Report on our virtual meeting 20-08-2020 safety in the workshop.

Our virtual meeting on Thursday 20th August was to be about workshop safety, this could not take place due to Covid-19 restrictions being in place. John Cheadle was to do a presentation on various aspects of workshop safety, this subject will still be approached once some of the restrictions have been lifted.

As a result of the cancellation you the members were invited to put forward anything on any subject, this could have been on safety issues or just what was on your mind at the time, we were looking to get some pictures of things you had made along with some text telling us about what you had made and why. The response was extremely low and most disappointing despite our best efforts to get some more of you involved. I only received one actual entry from Nick Simpson, I did receive another picture from Gordon Leitch along with a question, which I’m going to include in this post, it’s things like this that I would hope you would put forward, if you don’t put forward anything how can we respond to you.

I told you in the last post that I would do a timeline on a bowl I made from an Ash Gall, it will feature in a separate gallery here in this post.

Firstly here is Nick Simpsons submission for this post.

Hello Alec,

This is my submission for this week.

The forms are hollow and mathematically known as tricylinders. Basically they are 6 sided tubes which intersect at right angles.

These have been turned and carved from 4 inch cubes and when finished they were decorated in different ways.


The ‘Rusty Pipe’ is from Sycamore and finished with a mixture of acrylic paint, and artists sand.

The ‘shiny’ pipe is also Sycamore and threaded on all 6 ends then finished in Rustoleum gun metal acrylic spray.
The ‘Steampunk’ form is from green Ash which was then scorched to fire then wire brushed back and decorated by copper wire and brass cogwheels.


 The form was popularized by the Irish woodturner Max Brosi but I have never seen a timeline for construction.
I have demonstrated the construction of these so have pieces in the various stages production.
If there is interest I will send you a timeline for the next set of postings.
Regards
Nick Simpson.

I’m sure some of you will want to see Nick’s timeline on the making of one of these tricylinders, do let me know.

Now for Gordon Leitch’s question, this came as a result of some information I put out on fitting a tile into a wooden surround.

Hi Alec I enjoyed your article fitting tile into wood surround I still have the original I got from you way back when you did demos at Ullapool. However could you  advise how I can overcome the problem I have fitting clock chapter rings .I have tried exact fitting and also fitting with clearance but get the same result within 3 weeks of fitting( photo enclosed ) the blanks used were well dried and seasoned 

Your comments PLEASE Regards Gordon 

This is Gordon’s clock as you will see the chapter ring has been pushed out in a bulge between 2 & 3 o’clock.

This was my answer to

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for you comment on fitting a tile into wood, interesting that you still have one of my original information sheets.

The first thing to say is for these items a quarter sawn blank would be preferred, this is where the grain of the wood is vertical to the face of the blank, it should also be from one quadrant of any log, I.E. not using the centre pith, the shrinkage if there is any will only be in one direction, towards the centre with no buckling, and that movement can be catered for in making the fit not too tight.

This problem of movement when using a chapter ring is quite different to that of fitting a tile, the option to remove some of the centre part under the tile is not available when using a chapter ring. Instead of taking material away from under the tile, the opposite needs to happen, remove the material from the back of the surround. You should use a medium length shaft clock movement, that would leave about 4 to 5 mm thickness where the movement gets fitted, but don’t just remove the wood from the centre where the movement goes, the wood needs to be removed on the back right back to the outer diameter of the chapter ring, so you have a fairly large opening in the back that is all 4 to 5 mm thick, the area outside of the chapter ring can be left at full thickness but flat to just a little concave, this needs to be wide enough to carry the brass or plastic hanging plate. On the front (you will need a jam chuck to hold the work peice)  mount it on the jam chuck, drill the hole for the movement screw and flatten off the face right across including the area for the chapter ring. You can recess the chapter ring by removing just 2 mm of the thickness where the ring is to go, allow for a little shrinkage, so not too tight a fit, the gluing proceedure is the same as for a tile, 4 x 25 mm x 6 mm strips of silicone placed at 3,6,9 and 12 o’clock. Now the profile on the border outwith the ring can be made, that’s down to personal preference. Sand seal and polish, let me know how you get on, I’m going to do a full set of instructions on this for the web site shortly, so thanks for asking the question.

Regards,

Alec.

Now for my own submission, a timeline on the use of an Ash Gall being made into a bowl.

For a larger picture of any in this gallery just click on the picture, it will be accompanied by some text, there are 14 pictures in all, just start at picture one and follow them through to picture 14. This shows the possibilities of using some weird and wonderful pieces of wood.

Our next virtual meeting will be on the 3rd September 2020, it should have been all about household goods and was to be organised by John Cheadle. Let us see if you can come up with some household items, you are being invited to give me pictures of the things you have made, so lots of them please.

We are still working on a method to get us re-opened as and when the government allows us back meeting again, we are looking at things like better ventilation and trying to increase the floor space for social distancing, the hall committee have been contacted to see if they will agree with some of the proposals we have put forward. More on this as and when we get it.

Remember the clubhouse remains closed.

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