Today was a hands-on session, with some personal projects being progressed, and with tuition being given to new member Glyn, and guests Scott and William – it was nice to see them at the meeting and getting stuck in. I was mostly doing other things (see below) but, amongst other things, I saw a nice goblet in the making.
Elsewhere in the hall, there was eager anticipation as our new Coronet Herald lathe was unpacked and set up on its stand ready for use at the next meeting on March 7th. It looks like it’ll be a nice little lathe, compact and easily moved around for demos and Hands-On alike.
Other members were busy prepping our club stand for Daventry Woodworks in May, moving some materials out of storage, and generally tidying up. One of our DML-36 lathes was also dismantled and taken away, soon to be sold.
All too soon it was time to sweep up, tidy up and lock up after a busy but productive meeting.
There was a good turnout for the meeting today, despite the cold weather, and a good selection of pieces for the competition. The pictures below show just the “winners” but special mention must go to Bob for his “Paul Jones replica goblet” – very nice. The equipment and chairs were set up, the video equipment fine tuned and everyone settled down for the demo by Marcus.
After the demo, it was a quick scramble to put everything away, sweep up, and conclude another enjoyable evening.
Competition
The joint third place, by the way, doesn’t indicate indecision on the part of judges; the places are awarded purely on how much money the club members put into the Air Ambulance collection pots associated with each piece.
Hollow form with lid and finial, Mick
1st Another hollow form by Mick, with his trademark black finial.Hollow Form with lid and finial Mick D
Goblets and platter with coloured pyro, Clive
2nd Goblets on a platter by Clive, with a nice extra touch in the form of some pyrography and colouring.
Mammod stationary steam engine, Adrian
3rd Who else but Adrian? Mammod stationary steam engine, nicely executed, but doesn’t run as well as the real one that he used to own!
Clown clock, Duncan
3rd This clown clock by Duncan was a satisfying way of using up some scraps of sycamore, bog oak and yew.
Demonstration by Marcus Buck, club member
Marcus said he had been wondering for some time what to demonstrate but then decided to make a yew vase with what turned out to be an unusual base. Certainly not something that I, and most of his audience, had seen before.
He started off with a piece of well seasoned yew branch about 375mm long and 75mm diameter, initially set up on the chuck with gripper jaws, and a live centre in the tailstock.
The main body of the vase was shaped using a spindle roughing gouge and a spindle gouge, leaving some bark and hollows in the vase to add interest.
Drilling out the centre
The next operation was to drill into the interior of the vase with a Forstner bit, taking care to keep the lathe speed down, and feed rate slow, to avoid overheating the wood, as yew is particularly liable to checks forming when overheated.
Hollowing in progress
Once the hole was drilled to approx final depth, Marcus hollowed out the vase using a tipped tool – I think it was a Hope 6mm Pro carbide tool.
As the hollowing progressed, a crack appeared along the length of the vase, which was prevented from spreading further by filling with thin superglue. He waited until the glue had set before resuming hollowing – highly advisable if airborne superglue is not wanted!
As planned, the tool broke through the hollow areas as the wall thickness decreased, adding further interest.
Once down to about 5mm wall thickness, he finished off the outside with a small spindle gouge and sanding through the grits, with the lathe on a fairly slow speed to avoid overheating and checking.
Finishing was with sanding sealer, rubbed down with a paper towel before applying microcrystalline wax. After a few minutes the wax was buffed with a paper towel, making several slow passes over the vase whilst applying moderate pressure.
After the tea break and raffle, Marcus turned his attention to the base, giving it a roughly oval shape before taking the vase off the lathe.
Most of the base was cut away with a saw, to leave just a fairly thin piece projecting downwards from the bottom of the vase.
Carving the extended base
He marked out the remaining part and used a Proxxon carving tool and Dremel to shape it into a more natural form. A suitable finish will be applied later, in Marcus’s workshop.
The vase can now be sat on a small block of wood or legs, or over the side of a flat surface to give the impression of it floating above the surface or flowing over the edge. There are many other presentation options, depending upon one’s imagination!
Completed vase
The hole in the side of the vase and the extended base really made it quite different from the usual, and generated a good deal of interest as well as a hearty round of applause from the audience.
