Posted on by Alec Mutch

Report on our meeting 24-11-2022 A tribute to Cliff Sim.

Our meeting on Thursday 24th November was a tribute to our late treasurer Cliff Sim who died on the 5th September 2022. Cliff had been our treasurer for many years and was very well respected for everything that he did for the club. He was also very much involved with other clubs and organizations and treasurer to more than just our club. His death was very unexpected and he will be sadly missed not only by our club but also from the wider community.

The idea for the tribute came from one of our members John Ruickbie, he knew that Cliff had brought to our club some pieces of wood that came out of a Church that was being altered by the removal of some of the Church pews, the wood was all Pitch Pine and probably over a hundred years old, but perfectly useable material. It was decided that John was to organize 5 turners to man all our lathes and to use the wood Cliff brought in to make some items for Cliff’s family.

All the items made were made from the Pitch Pine Cliff brought in, and all were different, the 5 turners were John Ruickbie, David Ross, Dave Line, Julian Cox and myself,(Alec Mutch). All the turners agreed to let the family have all the items made as a thank you for Cliff’s involvement in our club. The pictures for this meeting were taken by Liam Comfort one of our junior members.

This is Julian Cox, Julian was making a book stand, he had made most of it at home, here he demonstrated how to make the barley twist . Picture 1, Julian is setting up the piece he was to work on. Picture 2, shows Julian using a traditional Bow Saw to make the cuts required to make the barley twists. Picture 3, now Julian is using a fine rasp to open up the twists, there is no easy way of doing this, it’s using a keen eye and hard work. Picture 4, the finished column ready to be fitted into the book stand.
This is Dave Line, Dave was making a deeper bowl than the material allowed so he had to glue up 2 pieces in order to get what he wanted. Picture 5, shows Dave polishing the outside of his bowl. Picture 6, this shows Dave now working on the inside of his bowl. Picture 7, here is Dave’s finished bowl.
This is David Ross, David was to make a shallow plate. Picture 8, shows David polishing the outside of his shallow plate. Picture 9, now shows David working on the inside of his shallow plate. Picture 10, David’s finished shallow plate. This piece of wood showed off the grain structure to great effect.
This is John Ruickbie, organizer of the tribute meeting, John was to make a table lamp. Picture 11, here John is working on the base of the table lamp, he too had to glue 2 pieces together to get the depth he required to make the base. Picture 12, here John is polishing the base. Picture 13, John had made some of the parts at home prior to the meeting, this is normal practice where time is limited. In this picture he is fitting the lamp stem to the base, and getting all the electrical parts fitted and PAT tested. Picture 14, John’s finished lamp complete with bulb and working.
This is me (Alec Mutch), I was to make a tea pot stand. Picture 15, Shows me truing up the base and fitting the chuck recess on the bottom. Picture 16, Here I’m using a power sanding system to sand the profiled edge, a profile on the edge is required to enable the item to to be picked up easily. Picture 17, Here I’m just about finished, now giving the top side a final polish prior to fitting the marble tile. Picture 18, the tile fitted and held by some silicone, my finished tea pot stand.
A final picture of all the items made. 1, is Julian Cox’s Book Stand, (one side column still to be fitted) 2, is John Ruickbie’s Table Lamp. 3, is David Ross’s shallow plate. 4, is Dave Line’s deep bowl. 5, is my Tea Pot Stand.

The evening went very well, the report from the members at the end of the meeting was very appreciative of the fact we did this tribute to Cliff and his family.

The meeting was well attended, our next meeting is on the 8th December, it’s the Christmas competition and also the grand Christmas raffle draw. This will be the last meeting for the year 2022.