Club Meeting : 6 March 2019
Report by: Murray Wilton

Bruce’s subject was advertised as “Bits & Pieces”, which was meant to be “From the Kitchen”, so the topic became useful kitchen devices. The first was how to make a kitchen funnel, to be followed by two rolling pins (a Baker’s Rolling Pin and the Italian job). But time only allowed the funnel to be made at the demo and we were treated to another master class punctuated with pearls of turning wisdom. In fact, Bruce began with a discussion of various chuck options, demonstrating the advantages of the Infinity chuck which allows jaws to be replaced with a flick of a special tool. No more fiddling with screws and worn-out allen keys.

Back to the funnel. Bruce loaded a block from a large kauri post on the lathe between steb and live centres and turned it to round in a flash, slicing though the timber like butter. Then he formed a 60mm spigot 30mm deep at one end so that it could be firmly held in shark jaws. Once mounted in the jaws (tube end of funnel) he started forming the outside of the funnel, working at 2000rpm. The exterior wide end of the funnel is 100mm diameter and wall thickness 5mm. Marking these dimensions with a pencil, Bruce commented that he had glued a magnet to the pencil so he could place it on the lathe body where it was always handy. (Helpful Hint Number 2.) The triangular shape is formed to 60 degree angle at the (triangle) base. Bruce uses a 60 degree template to check the angle, forming the outside to a depth of about 80mm. (In other words, an isosceles triangle with base 100 mm wide, base angles 60 degrees and altitude 80 mm.).

Once the funnel exterior shape is achieved, Bruce proceeds to drill an 8mm hole through to the bottom of the triangle. He calculated the depth accurately by working out that each turn of the tailstock would bite 2.5 mm into the block, meaning 30 turns would get him to 80 mm. Now he hollows the funnel using a 35˚ bowl gouge, drawing it across from the centre hole in careful sweeps, rubbing the bevel (Helpful Hint Number 3), checking the angle with the template and marking high spots with his magnetic pencil. Reaching the bottom of the hole, and satisfied that the angle and thickness are correct, Bruce sands the inside using cloth-backed sandpaper which can be folded to a point to get into the interior apex of the funnel. Finally with both inside and outside sanded up to 400 grit, Bruce finishes with sanding sealer.

Now he drills the 8mm hole the rest of the way through the tube end of the funnel, taking care not to have the drill chuck scrape against the finished inside walls. To do this he had to progressively pull the drill out of the chuck until it was almost wobbling in space. A drill extender might be the answer.

The final part of the project is to form the outside of the tube end. Bruce uses a 60 degree rubber cone mounted at the tailstock and brought up firmly to the funnel end. The tube is finished to 16mm so that with the 8mm hole it leaves a 4mm wall. To ensure there are no disasters Bruce uses digital vernier calipers and constantly checks the 16 mm diameter for the whole length of the tube.

For this final phase of the project, Bruce changed to smaller jaws (easily done with the Infinity chuck), and mounted a wooden jam chuck with an 8mm “peg” and a small rubber washer to push into the end of the tube and hold it firmly for final finishing work to be done. He advises working gently at this stage to avoid the work flying off the lathe as it is not actually gripped at any point by chuck jaws. For final finishing use the skew chisel if you are brave enough. Then sand off, finish with sanding sealer and polish with wax by your favourite method. Lastly the tube is cut off at 58mm long. About to slice it off at right angles, Bruce was asked by a member whether it would be better to cut the end on an angle to assist with clean pouring, so he obliged.

In answer to a question whether the funnel could be used for liquids like wine, Bruce suggested that the funnel is better suited to fine grain foods, like salt, sugar, etc. Constant cleaning after using liquids would damage the finish. In the end, items like the wooden funnel make nice decorative additions to a kitchen, especially if exotic timbers are used and a range of sizes made.

Well done Bruce. Another consummate performance. Only wish there had been time for the rolling-pins. Maybe another demo later?

Club Meeting 27 February 2019
Report by Earl Culham

Colin commenced his demonstration with a quote from an article he had read : “With time, you can hear as well as see when the wood is being cut with precision”. Colin referred to this quote while turning his demonstration pieces to highlight good tool work.

A tip for the meeting related to using a power sander on gummy wood where the sand paper quickly gets clogged with dust and doesn’t cut any more. Spray the sand paper with Ondina oil; a brush with a bronze wire brush will remove the oily dust and allow continued sanding. That is worth a try, if it reduces the need for frequent replacement of clogged paper, it will be quite a saving.

Colin then demonstrated the use of a copy machine to turn a bobbin which is used in making lace by hand. He has made 150-200 of these in the past. People making lace, use in the order of 40-60 bobbins at a time.

Colin has made the pattern template and copying jig himself.

Now to the subject of the demonstration; “Inside the Square”.

Colin produced two pieces of wood cut to the shape of a pyramid, one larger than the other. The larger had a flattened top with a recess in it for a tenon/spigot or to be used as a chuck bite, the smaller pyramid had a chuck bite turned in the base. He then proceeded to turn the pointed end of the smaller pyramid into a spigot so that the two pieces fitted together neatly. Using that spigot to hold the piece, he then turned a bowl in the bottom or base. He repeated the process of turning a bowl in the base of the larger piece, fitted them together, and he now had an example of “Inside the Square”.

Certainly something different, thanks Colin.

Club Meeting 20 February 2019
Reported by Murray Wilton
Photos Ross Johnson

Strett wanted a new challenge, to move out of his comfort zone, so he chose a fairly complex bowl-turning project he found in a magazine. Regrettably, when he came to start the project he couldn’t find the recipe and had to rely on his memory, which must be quite good because he managed the presentation with suitable aplomb.

If newer members and beginners, including the reporter, were puzzled by some of what was going on, at least they learned some valuable lessons on alternative ways to mount their work. In his efforts to avoid mounting on a faceplate with inevitable screw holes that are hard to eliminate, Strett turned to the age-old glue-and- paper-gasket method. First he made an mdf mount, screwed with self-tapping wood-screws to a faceplate and rounded to about 200 mm diameter.

The alternative of a expanding jaws into a hole in the MDF was discussed, the audience questioned the reliability of using mdf in this way, as it is likely to delaminate,

For this project the faceplate timber and the work piece must be perfectly flat, so ensure the faces are flat before proceeding. Remove the mdf or timber mount from the faceplate. Use a paper gasket (120 gsm copy paper best as newsprint will soak up the glue) and apply glue to each side. Strett uses Aquadhere glue. Bring the faceplate timber and the work piece together and apply pressure in a vice or clamp of some sort and leave to dry overnight.

Use a centre-finder to locate the centre of the blank. Bring the tailstock live centre up against it. Squeeze the blank and mount against the chuck and, working gently so that it will stay in place, round it off. All this so screw holes are not required in the work piece.

Locate the mount in a chuck using the spigot cut earlier and begin hollowing out the bowl, leaving an outside flat edge of 5mm. Ensure the hollowing leaves at least 6 to 7 mm at the bottom. Use a contour gauge (available from Machinery Co.) to measure the inside shape of the bowl and make a template. (Some turners use the template method for all their bowl-turning as it removes guesswork.) Remove bowl from the paper gasket and remount on another faceplate blank as above. When dry mount on a chuck and start shaping the outside of the bowl, frequently checking with the template to ensure the bowl sides are of even thickness.

Finding a nail in the bowl led to a slight hiatus as various audience members gave advice on dental extraction procedures to eliminate the nail.

Once the correct shape is achieved Strett completes all finishing work before splitting the bowl off the faceplate. He then cuts the bowl in half with a bandsaw and re-glues to form an almond-shaped offset bowl.

Great demo, although it left some of the audience baffled by science, smoke and mirrors.

Club Meeting: 13 February 2019
Report; Bill Alden
Photos: Ross Johnson

Terry used a square piece of wood and found centre using the usual cross lines centre was punched with a Phillips screwdriver which allows the 7 ½ mm drill to not wander. This is then mounted on a screw chuck.

Terry then made the made sure that the tool rest had no nicks in it he used a sanding pad and polish.

The drop wings are formed first and a 50 mm spigot is formed in the middle to reverse chuck. If desired make sure that the piece will sit on the wings not on the base. The chisel used was a 10 mm bowl gouge with swept back wings this is advisable so that the chisel can be turned without catching the bowl in the middle when doing the underside of the wings.

The curves can be checked by laying a glue stick across it and seeing if there are any gaps. If planning to do 3 feet use a larger 75 mm chuck to make a larger ring the bottom of the bowl, and carve feet when finished. The centre of the spigot was marked with the long point of skew chisel for ease of centring when turning the foot of the bowl

Draw a series of lines approximately 4 mm apart from the base of the bowl, vertical gridlines can then be put in using the indexing feature of the lathe. These lines will be used as guides when finally decorating the bowl.

Reverse the bowl onto a 50 mm chuck and cut the wings from the centre out, hollow the bowl and cut a shoulder in order to fully rub the bevel. Form a nice curve so the wings flow into the bowl.

Terry then showed us various ways of decorating the bowl, the inside could have a series of beads to simulate a splash and other decoration to make waves in the wings, using a mini Arbortec to carve the lines. Terry then sanded up to 240 grit on a sanding mandrel.

Other decorations can be done with a wire brush on a drill, a Dremel or a pyrography machine. Using a knife edge on the Burnmaster, Terry showed us how to highlight the grain lines in the wood. Colour can then be applied (Terry prefers black) he uses acrylic paint, Kiwi boot polish or gilders paste. Terry then showed us how he carved feet using a mini Arbortec.

Thank you once again Terry for a very informative and interesting demonstration.

Club Meeting: 12 December 2018
Report by Murray Wilton

President (not for life) Ian Connelly was the last presenter for 2018. He chose a challenging and difficult subject, German ring-turning, about which very little is known. In fact, if you Google it you will get few hits unless you go to a German site (<www.reifentiere.de>) and have enough German language to interpret what you see. However, the associated YouTube videos are so shielded by the turner that it’s almost impossible to see what’s going on. Ian’s presentation was inspired by a German ring-turning inspired piece he won at auction at this year’s Symposium, a New Zealand fantail, turned and carved from a bowl round by expert Derek Weidman. With little to follow in the way of plans or instructions, Ian worked out the detail for himself.

Displaying his turning skills, Ian started with a 250 X 250 mm square of kahikatea, not even rounded with the bandsaw. As he said, he could have cut the corners off, but intrepid and skilled turners don’t need to do that. Ian reminded novice turners to ensure the mounting screw is tight up against the flange and firmly and evenly snug against the chuck. If not it will be moved by centrifugal force and nothing will work after that.

Using a large bowl gouge (Ian showed us an even more massive tool but didn’t use that one) and running the lathe at 600 rpm, Ian transformed a perfect square to a round in minutes, rounding off the inner and outer edges to make the next steps safer. Next a wedge is removed from the round, using a band saw, and a profile of a kiwi is glued to one face. The extremities of the kiwi shape (feet, body curves, beak) are marked on the round and then turning from the face side with a bowl gouge begins. Frequent stops are needed to ensure that the shape is being correctly followed.

The completed kiwi is then cut out from the round and can be finished with the dremel or carving tools. Alternatively the kiwi can be left 2-dimensional and used as hangings on the Christmas tree or other ornamental possibilities. Multiple kiwi or other animals or shapes can be turned from one round.

Definitely something quite different and certainly a challenge.