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Richard Coleman provided the demonstration for the night with 2 bowls, one in elm and the other in spalted beech. 

Even though the elm blank blank was quite dry and caused Richard a few headaches the final result was a nice bowl with lovely grain pattern.

The competition table was well represented and there was a draw for 1st prize which was taken by Dave Simms with his birds on a limb and Roger Gilbert with a bowl.

Second place was a thin wall bowl by Bob Green.

Third place went to Geoff Warr for his purple heart box.

This evening was a hands on and was well represented. There were 2 lathes set up along with the bandsaw so there was plenty going on to keep us all amused. The 2 lathes were used continuously with the novices among us gaining experience and instruction, which is primarily what the evening was set up to do. This also allowed other members to start the process of sorting out our equipment and inventory, so overall the evening was a success.

The demonstrator for this evening was Geoff Warr who is a club member and he has done many events for us. His introduction confirmed that he would be doing a couple of off centre turning projects, the first being a tea light holder and the second a small ornamental styalised bird.

For the tea light holder the workpiece was held between centres and the offsets were 5mm and each was taken in turn so that he produced a column that resembled a crankshaft. he then turned the holder itself and then joined the 2 together.

The second project was held in the chuck and the offset created by moving the work piece at a slight angle. The head and neck were then turned and finished before doing the opposite offset. The body and base were then turned to a finish and the bird parted off. The beak was made from a bobbin blank by turning to a point. The 2 would then be glued together.

The February competition was also held at this meeting. Although the number of entries was less that normal the overall quality was high.

First place went to Richard Coleman with his spalted beech bowl.

Second place was a pair of styalised birds.

Third was another bowl and again this was by Richard Coleman

 

The evening demonstration was undertaken by one of our members who made a gavel and anvil. 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This demonstration showed many techniques for both spindle and faceplate orientation turning as well as an inlay which went into the strike part of the anvil. Overall this was an interesting and informative demonstration.

The start of another year and the demonstrator for the evening was Roger Gilbert. The evening was filled with 3 projects, two of which were intertwined with each other. Roger’s first offering was to make a circular picture frame from the section of a bowl blank that usually ends up as shavings. In this case he mounted the bowl blank as usual but instead of shaping the outside of the bowl he parted off a ring that could be rechucked to make the frame.

Roger then remounted the bowl and followed the usual processes for making a bowl. However, this one was a little different as it was a “boat bowl”. This is different from a standard bowl as the finished bowl is made by cutting the bowl in half then gluing it back together using the small flange on the top of the bowl. (Not that easy to explain, it was much easier to understand when you watch it being done.  

                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third project was a 2 part vase that included a glass tube that Roger won as part of the recent raffle.

The January competition was also run and the results were as follows

1st        Mick Denton with a multi lidded box   

 

 

 

 

 

2nd       Dave Simms with a Bertie Bassett Liquorice Alsort model 

 

 

 

 

 

Joint 3rd was Bob Green with a bottle light and Colin Humphries with a Laburnum goblet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The evening was intended as a social event with Christmas nibbles plus a bit of turning. The food table was well stocked with all of the usual low calorie items all of which were well received.

Mick Denton did the demonstration showing how 2 bowls can be created from one piece of Yew log. He showed the making of a standard bowl and then a natural edge bowl. The evenin g progressed really well and Mick even managed to make 2 bowls without going through the bottom of either of them. Amazing!! 

 

Mick Denton started the evening with some requests for the members to ponder and answer at the next meeting.

1        We are looking for 2 volunteers to pick up the hall keys, open up, close at the end of the evening and then return the keys.

2       Next meeting is a Christmas event so please bring along some savouries, cakes drinks etc. Alcohol is not allowed in the Hall.

3       Should we restart interval tea, coffee and biscuits

4       We need a couple of volunteers to help with the audio visual equipment.

5        We need a volunteer for Programme Secretary.

If anyone is interested in the volunteer positions please contact Mick Denton at the next meeting.

The main part of the evening was a hands on with a couple of lathes set up for anyone to use and a sharpening station. Each was demonstrated by Gerald Hubbard, Roger Gilbert and Mick Denton.

       

There was a great deal of interest in the machines and the demonstrations turned into a tuition event with quite a number of people getting involved. This was a great evening and time passed so quickly.

The December competition was also run and there was a dead heat for 1st place. Dave Simms created a merry-go-round and Roger Gilbert produced an olive wood bowl.

       

 

Second was Bob Green with a table light.

Third place went to Colin Humphries bowl.

 

Gary Rance was the demonstrator for the evening. Gary is a well known production turner and he decided to show us the making of a small box with an insert in the lid.

The wood was Bocote which has a marvellous grain pattern, however, this particular blank had a serious crack down it which gave quite a few headaches but Gary persevered with it. The box itself was made using the usual processes but Gary did explain the techniques he uses to achieve the accuracy. The insert was one that he had made previously comprising a body of boxwood, an ebony ring and a centre of what looked like cherry. This was offset from the centre for interest. This was turned to size and then the box lid had a recess turned to match it. Again many tips, techniques and processes were discussed and demonstrated.

The finished box looked really nice even though the crack was still present so we saw lots of ways to get over problems that we all encounter.

To finish the evening Gary made a small Christmas tree bauble which showed off a whole new series of processes.

The demonstrator for the evening was Emma Cook (aka The Tiny Turner) although Emma was stuck in traffic but managed to get to the venue just in time. She introduced the subject for the evening as a variation on her “Gonks” which was to be a Father Christmas LED light. This was a multi component project comprising turned wooden base, hat, nose, bobble, beard fabric and a glass dome and LED string light.

The turning aspect followed usual faceplate and spindle orientation practices although the base and hat needed a bowl turned fairly accurately to match the glass dome. The base was brushed to clean the grain, sprayed black and then gilt waxed to highlight the grain. The hat was stained red except for the bead at the bottom which represented the fur trim.

The wooden bits and the beard were assembled with ca glue and the wood to glass joints were bonded with Soudal Fixall glue which is flexible.

Emma had some kits for this project for sale on the night and if you are interested she also has them for sale on her website. Overall the demonstration proved to be of interest and showed that you can create a project of your own with a little imagination.

The November competition was also run and the winner was Colin Gee with his nicely turned vase.

Second place was David Hartley with his tripod stool (although the poor photography work makes it look like 2 legs. The third is behind the front one).

Third was Colin Humphries with a lovely turned and coloured bowl.

Paul Hannaby conducted the evening’s demonstration and set out to make a straight sided box. The first blank that he started to turn to round proved to have a crack and a knot going through the wood. He decided that he would not continue with that piece and restart with a fresh blank. This emphasises the importance of checking the wood you use to minimise the risk of mishaps.

Paul followed the usual process by turning to round between centres, creating chucking spigots at both ends then remounting in a chuck. The design that Paul followed this time had the male spigot on the lid with the corresponding recess in the main body. He continued to demonstrate the processes and box scrapers he uses to hollow out the box and create the finished box, including how to recover from slight errors during the making process.

To end the demonstration he showed us a quick make of an oyster shell box that is made by alternating the lid and body on the same blank to get a series of boxes without rechucking.

Overall the demonstration was educational, however, we were unable to set up the video system so that may have detracted from the evening as visibility for many was restricted. We can only apologise for this and expect to be back to normal for the next demonstration.