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The evening was a demonstration by Mick Denton who made a lidded box in the form of an apple. We were told that it would be made of marblewood but the initial stages would be demonstrated using olive ash since the box was made from two pieces of wood which need to be glued together. This approach facilitates the hollowing.

He started off making the bottom half, initially mounting the blank on a screw chuck and then reversing it onto a tenon to carry out the hollowing. It is best to use a fine grained wood to disguise the join between the sections, or to disguise the join with a feature such as a bead. Mick took care to note the internal rim finished diameter with calipers which he locked to prevent a change in the measurement.

Next was the top half but, before doing anything, he was careful to make sure he had it the right way round so that the grain orientation would match the bottom half. Once again, it was mounted on a screw chuck and, this time, an internal tenon was put on the other end. It was then reversed and hollowed out with care to get the rim diameter matching the bottom half so that there would be no step inside the completed box. Mick then quite deliberately (really!) went through the bottom (i.e. the top of the box) to make a small opening for the top of the box– this was the reason for using an internal tenon.

At this point the two hollowed sections would all be glued together but, for the demo, Mick took his previously assembled marblewood piece and mounted it in the chuck. It looked suspiciously like sapele but Mick assured us that it was indeed marblewood – “trust me” he said!

The assembly was shaped and reversed as necessary, and the sections blended together before shaping a recess in the top.

Pulling a tissue from the opening, he then revealed that the interior was packed with marbles – hence marblewood! A good joke which certainly most of us hadn’t seen coming!

The opening was refined to a slight taper and then another piece of wood mounted and turned to form a lid that fitted nicely in the opening and was blended into the body of the box.

Finally Mick made a stalk out of a piece of African Blackwood to complete a very interesting demo. He will glue the stalk in and finish off at home.

The competiton table had a good collection of disparate items this month.

1st place was a lovely little boxwood box with a threaded lid bu Gerald Hubbard.

2nd place was Chris Harkin’s yew bowl.

3rd place went to Geoff Warr and his banjolele with a segmented body.

The evening was a demonstration by Roger Gilbert who made a mug tree to hold four mugs.

He started off making the base and drilling it to take the upright. Wax was used as a finish throughout the project, giving the wood a nice warm tone.

Next was the upright, made out of a length of square wood mounted between centres. The four holes for the mug hangers were pre-drilled into the square blank to give a slight upward angle to the hangers once fitted.

Roger made the tenon to suit the base and, as he proceeded to shape the upright, there were a number of requests for particular features from some of the audience so he included a few burn lines and a captive ring in the design. The ring inner surface was sanded against abrasive wrapped around the upright.

Finally, Roger made the four hangers from square blanks held in pin chuck jaws, making the first one and using it as a template for the remaining three.

As there was still a little time left he demonstrated how the conical end, cut off a banksia seed pod prior to mounting on the lathe, need not be wasted and could be used as the head of a mushroom. The picture shows the result.

This brought the interesting and enjoyable (i.e. mildly rowdy – the usual culprits!) evening to an end.

The evening was a demonstration by Viv Harvey who showed us the principles and techniques of doing inlays into a bud vase.

The process for the turning of the vase was traditional however, the holes were drilled off lathe and the insert pieces made up as a dowel.

To end the evening Viv showed us his technique for making flowers and onions.

The evening was really entertaining and informative.

The July competition table was really well subscribed with a variety of excellent projects.

1st place went to Chris Harkin with his bug.

2nd place was a lighthouse by Viv Harvey.

Equal 3rd place was a pot by Ian George and a carousel by Dave Simms.

The evening was a demonstration by Chris Harkin and was based on a textured and coloured vase that was shown on our stand at WoodWorks. The demonstration did include the basic turning of the vase but the main focus was on the texturing and colouring.

The vase was first scorched using a blow torch but this was not demonstrated here because of hall restrictions. When using a blow torch at home be very aware of the safety aspect of using a flame in the workshop, or better still do it outside. There are varying degrees of scorch which Chris designated as “toast”, “roast” and “barbeque”.

Once scorched the burnt bit needs to be brushed down which can be done with a brass brush or preferably a rotary nylon brush.

The vase was then coloured using basic poster paints which can be mixed to produce whatever colour you want. This is painted onto the vase then immediately wiped off so that the grain pattern shows through the colour. 

The last operation was to lacquer or wax the vase, whichever is your preference.

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.