Month: April 2019

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Next meeting 2nd May 2019, it’s showtime once again.

Our next meeting on the 2nd May 2019 is a showtime meeting, it’s your opportunity to to show the members what you have made over the past few weeks. It will be the same format as on previous occasions, each person will get the opportunity to present their work and give a short presentation on what they have made. A good turnout will be expected and we would like to see as many entries as possible especially from some of the newer members. You will all get a seat and the cameras and screens will be in use.

Here are some pictures of some of the entries on a showtime meeting held on February 2018.
More pictures of some of the item shown on the February 2018 meeting, the skeleton clock in the middle picture was shown by one of our most recent members at the time.
These pictures were taken at the June 2018 showtime meeting, as you can see a wide range of turned items were shown.
More pictures taken at the June 2018 showtime meeting, 3 very interesting items, John Ruickbie’s Mons meg cannon on the left, David Ross’s laminated and pierced bowl in the centre and Gordon Leitch’s Monkey puzzle bowl on the right, all expertly done.
These are pictures from our last showtime meeting held in August 2018, again a wide range of turned ware.
More pictures from our last showtime meeting held in August 2018.

It never ceases to amaze me at the diversity and quality of the work presented at one of our showtime meetings, so do keep on showing your work, your friends and fellow members all like to see what everyone is making and we can all learn from each other by sharing our experiences.

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Report on our meeting on 18th April 2019, making repairs in woodturning.

Our club meeting on the 18th April 2019 was organized by David Hay, his main theme for the meeting was how to make repairs in woodturning. David would be the main contributor to this type of work, however he had also arranged for 3 other members to be demonstrating their own things, these were David Hutcheson on a lathe, he would make a container for holding and storing sanding sealer, Mark Sutton also on a lathe, he would make a small Japanese style tea bowl, and Mark Dale was tasked with doing some hand carving and would make a large spoon or serving ladle. The turnout of members was very good and the evening went well, each demonstrator seemed to get a fair share of the attendees.

Here we have David Hay making his first of many holes in his Cherry blank to take the plugs he would use to disguise the shakes (cracks) in the blank.
Once the holes have been drilled corresponding plugs need to be fitted, these are held in with super glue, the plugs a re gently tapped into each hole.
Here we have one of the members having a go at drilling the holes, David likes to encourage onlookers to have a go under his supervision.
David continues to drill some more of the many holes required.
These are the plug cutters David uses, some of these sets come with corresponding drill bits.
Once all the plugs have been inserted, the blank is spun and any excess plug material skimmed off before sanding to a finish.
The outside now complete, all the plugs have been fitted and the outside sanded sealed and polished. David would do the inside at home.
Here we have David Hutcheson's blank about to be mounted in the chuck, the wood is Sycamore, he is going to make a lid with an integral brush to hold and apply sealer.
David starts to shape the blank to take a plastic seal that fits the top of a jam jar.
Here David is trial fitting the plastic seal, it needed to be a very good fit.
With the seal fitting, David turn his attention to the shaping of the handle.
David continues to shape the handle, but you will see a drill bit in the tailstock, this would be used to drill a hole to take the handle of a sealer brush.
The shaping of the main handle nears completion, the hole for the brush handle has been drilled.
All that remains is a little bit of decoration to the main handle, this is achieved by scoring the wood and using a wire to burn a few lines in the handle.
Here is David with his finished sealer pot complete with the handle he has just made, the brush would be inserted into the drilled hole and fixed with epoxy resin.
This is Mark Sutton's blank being mounted on the lathe, the wood is Sycamore, and Mark would demonstrate the making of a Japanese style tea bowl,
Here Mark has shaped the outside and made a short spigot on the bottom, this would be used to hold the item when turned around.
Now Mark has turned the piece around and has started to shape the inside, you will notice before he turned it around, Mark did some texturing and colouring of a band near the top by way of decoration.
Here Mark is using a ring tool on the inside to give him the shape and quality of cut on the inside.
Here Mark is doing the final cuts prior to sanding and finishing.
To clean up the bottom and get rid of any chuck marks, Mark has used a piece of router mat fixed to a disc and held the cup between centres using the tailstock, some very minor sanding would be required after cleaning up the base.
Here is Mark's finished Japanese style tea bowl.
Here we have Mark Dale making his first cuts on a piece of Birch using a hatchet and a home made chopping block. Mark would go on to make a large spoon or ladle.
Here is a sample of Mark's excellent work, one he did earlier by way of example.

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For a larger picture and some text, click any picture.

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Next meeting 18th April 2019, making repairs in woodturning.

Our next meeting on the 18th April 2019 has been organized by David Hay, his topic for the meeting is going to be working with wood that has defects and how in most cases this can be overcome and indeed even enhance the appearance of an item. In addition to what David is doing himself, he has arranged for 3 other members to be doing their own things, 2 are going to be turning, David Hutcheson and Mark Sutton, and for a special treat Mark Dale is going to do some carving. Mark Sutton’s attendance is still to be confirmed, after contacting him today his attendance will depend on his workload, but if he is there he will be making a Japanese inspired tea bowl.

This is the type of thing David Hay is going to demonstrate, the one on the left had 2 long shakes running lengthwise and David has used a series of plugs to hide the defects.The 2 other pictures show a whole series of cracks had to be hidden resulting in dozens of plugs being inset to hide the cracks.
This is a bowl of my own that was treated in exactly the same way,the picture on the left shows the crack being repaired with the plugs, the middle picture shows the extent of the plugs used, and the picture on the right shows the finished bowl, I had no problem accepting there would be a hole (or as we turners like to call it,”a natural element”) in the finished bowl, you will see that the plugs have been exposed on the inside as well, that’s something you need to take into consideration if applying this method to a bowl, you need to make the plugs long enough to be able to reveal them on the inside too.
After doing the original post I got an email from David Hutcheson with what he is going to do at the club this Thursday, he is going to make a sealer pot from a jam jar, this is a very useful item to have as it gives you the ability to judge the amount of thinning you put into your sealer much better than just guessing how much to put in the tin. An excellent project to do and you should all make one.

If I get any more changes to the programme before the meeting I will update the post, but if not we look forward to a good turnout and we hope you find the meeting interesting and informative.

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Report on our meeting on Thursday 4th April 2019, using a bowl saver tool.

Our meeting on the 4th April 2019 was mainly about the use of a bowl saver tool, this tool gives the user the ability to take more than 1 bowl out of a single blank making it a very useful tool especially if the blank is quite unusual or expensive. David Hay was the demonstrator and he did an excellent job of demonstrating exactly how it worked. In addition to the bowl saver demonstration, David had also arranged for 3 more turners to work the lathes, all of these turners were doing different things on the lathes, Colin MacKenzie was making a shallow platter in native Elm, Douglas Stewart was making wooden fruit, he did an apple in Yew wood and a pear in Cherry wood, David Hobson was making finials out of a piece of Mahogany. The turnout was very good, the evening started with the committee having one of their regular meetings prior to the start of the main meeting.

This is David Hay using the bowl saver tool on the first of 2 cuts he would do with the tool. the wood David used was a highly spalted piece of Beech.
The first of David's cuts almost complete, to remove the centre required a small tap just to release it from the parent wood.
Another view of the tool in use, it's held by the tool post and the tail stock and the whole thing works on the pivot, to make the cut, the handle on the top is pulled towards yourself.
Here we have David showing the onlookers the piece he removed from the centre.
David went on to complete the inside to the first bowl.
The inside of the bowl completed.
This was the final front piece David removed with the bowl saver tool, he gave this piece to one of our turners to complete at home.
Here is David's completed bowl, a highly spalted piece of Beech.
This is Colin MacKenzie making a start on his Elm platter, Colin works a lot with tipped tools.
Another view of Colin as he works the outside rim with one of his tipped tools.
Here Colin can be seen starting the cuts on the inside of his platter, again using tipped tools.
Colin MacKenzie's finished platter, a very nice piece of Elm, the green streaks in the wood give the type of Elm away, this is Wych Elm and native to Scotland.
This is Douglas Stewart making a start on one of his 2 fruits, this is an Apple being made from a piece of Yew wood.
Here Douglas is making a Pear from a piece of Cherry wood using a spindle gouge.
Douglas's Pear being sanded prior to being removed from the lathe and the stalk inserted.
These are Douglas Stewart's completed fruits, the Cherry wood Pear and the Yew wood Apple.
Here we have David Hobson mounting a piece of Mahogany in the chuck to make some finials.
Here David has started to make the first of his cuts.
One of David's finials almost complete, it's been sealed and polished ready to cut off.
One of David's finished finials, he did go on to make another.

If you want to see a larger picture and some text click on any picture.