Journal

It was great to see so many new faces at tonight’s Hands On session with a choice of five set ups on offer. The two Alans (Edwards and Pattison) mentored a number of new members to make light pulls. Phil’s student attempted a simplified version of Alan E’s Bell Salt Shaker while Roy tried out the full project – ambitious in the time he had. An added bonus for the evening was Keith’s demo on how to produce the segmented pens he featured on our last Show and Tell evening. A rare chance to watch the master at work!

Thread Chasing by Alan Edwards

To a packed audience of members thirsty for knowledge on, what turns out to be, quite a complicated subject. Alan began by explaining the tools and techniques he would use and passed around a drawing to illustrate the theory.

The first method – the hardest – was to cut first the internal ‘screw’ being careful to include an undercut at the bottom and a bevel at the top. Using the same technique he then carefully cut the external ‘screw’ to match. But, and this is a big but, this method is only effective on harder (and more expensive) woods.

A more stable alternative is to use a segmented collar combined with your chosen wood.

The third method, and the one preferred by Alan, is to use a machine of which several are on the market. The one that Alan chose was a jig he had made himself. This produced excellent results. Well done Alan!

Keith  chose a t-light holder with a bottle chimney as the project for tonight.

using sycamore for the base & a malt whiskey bottle for the chimney.

At this point Keith used a diamond disc mounted on a backing plate to grind the cut edge of the bottle flat and removed sharp edges before completing the fit & polishing the base.

There was sufficient time left for Keith to quickly turn an apple in spalted beech.

Club members thanked Keith in the usual way for an entertaining, informative demo leaving members with new ideas & things to try and practice.

click on pictures for more info & to enlarge a view.

Show and Tell

Tonight’s meeting was a very interesting one with a table groaning under the weight of a wide variety of member’s projects to talk about.

The theme of the evening was to turn something miniature and they don’t come much more miniature than Alan Jones’ microscopic goblets!

And, as Keith mentioned when he explained how he had made his segmented pens, it was gratifying for him, as one of the club’s most experienced members, to see so many new members willing to stand up and share their turning experiences.

On this Sunday our club took a stand at the annual Worcester Show at the racecourse. Organised by Russell, several volunteers took turns to explain the purpose of the club to the public with a view to recruiting new members. Alan E and Phil held demonstrations of woodturning throughout the day which attracted respectable crowds at times.

In addition Alan E and Russell won prizes in the open competition as did Dexter in the under 18 section. Well done to all!

A big thanks to Russell for organising the event and Steve for the design and print of the flyer and poster. Special thanks to Alan E and Phil for the demonstrations and to Robin, Alan P and Steve for talking to the public.