Month: March 2019

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Next meeting 4th April 2019, using a bowl saver tool.

Our next meeting on the 4th April 2019 is going to be about using a bowl saver tool, this tool allows the user to make more than 1 bowl out of a piece of wood, David Hay is going to demonstrate it’s use and will be the main interest for the meeting, however David has organized 3 more turners to work the lathes, they are David Hobson, Douglas Stewart and Colin MacKenzie, they will all be doing their own thing but I’m sure they will be creating lots of interest themselves.

The picture on the left shows 2 bowls having been made with the use of the bowl saver tool from 1 piece of wood. The picture in the middle shows the actual tool mounted on the lathe, this is the Woodcut tool, it’s not a cheap option but if you are making quite a lot of bowls from expensive blanks it’s well worth the investment, another advantage of this tools use is you can create a nest of bowls 2,3 or even 4 out of 1 piece of wood and they will all be almost the same except for the size. The picture to the right is a closer view of the bowl saver tool. These pictures were provided by David Hay for this post.
These 3 pictures I took off the internet, all are bowl saver tools in the Woodcut range, these are not the only type of bowl saver tools available, there are quite a wide range of these tools on the market.

We look forward to seeing you all at the meeting and hope you find the subject matter interesting and informative, if you have any questions on the use of the bowl saver tool please feel free to ask David about anything you want to know.

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Report from our latest meeting 21st March 2019.

Our latest meeting on the 21st March 2019 was all about working with natural edges. There were 5 turners working the lathes, Bill Munro, John Ruickbie, Bob Chisholm, David Hutcheson and myself. The turnout for the meeting was very good and John Cheadle did all the introductions . The pictures were taken by Mike Day and Phil Moore.

Bill Munro setting up to start his project, Bill was using a piece of Bird Cherry.
Johm Ruickbie's blank mounted on the lathe ready to start, John was using a piece of Elm.
David Hutcheson's blank on the lathe ready to start, David was using a piece of Cherry.
This was my blank mounted on the lathe ready to start, it was a piece of Lime from the crux of a branch.
John Ruickbie as he get going with his first cuts.
The view from looking at the base of John's bowl.
Here we have Bob Chisholm as he makes a start on his bowl, Bob was using a piece of Yew, this picture gives you a perfect view of what the turner sees as he makes his cuts, the ghosting is quite obvious.
Bill Munro working the outside of his Bird Cherry bowl.
David Hutcheson started by doing the inside of his project first, he was making goblets with the top edge left natural.
Here am I making the first cuts on the outside of my Lime bowl.
Bob Chisholm now making a little more progress on his project.
Bill Munro repositioning the tool rest as he comes up the side of his bowl.
Bob Chisholm now making the chuck recess on the base of his bowl.
The goblet that David Hutcheson is making nears completion, here he is applying some sealer to his goblet.
My bowl nears completion on the outside, here I'm sanding the chuck recess.
Sanding the chuck by hand where the jaws will sit.
David Hutcheson on a second goblet, here he is sanding the inside of the cup.
I sanded the outside using the Powerlock system of sanding, a very efficient method of sanding.
A close up of the sanding process.
Here David Hutcheson is shaping the outside of a second goblet.
Here I have turned my bowl around to work the inside.
The inside being formed, here I'm about 2/3 of the way to being finished.
John Ruickbie working the inside of his bowl, here he's almost finished with the cuts.
Bob Chisholm working the inside of his bowl, again the ghosting is very clear.

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If you want to see a larger picture and some more detail, click any picture.

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Next meeting, 21st March 2019, working with natural edges.

Our next club meeting on the 21st March will be all about making things with natural edges, there should be 5 turners working the lathes, Bill Munro, David Hutcheson, John Ruickbie , Bob Chisholm and myself. Using wood where the natural edges are left intact lends itself well to bowl making and I’m sure there may be more than one turner doing exactly that, but natural edges can be left on a variety of turnings in both bowl work and spindle work. Below are a few of the different items that can be made with natural edges.

Here are 3 very different types of things made using the natural edges, left, is an Ash bowl made from a log where more than 1 branch intersected the main stem, centre, an Elm burr that has been turned into a shallow bowl leaving all the irregular shape round the outside, right, a Laburnum bowl that has been made making use of the end grain, this gives the appearance of 3 different woods, when in fact what you are seeing is the heart wood at the bottom, a middle layer of sap wood and the bark layer on top.
These 3 are all made from Laburnum, left, is a bowl made from the intersection of 2 branches that grew away from the main branch, centre, this one is also from an intersection but this time I cut it further away from the meeting point to create the gap at the front of the bowl, right, this one comes from a straight log of about 150 mm in diameter and cut in length to about 200 mm, giving you the boat shape when turned.
These are examples of natural edges being left on some spindle work. Far left, a Banksia nut turned into a Mushroom with the natural edges left on both the base and the head of the Mushroom, Left, a Christmas tree decoration made from a piece of Laburnum with the natural edge being left on the base, you will note the tree has been turned off centre, Far right, another Mushroom, this time made from a branch of Yew with the natural edges left on both the base and the head. Right, a piece of Elm burr made into a Candlestick, the only turning on this item was to level out the base and a small amount of turning to the top where the brass candle cup was fitted.
These 8 pictures show the piece of Laburnum I started with and the sequence of events in turning the bowl and the finished article.

I hope these pictures give you some idea of what can be done with some very unpromising pieces of wood, it is my conclusion that there are no unpromising pieces of wood, there is something that can be made from anything, it’s thinking what can be done that’s difficult.

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Club Demonstration 7th March 2019, working with Pebeo paints.

Our club meeting on Thursday 7th March 2019 was a demonstration by Alec Mutch on the use of Pebeo paints in woodturning. These paints can be used to enhance the appearance of an otherwise plain or bland piece of wood, making their use very valuable. The following set of pictures will take you through the making of a shallow plate and also the paints being put to use. Most of the pictures were taken by Richard Comfort with a few of my own taken at my workshop. The turnout for the meeting was excellent.

A blank of Beech on the lathe, ready to start my shallow plate.
The first cuts being taken, this levelled up the bottom.
Now I'm forming the recess in the base for mounting on a chuck when I come to do the inside.
The chuck recess formed and I have also started to form the shape of the underside, you will also see I have marked out where the foot will be.
Now I'm finishing off the shape on the outside.
With the shape complete, some sanding was required, I use the Powerlock system for most of my sanding, here the inside of the chuck recess is being sanded.
I changed the size of the sanding disc to sand the remainder of the outside.
With the sanding complete on the outside, I applied a coat of sanding sealer and flattened with steel wool.
A coat of Melamine was used for the final finish, here I'm buffing the Melamine to a soft glow.
Now for the inside, the blank now mounted on a chuck that fits inside the recess.
The first job is to flatten the face then to form the area where the Pebeo paint has to go, it should be about 3mm deep, the width is up to you.
Now I am removing the waste from the inside of my shallow plate.
As the depth increases do check for thickness over the recess area, you do not want to go through the bottom.
With the shape and depth finished on the inside, the whole of the inside can be sanded.
A coat of sealer has been applied and the inside flattened with wire wool.
A final coat of Melamine finishes the plate, here I'm just buffing the finish to a soft glow.
If you use a spigot for the base, it will need to be removed, this is done with a set of bowl jaws. Here I'm sanding the base after removing the spigot.
The sanded base, seal and polish using the same method as for the rest of the plate.
For this Maple plate I did the painting at the club,I used Pebeo Vitrail dark green for the base with Pebeo Moon apricot on top.
For this Lime plate I used 2 colours of Pebeo Prisme, red and purple, this type of paint gives the honeycomb effect after a few hours.
These were the Pebeo paints I used at the club along with some white spirit for cleaning the tools.
The Beech plate I made at the club, the base coat of Pebeo Vitrail dark green was applied using a pipette to a depth of 2 mm.
The Pebeo Moon apricot now about to be applied, I use a marked out piece of paper to help with the positioning of the spots of Moon paint.
This is how it looked after applying the Pebeo Moon apricot, there is no waiting time before applying the Moon paint.

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For a larger picture and some more information, click any picture.

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This weeks meeting, working with Pebeo paints.

This weeks meeting on the 7th March is a demonstration by Alec Mutch on the use of Pebeo paints in woodturning, mainly used on small to medium sized plates or platters. These paints can be used to enhance the look of a fairly bland piece of wood making it a very useful product to use.

Here are some examples of small shallow plates where I have used the Pebeo paints, the plate on the left is Ash and I have used Pebeo Prisme in 3 different colours to create the decoration. The middle plate is Sycamore and here I have used PebeoVitrail black for a base coat with spots of Pebeo Moon in blue on top, the plate on the right is Sweet Chestnut and here I have used Pebeo Ceramic black for the base with Pebeo Moon in blue on top. All these paints are reactive paints and need to be left to develop for a period of time after use, they will not look anything like they are on application but will develop into something quite different with some time, the drying period can be as long as 3 days and they need to stay flat during that time.
Here are samples of the 4 different Pebeo paints I use, these are all solvent based paints that require white spirit as a cleaning agent. Some of these are available in the Hobby shop in Inverness but with a very limited range of colours and only available in handy packs of ready made up colours in 15ml jars. For a wide range of colours in all 4 types and in bigger jars of 45ml go to, www.pullingers.com, they are also a lot cheaper in the bigger size and the choice is better. You will require pipettes and spatulas for applying these paints as some of them need some depth to react fully.
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Membership is open – Do you want to join us?

After this years renewals, we currently have just 6 spaces open for new members. If you’d like to join us, please email us with the subject “Membership”, and we’ll get back to you.

Given that the membership is usually full year on year, we don’t expect these spaces to last long, so please get in touch as soon as possible if you’d like to join.