Category: Photos from meetings

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Report on Meeting 3rd September 2026

Alec led us through Part 1 of making a skeleton clock. He explained that in his professional days this was one of the most commonly purchased items. The mechanisms have to be purchased and are not particularly cheap to buy, and the wood has to be well prepared before use- with the dimensions and in particular the thickness well controlled. Unfortunately the author of this post was unable to see the rest of the process as he was occupied by a nose bleed! Thanks to Neil Farnham for the photographs below.

Please also note – that this was part 1 and part 2 will be the theme for the meeting on 17th September.

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Report of the meeting . 20th August 2026

We welcomed a number of new and budding members this evening. There were two events tonight. Pen making demonstrations and the Shield Competition.

The shield competition had entries from standardised pieces of oak given at a previous meeting.

Results : This was an incredibly close competition with all of the entries of the highest quality.

Novice: 1st: Lynn Holmes

Intermediate: 1st Barry Cumming 2nd Neil Farnham 2nd Sue Drew 4th Alan Smith 5th Marco Baglioni

Open: 1st Keith Hodgson 2nd John Ruickbie 3rd David Hobson

Novice Class
Intermediate Class
Open Class
All together now !

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Open Day report from 8th August 2026

It was a busy day ( apparently – as I wasn’t there !) with much fun. 8 people have signed up for a taster session, and they will hear about that soon.

The proud winner of the ” Guess the weight of the mushroom” and her dad. ( With permission)

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Report on Meeting 23rd July 2026

Sue Drew oversaw this ” show and tell ” meeting ( It isn’t just primary schools you know). This was well used by members to show us things they are proud of , and also for seeking advice about how to make things better. All work was viewed positively, and when asked, helpful feedback was provided. A theme amongst the novices, was about shape and form and what makes things aesthetically pleasing.

Sue rescued a piece of work by setting fire to it, and then stapling it.
Marco explained how he created this ” blood stained” bowl.
Geoff brought some boxes
Neil discussed shape and form for his candlestick thingy.
Nick was delighted to show us this bowl
Alan was delighted to show us this bowl
Alex explained the inspiration behind this piece
This explains how to glue up the pieces to make the vase ( so I am led to believe)
Marco explaining how to make a pair of Quaichs
Bob had some things to show, but nobody took any photographs . This is a photograph taken by Bob
Nick with a very fine thing showing form and technique
This was the whole of the evenings work.

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Report on Meeting. 9th July 2026

Julian Cox shared with us his many years and great craftsmanship on marking and cutting spirals. We were all in awe of the process and the patients clearly needed to cut spirals.

Choosing the right proportions based on the diameter of the piece
A great deal of time spent marking out the piece.
Using a flexible plastic piece to mark out the bases of each cut
This home made back saw, sets the depth of the grooves
Working with the grain to form the groove
Different colours mark the peaks and also the width of the grooves
A round file is handy to finish off the profile and smoothing of the grooves
making a coreless spiral
Drilling through
Using other tools such as a dremel to join the holes together to form the spiral.
The spiral is always the last thig to do to a piece of work.
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Report on Meeting 25th June 2026

Club member and professional woodturner Mark Sutton took us through the processes of making a bowl/ platter with square edges and corners.

Mark suggested starting with a perfectly square piece of wood.
Marking the tool rest at the corners of the piece.
Marking the tenon
Following the ” ghost” to create the outside shape first.
Once in the chuck, following the outside profile for the internal shape
Larger heavier tools are easier to hold steady
Using texturing on the base
a flat sander finishes off the edges
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Report of meeting. 11th June 2026

This well attended meeting was on the theme of making more than one identical item. The evening was led by Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning. Andy is a ” Production woodturner”, so has a lot of experience at making repetitive pieces.

Getting the correct body position with the lathe is crucial

Marking up a template
Cutting out a size gauge for setting calipers
Transferring reference points to the work
Using a parting tool and callipers to set key diameters in correct positions
Do one process at a time on ALL of the pieces, so you don’t have to change accessories and your movement becomes repeatable
Two hands two pieces that look the same.
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Report of the Meeting 28th May 2026

Tonight’s meeting was an opportunity to consider the new Health and Safety handbook and to consider safe working, both in our workshop and in our home workshops. Nick and Keith took us through pre use checks for lathes, and then looked at tackling fires, and risk assessments.

A serious topic for tonight, with a hands on “spot the danger” exercise.

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Report on Meeting 30th April 2026

On a beautiful summers evening in early spring(!), members cam to show some of their work, offer guidance and ask for advice on this ” Show and Tell ” evening.

Advice was offered as to tools that could be adapted and used for particular things such as remounting, and carving close concentric rings. In the sprit of lessons learned with Stewart Furini, Alec showed us another colour/texture medium set. Here are a small number of photographs of some of the things we had a look at.

A chuck with sharpened jaws.
Nicks clock with some eccentric patterns
Neil had turned a resin and cone piece. Never again as lots of resin as waste
Alec brought Pebeo finishings