Category: Tutorials

Turning tutorials

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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 on our latest training evening.

Our latest training evening was on Thursday 24th October 2024.

The programme was arranged by Nick Simpson our training organizer, all 5 lathes were in use with 5 pupils along with 5 tutors, Nick on this occasion was to be our safety observer. The session went very well with all the pupils making headway in their turnings, we did have a couple of very small reminders in regards to safety, something that is taken very seriously at the club, it just gave us a reminder not to be complacent.

Continue reading “Report on our latest training evening.”