Journal

Stewart had been asked to do a demo solely on decorating & texturing a workpiece. Something he is well known for at clubs and trade events countrywide.

The first part covered the use of airbrushes & spirit stains. the difference between gravity fed and siphon types, the need for vapour rated face masks. methylated spirit to clean the airbrushes. His preferred woods are sycamore ,beech & maple, not Ash .

Stewart then moved onto texturing .

Next was creating an effect by spinning the work when paint has just been applied

Finally Stewart used a carbide cutter to create deep texturing .

Lively discussions took place, questions where answered by Stewart and members thanked him in the usual way for a great demo. one of the best . Below the finished items & a link to visit his web site.

Steve a professional turner for many years was asked to do a demo on hollowing.

He started off by turning what could have been a goblet but became a scoop. turning the blank to round and added a dovetail to the end nearest the tailstock (for safety reasons). then held it in the chuck jaws, proceeded to mark out the lengths of each section. rough form the o/d of the scoop and drill a hole to the required depth before using  swept back bowl gouge to hollow out the cup and get a uniform wall thickness.

Tools used by Steve  L to R  

standard grind spindle gouge, 2 swept back bowl gouges, parting tool, square skew and roughing gouge.

Steve for his 2nd demo chose a 2 part bud vase 6 inches tall in oak, made from a log.

each picture in order has Steve’s method as a caption.

Steve was thanked in the usual way for a thoroughly entertaining demo. showing the tools used and their correct and safe presentation to the work piece.

Off Centre Turning by Alan Edwards

A really intriguing topic which, I know, many members are interested to try. There are many ways to approach this but Alan showed us a few of his. Firstly he drilled two holes into a bowl blank that he had prepared – one hole on centre and the other offset. He used the centre hole to mount the blank using a screw chuck and then turned the outside of the bowl leaving a recess to remount as normal.

He then remounted the bowl using the offset hole, marked out the spigot and made that (a little too small but he rectified the mistake later).

On returning to the job he mounted the bowl on centre to clean the face before changing to the offset spigot to hollow out the now offset bowl.

In the interim Alan made a smaller offset bowl by turning the bottom of the bowl in the usual way but making a longer tenon than normal. When he reversed the bowl to turn out the inside he put the tenon into the chuck at an angle which allowed the offset.

And finally, as an embellishment, he reversed the bowl again, supported by a block faced with router mat in the headstock with the tailstock supporting the base at an offset.

Many of us, I’m sure, will be trying this in the near future. So thanks Alan for a really informative demo.

Show and Tell

Another successful evening of Show and Tell at the club tonight. Russell, ably assisted by Sue, introduced an eclectic mix of projects from contributors new and old throughout the evening. Eugene kicked the session off with his recently – made gonks followed by a variety of Geoff’s latest work.

Contributions from Roger, Roy and Ian took us along to the break after which Sue took on the MC duties.

Mark and Nick both had interesting stories to tell about their projects before Colin amused us with tales of woodturning in Spain where he lives. Steve and Brian concluded this section of the evening.

The evening concluded with a flock of Alan’s (P, E and J!) rounded off by Russell’s own work and his problems with dragonflies!

Demo by Terry Smart of Chestnut Products

We were pleased to welcome Terry Smart from Chestnut Products to the club for another visit. As many of our members use these products a guide to their correct use is invaluable. He began the evening by demonstrating the Chestnut Buffing Systems and which compounds and waxes to use for the best results.

He then showed us the effect on different woods of the standard Sanding Sealer followed by Burnishing Cream and Wax finish.

In the second half of the session he showed us his method of finishing pens and ended with a demo on an ash vase of Chestnut’s range of Rainbow Waxes.