Category: Photos from meetings

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Report on our meeting 20th February 2020, bandsaw safety and use.

Our club meeting on the 20th February 2020 was all about the use of a bandsaw, it was organized and carried out by John Ruickbie. John firstly discussed the setting up of the bandsaw, this covered things like the setting of the guide bearings for the blade, the height of the blade guard and the tension in the blade, all these things were discussed with the power source being isolated, I.E. the machine was not plugged in. John stressed the importance of having the machine isolated whilst any of the setting up or maintenance was being carried out. He also went on to discuss that the correct type of blade should be used for the purpose intended, and drew attention to the blade chart posted near the bandsaw that gave the correct blade type and size for both straight and curved cuts, this chart is now also on our web site. John went on to demonstrate using the bandsaw, making use of some home made aids like push sticks, he also showed another useful aid for use with the bandsaw, a parallel clamp that he had made, this clamp is particularly useful when cutting very small pieces of wood that are used in polychromatic assemblies. John then said he would make one of these clamps but due to the restrictions of time he had done some of the work at home, leaving the remainder to be done at the club, the clamp had some specialised tools required to make the clamp and he was to demonstrate their use, this involved a threading system. John went on to make the final pieces required to make the clamp, assembling the finished clamp and showing it to the very attentive crowd.

The turnout of members for this meeting was the highest I had ever seen at any meeting in all my time attending the club meetings, so much so that we ran out of chairs, reducing quite a few members to standing room only, for this the club apologizes. The following gallery of pictures with a little text should give you a flavour of just how the meeting went, pictures by Alec Mutch.

Here we have John Ruickbie making his opening remarks on his demonstration.
John was to demonstrate how to set up a bandsaw safely, the first job was to unplug it from any power source.
After discussing the set up and the blade types, John went on to cut some example pieces.
John used a few aids whilst cutting, in the foreground you will see a push stick.
Here John is putting the push stick to use with his left hand and used an additional piece of wood in his right hand to hold the wood against the fence.
This was an example of some of John's work, made up from lots of small pieces, he went on to say he used a parallel clamp when cutting some of the really small pieces.
This is the type of clamp John referred to, it's home made and John was to show one being made.
The parallel clamp required some specialised tools, one of which is the tool he is showing, it's a threading tool.
Before going on to make the clamp, John did do a short demonstration on it's use, here cutting very small pieces that you would not want to be holding with your fingers.
Here John is showing one of the main components, a threaded part that he was now going to demonstrate how it was made.
He started with a length of squared Beech and turned it into a cylinder, the speed was about 1200 rpm initially going up to about 1500 rpm .
Here John is marking out the position of the handle.
For the threaded part John used a set of calipers to get the right diameter for making the threads.
John made a series of depth cuts in order to get an even thickness on the part to be threaded.
Once the depth cuts were completed John used a gouge to bring the remaining parts down to the same thickness.
Now John is working on the last area to be brought down to the threading thickness.
John did a final clean up along the threading area, then made some decorative cuts on the handle with a beading tool.
The last part to be done before the threading was to round over the end of the rod, this would assist the start of the thread.
The turning complete John applied some lubricant on the threading part.
Here John can be seen starting the thread with the use of a hand held threading box.
The threads now approaching half way, the box is turned by hand whilst the lathe spindle is locked off.
The threading complete.
A short piece of the thread on the end of the threaded rod needed to be removed, approx, 12 mm.
John assembled the clamp and bandsawed the ends to finished clamp.

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If you would like to make one of these clamps, there is a post on our web site with a sketch of the clamp giving all it’s dimensions, the use of a threading tap and box is required, it might be possible to borrow these from John or myself if you want to make one.

The chart with all the blade sizes and their use is also on our web site should you wish to print off a copy.

Our next meeting is on the 5th March, it’s being organized by David Hutcheson and it’s all about making goblets.

We hope you all enjoyed John’s presentation and found it both interesting and informative, and we thank you all for your attendance.

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Report from our AGM on the 6th February 2020.

Our AGM (Annual General Meeting) took place on Thursday 6th February 2020, there was a good turnout for the meeting, the purpose of an AGM is to communicate what has happened over the past year and to discuss with the members anything they wish to raise. Reports were given by the Chairman, the Secretary and the Treasurer. This meeting also deals with who is on the committee, ratifying those committee members wishing to stay on the committee along with proposing any new members onto the committee, for a complete list of all the office bearers log on to our web site for all the positions and who filled them. Suffice to say 10 of the existing committee members remained on the committee for another year, we did have 2 resignations and they have been replaced with 2 new members onto the committee. The minutes of the meeting are now available in the members section of our web site, log on using the username and password.

Here are some of our members as they take their seats prior to the meeting starting.

Our next club meeting is on the 20th February 2020 and it will be managed by John Ruickbie, John is going to give a tutorial on the use of a bandsaw and also make a tool on the lathe for use with a bandsaw. We will also have a committee meeting that evening, the first of the new year and will include the new members on the committee, start time for the committee meeting, 5.30pm, start time for the main meeting 6.45pm, hope to see you all there.

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Report on our meeting 23rd January 2020, making wooden toys and puzzles.

Our meeting on the 23rd January 2020 was all about making wooden toys and puzzles, the meeting was organised by Douglas Stewart, Douglas had arranged for 4 turners to work the lathes, Bill Munro, John Ruickbie, Nick Simpson and himself. Each person would be doing something different, and the members attendance was very good. The following gallery of pictures along with a little text should give you a flavour of how the evening went. The pictures were all taken courtesy of Mike Day.

Here we have Douglas Stewart as he makes a start on his project
Douglas was to make a wooden Elephant.
Douglas was working with a piece of soft wood for his project.
Making headway with his project.
Here Douglas shows those watching the head part just completed.
Douglas trial fits the head to the body of his Elephant.
A final sand to the body part.
Here Douglas is making the feet for the Elephant.
Here we have Bill Munro, making a variation of spinning tops.
Here Bill is sanding his work piece.
Work progressing well on his project.
Here Bill is sealing his project.
These are some of the toys and puzzles John Ruickbie had made.
Here we have John Ruickbie as he makes a start on his project.
John was to make a variation on a solitaire game.
Here John is rounding over his work piece.
Here John is using a gouge to do some of the initial shaping.
Here John is doing the finishing cuts to his project.
Here John is checking the diameter with a set of calipers.
Here John is making ready to part off his project.
Here we have Nick Simpson as he makes a start on his project.
Nick was to make a dice shaker from African Blackwood.
Here we can see Nick hollowing his shaker cup.
The hollowing almost complete, Nick was to thread the inside.

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We hope you found the toy and puzzle making projects interesting and enjoyable.

Our next meeting is the annual AGM meeting, it will be on the 6th February starting at the usual time of 6.45pm.

This next meeting will be the last opportunity for any member to pay their fees for the 2020 meetings, miss that date and your place could be taken by someone on the waiting list.

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Report on our meeting on 09-01-2020, making wooden jewellery.

Our first meeting of the year took place on Thursday evening on the 09th January 2020, it was organised by Douglas Stewart and the theme was making wooden jewellery, Douglas had originally arranged for 5 turners to be working the lathes, however there were only 3 turners as the other 2 had to call off for various reasons, suffice to say there was insufficient time to organise replacements. The 3 turners were Douglas Stewart, Geoff Potter and myself, Douglas was to make a scarf clip, Geoff was to make a jewellery stand and I was making wooden ear rings.

There was an excellent turnout for the first meeting of the new year and Geoff was also collecting subscriptions for the year along with making his jewellery stand.

The following gallery of pictures accompanied with a little text should give you a flavour for how the meeting went, the pictures were courtesy of Mike Day.

Here we have Douglas Stewart as he makes a start on his scarf clip project.
Douglas had prepared his blank prior to coming to the meeting.
Douglas is now skimming the face of his project, a thin disc used as the base of his scarf clip.
The 2nd part of Douglas's scarf clip required a pin to be made from wood.
Here Douglas is finishing off the pin.
The finished disc of wood now sanded sealed and polished.
The finished product being put to it's intended use.
Douglas went on to start another clip, here he can be seen working the back.
Now Douglas is working the face of his 2nd thin disc.
Here we have Geoff Potter as he works his jewellery stand column.
Geoff used a fairly rough piece of wood that he would also turn off centre in some areas.
The shaping of the main stem in progress.
Geoff continued to refine the shape using the off centre turning methods.
Here Geoff can be seen sanding the stem.
A final sand before sealing and polishing.
In the foreground Geoff's finished stem showing some of the off centre work.
Here I am (Alec Mutch) setting up to start making ear rings.
The blank I used was made up from 6 different woods.
Here I'm making a start on the first cuts, only one tool was required for all the turning, a small spindle gouge.
Once shaped the worked piece is now sanded.
The ear ring was then sealed and polished and now needs to be cut off.
Here I'm using the spindle gouge to shear cut the base, it should not require sanding.
Here I'm parting off the ear ring with the spindle gouge, supporting it with my left hand.
A second one was made, this takes a little longer to do as it needs to match the first, here I'm applying a wax finish.

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This was only a very small journey into jewellery making, there are a number of books dedicated to making wooden jewellery that you might find fascinating , we hope this little experience has widened your view on woodturning, all of the metal parts required for jewellery making can be purchased from various sources on the internet.

Our next meeting is on the 23rd January and it’s also being organised by Douglas Stewart, the theme being making wooden toys and puzzles. There will also be a committee meeting that evening.

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Report on our meeting on 11th December 2019, Christmas competition & Christmas raffle draw.

Our last meeting for the year was on the 11th December 2019, it was also the Christmas competition where our members were asked to make something without having a theme,in other words it was an open competition. This applied to all 3 categories of turners in our club and the entry level was very good from all 3 categories. The standard of workmanship in all 3 categories was also very good, making the judging very difficult. The judging was carried out by all the members in the club and a winner did emerge in all 3 categories. This meeting was also our meeting where the Christmas raffle draw was done, this was handled by Colin MacRae and Jim Kelman, there was a huge amount of prizes , some bought by the club and some donated from the members. The turnout for this meeting was as expected very high. To get a flavour of how the meeting went, see the gallery of pictures below, click on the pictures for a larger view and a little text. Pictures by Alec Mutch.

A view of some of the members prior to the start of the meeting.
Picture 1 of 3 showing all the raffle prizes.
Picture 2 of 3 showing some more of the raffle prizes.
Picture 3 of 3 showing even more of the raffle prizes.
These were the entries in the Novice class, a good number exhibited and very good quality.
Another view of some of the entries in the Novice class.
These were the entries in the Intermediate class, fewer in number but very good for quality.
These were the entries for the Experienced class, good number of exhibits and excellent quality.
This was the winning entry in the Novice class, it was entered by Alec McLeod. 2nd place in this class was Richard Comfort.
This was the winning entry in the Intermediate class, it was entered by David Line. 2nd place in this class was also held by David Line.
This was the winning entry in the Experienced class, it was entered by David Hay. 2nd place in the Experienced class was David Ross.
Richard Comfort won the shield in the Novice class for the total points over the year 2019 competitions.
David Line won the shield in the Intermediate class for the total points over the year 2019.
John Ruickbie won the shield in the Experienced class for the total points won over the year 2019.
David Hay won the MacGregor shield for the best entry over all 3 categories in the year 2019.

This post ends the entries for 2019, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the committee members for the way the club has been handled this year, there are lots of tasks that have gone on unseen by the vast majority of the members that I as chairman appreciate has happened and will continue to happen, the club has been going now for some 15 years and appears to be going from strength to strength, the membership base is solid and we have had a waiting list for most of the club’s existence , this bodes well for the club’s continuance . Finally I would like to thank all the members for their attendance and we hope to see you all in the new year, our first meeting is on the 9th January 2020.

I would like take this opportunity on behalf of the committee to wish all our members online or present a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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Report on meeting 28th November 2019 making table lamp bases.

Our meeting on the 28th November 2019 was all about making table lamp bases, the meeting was organised by Cliff Sim, Cliff had arranged for 4 turners to be working the lathes, Bill Munro, Bob Chisholm, Richard Comfort and David Ross. All were making different variations of lamp bases, 2 were working on a single piece of wood for the base whilst the other 2 were making their lamps from more than one piece. The turn out of members was good. To get a flavour of how the meeting went click on the pictures in the gallery for a larger picture and some text. The pictures for this post were taken by Mike Day.

Here we have Bob Chisholm as he makes a start on his table lamp, Bob was working on a single piece of wood for his base.
Here we have Richard Comfort as he makes a start on his lamp base, Richard was to use more than one piece.
Here we have Bill Munro as he makes a start on his lamp base, Bill was to make his lamp from a single piece of wood.
Here we have David Ross as he works his lamp base, David was to make his lamp out of more than one piece of wood.
Bob shaping his base with a bowl gouge.
Richard fitting one of his pieces on the chuck.
Bob progressing well with the shape, still using a bowl gouge.
David drilling the hole for the cable using a home made jig to get the hole in the right place.
Bill Munro working on the shape of his base with a large gouge.
Richard working one of his many pieces that makes up his base.
Bob getting to the end of his shaping, now doing a little sanding.
David Ross finishing the base part of his 2 piece lamp.
Another view of Bill Munro using a roughing gouge to shape his base.
One of the club lathes with the new extraction mounts in use, these were made for all the lathes by Dave Line.
David Ross showing the bottom part of his lamp sealed and polished.
David Ross now working on the stem of his lamp.
The stem of David's lamp held between centres.
Here David can be seen cutting the spigot on the stem to fit the base.
Here Bob Chisholm is sealing and polishing his lamp base.
This box was partly made at the previous meeting and finished off at home by Nick Simpson.
Nick brought the box in to let the members see the finished article having ran out of time at the previous meeting.
David Ross sealing the stem of his lamp.
Bob Chisholm's base completed apart for fitting all the lamp fittings and cable etc.
Bob holding his finished base ready to wire it up.

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We hope you enjoyed our lamp making meeting, the next meeting is on Wednesday the 11th December not the Thursday to avoid clashing with the general election, usual start time. This will be our last meeting for 2019, it’s also the final competition for the year, an open competition where you can make what you like, no pre conditions so lets have lots of entries, remember you can put more than one item in to the competition. This meeting will also herald the grand Christmas raffle draw where there have been traditionally lots and lots of prizes, good luck to everyone in the draw.

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Report on our meeting 14th November 2019, main theme turned clocks.

Our meeting this week on the 14th November was mainly about making turned clocks, the meeting was arranged by Cliff Sim and he had 5 turners working the lathes. For the clock making he had John Ruickbie, Dave Line and himself, two other turners were making different things, Nick Simpson was making a small lidded box and Errol Levings was demonstrating the methods used to make oval turnings, with no overall finished product in mind. The turnout was good and according to the reports I received the meeting went very well.The pictures in the gallery below were all taken by Mike Day, these should give you a flavour of how the meeting went.

Here we have Cliff Sim setting up to start his clock. Cliff was to make a skeleton clock.
Here Cliff can be seen working the back of his clock.
Cliff now making the recess to fit the clock into.
Here Cliff is working the edge of his clock, some slight decoration could be used here.
Here Cliff can be seen sanding the face and edge of his clock.
Cliff ran out of time on his project but did have an example of one he had made earlier.
Here we have Dave Line as he is setting up to start his clock. He too would be making a skeleton clock.
Dave started by working the face of the clock first.
Here the face is almost complete, Dave is now making the recess for the clock movement.
In this picture Dave can be seen working the stand for his clock.
Having finished the face Dave mounted the surround on the bowl jaws to work the back.
Here Dave can be seen polishing the back of his clock.
Here is Dave's finished clock.
Here we have John Ruickbie as he sets up to start his turned clock. John was to make a clock using a chapter ring.
Here John has made the recess for the clock movement, now drilling the hole for the clock spindle.
Here John is working the face of his clock.
Here John can be seen making the slight recess for the chapter ring.
Here John can be seen trial fitting the chapter ring, these rings are self adhesive.
Here John is sanding all the surfaces on the face of his clock.
John uses a small saddle for the base of his clock , here he can be seen explaining how it works.
Here is John's finished clock. All fully assembles after sealing and polishing.
Here we have Nick Simpson, a new member to our club. Nick was to make a small lidded box.
Here Nick can be seen working the outside of the box.
The inside of his box now well underway.

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If you wish to see a larger picture of any in the gallery, just click the picture, this will give you a more detailed picture along with a little text. Our next meeting on the 28th November is again being organised by Cliff Sim, he has arranged for 5 turners to make lamp bases.

Remember that the Christmas raffles are on sale and we are still accepting donations of prizes and also items for the Fortrose craft fair organised by David Hobson.

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Report on our meeting on 31st October 2019, working with natural edges.

Our meeting on the 31st October was arranged by Cliff Sim and our theme was working with natural edged. Cliff had arranged for 4 turners to work the lathes, those were, Bob Chisholm, Mike Day, Richard Comfort and myself (Alec Mutch). We were all doing something different but with the same theme that each item was to have some element of natural edges on it. The turnout for the meeting was very good. The pictures from this meeting were taken by David Hobson, and should give you a flavour of how the meeting went.

Here we have Bob Chisholm starting work on a Laburnum natural edged bowl.
Here we have Mike Day as he starts to make wooden mushrooms.
This is Richard Comfort's elm blank mounted ready to start.
Another view of Richard's elm blank, he is making this into a clock surround.
This is myself (Alec Mutch) starting on a wet turning in cherry.
Mike Day making progress on his mushroom.
My blank now with the inside almost complete, I am making a thin wall bowl.
Here is Bob Chisholm taking the inside out of his Laburnum bowl.
The final cuts on the inside , note the thread like shavings you get with wet wood.
Here is Richard working on the chuck recess for his bowl.
The inside now complete, no need to sand as the wood needs to dry a little first.
Mike can be seen sanding the head of his mushroom.
The inside of Bob's bowl almost complete.
Richard has cut the recess for the clock movement.
Here I can be seen setting up a light that will go inside the bowl.
The effect of the light inside the bowl shows the wood going bright red as the walls get thinner.
Another view of the inside of Bob's bowl.
Mike now working on the stem of his mushroom.
Another view of Mike working the stem.
Here I'm finishing off the base of my wet turning, it will be left for a few weeks to dry before remounting to sand and polish.
I did another similar thin walled bowl using Leylandii.
Here Mike can be seen sanding the under side of the mushroom head.
Bob Chisholm's finished bowl.
One of Mike Day's finished mushrooms.

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If you want to see some larger pictures of this gallery just click on any picture, they are accompanied with a little text. The next meeting is on the 14th November, again being organised by Cliff Sim and this time it will be about making clocks. Don’t forget to get your Christmas raffle tickets and any donations of prizes would be most welcome.

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Report on our meeting on the 17th October 2019, making wooden platters.

Our recent meeting on the 17th October 2019 was all about making wooden platters, it was organized by Jim Kelman and he had 6 turners working the lathes, Bill Munro, Richard Comfort, Douglas stewart, David Hutcheson, Alan Smart and David Ross. Whilst all were making platters, there were differences in what they were doing. The turnout for the meeting was very good and the turners kept the audience interested. What follows is a record in pictures and text of how the evening went. The pictures for this post were taken by Mike Day, sorry for the delay in getting the post done this was due to technical problems with the pictures.

Here we have Bill Munro as he makes a start on his Oak platter.
The base of Bill's platter being sanded
The base complete.
Bill makes a start on the inside.
The turning on the inside nearly complete.
Bill is sanding the inside of his platter.
The inside sanded, Bill will apply a finish to his platter.
Here we have David Hutcheson working the outside of his Ash platter.
The shaping of David's platter well under way and the chuck recess already worked.
The outside of David's platter now sealed and polished.
The outside complete.
Here David has just started working the inside of his platter.
The turning complete, David has sanded the inside ready for the finish.
Here David is applying a coat of sanding sealer to the inside of his platter.
Here we have Douglas Stewart mounting his blank to the lathe.
Douglas has shaped the base and can be seen sanding for the finish.
With the outside complete Douglas has turned it around ready to work the inside.
Here Douglas can be seen working the inside.
Douglas applied some colour to the rim ready for the next stage.
Here Douglas has applied several different colours to the rim.
Here is Douglas's finished platter with a decorative rim.
Here we have Richard Comfort as he make ready to start his platter.
Here Richard is working the outside of his Elm platter.
The outside of Richard's platter almost complete.

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This gallery should have given you a flavour of how the evening went, if you want to see a larger picture and some text just click on any of the pictures.

Here is a view inside the club house as the meeting was in progress.
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Demonstration by Andy Walters 3rd October 2019.

Our meeting on the 3rd October 2019 was a demonstration by Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning, Andy is a professional woodturner running his business on the Black Isle. He was tasked to make a wooden Quaich, this is a drinking cup of Scottish origin used for taking whisky. The meeting was organized by Jim Kelman, The turn out was excellent.

Here we have Andy Walters, our demonstrator for the meeting. Andy did a brief summary on what he was going to do.
He was to make a Quaich, here he can be seen mounting the blank.
The first job was to true up all the working faces.
Here Andy is showing the members a template of the design of the Quaich.
Here Andy is marking out where he was going to start.
The base of the Quaich being worked first.
Here Andy is marking out where the chuck recess will go.
Cutting the chuck recess, Andy made this quite shallow and a fairly small diameter.
With the recess cut, Andy finished shaping the underside.
Here Andy can be seen sanding the underside.
He used a hand held sanding system that worked on friction, progressing through the grades of discs.
Here Andy is using a very fine sanding pad to finish off the sanding process.
Here Andy is applying a coat of sanding sealer.
After the sealer a coat of Melamine was applied, here he can be seen buffing that to a fine soft sheen.
The work piece turned around and mounted in the chuck ready to start the top and the inside.
Andy started by levelling off the face.
This cut would determine the size of the Quaich handles.
Here Andy can be seen removing material from the inside of the cup.
The inside size and shape almost complete.
Andy started to sand the inside, again using a variety of grit sizes of discs.
The top rim and the area where the handles will be being sanded by hand.
Andy sealed the work piece and applied a coat of Melamine before buffing to a soft sheen.
Here Andy can be seen marking out where the cup handles will be using a template.
Here just a hint of where the pencil marks are for the handles.

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If you want to see a larger picture and some text, just click on any picture, the featured picture at the top of the page is a view of the members as they took their seats for the demonstration. Pictures by Alec Mutch. Next meeting is on the 17th October and that will be making platters.