Category: Photos from meetings

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Report on our meeting on 16th May 2019.

Our meeting on the 16th May 2019 was all about making wooden fruits, the meeting was organized by David Hobson who also took part in the turning along with Alec MacLeod, Bob Chisholm, John Ruickbie and Richard Comfort. The meeting was well attended, it had quite a variety of ways in which wooden fruits could be made which made the evening even more interesting. Here is a summary of the evenings proceedings in both picture and print.

Here we have John Ruickbie as he starts to make a wooden apple from a piece of Cherry wood.
Here we have Alec MacLeod as he starts to make a wooden apple from a piece of Sycamore.
Here we have Bob Chisholm as he starts to make a wooden Orange from a piece of Elm wood.
Here we have David Hobson as he starts to make a wooden pear from a piece of Zebrano wood.
Here we have Richard Comfort as he make a start on making a wooden pear from a piece of Elm wood.
Here John Ruickbie is working on what will be the bottom of his apple.
Here Alec MacLeod is working on shaping his apple.
David Hobson's Zebrano pear taking shape, here he can be seen doing the final sanding.
Richard Comfort is being guided by one of our senior turners, Bill Munro.
Bob Chisholm now making a Butternut Squash from a piece of fence post.
This is one of Bob Chisholm's Butternut Squash, although not a fruit, Bob carried on making it.
Here John Ruickbie is now shaping the top of the apple.
Richard Comfort working on the base of his pear.
Here Richard can be seen sanding his pear, and looking good for a first attempt.
John Ruickbie's completed apple, made from a piece of Cherry wood.
Alec MacLeod's completed apple made from a piece of Sycamore.
David Hobson's completed pear made from a piece of Zebrano wood.
Richard Comfort's completed pear made from a piece of Elm wood.
David Hobson brought in a bowl of fruits by way of examples he had made earlier.
The inside of the club house, with the members watching their preferred turner.
John Ruickbie went on to make a wooden pear to accompany the apple he made earlier.
Alec MacLeod applying a finish to his apple.
David Hobson went on to make a wooden plum from a piece of Purpleheart.
Here David can be seen taking some of his final cuts on the plum.

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If you want to see a larger picture and some text, click on any picture. We hope these picture and text gave you an insight into the making of wooden fruits, and it doesn’t stop there, a whole range of wooden fruits and vegetables can be made.

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Our club meeting on 2nd May 2019 was a showtime meeting.

Our club meeting on the 2nd May 2019 was a showtime meeting, this is where the members are encouraged to bring and show any item they had made over the past few weeks, each one would get the opportunity to tell the members how they made any item and answer any questions from the members. The attendance for this meeting was a little smaller than usual and the number of members exhibiting was also a little smaller than usual, however the amount of items displayed was very good. The evening went well and the members got fully involved with all the item shown.

Here I am doing my introductions for the meeting, I was also the compere for the showtime meeting.
First up was Douglas Stewart, Douglas had made a selection of wooden mice as a novelty.
A closer view of some of Douglas's mice, all made in a variety of woods.
Here we have Dave Line, Dave made a couple of items, here he is showing his segmented vase with lid.
A closer view of David's vase with lid.
Dave also made this novelty mock up of an old style of telephone in Oak.
A closer view of Dave's 2 items.
Here we have Bob Chisholm, Bob had several item to show, here is his first a wooden platter made in Sycamore.
Another of Bob's items, a Mortar and pestle made from a segmented form.
Another of Bob's items a very shallow plate made from Sycamore.
Bob also made this Gavel and Block.
A closer view of Bob's Gavel and Block.
Here we have David Hutcheson showing the first of his 2 items.
David's first item was a shallow bowl with a natural edge, David explained he did not like to throw any piece of wood out, and this was the result of one such piece.
The underside of David's shallow bowl, he had made an insert to fill the chuck recess and added a little decoration.
The second of David's items was this piece of Elm, again this was salvaged from the throw away pile, it had some cracks that David stitched using some metal staples.
The top side of David's Elm plate, he had scorched the underside and carried the scorching on to the top side for forming the lip.
Here we have Geoff Potter showing a natural edged bowl, Geoff explained that this piece of wood was salvaged from the shore of a highland loch.
A closer view of Geoff's Elm bowl.
The second of Geoff's items was this highly spalted bowl, it had been made from a piece of Beech that had been cut using a bowl saver.
A closer view of Geoff's Spalted Beech bowl.
This picture shows the piece that came out of the bowl using the bowl saver with the bowl to the left and the natural edged bowl to the right.
Here we have Bill Munro, Bill showed a couple of items that were all made by using the inside out turning method.
This was Bill's compote inside out turning, made from native Walnut.

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If you want to see a larger picture along with some text, click any picture. Most of the pictures for this post were taken by Dave Line.

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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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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.

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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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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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Competition report from 21-02-2019

Our competition on the 21st February 2019 was all about making a turned box. The number of entries for the novice group were very good, as was the number of entries for the experienced group, however the intermediate group had far fewer entries, this has a lot to do with the way the groupings are arrived at and that is something the club is going to address for future competitions. The standard of work in all 3 groups was excellent which made the judging very difficult, it was hard to pick a winner, the judging was done by Alec Mutch and Gordon Leitch. The pictures for the competition were taken by Alec Mutch. In addition to the competition all of our 5 lathes were in operation during the whole event with the turners doing their own things, 2 of those turners were on the lathes for the first time at the club. The pictures for these turners were taken by Alec Mutch and Phil Moore.

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

These were the entries for the Novice group.
These were the entries for the Intermediate group.
These were the entries for the Experienced group
The winner of the Novice group, a lime box made by Mark Dale.
The winner of the Intermediate group, Ash & Mahogany box made by Dave Line.
The winner of the Experienced group. Purpleheart, Beech & Cherry Made by Errol Levings.
Free turner Vicky Pocock as she makes a start on a small Sycamore bowl.
Free turner Colin MacKenzie as he makes a start on making wooden pens.

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2019 AGM report.

Our AGM on Thursday 7th February 2019 went very well. We had a very good turnout of members and all the existing committee members were present. The chairman made an opening statement, followed by the secretary presenting the minutes of the previous AGM. The chairman did a report on the years events, that was followed by the treasurer giving a report on the financial status. Topics discussed were , the constitution, skype and the internet, membership fees and training fees. As the committee had shrunk to just 7, we voted a few more members onto the committee taking it back up to 12. There were a few items raised under A.O.B. that the chair announced would be discussed at the first committee meeting.

Pictured here at the start of the meeting, Left, Cliff Sim, Treasurer. centre, Alec Mutch, Chairman. right, Peter Lawrence, secretary.
Here I am opening the meeting, welcoming everyone to the meeting.
Here are some of the members reading Peter's minutes report.
In this picture Cliff Sim (treasurer) is reading his financial report to the meeting, copies of his report were handed out to the meeting.
One of the votes in progress for the new members of the committee.
Another of the votes taking place.

The committee would like to thank all of you who attended the AGM. For a larger picture and some more information, click any of the pictures.

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Club meeting on Thursday 24th January 2019.

Our club meeting on Thursday evening 24th January 2019 was a one to one meeting, where an experienced member would take a less experienced member through the process of doing something that they find challenging, this could be some element of turning or it could be sharpening the tools. We had 3 lathes in operation and the sharpening station. Bill Munro was showing Dave Line some of the finer points of spindle turning. Errol Levings was doing long hole boring with Graham Charge, (Graham is a new member to our club). David Hay was at the sharpening station demonstrating the art of sharpening, we had asked the members to bring in a tool to get reground or sharpened, suffice to say David was kept very busy. Lastly I Alec Mutch was demonstrating the use of a bowl gouge with Bill Henderson, Bill has been using tipped tools thus far but now felt it was time to try and use the gouge. The turn out of members was very good and the evening went very well, Peter Lawrence was the manager for this session.

Here we have Bill Henderson making his first cuts on a bowl blank using a bowl gouge, being supervised by myself.
Here we have Dave Line working on spindle turning, Dave was being supervised by Bill Munro.
Here we have David Hay at the sharpening station, being observed by some of the members.
David was kept very busy sharpening and regrinding members tools after the members were encouraged to bring in a tool to sharpen.
Here we have Errol Levings about to show Graham Charge the method used for long hole boring.
Here Errol is about to start the lathe after positioning the long hole boring tool to start the hole.
I have picked up some of the shavings after Bill made a few cuts, these shavings were exactly what is required to achieve a good finish.
Here Bill Munro is guiding Dave Line as he make his cuts.
A close up of Dave Line's cuts, note the ribbon like shavings, exactly what's required to achieve a good finish.
Bill now taking some cuts across the face of the blank, he was growing in confidence with every cut.
David sharpening a tool on the belt sharpener, being observed by some of the members.
A closer view of how David holds the tool as it's being sharpened, note the position of the tool guide above the belt.
Here Graham Charge is using the long hole boring tool, being observed by some of the members.
Graham making headway with the tool.
Dave Line working on the shaft of a goblet, here he is getting close to completion.
Dave line sanding the stem of the goblet.
Here Dave line is being supervised on the use of a parting tool to cut the goblet free, Bill Munro is ready to assist if needed.
A view inside the club premises with the members watching all the different turners at work.
This was as far as we got with the bowl turning, time ran out on us, however Bill Henderson said he would try one at home now.
Dave Line with his finished goblet.

Click any picture for a full sized picture and some text.

All the pictures were taken by Mike Day

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Christmas Competition & raffle draw.

A view of some of the many prizes on offer.
Another view of the prizes, Colin McRae (seated) was handling the prize giving along with Jim Kelman who did the draw.
These were the entries for the “Novice” category.
These were the entries for the “Intermediate” category.
These were the entries for the “Experienced” category.
This was the winning entry in the “Novice” category, the winner was Winston Amos.
This was the winning entry in the “Intermediate” category, the winner was Bill Henderson.
This was the winning entry in the “Experienced” category, the winner was David Ross.
Other winners in each category who were awarded a shield for the points based system for all entries in all the competitions for the year 2018 were,
Novice     David Line.
Intermediate    David Hobson.
Experienced     David Hay.

Congratulations to all the winners.

We hope to see even more entries in the competitions in the coming year 2019.