Posted on by Alec Mutch

Report on our meeting 12-05-2022, managed by David Ross.

Our meeting on Thursday 12th May 2022 was managed by David Ross, David had organised for 4 of the lathes to be working, 2 of which were given over to making vases, whilst the other 2 were taking part in our training programme as a one off for this meeting only. The 2 turners making the vases were David Hobson and Dave Line. David Ross was working on lathe nr1 with Alan Smith as part of the teaching programme, Errol Levings was on lathe nr3 with Jeff Buttress again as part of the teaching programme.

I took a few pictures at the meeting of all involved, and here’s a few of them for you all to see.

Here we have David Hobson as he starts to work on a vase from a piece of Ash. David was to make good progress on this vase so much so that he started a second vase.
Here is David working on his 2nd vase, this time the wood was a piece of Mahogany.
Here we have Dave Line working on a piece of Ash that he had inlaid with some Mahogany strips to add some decoration to his vase.
Here we can see Dave Line sanding the inside of his vase using a piece of sanding cloth attached to a rounded piece of wood to sand the inside of his vase.

The next few pictures are from the turners and pupils who were working on the teaching programme.

Here we have Errol Levings (left) teaching Jeff Buttress (right) how to make a goblet. The wood being used is Sycamore.
In this picture Errol’s hand can clearly be seen setting out the position of the tool for Jeff to make the cut.
Here Jeff can be seen working the inside of the goblet, using a small bowl gouge and working from the centre out to the edge of the cup, lots of fine cuts are required for this process.
Here we have Alan Smith (left) looking on as David Ross (right) demonstrates to Alan the position of the tool as they start a bowl, David and Alan were working on a piece of Beech.
Here we can see Alan making some of his first cuts on the bowl, David is in the background guiding him through the process to good effect.
In this picture you will see that Alan’s left arm is covered with shavings, but not just any type of shavings, Alan is producing the right type of shavings, not too big but long and ribbon like, just what is required, David’s tuition is certainly working.

In addition to the work going on with all the lathes the bring and show table was used by some of the members, here is a picture of the items brought in to see.

These are the items that were brought in by some of the members, mainly vases as you can see, that was the programme for the evening.

One other item that was brought in by John Ruickbie was an aid for sharpening tools, John made this one from a few bits of metal and a wooden base and left it in the clubhouse for others to copy. There are a lot of jigs on the market for sharpening your tools, most are quite pricey, this one you could make at home for very little cost. If you wish to copy this jig, speak to John and he will explain how it is made and how it works.

The turnout for this meeting was good, and we had 2 new members attending for the first time, we have now reached our maximum membership number of 60, anyone now looking to join the club will need to go on a waiting list.

Our next meeting is on the 26th May 2022 it’s being managed by Alan Geddes and Alan’s theme for the meeting is making wooden boxes, he will have all 5 lathes in operation. We look forward to seeing you there.