Author: West Northants Woodturners

Mick Denton confirmed that the club visit to the Proops Brothers shop in Leicestershire is now on for 11^th 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 20^th 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.

Gerald Hubbard was our demonstrator this evening, starting off with a brief introduction during which he passed around some books by the sadly departed masters of threadcutting, John Berkeley and Bill Jones. Bill was known as the last of the ivory turners and Mick Denton showed us pictures of some superb chess pieces produced by him. This certainly whet our appetite for what was to follow!

By the way, there is a wonderful video of Bill Jones on YouTube for those who are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2G3LHZNiuU

Back in the present, Gerald explained that he would be making a small box to hold five £1 coins, demonstrating thread cutting (aka thread chasing) to screw together the top and bottom halves. In total, three threads would need to be cut, two for the box itself, and one for a screw chuck to hold the top whilst shaping the outside. To start, he used a small blank of boxwood about 30mm square x 100mm long, held securely in a chuck and centred with a revolving steb centre.

Base – male thread. He reduced it to a cylinder and then bored out the end with a 7/8” Forstner bit, to a depth that allowed 15mm for the five coins.

7/8” is just a bit too small for the coins so he increased the diameter with a scraper supported by a thread cutter support tool (commonly called a Bill Jones arm rest) resting on the tool rest.

Once this was done, Gerald chamfered the outside edge of the blank and made a small undercut a few mm back from the edge – this is to act as a relief at the end of the thread and to stop the tool from running on.

With a 16tpi cutter, he placed the arm rest and started the outside thread using only about three threads on the cutter. Once the thread was established, he started using more threads on subsequent passes. Gerald then shifted to a very light grip with just a few fingers on the end of the tool handle as he found that this produced a parallel thread rather than slightly tapered as tends to happen with a fuller grip. Lathe speed depends upon many factors (type of wood, size of workpiece etc) but Gerald usually has it running at around 300rpm for thread cutting.

To ensure a clean thread profile, he cleaned the threads with a waxed toothbrush before making the final pass with the threading tool and parting it off.

Lid – female thread. Another piece of boxwood was mounted in the chuck and hollowed out using a drill bit ground with a rounded profile and then the hole widened with a scraper before cutting a female thread to suit the male thread of the bottom part of the box.

Gerald repeatedly tried the fit until he was happy with it; a little Cut ‘n Polish wax may help with this. Once he was satisfied with the thread and the inside of the lid, it was parted off.

Screw chuck – male thread. A male thread was cut in order to make a screw chuck mount for the lid to allow for the external shaping. It doesn’t need to be a perfect lid but it does need to hold securely.

With the lid mounted, Gerald set about the shaping of it, but made a mistake from which he was unable to recover so, unfortunately, this very interesting demo came to an end. By now however, we had all learned something of the techniques, tools and materials required for thread cutting, which was the main purpose of the demo, so there was little lost from that point of view. Fortunately, Gerald had brought along a similar box to pass around, so we could see the more complete article, with a textured lid.

In order to fill in the remaining time, Gerald discussed the use of other materials for this type of work. He pointed out that threads cut well on polyester and resin blanks although the streamers of static-charged material were a bit of a nuisance. Resin can be prone to chipping, but warming it up in water reduces this.

He also showed us a Go-No Go gauge which had ends of different diameters for quick sizing of spigots from which to cut threads. The gauge was made of plastic casein, a product derived from milk and very widely used in the past. It is commonly used as an ivory alternative as it has a grain similar to that of ivory.

Finally, he passed around a thread cutting box for larger threads, typically 0.5” to 1.5”, very handy on occasion, and sometimes used in association with metal-working taps.

All in all this was a very interesting demo, with a good number of tips and tricks passed on to us. Thank you Gerald!

Before this evening’s demonstration started there was a brief discussion regarding progress of the carousel challenge, and Geoff and Chris subsequently spent much of the evening in a huddle over the prototype.

Mick Denton asked if there was any interest in a club visit to the Proops Brothers shop in Leicestershire. A number of people said yes, but it was apparent that more would be required to make it a worthwhile for Proops to make special arrangements for us. As some will already know, Proops sell a wide variety of hobbyist and craft items, and visits in the past made for a good day out, complete with a tour around the shop and facilities. www.proopsbrothers.com

Our demonstrator tonight was Adrian Finch who kept us guessing as to what he was making until well on with the process. He used two pieces of an unknown hardwood, themselves glued together from smaller pieces. Both pieces were approx 150mm diameter x 75mm thick.

The first piece was mounted on a screw chuck, the end trued up and a tenon recess cut into it.

 

Adrian reversed it onto the chuck, centred a template onto it and used this to mark out three holes for drilling with a forstner bit. Once drilled, he noted the depth on the circumference of the blank.

Next, he shaped the outside before making a recess to suit an LED tealight and a groove to suit the top of a jamjar. It was now becoming clear that Adrian was making a tealight lamp with this piece forming the base.

With the blank removed from the lathe he glued three uprights into the drilled holes, aligning them carefully with the template, and set the assembly aside while the glue set – and we had a break for refreshments!

The second piece was mounted on a screw chuck, the end trued up and then a tenon recess cut into it before being reversed onto the chuck and faced off.

Once again, the template was offered up and the holes marked out on this, the top, as for the base.

Adrian then drilled a deep hole with a large forstner bit and widened it to accept the bottom of the jamjar. Why so deep? It is to allow sufficient headroom for the jamjar to be lifted up to allow removal and replacement of the tealight when the battery runs out.

The top was then formed into a flanged dome, resembling the top of a lighthouse. With time running out, Adrian explained that the top would be dry-fitted to the three uprights and the height adjusted to allow for replacement of the tealight and the uprights cut to length before the whole assembly was glued together.

Although this was a stand-alone project, it could also be adapted to form the top part of a lighthouse with any number of variations in shape and finished design – a good inspiration for future projects.

The competition table had a good selection of items this month – some of them “edible”!

1st place was a pair of eggs in eggcups by Roger Gilbert.

2nd place was a miniature set of drinks and goblets by Chris Harkin.

3rd place went to a winged box by Gerry Coles.

The demonstrator for the evening was Dave Simms who introduced his theme as simple forms.

The first project he undertook was to turn between centres 2 teardrop shaped forms one about one third the size of the other . these were to create a bird using the larger of the 2 pieces for the body and the smaller the head. A small hole was drilled in both to take a dowel to connect them together. Dave showed a branch that he had adorned with 4 or 5 birds. He also showed us a slightly larger form of a single bird mounted on 1 leg (wader style) on a plinth.

The next project was similar but much larger in scale. This time after roughing out between centres he mounted the place in a chuck. This allowed him to turn the larger teardrop forms.

This bird was mounted differently in that he created a neck from a wooden curtain ring cut in half. Both head and neck were drilled to accept the neck and 2 holes drilled on the underside of the body for legs. The finished item mounted as a pair of birds looked very effective.

The final project was a slight deviation from the bird theme to a fish which involved a similar process but the tail was actually formed as a shallow cup and then the sides cut away on the bandsaw to create the lobes of the tail. Again this was very effective. The little stub left from parting off was cut slightly on the saw to form a mouth.

This all gave many of us ideas for “quick and simple” projects that will appeal to many.

 

Our first meeting of the new year was saved by Chairman Roger stepping in to do a demonstration after Geoff had to cancel. Despite the short notice, Roger came well equipped with a selection of wood and tools.

Roger laid out his blanks and asked for suggestions as to what to make, eventually settling upon a long-stemmed goblet made from a piece of nicely spalted beech.

The goblet blank was about 250mm long x 100mm square and posed the first problem, as Roger didn’t have a Forstner bit with him and the chuck jaws were quite small, so hollowing with a spindle gouge was found to be impractical due to vibration of the wood. To get around this, he shortened the blank and remounted it to make a goblet with a shorter stem.

With less vibration, Roger quickly hollowed out the cup with a spindle gouge and then supported the work with the tailstock live centre pressing against a rubber ball in the cup. With this support, he shaped the outside of the cup using a spindle gouge and a skew chisel.

Moving onto the stem, he cut slots to form two upstands and then started forming them into captive rings with a thin parting tool and a captive ring tool.

Roger used a wire to burn a line in each of the rings and then released the rings with the captive ring tool.

Holding the rings out of the way (fiddly), he turned the stem to it’s final shape and sanded it. The inside of the rings he sanded by securing abrasive around the stem with some tape and then running the lathe, manipulating the rings as necessary.

A final refinement of the cup was followed by sanding and the goblet was then parted off to complete the job.

 

The competition table had a good selection of items this month (sorry, no picture of the table).

1st place was a segmented clock by Roger Gilbert.

2nd place was an ash bowl by Gerry Coles.

3rd place went to a box with a hinged lid by Chris Hawkins.

Arguably, the main attraction tonight was the food! As something of a social evening, members brought along plenty of food to tuck into throughout the meeting, and there was still plenty remaining after close of play.

Still, woodturning is what the club is about so two lathes were set up and Dave, Mick and Roger turned a variety of items which generated a lot of interest and some useful ideas for many of us.

Roger made a nice little baby’s rattle with three captive rings. He made the captive rings look deceptively simple!

Dave made a snowman (why do they always have top hats?) to add to his display collection of snowman and other items, some of them decorated to add a splash of colour.

Mick turned a fencepost finial. As his blank was only just big enough for the desired diameter of the finial, he marked the centres very carefully to avoid undersizing. The marking-out method he used was a new one to many of us and was designed to obviate the inaccuracy of determining precisely the corners of a wooden blank when scribing the diagonals. He laid a steel rule carefully along each of the sides in turn and drew a pencil line along the rule in each position. This formed an inner square on the end of the blank, with sharp corners that allowed accurate diagonals to be drawn and thus the centre to be determined.

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the marking-out but here’s one of the nearly completed finial.

A number of potential new members also attended and were given plenty of advice (sometimes conflicting?) about what to buy, what not to buy etc. Mick also set up a sharpening station and sharpened new woodturner Kyle’s tools whilst showing him how to do it for himself.

All in all, a very nice relaxed evening with plenty of time to chat and catch up with each other.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all

After the hall doors opened there were a few side attractions in the form of some banksia seed pods on sale and a prototype carousel for discussion, but everyone busied themselves setting out chairs etc and after a welcome from Chairman Roger Gilbert our demonstrator tonight, club member Adrian Finch, was ready to make a start.

Typically, Adrian had come up with a slightly unusual subject for his demo – in this case, a meal kit for a Civil War roundhead soldier!

The first item was a plate, made from some very dry oak – something of a challenge but overcome without any fuss. The blank was about 200mm diameter x 50mm thick.

Adrian mounted the blank between centres in a similar fashion as for all three items, using his home-made multi-point centre to drive it, with a live cup centre in the tailstock.

He formed an internal tenon and then reversed the blank onto a chuck to shape the underside and place another tenon on it. After a quick sanding, he applied beeswax polished it and then reversed the plate and hollowed it out with a bowl gouge.

The surface of the plate was cleaned up with a scraper and then Adrian sanded, waxed and polished it.

The next item was a bowl, commonly used in the past for pottage, a thick soup or stew.

The oak blank, about 165mm diameter x 100mm thick, was mounted between centres and then turned to a bowl using pretty much the same procedure as the plate, but deeper.

A nice touch was the 16^th century spoon that Adrian brought along to go with the bowl!

The final item was a goblet (very important!), with the an oak blank, about 100mm diameter x 150mm long mounted between centres as with the bowl. This though was endgrain turning, unlike the plate and bowl.

He formed and tenon and mounted the blank in the chuck then shaped the cup of the goblet and hollowed it out with a spindle gouge.

Next, Adrian shaped the stem and foot before partially parting it off.

It was finished off by sanding, waxing and polishing and then fully parted off.

Now he’s ready to go into battle.

Or at least he would be if someone hadn’t already claimed the plate!

The competition table had a selection of smaller items this month.

1st place was a lidded pot by Dave Simms.

2nd place was another pot, this one by Gerry Coles, with threaded boxwood inserts for the lid.

3rd place went to a square bowl by Viv Harvey.

Chairman Roger Gilbert opened the meeting with a few words of welcome and an outline of the plans for our Christmas meeting on 20^th December. It will be a social meet, with two lathes set up for Mick and Roger to demonstrate on, and with snacks and food available. Club members were asked to bring along food on the night so that we have a good variety of Christmas goodies to tuck into.

Our demonstrator for this evening, club member Dave Simms, explained that he’d be making a wine-pouring ensemble for us (red wine of course) using oak for the goblet and bottle, and spalted beech for the base.

Starting with the goblet, Dave mounted the blank between centres, made a tenon on one end and mounted it in the chuck. He then squared the end before forming a recess to establish the “wine” level. Bringing up the tailstock for suppport, he shaped the outside and sanded overall. The “wine” was then applied with an acrylic pen to impart a nice beaujolais colour.

Dave had prepared the base earlier so he now parted off the goblet and mounted the base in the chuck. He cut a recess to suit the foot of the goblet and checked its fit before removing the base.

He now mounted the bottle blank between centres, rounded it, made a tenon on one end and mounted it in the chuck. Next, he parted off a slice from the end – this will form the bottom of the bottle later on. Using a forstner drill in the tailstock, he bored out much of the bottle in order to reduce its weight and prevent the completed assembly from toppling over.

The tailstock was brought up for support, and the outside of the bottle shaped and the bottom re-attached. A quick sanding and parting off, and everything was ready for assembling.

The top of the bottle and the top of the goblet were drilled to suit the piece of wire which was to represent the wine “flow” and then bent to shape before inserting in the holes. Finally, Dave painted the wire with his acrylic pen so that it matched the contents of the goblet.

With a little time to spare, Dave started making a simple mystery item, shaping the wood and then applying a few craft shop items to make – a pig! For completion, he would later sand a flat on the underside so that the pig stands upright.

The meeting was opened with a few words of welcome from Chairman Roger Gilbert and our demonstrator tonight, club member Viv Harvey, then took over and explained that he’d be making a number of straightforward items for us, with a Christmas theme.

The first item was a snowman LED tea light holder, made from a 94mm cube of redwood.

After a brief discussion of different methods of marking the centres, the blank was mounted between centres with a steb centre driving the blank as this is better on the soft wood.

Quickly rounded using a spindle roughing gouge, a tenon was put on one end and the blank reversed onto a chuck. Viv next marked out the blank and then drilled a hole about 15mm deep on the end with a forstner bit to suit the LED tea light.

With the prep work completed, he squared off the end and started shaping the hat (tea light holder), next moving onto the brim of the hat which he pointed out looked better if the diameter is a bit less than that of the head. Closer to the chuck now, Viv turned the neck, leaving a thin disc of wood to protect against contact with the chuck. Moving back to the mid-section, he shaped the head with an all-rounder gouge and finished it off with skew chisel used as a scraper.

With the shape now well defined he cleaned up a few chips on the hat brim and took off any sharp edges then opened up the tea light recess a little with a spindle gouge because it was a slightly tight fit. This type of apparently identical tea lights do vary a little in size so a specific drill size rarely fits them all.

It was quickly sanded all over and parted off, and the base sanded on a disc in the lathe chuck. Viv also demonstrated the use of the parted-off chuck tenon with a suitable disc for making a sanding disc with hook and loop for attaching the abrasive sheets.

He uses cheap acrylic paint for colouring the hat, with emulsion for the head, and adhesive eyes and hat band from any craft shop. He didn’t have time to demonstrate making the nose but any small piece of wood could be used for this.

 

Continuing the Christmas theme, Viv then made a number of items from a broom handle of bamboo(?). Such handles are cheap and usually turn well, so ideal for small items such as these. He cut a number of lengths off the handle, ranging from about 125mm to 250mm long and followed a similar procedure for all of them, i.e. held in a small chuck and steadied with a live centre.

Snowman bottle stopper: Mount on lathe, mark out; only critical length is the part upon which the rubber stopper is mounted – turn this first then move on to the body and hat. Sand and part off. The pen is just to give an idea of size, not for advertising!

Honey dipper: Mount on lathe, mark out; no critical dimensions. Turn the handle first and shape the end. Use a parting tool to put the loading grooves in the pickup end, on this occasion, about 6mm deep). Sand and part off.

Potting dibber: Mount on lathe, mark out; no critical dimensions. The dibber has two different end shapes; one for pricking out, and one for potting. Turn both ends, sand and part off.

Christmas tree decorations: Mount on lathe, mark out if necessary and make whatever is desired. With a Christmas theme this could be a tree, a bell or – as Viv did – just a decoration to hang from the tree. He turned them to taste, then sanded and parted them off before fixing small brass eyes on them.

Finally, a completely different (not Christmassy) turning, using up small waste pieces from the earlier projects.

Hedgehog: Mounted in the chuck, he turned a conical shape and parted it off, and then repeated as there was still a small piece of wood protruding from the chuck. No wastage of wood here! Viv then produced a pine cone hedgehog and explained that all was needed was to put one flat on the end of a pine cone and another on the side and then to glue the small piece of wood into place – he uses hot melt glue. Add eyes and nose to your liking to complete the job.

This was a great demo by Viv with lots of ideas for small Christmas gifts, greatly enjoyed by everyone – thank you Viv!

The competition table had a good collection of items this month.

1st place was by Gerald Hubbard with a collection of banksia seed pod apples displayed in a nice bowl.

2nd place was an oak dish by Dave Rostance.

3rd place went to a pair of spalted salt and pepper grinders by Roger Gilbert.

The meeting opened with some introductory words from Chairman Roger Gilbert and a welcome to our demonstrator this evening, Ian Ethell.

Ian brought along some examples of his work for us to see and explained that he would show us the making of a winged bowl, of which there were several examples on display.

He quickly ran through the seven fundamentals of woodturning – Wood grain; Chucking; Sharp Tool; Tool Rest Height, Rotation Speed; Stance; Technique – and said that much of his turning would be done using a bowl gouge with a 40/40 grind as espoused by Stuart Batty, and the heel ground off. He later provided a handout explaining the seven fundamentals in some detail – useful.

The bowl would be made from a yew blank of (my estimate) about 200 x 100 x 50mm in size. The blank was mounted between centres and a groove cut to suit the chuck jaws, and the blank then reversed.

Next, the waste in way of the wings was removed, taking care to keep clear of sharp edges. The bulk of the wing waste was removed with a bowl gouge, starting on the outside, and moving in in steps, and then squared off with a negative rake scraper. There is a lot of air when turning a bowl of this type, so Ian held the lathe speed down to about 800rpm. As it is the burr on the scraper that does the work, trips to the grinder after every 20 or 30 seconds of scraping were required to restore the burr.

This step process was repeated until the mass of wood remaining in the centre was ready for shaping into the bowl. With the tailstock removed to improve access, he made a series of cuts from the tenon to the wings in single fluid movements. Once satisfied with the shape, Ian made a tenon on the bottom of the bowl (bowl gouge: included angle 80 degrees – ideal) and then reverse mounted it in the chuck.

He then started thinning the wings in stages on the top side of the bowl, using the same process as for the underside. As the edge of the bowl was approached, he started looking closely at the shape so that the bowl curve followed through the wings.

For the final clean-up at the bowl/wing junction he used a beading and parting tool, ground with a burr on all edges.

Next, Ian hollowed out the bowl with his 40/40 bowl gouge, switching to a gouge with a steeper grind to finish the bottom of the bowl. This was followed up with a scraper to remove the central pimple and clean up.

Next, the bowl was reversed and held by the tailstock onto the jaws of the chuck, suitably protected by tissues – a jam chuck. Finding it difficult to gain access to the foot of the bowl with the tailstock in place, he ground his bowl gouge bevel to 60 degrees-ish and proceeded to refine the foot and underside of the bowl, finishing off with a skew chisel used as a negative rake scraper.

There was no time for a finish to be applied but the bowl looked pretty good as it was, although Ian did explain that a significant flaw running through both the wing and the wall of the bowl meant that he couldn’t go as thin as he would have liked. There was already plenty of air without separating into multiple pieces!

This was an interesting demo with plenty of explanation by Ian on how and why he was doing things in a particular way, and quite a lot of interest was shown in his sharpening grinder setup – Christmas is coming after all!