Club Meeting; 25 August 2015
Report by David Jones

Phread  started his  demonstration by making a mallet in under 2 minutes without using the lathe at all.- simply cutting a piece off 100X75mm radiata post, drilling a hole through it with a forstner bit, cutting a length of dowel for the handle, shoving it into the head and walking away.

Clearly a very impressive performance from a speed point of view, but a rather useless mallet , unlikely to last..

Phread then proceeded to give an excellent demonstration on basic woodturning, and the importance of accuracy depending on the requirements of the project.

He started by showing a spurtle and a doris, both particularly shaped pieces of wood designed to stir food in a pot, and both made with a spoke shave . They were both beautiful to look  at as well as excellent in doing the job they were designed for, demonstrating the use of the spokeshave and the effects of cutting with and against the grain.

The head of the mallet had already been drilled for the shaft, but as the head was to be turned off-center, Phread then spent some time discussing the need for maximum accuracy in marking the exact center of each end of the mallet head and the use of the right sized ruler and the making of the point with an awl rather than a builders pencil. The ends were marked with diagonal lines as well as right angle lines through the centre of each end and four offset points 10mm each side of the center.

The head was then partially turned between centers before being offset 4 times using the 10mm offset points previously marked. The head was then sanded along the grain.
Putting the mallet head back on the lathe between centers, Phread then demonstrated marking and cutting the mallet head to the exact length required using a parting tool and then a skew chisel to cut off the torn grain and remove the arras  on the edge.

The handle had a sawcut put in it about 50mm long to take a wedge and was then roughed about 32mm except at the end where the wedge cut was where a taper was put on. A very wide cove was then put into the handle with a large spindle gouge, before Phread reverted to his favorite skew chisel to finish the bottom end of the handle and the taper so the handle would fit through the hole in the head of the mallet. All this time he was demonstrating how to stand and hold the tools so that there was minimum effort. He also pointed out the need for the wedge direction to be at right angles to the mallet head direction, to avoid the mallet head cracking when fitting.

Thanks Phread for an excellent demonstration about the real basics of woodturning which are so essential for our craft.

Club Meeting: 12 August 2015
Report by: Phread Thurston

When Andrew showed us what he was about to demonstrate I thought “how the hell will he turn that and I hope it’s competed before midnight “.  Read this article and you will get both questions answered.

You start with a piece of wood that is cut into an equilateral triangle say 45mm thick.  Mark the centre and mount on a screw chuck.  Face this off.  Remember the tip of keeping the tool rest parallel with the end result of the trued up face.  Sand when true, take off and repeat on the other face.  Both faces are parallel with each other and sanded.

Take it off the lathe chuck and all.  Now the next chuck that it was mounted on is not able to be described in this article.  It was an off centre adjustable chuck made by Andrew ( he has another life I think as a Fitter & Turner. ).  There are other ways of holding the work which is off centre and adjustable but this article is not the place to try to describe them.

Before it’s mounted the circles require setting out.  With an equilateral triangle take a line from an apex to the centre of it’s opposite long side and draw a line.  Do this for the three legs of the triangle.  Now with a little trial and error work out a diameter for the circles and Andrew’s was approx 120mm.  Since the block is 45mm thick you can drill a hole in the centre of the circles to say 30mm and this will become the guide for the bottom of the bowls.  The bowls are then turned conventionally taking care that after the first, you will turn air and a little care is needed not to chip the bowl edge.  By using the adjustable off centre chuck the three bowls are completed and sanded up making sure you keep the three circles or bowl circumferences the same diameter.  Andrew uses sanding sealer after completing this stage.

The back of the three sided bowl can be marked with the same markings as already described above.  Go to the band saw and cut from apex to the marked centre on the three legs.  There are many ways to sand up the three pieces but the sanding disc on the lathe with a supporting table on the lathe bed which was demonstrated worked real well.  Sand each piece, round the corners and do the top and bottoms.  In other words finish all the sanding at this point.
Using same contrasting colour wood and 10mm thick which has been dressed both sides mark out the three legs.  The style of leg and it’s position within the three sided bowl has more than one possibility and depends on how you want the end result to look.  A tip is to connect the three legs together and sand them connected so the end result is three equal looking legs.

Everything all sanded and coated with sanding sealer it’s join up time.  This is really about patience, putting the brain in gear and it will go together.  Why don’t you try to make one.  I now know how and yes the demonstration was well done and inside the time available.  Thank you Andrew.

Club Meeting Demo: 5 August 2015
Report by: Roger Wilson

Does three go into one….yes as demonstrated by Colin Wise

In the interests of a constrained time frame Colin elected to use less than suitable timber (too soft) in order to demonstrate the stage by stage process involved in turning this rather delicately trumpet fluted three neck vase.

Colin explained that in essence, you create three separate vases however a bonus would be in remembering ones school days geometry.

It is critical at the starting point that the joining angle of 120 degrees is established and that the correct offset is marked..e.g. 16 degrees on the bottom (tailstock), 42 degrees at the top (headstock) which equates to a 15 degree offset over the 130 mm length.

What was also demonstrated by Collin was his use of an ingenious wooden chuck shaped to hold the vase for both turning and shaping the trumpet plus hollowing out the vase. This chuck (attached to a set of cole jaws) piece of apparatus was the culmination of about two days work but once made would allow for multiple replication.

Collin made use of his sphere turning setup to show how the perfect sphere can be produced in spite of working with soft  timber.

This stage by stage demonstration by Collin Wise showed that with patience what appears to be magic could, with care, be a reality for wood turners with some experience.

A full diagrammatic description can be found on www.woodworkersinstitute.com (ed: not sure where)

Club Meeting :  27 July 2015
Report by: Dave Armstrong

David started his demonstration by discussing the “Methodology” or the process of turning his pieces and showed us examples or his two types.  One being an oblong piece with three dishes and the more traditional round piece, also with three dishes.  David mentioned that it is possible to make pieces with more dishes (bowls) depending on the swing of the lathe and your layout.  Dishes could also overlap.  He showed us the process of designing and making suitable jigs and faceplates with additional sacrificial fixing plates.
David stressed the safety and balancing required, and the need for accuracy when marking out. Other considerations are aesthetics and the use of contrasting timbers along with the relation between lathe speed, diameter and chisel speed.
Throughout his preamble and demonstration he supported his comments with a very well-constructed PowerPoint presentation.

Demo – Oblong Piece

David positioned his oblong stock on the oblong jig attached to the large faceplate which was swung at 45deg over the bed and turned the first outer dish.  He then made a template of the depth required to use as his guide for turning the other dishes.  Next he tipped his piece end for end and turned the second outer dish. Having completed these he then goes on to turn the centre dish and finished to suit.
He stressed the safety aspects concerning projecting wood spinning on the faceplate, keeping elbow into the body and also the need to ensure you mark out accurately or the dishes may not be positioned correctly.

Round Piece

David mounted his round work-piece to the large faceplate and proceeded to show the marking out using indexing and his drilling jig which was fitted to the banjo.  This ensures the dishes will be uniformly positioned around the blank. Each position was numbered.
The piece was then positioned at number one marking.  The complete faceplate and workpiece are checked for balance and the first dish turned and sanded.  Then he repositioned the work-piece to the next positions, balancing and turning until finished and sanded.

As usual, considerable time is spent making jigs, sacrificial faceplates, and marking out etc. but the reward is a repeatable piece in the end.
Davids demo was so informative that everyone remained absorbed throughout and he fielded many questions at the end. Thanks David for your great demo.