Mick Denton confirmed that the club visit to the Proops Brothers shop in Leicestershire is now on for 11th April, and it will include a factory tour. Details are on the website home page, but Mick will give an update at the next meeting on Wednesday 20th March. Proops sell a wide variety of hobbyist and craft items, and visits in the past made for a good day out. Best to go equipped with a list of must-haves!
Mick was our demonstrator for tonight and promised us an oak bowl with a raised foot, made out of another piece of his especially horrible dry oak (a piece of which made Adrian’s life harder at a previous demo).
Approx 150mm diameter x 70mm thick, the blank was mounted on a screw chuck and a chucking recess turned.
It was then reversed onto the chuck and he turned another chucking recess. Mick explained that two chucking recesses are not strictly needed, but it’s something he usually does as it adds flexibility to the turning process and provides an option to reverse top and bottom of the bowl if required for some reason.
Now he trued up the circumference before reversing the blank once again and starting to shape the underside of the bowl. Here, the wood showed its true nature and quickly blunted his bowl gouge so Mick gave it a quick tickle on the grinder and resumed work.
With a sharp tool, he quickly achieved the desired bowl and foot shape, finishing off with light shear cuts for a good finish. A point tool, with all three sides of differing length for different uses, was used to add some detail lines to the underside of the foot.
Final sanding was carried out with the lathe running in reverse, using very light pressure to avoid scoring the wood.
Reversed once again, hollowing out began, with Mick switching to a gouge with a steeper bevel angle for the bottom of the bowl.
In order to undercut the rim, Mick used a small round carbide-tipped tool which allowed him the access he required, and then a final thinning inside the bowl with the bowl gouge. After a quick sanding the bowl was done, although Mick may thin the walls a bit more at home with a smaller bowl gouge. He will also apply sanding sealer in his workshop at home (volatile – can’t be used in the village hall), rub it down and apply hard wax oil.
A tiny natural edge vase was next on the agenda, as Mick had a little time left. He mounted a small piece of yew in the chuck and hollowed it out with a bowl gouge, rounding the top edge internally with the point tool before returning to the bowl gouge to shape the outside of the vase, taking care to leave a natural edge at the top. The shape at the foot was refined using the point tool.
To complete, the vase was sanded with the lathe running in reverse and stick wax applied. The wax was polished with a paper towel, taking care not to apply too much pressure or the wax will drag and come off onto the towel. Finally the vase was parted off and the underside of the foot sanded.
The competition table had a variety of items this month.
1st place was a banksia seed pod vase with turned and carved flowers by Chris Harkin.
2nd place was a canted natural edge bowl by Roger Gilbert.
3rd place went to an eggcup and egg by Colin Humphries.
