Chris Harkin was our demonstrator for tonight, with Jiminy Cricket his somewhat unusual subject.
Jiminy was made out of three main parts – body, head and hat – plus feet and hands, all joined together as appropriate.
The body was made first, with the blank set up between chuck and tailstock centre and then shaped to make the body segments before burning a line between the segments using a wire. It was sanded all over and finished off with an abrasive wax of Chris’s own making. Finally, it was parted off.
NOTE: the abrasive wax is a mixture of baby oil, beeswax and diatomaceous earth; Chris is still experimenting with exact proportions.
Next, the head. A blank was mounted in the chuck and the diameter trued up with a skew chisel. Chris then used the skew chisel and gouges to shape the head. The tailstock end was left blunt in order to form the nose.
Now for the hat. Mounted in a similar fashion between chuck and tailstock live centre, Chris quickly trued it up then shaped it with a gouge. To finish, he sanded it and then “painted” it with a felt tip pen with the lathe stationary. To reduce variations in colour, he applied wax while the ink was still tacky and then polished it with a paper towel at speed. Parted off and put to one side with the preceding two parts.
The feet and hands were turned as two items made from a cylinder mounted between the chuck and tailstock, parted off and then cut in half with a saw. In readiness for glueing to some welding wire, holes were drilled in appropriate positions – different for hands and feet.
To assemble Jiminy, Chris sanded flats on top of the body and on the bottom of the head, with another flat offset on on the top of the head for the hat. These were then drilled to accept dowels.
Two further holes were drilled in the hat brim to take the antennas which he made by curling the ends of some welding wire with pliers. Chris pointed out that the sharp ends of the cut wire need to be covered with a bead and turned inwards.
He then dowelled and glued the body head and hat together.
Taking some more welding wire, he bent the arms and legs to anatomically correct (????) shapes for an upright stance (he could have decided upon another stance e.g. prone), drilled holes to accept the arms and legs and glued them into position before also glueing the hands and feet on.
Chris drilled nose, sanded it flat and glued a bead on, with other beads being glued on for the eyes.
All was now complete other than for him to make a walking stick out of dowelling, with a coloured knob on top. To hold it securely, he filed a groove in Jiminy’s hand and glued it into position.
Now Jiminy looks ready to embark upon his adventures!
The competition table had a variety of items this month.
1st place was a natural edge bowl by Bob Green.
2nd place went to a set of miniature lidded vases by Viv Harvey.
3rd place was tied between a lidded box by Gerald Hubbard and a clock by Gerry Coles.
