Author: West Northants Woodturners

The evening was a break from the normality of demonstrations and hands on, we were regaled with the delights of jigs and gizmo’s. Anyone could bring along their jigs etc that they use to make the tasks of woodturning easier, quicker or, sometimes, more complicated. A short description on how they are used and made with a short demonstration in a couple of cases.

There were jigs used in the art of segmented work, offset turning, drilling central holes in workpieces, angled bandsaw cuts, a home made vacuum chuck and even a paint can shaker. There were so many that it was difficult to keep track of them all, but everyone of the audience went away with at least one glimmer of an idea for something that they needed. It proved to be a great night with lots of banter and discussion on many varied topics.

Light pull demo

      Offset jig

 

buffing mop made from paint roller and turned wooden ends to mount between centres

The June competition table was also open with a wide range of subjects.

First prize was the acorn box by Viv Harvey

Second was a blackwood box by Gerald Hubbard

Third was a large hollow form bowl by Duncan Anderson

The evening’s entertainment was provided by Ian Ethell a professional turner who explained that he was going to show us an off centre project based on 9 different positions. The project was a honey dipper but nothing like the standard straight work that is usual.

Ian explained the set up for the offsets and demonstrated each with enough detail to let us understand the process. It was interesting to watch, with each change in position, how the shapes evolved.

Once completed Ian then made a little stand with a small bowl section to collect the drips of honey, which set the project off really well.

Overall this was an excellent demonstration and should provide us all with some inspiration and knowledge to create our own off centre work.

The evening also updated us on the woodworks show in which Gerald Hubbard created a matching pair of candlesticks as part of the 2 day competition. The candlesticks took second place so congratulations to Gerald.

 

This was the Annual General Meeting and supposedly a small demonstration. However, there was insufficient time for the turning so the meeting finished slightly early. 

The Turner of the year competition was finalised and published during the AGM. The result was as follows.

3rd Place                  Dave Simms

2nd Place                 Roger Gilbert

1st Place                   Geoff Warr

The evening was supposed to be a hands on event so that some of the committee could set up the stand for Woodworks, However, the final decision was that Mick Denton would do a mini demonstration whilst the stand work went on.

The first item that Mick presented was an oak bowl. The blank proved to be very dry and also full of shakes but he persevered. He created a pleasing ogee shape both outside and inside, going as thin as he dared. To be honest, with all the cracks in the bowl, it was a surprise that it stayed in one piece.

To finish the time off Mick then made a finial also out of oak, showing the process up to the point of sanding. Although oak is not really the best wood to create finials (because of the open grain) the end result was really good so proved to be a worthwhile demonstration.

At the end of the evening the stand had been erected, checked for problems and dismantled ready for Woodworks so overall a really satisfactory event.

The evening was a demonstration by Geoff Warr who set about enlightening us on segmented turning. He described in detail the processes of building patterns, marking out, cutting and gluing up segmented pieces to create projects such as pens, bowls and vases. 

He then turned out a pre-prepared pot so that we could see the final parts of the process.

The techniques were of great interest and Geoff was inundated with questions and comments during the demonstration and at half time over tea and biscuits.

The April competition table was also opened for people to show their projects.

1st was a natural edge vase by Duncan Anderson.

Equal 2nd was a gavel and anvil by Gerry Coles and a box by Roger Gilbert.

3rd was a bowl by Ian Holmes.

The evening demonstration by Ken Garratt was to create a string holder. This was effectively a box, made from a piece of sapele, in which the ball of string was housed and the lid fitted and drilled to allow the string to feed through.

If there had been time a string grip would have been added as shown on the similar item below.

The demonstration for this evening was by Gerald Hubbard. The night had several different items created which gave the members inspiration for making small, quick to make projects.

The first project was an apple which showed us spindle turning for the basic shape then utilising a jam chuck to finish the ends before fitting the stalk and calix. (The calix is the fluffy end where the flower once set). This was a clove which looks remarkably realistic.

The second project was a spinning top made using a blank cut from sycamore using a tank cutter then a spindle fitted in the centre. This was then turned to a finish and coloured.

Although Gerald did not make a nut cracker he did discuss how it was made and showed us the end result.

The next project was a spatula made from an ash plank and turned then the blade was cut to thickness and finished on a home made drum sanded fitted on the lathe.

The final project was an egg cup which Gerald usually makes for craft fairs as a set of 4 or 6.

The competition table was also open for entries and was well subscribed.

1st prize went to Ian Holmes with his box.

2nd place went to Chris Harkin with his roller boot.

3rd place was a bowl by Tony Lack.

For this evenings entertainment Ian George provided a demonstration and the subject this time was a candlestick, the type you associate with Victorian children going to bed with.

The candle stick was made up from 3 parts, a base, a stick and a handle, all of which was made from Yew. Ian started with the base, done as a faceplate turned item initially on a screw chuck, and then re-chucked into the main jaws. 

The stick part was turned in spindle mode with a tenon made so that it fitted into the base. The handle was turned as a ring and then a pin turned that would hold the handle in place. The 3 items were then glued together to create the finished item.

To use up the last 15 minutes of the evening Ian quickly turned a candle. The project provided a really entertaining evening.

The evening was a hands on session where 2 lathes were set up and Mick Denton did his sharpening workshop. He also broke away from this to give some instructions on a lathe. There were several members who also used the lathes for practice and providing experience to people who are new to woodturning. Even though the attendance was down on usual, overall it was a good night.

The February competition table was also open with a variety of projects. Unfortunately the photo’s are pretty poor so below is just the list of the top 3.

First was Roger Gilbert with his Yew vase and daffodils.

Second was Bob Green with his trio of wet turned thin vases / goblets.

Third was Geoff Warr with his Femisphere mounted on a plinth. 

The evenings entertainment was a demonstration by Adrian Finch. The subject was a little out of the ordinary in that it was a replica of a cordless drill complete with drill bit.

This was turned as 3 pieces of spindle turning with the most of the shaping done on the body section. The drill bit required some additional marking out shaping and the final result was very convincing.  

           

The evening ended with Roger Giibert making a couple of announcements, the first being that the AGM date has been set  at 3rd May 2023. The second was that Woodworks show is coming up in May (see the Non Club Events page) and we will be requiring pieces of work for the exhibition stand, about 4 pieces from each person would more than suffice. We would also like people to volunteer for the competition tasks over the 2 days, so if anyone is interested let Roger know.