

A masterclass in segmented work by Keith Drew followed when he took us step by step through a number of hugely detailed projects.

Two newer members, Ian and Alan Hicks followed by a more familiar one in Chairman Alan Pattison were then introduced to explain their work. A massively successful evening was rounded off by Russell himself and a description of pen – making by Rob Posselt. A huge thank you to all that took part.

Sharpening Masterclass

The first meeting of the year began with our traditional curtain – raiser – a demonstration of various types of sharpening systems – essential for every woodturner. Members were treated to not on, not two, not even three but four different systems to compare and contrast. No excuse now for blunt tools!