Posted on by Alec Mutch

Report on our meeting 16-09-2021 Demo by John Ruickbie.

Our meeting on Thursday 16th September 2021 was a demonstration by John Ruickbie, John was to make a bandstand clock using some slats from whisky barrel staves. John had brought along a finished example along with some of the stave material, he explained that these were not square nor were they straight and that they had also been scorched on the inside, all of this presented some problems when mounting them on the lathe, John had made up some jigs to help overcome some of these problems. John also knew the time allocated for the demonstration would not be enough for the entire project to be completed so he did some of the preparation work at home and would show and explain how it was done as he went through the procedure.

Here are some pictures along with some information on how John made the clock.

Picture 1, John making his opening remarks to the members. 2, John holding up a finished example of his bandstand clock. 3, John started with the base plate, here he can be seen sealing it. 4, Now John is flattening the raised grain.
5, the completed base. 6, John has mounted a section of a stave to form the columns, there would be 4 of these. 7, Making the first cuts, bringing the piece to the round. 8, Using a template John marks out the working details.
9, John shows one of the finished columns along with the template design. 10, Working on the design. 11, the design complete. 12, sanding the finished design.
13, the spindle complete, John then cut the spigots on each end to fit the base and top. 14, a trial fit of all 4 spindles into the base. 15, Now John starts work on the top. 16, after truing up the face some sanding was required.
17, John is now shaping the domed top. 18, John added some beads to the top using a beading tool. 19, using some locating pins set into the base John lines up the 2 pieces using the grain on both pieces. 20, now positioned, John pressed down the top to mark the position of the holes in the top.
21, John showed one of his little jigs that he uses, this one was to get the angles just right. 22, John assembling the clock parts. 23, this was as far as John could go, the time had ran out, he was to finish the clock at home, he would need to make another piece that would fit from the top of the clock to the underside of the top and finish off with a decorative finial.

John demonstration was very much appreciated by the members and was shown by a good round of applause. Apologies for some of the detail in the pictures as they were all taken through the protective screen.

Our next meeting is on the 30th September 2021 and will be our showtime meeting, this is where you bring some of your turnings in to let the members see just what you have been doing, more than one item is perfectly acceptable, in fact the more the merrier, I will be doing the announcements with you the members doing the presentations, and we look forward to a good turnout.

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