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We welcomed once again the 3 Musketeers, Roger Gilbert, Gerald Hubbard and Mick Denton. The night’s challenge was a box made to look like a water droplet using a piece of 2 coloured Padouk.

Roger was up first so he mounted the piece between centres, turned it to round, created a tenon on each end. The piece was then mounted in a chuck and using the rule of thirds the base and lid were parted off. The base was hollowed out and the recess for the lid created. The base was reverse chucked using the lid recess and the outside turned to a finish. When applying the sanding sealer Roger used the sealer on each colour in turn as the red will bleed into the white.

The baton was then passed to Gerald who worked on the lid, mainly the inside and concentrating on getting the tenon right to fit in the base.

This required a lot of fine turning to make sure that he did not remove too much material. He then got carried away and turned some of the outside but went a little too far so the water droplet shape was lost. It was at this point he dumped the final part of the turning on Mick Denton. The final shape was turned out and the piece reverse chucked on the tenon and the pointy end finished.

Overall the evening proved to be very entertaining and with some of the things that did not go quite according to plan proves that even the best can come a cropper from time to time. But there is usually some way to get over any problems you encounter.

The evening also had the February competition.

1st was an intriguing box that included a cute little mouse inside by Clive Bryant.

2nd was a mirror by Bob Green.

Joint 3rd was a vase with Fractal burning by Bryan Turner, a bowl by Gerald Hubbard and an egg box by Roger Gilbert.

Unfortunately the designated demonstrator for the evening was unavailable so we had to revert to plan “B” which was to press gang Roger Gilbert and Gerald Hubbard to provide the entertainment. Needless to say we were not disappointed even though both struggled with using tools that were not their own.

Roger took first dibs and before the tea interval he created a winged bowl which gave most of us at least one useful tip.

After tea Gerald produced a small box and again he also provided a number of tips that will prove useful for most of us.

The Facebook page for West Northants Woodturners seems to be drawing a fair amount of interest and we have had an increase in the membership which is encouraging. Also from this page we have received an option of some wood turning equipment. More details are  on the for sale page.

The evening was described as a social event which allowed us to have a chat and also watch a couple of people using the new lathe. Overall the evening was a reasonable success even though the turnout was a little below par. This was the last meeting of the year 2019, there will be no meeting on 1st January so the first will be Wednesday 15th January 2020. Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year. See you all in the middle of January.

This evening was a new concept of “technique improvement” whereby a lathe was brought out so that members could get close and Roger Gilbert demonstrated woodturning techniques at close quarters. Members got to ask questions and be shown the relevant detail to that question. At the same time our new lathe, an Axminster AT406, was set up and then tested by Gerald Hubbard. He then supported Roger for the rest of the evening.

Also for the evening we had the December competition which was themed as Christmas Decoration and proved to be well represented with a good number of quality projects.

There was a dead heat for first place with a spiky bauble by Bryan Turner and a family of snow men by Bob Green.

Second place went to Ken Garratt with a tree decoration.

Third place went to Arthur Ellis with an elegant snowman T light holder..

The evenings meeting was for the 3 impostors, a play on words as alternative demonstrators for the usual 3 Musketeers. The impostors were Ian George, Adrian Finch and Ken Garratt who kept the audience amused with bowls, an old fashioned telephone masquerading as a candle stick and a tea caddy spoon. 

This was an opportunity for members to start demonstrating but in a warm and friendly atmosphere and we will look to continue this over the next 12 months so if anyone is interested please put your name forward. It is a daunting prospect to undertake but is enjoyable, give it a go.

 

Tonight was the turn of Ian George to demonstrate some woodturning, the first item was a mushroom made from a small Yew log. This was started between centres and a chucking tenon established.

Once the piece was mounted in the chuck it was turned to shape and the head undercut using a spindle gouge.

 

Although relatively simple this was interesting to see how the operations were performed.

The second item was a natural edge bowl where a log was mounted on a screw chuck and turned out and a chucking recess created.

Once the outside shape was finished the bowl was rechucked onto the recess and was hollowed. Again this explained the processes admirably and gave many of us inspiration to try something similar. 

The last 10 minutes were filled with a quick T light holder which looked to be a nice fun project for novice turners.

The November competition was once again well subscribed with a wealth of quality projects.

1st was a little box by Gerald Hubbard.

2nd was a cat by Clive Bryant

Equal 3rd was a vase by Roger Gilbert and a pot by Mick Denton

 

This evening was a hands on with 2 lathes set up and a number of people doing little bits and pieces. Unfortunately there were only a small number of members there but we did have an entertaining evening with a good exchange of information, tips and banter.

Adrian Finch made a demonstration tonight and it was his first club demonstration so he was given a warm welcome. His first comment was that he would not tell us what he was making, we had to guess. The first person to give the correct answer would get a Yorkie bar (other chocolate bars are available). The 3 components of his project was a large copper sleeve, a brass plumbing fitting and a sizeable chunk of Ash, which from the look of it showed promise for some good figuring.

Having turned the Ash to round he created a spigot for the chuck and mounted the wood in place. The first diameter was turned down so that the copper sleeve fitted onto it. Over the next part of the evening Adrian stepped down the wood three times. The wood lived up to it’s promise of good figuring, but even at the tea break we could still not work out what it was and, bearing in mind Adrian’s wacky ideas, it was not surprising. Finally Mick Denton blurted out (more in jest than anything else) ‘Telescope’ and that earned him the Yorkie bar.

   

Adrian then worked the project to a finish. Overall we got to have a sense of the unknown, a demonstration of spindle turning and use of materials other than wood. Not only that there was some light hearted banter making the evening very entertaining.

The competition for October heralded a substantial and competitive table, so much so that there was one winner and 4 equal seconds.

First was Bob Green with a pair of plywood bowls.

The four second places went to Bryan Turner, David Hartley, Mick Denton and Arthur Ellis. Congratulations to one and all and thank you for the effort put into the work for the competition.

   

     

Gerald Hubbard undertook this demonstration which was designed to provide instruction and little nuggets of knowledge from a very experienced woodturner.

His first part was to produce a garden dibber which he showed us at normal speed to show how quickly they can be made. He then proceeded to show the process as a step by step guide including use of the skew chisel and a marking out template.

The second part was to make a small lidded box often described as a tooth fairy box. Gerald described it as a one handed fit lidded box. This means that the lid is sufficiently loose to be able to remove it using just one hand. Gerald started this process from first principles and explained actions such as measuring, facing off, hollowing, witness marks, Jam chucks and much more.

The final part was to fill the time so he made a 2 part mushroom.

All in all this was a very entertaining, informative and inspirational demonstration.

This evening was a hands on session which ended up with Roger Gilbert making a lidded box, Duncan Anderson providing a little tuition and Mick Denton doing a sharpening workshop. Many thanks to those contributors to the evening, there were plenty of opportunities to learn something of use.

The evening also hosted the September competition which was well subscribed with many varied projects all of high quality, it was difficult to decide which was your favourite.

1st place went to Geoff Warr with a Laburnum vase

Equal 2nd were Bob Green with a lidded box along with Glyn Jennings also with a box

3rd place went to Clive Bryant with a pen holder in the shape of an elephant and a pen.