Report on the EGM 25-03-2021

As you will be aware I called an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on the 25th March for a decision on our proposed move to Maryburgh. The meeting agreed the move by a unanimous vote. I can tell you that today we have received the official word from the council that the purchase of the Old Primary School in Maryburgh to the Maryburgh Men’s Shed for £1 has been accepted by the council. The building will be used by the Maryburgh Men’s Shed, Highland Woodturners Club and Maryburgh Matters (a community based club).

The move can not take place until late in this year or may be early into next year, the council are going to retain the building until a development next to the old School has been completed, the expected completion date is late September. Once we have access we will need to do some work on the building in order to make it useable for all 3 groups, this is expected to take at least 2 to 3 months.

In the meantime the Covid-19 restrictions mean that we are not able to return to the basement of the Munlochy hall any time soon, but even if the restrictions are fully lifted the Covid-19 situation has not gone away, the ventilation problem of the basement will still be there. As we have agreed to the move we do not intend to spend any money on the Munlochy building other than to make the move. The money will be spent on the Maryburgh building prior to opening.

We hope you can all bear with us on this journey, I do realise there will be some waiting time before we can all meet again in what will be our new venue in Maryburgh. Here is a picture of the building

The Old Primary School, Hood Street Maryburgh. From the Maryburgh roundabout, left into Maryburgh, then first right into Hood Street, the building is about 100 metres on the left.

Our next virtual meeting 01-04-2021

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 1st April 2021, this meeting has been turned into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. The meeting was to be managed by Nick Simpson and Nick’s theme for the meeting was green woodturning. Green woodturning is using wood that is still wet or fresh cut, this can still be achieved with good results if you know what you are doing, It can also be very interesting to see what actually happens to a piece of wet turned work after it has dried out, sometimes it can be quite beneficial but on other times a complete disaster. If you do make anything with wet or fresh cut wood, try to cut it very thin, this will give you the best chance of making something that after it dries is still useable. Wet turning can be very good when making items that are natural edged, these can distort in the drying and because of the natural edge can be difficult to see the distortion.

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Competition results 18-03-2021

Our virtual meeting on the 18th March 2021 was the Easter competition. The theme for the competition was to make Chess Pieces, the competition was arranged by Nick Simpson and was judged by Nick Simpson and Errol Levings. There were 3 categories for the competition, beginners, intermediate and experienced, each category had a different set of criteria set for them to follow, the beginners were requested to make a Chess Piece of any rank, the intermediate category were requested to make 2 Chess Pieces that were matching of equal rank, the experienced category were requested to make 2 matching Chess Pieces of equal rank from Rook (Castle), Knight or Bishop plus 1 Queen or King. Here are the results of the competition.

The Beginners category was won by Jeff Buttress for his Queen.

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Chess pieces competition 18-03-2021

Here is an update on the recent Chess Pieces competition. The closing date for the entries passed at midnight on the 18th March 2021. There were 9 entries in total. 5 came from the beginners category and 4 came from the experienced category, unfortunately we had no entries from the intermediate category.

All the entries have now been passed on to the judges with the members names having been removed, the result of the competition will be announced here on the 26th March, the individual winners will be notified by email at the same time.

The judges for this competition are Nick Simpson and Errol Levings.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who took part in the competition.

Competition this week 18-03-2021 Chess pieces.

Here is a reminder that this week our virtual meeting is the spring competition, its being organised by Nick Simpson and the subject matter is making chess pieces. For a reminder of the rules of the competition, see below. The judges for the competition will be Nick Simpson and Errol Levings. And do remember there is a £25 prize for each of the winners in the 3 categories, so well worth while entering.

Highland Woodturning Club

March 2021 Competition

Lockdown Chessmen

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Report on our virtual meeting 04-03-2021 Goblets.

Our meeting on Thursday 4th March 2021 was all about making wooden goblets, the meeting was to be organised by John Ruickbie but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions the meeting had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to make a goblet or goblets and to send any pictures of the completed items to me for publication on our club web site.

I have to say that the take up was pitiful with only 2 members other than myself taking up the challenge, this was very disappointing as we were expecting more of you to enter.

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Our virtual meeting 04-03-2021 Goblets.

Our meeting on Thursday 4th March 2021 has been arranged by John Ruickbie, John’s subject for the meeting is about making wooden goblets. This meeting has been made into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, that does not mean it won’t happen, it will take place only virtually. You are all invited to make at least one goblet, then for you to photograph it or them and send the pictures to me, do remember to give me some information about your creation.

It can be any size type or shape you so desire, made from one piece or from many pieces, it can be natural edged or even have a few rings in the stem, if your really adventurous you could create a stepped stem, it’s up to you, anything goes.

Here are a few pictures of some wooden goblets for you to view and take inspiration from, don’t just sit back and let others do the work, please take part, I’m sure we would all like to see what you have made.

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Report on our virtual meeting 18-02-2021 Snags & Solutions.

Our meeting on the 18th February 2021 was to be all about dealing with snags and finding solutions to those snags, it was being handled by John Ruickbie but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions it had to be turned into a virtual meeting. You were all invited to put something forward for this meeting, John did put in a very comprehensive report on a spinning wheel he worked on that threw up some problems he had to find solutions for. In addition to John’s report, Geoff Potter put in a suggestion rather than a snag that I thought warranted publication. I have also put forward something along the same lines as Geoff, Dave Line also put in a presentation for the solution of needing a drum sander, but we will start with John Ruickbie’s presentation,

Making a model spinning wheel

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Our next virtual meeting 18-02-2021 Snags, solutions and Ideas.

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 18th February 2021, this meeting had to be changed into a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. The meeting was to be arranged by John Ruickbie and John’s theme for the meeting was to be, Snags, Solutions & Ideas. I have already received some information from John on this meeting and some other input from another source. The feature picture at the top of this post deals with some of the information I have already, more will be revealed after the meeting date.

I’m sure most of you will have encountered a situation where you have met a snag and had to deal with it, let us know about it, tell us your solution and what other ideas you have to further your woodturning. I invite you all to tell me what snags and solutions you may have had in the past and what ideas you have for the future.

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Report on our virtual meeting 04-02-2021 AGM.

Our meeting on the 4th February should have been our AGM (Annual General Meeting), however this was not possible due to the Covid-19 restrictions, instead we prepared a summary of the 2020 years events that was presented by myself as Chairman, Geoff potter as Secretary and Cliff Sim as Treasurer, it will be our intention to have an AGM as soon as we are able to return to meetings safely, this is required for us to meet our constitutional obligations.

As for this meeting on the 4th February 2021, I put out a request for you all to make something or to send me pictures of things you had made in the past, I have to say there was a slight improvement in the number of people who took the time to send me their pictures. I don’t want you all to feel complaisant about this increase, all be it modest, I want you all to keep sending me your pictures or indeed anything else of interest.

Now for this weeks presentations, first up we have Mike Day with a few pictures and this is what he had to say about his entry.

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