Club Meeting: 31 May 2023 Report by: Graeme Mackay
Shannon came forth with a wide array of paints, glues, colouring stuff, and brushes to be used in embellishment. The process used was called tutuing Roundwood. A part of a sculpturing process with Woodturning lathe as a tool. The process, as Shannon had shown, is for large-scale wall-hangings-process target is embellishing, in this case, his large wall-hangings.
Shannon view is that the pieces are for looking at, broadening one’s horizon, and showing off the wood. Clearly stated that he is forgoing technical nit picking and, rather, looking at the piece and applying techniques to highlight the item and shape.
He uses a range of easy technique and products. Stuff, that is easy to find, easy-to-use and can be sourced in a 2 dollars shop. Items such as spray paint, standard PVA glue, dishwashing liquid and even water. Outlined was a process requiring preparation, order, and some fun. Noting that checking on the order is critical to keeping the flow up and the process in place.
Key steps of this painting glue embellishment process: Working in a planned process. Getting the products organised i.e. glue. Paint. Paint brushes. Glue brushes, and on Ensuring and avoiding over painting and gluing. planning for the crossovers processes i.e. surface suitable to linocut. Ordering and organising the colour applications. Preparing for the colour up to S layers
There are a wonderful array of simple patterns from simple set of tools and techniques. The words came out. paint separation paint frazzle crackling pattern separation emerging pattern
Club Meeting: 10 May 2023 Report by: Kieran FitzGerald
Bruce took the wheel this week and in typical fashion took off like Stirling Moss. The exercise of thread chasing presents several tricky challenges – not least cutting the thread itself, but trying to get the thread the correct length and having everything line up. Bruce had several practice runs in preceding days, and attempts one and two were unsatisfactory. The third attempt was successful, but then he twisted it too far and broke the insert while trying to get the grain to line up.
Using a hard timber is essential for thread chasing. Titoki, black maire, pohutukawa and puriri are all good to use. Some – pohutukawa and puriri – can also be threaded cross grain.
For tonight’s demo, Bruce selected a piece of black maire approx. 60 – 70mm square and 80 mm long. He marked centres on each end, mounted it on steb centres and roughed it down with a roughing gouge at 2000rpm. Black maire has a distinctive smell when cut (prompting several graphic descriptions), but cuts like butter and produces a very smooth surface. Bruce turned a 35 mm spigot on each end before marking out a 20 mm lid, a 40 mm base, and parting off. The lid goes in the chuck, is faced off and drilled out with a 45 mm forstner bit to a depth of 14 mm. The base and sides are cleaned up and a texture pattern added to the underside of the lid.
Now for the tricky part. Bruce showed us the four tools he would use to chase the threads:
a16 tpi internal thread cutter (female)
a 16 tpi external thread cutter (male)
a rebate cutter
a right angle hand held tool rest.
The first step is to use the rebate tool to make a 3 mm deep lead out cut in the side of the lid at 6mm down from the top. The purpose of this is to mark the end of a 6mm long thread and, importantly, create a clear space for the thread cutter at the end of the cut. After this Bruce applied a finish to the inside of the lid with CA, EEE and Aussie Oil.
To get the thread started, Bruce cut an arris, then with the lathe at 200 rpm, and the thread chasing tool resting on the right angle tool rest at just above centre, he started to cut the female thread. The process is to start with the thread cutter diagonally across the arris, make a light push cut and withdraw the tool. Push, withdraw, push withdraw, push withdraw repeatedly, bringing the tool round gradually until it is parallel with the side of the lid. Once the thread starts the speed of the lathe just drags the tool in. Take care not to crossthread. Bruce applied beeswax at one point to lubricate the cut. The black maire produced very fine curls of shaving, but a softer wood would just produce crumbs. As the thread cut progresses make sure it stays parallel to the side, or gets marginally deeper, so that when the male thread is screwed on it has enough width to turn fully in, and doesn’t get stuck.
Bruce showed how to sharpen the thread chaser with a hone across the top. Now it is time to do the bottom part of the box. Take the lid out and mount the base. Face it off and hollow to 34 mm with a 35 mm forstner bit. Clean up the base and sides, and at the same time hollow out the sides a bit more towards the lower two thirds of the sides, but not at the top. This is to make it simpler to blend in the fitted insert later on. Cut a recess 3 mm down out to a width of 43 mm. Give the inside a quick sand.
The next step is to make an insert to go into the recess he has just made. Ideally this could be a contrasting colour, but remember it needs to be hard wood to accept a thread. You could cut the thread directly in the base, but the insert makes it easier to adjust the length of the thread so you don’t have to twist the lid so many times to get it on. Bruce used a piece of black maire about 20 mm long to start with. He rounded it down to 47 mm, stepped it down to 43 mm at the spigot end, and cut a 24 mm spigot. Once mounted on the spigot, he turned down the outside 43 mm, checked the fit against the base, and commenced to make the thread. Rebate, arris, and this time the external thread cutter is used. The male thread is cut slightly below centre. The routine is the same as previously described – push, withdraw, repeat, repeat, bring it round to parallel. Bruce made the thread longer than necessary with the idea of removing some of it to a precise length. Test fit, take the top off the cut threads if necessary, and keep threading and test fitting until a good fit is achieved and the threads mate nicely. Bruce adjusted the length of the piece by cutting off some off the top with a parting tool, and cut a new arris.
Once happy with the threaded insert, Bruce put the base back on the lathe and glued in the insert. He then drilled the centre out with a 38 mm forstner bit, blended it into the base side walls, and gave it a sand. He screwed the lid on, taped it up, and trimmed the whole exterior down to required diameter and shape. He applied texturing either side of the join, and sanded the outside. The next steps were routine box making – shape the top of the lid slightly domed, sand and finish. Rechuck the base on expanding jaws, bring up the tailstock, and remove the spigot, leaving a slightly concave bottom so it sits well. Finish it all with CA, EEE and Aussie oil.
The thread chasing technique is much harder than it seems, and requires good wood selection, careful planning, deft tool work, sometimes test fitting and adaptation, and most of all a heap of patience. We are grateful to Bruce for sharing his skill and knowledge with us. And several lucky punters scored gifts from Bruce of his finished boxes and black maire blanks. Thanks Brucie, nice to see you, to see you nice.
Club Meeting: 3 May 2023 Report by: Kieran FitzGerald
John began by explaining what he was going to make and showing us some examples of the finished product that he had previously made. In simple terms, the idea is to make a shallow but normal bowl, cut it in half, and from there you can enhance it in many ways including piercing, carving, colouring, inlays, by adding a stand, a lid, a finial, and in so doing creating an art sculpture. John showed us a slide show of some pretty serious pieces made I think mostly by American wood artists using this technique. Some of our club’s experienced turners were able to quickly recognise who had made a number of the pieces shown.
John accompanied the practical part of his demonstration with a clear, concise and satisfactorily detailed commentary which would easily enable all present to follow his example in their own workshops.
The blank you start with does not need to be huge, especially in depth, because the depth is doubled when the two halves are joined together at the end. In fact the symmetry achieved with a slim composition is very pleasing.
John began with a roundish blank about 200 x 40. Finding centre, he drilled a shallow hole to take a worm screw. He used a packer to take up some of the length of the worm screw before screwing on the blank. Mounting alternatives include using a faceplate with double sided tape or hot glue. Bringing up the tailstock for added security, John rounded the blank and made a spigot on the bottom. Procedure follows the normal bowl turning method, with some simple adaptations to ensure the joined halves have the desired end shape. These are that the bottom of the bowl should be cut fairly straight and flat, and the side near the top also needs to be straight and flat rather than coming to a point. This will create nice flat sides when the two halves are joined later on, and avoid a “v” shape at the join. John used a simple drawn template to give himself a visual reminder of the shape he needed to achieve on the outside of the turning. A shear scrape to remove any ridges left by the tool and minimise sanding followed, but in fact the final sanding was left til later when the bowl was in the cole jaws.
As per normal bowl process, John mounted the wood in the chuck using the spigot and commenced to face off and hollow. The inside shape needs to mimic the outside, with a flattish bottom. An even overall wall thickness is important because when the bowl is cut in half and joined the wall thickness of course is visible. John hollowed his to about 4mm, but thickness can vary depending on the look you are going for. The rim also needs to be perfectly flat to create a seamless glue joint, and John ensured this by sanding with a sandpaper faced board while the bowl was still turning on the lathe.
Taking the bowl from the lathe, the next step was to mount in cole jaws and remove the spigot. Give it a sand. John left the foot flat, then advised that this is a good time to add embellishments. He marked the centre to indicate where the halving cut will be made, and then scribed two circles about 30mm out from the centre, using a modified screwdriver. The idea of this is to cut a more square edged trench rather than a “v” shaped trench, because the latter diminishes in size with sanding. When the two halves are cut and joined the rings will appear as half circles on the mid top side of each half of the split bowl. John experimented filling the cuts with cayenne pepper and fixing with CA glue. As with a previous attempt using paprika, the plan was not totally successful, so perhaps revert to a tried and tested filler like copper powder.
Use a flexible ruler laid across the centre mark to rule a line through which the cut will be made. When cut, hold the two halves together to check the join and sand a bit more if necessary. Glue it up; John uses pva, and hold it together with rubber bands. When selecting wood, and cutting into halves, be mindful of the grain pattern and what will look best. To achieve a different look, contrasting veneers may be laminated between the join. If a lid is to be made, a photocopy of the top of the bowl may be used as a template. The lid is rebated with a router. Further variety can be achieved at this time in the way the split bowl is mounted and the decoration that is applied to the bowl.
Thank you John for an enjoyable, instructive and well planned demo.
Club Meeting: 5 May 2023 Report by: Kevin De Freitas
Often, we have a well-defined and elaborate grain in a piece of wood and want to retain as much as possible at the joint of a lidded box. The problem can be matching the grain when a large section is removed to accommodate the tenon. Dave shows us a method that requires minimal loss, giving the best possible matched grain between the lid and body of the box.
This process was developed from watching various demos on YouTube and adapting ideas to come up with this process. This is a common approach for Dave as he needs to develop faster approaches for production turning.
Dave started with his blank mounted between centres and made it round at 2000 rpm. He then turns a 5mm spigot on each end.
From the 70mm blank, Dave is aiming for a box 60mm high and to part off for the lid at 42mm.
Use a thin parting tool – as thin as possible is the key to losing as little wood as possible. A thick blade (e.g. power hacksaw blade or similar) can be modified into a parting tool.
As you part off, ensure to leave enough room so the parting tool does not rub on the sides and generate excessive heat. To do this Dave moved the parting tool side to side as he cut into the wood. This created a gap that was wider than the tool.
Mount the body (larger piece) in a 50mm chuck.
Drill a hole (or hollow) 10mm deep.
Using another piece of wood (preferably darker in colour), turn an insert that fits snugly into the hole. This insert should protrude the required distance to form the tenon for the main body of the box. Glue the insert in place with CA glue ensuring good glue contact around the rim.
Fit the lid in a 50mm chuck and turn a mortice that fits the tenon with some friction. Hollow and finish the inside of the lid. Ensure that the hollowed depth leaves enough material to shape the outside of the lid.
Mount the body in the chuck and fit the lid and hold in place with the tailstock.
Turn and shape the outside of the box. Tape the lid on and finish shaping it while continuing to support it with the tail stock.
Remove the lid and hollow out the inside of the main body. If thinning the walls, ensure that the tenon is left fully intact by rolling over the edge after the join.
Reduce the tenon slightly so it is no longer a friction fit.
Turn and finish the bottom using a jam chuck or similar.
Club Meeting: Wed 29th March 2023 Report by: Kevin De Freitas
The aim of Cam’s demo was to produce a box out of a cube whilst clearly showing evidence of the cube in the end product. The sample he passed around had evidence of the original 6 faces of the cube of wood.
Cam started with a cube measuring 110mm and mounted between wooden cups. These cups were made from pieces of wood cut at 60degrees and 3 pieces glued together in such a way as to form the square vertex of the cube. Once the glue s dry, the block is turned round to form the final cup. Ensure a strong bonging glue is used – as Cam discovered, the block can come apart and could cause damage to the piece.
Cam warned that turning the cube would result in tear out and chips until the high corners are reduced and the wood has some support behind it. He began to turn off the 4 exposed corners to start to form the desired final shape.
Cam suggested that once you approach the final dimensions, to coat the end grain in CA glue to stabilise it. The comment was made that this would stain the wood however Cam was planning to coat the entire finished piece in CA glue anyway so these stains would not show up.
Cam then marked the blank for height and a place to part off the lid from the main body.
He added a spigot for a 50mm chuck at the headstock end and another at the tailstock end to fit a 30mm chuck.
He then proceeded to cut off the waste at the bandsaw to leave the two spigots.
Mount the blank in the 50mm jaws and hold with a steb centre.
Cam marked the location of the #1 jaw as he needed to relocate the blank in the chuck again later.
Part off the lid of the box (part closest to the tail stock.)
Use a Forstner bit to hollow out most of the main body of the box to about 60mm deep.
Widen the hole and shape to fit the 50mm chuck in expansion mode.
Cut the lip to mate with the lid. Normally the lid fits over the rim on the base but Cam chose to do it in reverse. Finish the inside.
Mount the lid in the 30mm chuck and hollow out to 25mm deep. Shape to fit the main body and finish the inside. Re-mount the main body in the 50mm chuck and hold the lid in place with a steb centre.
Do final shaping of the lid and body together making sure that the flats (original faces of the cube) are the same size.) Mount each part in expanding jaws and turn off the spigots and finish the top and bottom of the box.
This charming young lady has been a member of the SAWG for four years. Introduced to and trained initially in woodturning by Ross Johnson. Emma met Ross when she visited one of his presentations at Maraetai where they were both living at the time. Emma has a degree in fine art. So now we have the perfect combination of an artist and woodturner.
Emma started her demo by showing her ability to take a piece of suitably light coloured timber, such as Macrocarpa, to turn up a small bowl shaped container approximately 100mm in diameter. The centre was drilled out using a 38mm Forstner bit in which a standard decorative candle 15mm high could be mounted. Enough wood was left around the candle mount to form a bead using a parting tool. A gentle curve from the bottom edge of the bead down to the outer diameter of her bowl-shaped candle-holder provided the working surface for the artwork to follow. The bead was rounded and the whole piece sanded and finished.
The pyrography and coloured artwork that followed was the most intriguing part of this demonstration. The actual pattern entailed drawing the petals of a sunflower around the centre candle mounting using a soft leaded pencil. This to prepare the entire circle for even spacing before any burning is commenced. Starting at the neck, the outline of each petal is burnt using low temperature heat which can be raised as needed. The same blade is used to burn in other accoutrements such as an under petal between the tips of the main petals, then the midrib, the veins, with a vein at every tip. At the bead all remaining space is filled using a “Dot” pyro-pen. Use a normal rubber eraser to clean up all pencil marks and burnt debris.
The final artwork, which enhances the entire piece, is undertaken with oil based drawing pencils. Every colour “in the rainbow” comes in a tin of pencils. Seldom necessary; these pencils last for years. (Available from Dave Gillard). A degree of colour matching skills would help to choose the appropriate blends. For sunflowers just start with yellow and work from there. This completed a very attractive enhancement on this beautiful table decoration.
Tom saw Caddy Spoons demonstrated by Phil Irons at the 2014 Symposium. Phil had been making spoons for 25 years and had made over 13000 of them at that stage.
Phil recommended using 55x55x350mm blanks, but Tom was required to start with a cube due to the term theme. Tom had simply divided the cube into 4 equal blanks. Blank size is unimportant and is chosen to suit the size of the spoon required.
Tom handed around samples of some spoons he had made and also the handmade jigs required to complete a spoon. The first was a bandsaw jig for cutting the blank in two to form the two spoons. The second is a spoon chuck to hold the partly formed spoon while it is hollowed out.
Tom then ran through the process verbally while he showed pre-prepared spoons at the various stages of development.
Mark the centre on each end and mount between centres. Turn the blank round (this will produce 2 spoons at the end of the process).
Turn a spigot on the tailstock end of the blank to fit the chuck.
Mark off for a ball adjacent to the spigot leaving a small amount of waste to allow safe chucking from that end.
Turn the ball freehand to approx. 48mm diameter (to fit the spoon chuck).
Mount the blank in a chuck with the previously turned spigot. Turn the cone end of the blank to form a ‘comet’ type shape i.e. a ball with a flared tail. The tail should be approx. 50-55mm long. Turn a spigot on this end also.
Reverse the blank to enable the refinement of the ball end. Turn off the spigot and round off the ball with a sharpened pipe or hole cutter with the teeth ground off [Bruce Wood has previously demonstrated the use of this handmade tool and described how to make them].
Sand the spoon at this stage. Tom uses sandpaper backed with a piece of old leather from a belt. This helps avoid heat build-up and protects fingers.
Cut the blank in two in the bandsaw jig, ensuring that the best grain orientation is chosen to give a balanced piece. This process should create a curved handle and cleans off the spigot on the handle end of each spoon in the process.
Mount one of the resulting spoons in the spoon chuck trying to get the centre of the ball end on the lathe centre – use the tailstock live centre to aide this. Tom used more pieces of the belt leather as packing to help position the blank and hold it firmly.
Hollow the spoon with a hollowing tool or gouge trying the get an even wall thickness.
[At this point Tom produced a nice tool holder that he placed on the bed of the lathe. It was a board with zig-zag uprights along two opposite sides. His gouge and other tools could then be safely put down in this holder and could not move or roll away.]
Tom then used homemade sanding mandrels made from automotive valve stems. He had attached sponge and hotmelt-glued sandpaper to them. He sanded the inside of the spoon.
Tom then mounted his homemade sanding mandrel in the lathe. This he used to do final shaping of the spoon handle. The handle is slightly cupped out or curved using the sanding mandrel.
The mandrel is a cylinder with foam glued to the outside. A slot is cut along the length. Sandpaper strips of increasing grit are attached using small wedges that are pressed into the slot. He had 5 or 6 grits and a flapper disk at the end.
Tom will also drill a recess in the handle and add some sort of insert e.g. paua shell.
Tom finishes the spoons with Rice Bran Oil.
Tom also makes an olive spoon which is longer and has holes in the scoop. Tom recommends drilling the holes before hollowing. Drill from the back side so that any tear out is turned away in the hollowing process.
Tom commented that he was selling the spoons for $10 at the club Xmas shop and $20 in other places. He suspects that a 40% retail markup is added. Olive spoons are sold for $25.
Thanks Tom – it was a great demo and nice to see a finished product at the end.
He started by turning a mushroom, “Porcini” style. He followed the basic steps as for any spindle turning: rough turning to make the blank round, completing the part furthest from the headstock first and finishing each section as he moved towards the headstock. His mushroom head had a slight undercut to make it look more realistic by adding some shadow and a wider base as a stand.
Before parting off the finished piece he shifted it slightly in the chuck to make it lean a bit.
The arranging of a group of mushrooms needs to consider their size, height and leaning angle to create a condensed group without the individual mushrooms touching each other.
Tref mentioned that he often leaves the mushroom in the chuck for embellishments and only then parts it off.
A variety of embellishment/carving/painting/staining options can be chosen or combined on each single mushroom. No two mushrooms are the same!
Tref explained his process for using pyrography. He likes to use low heat to avoid overburn and to produce crisp lines. He showed us the various tips he is using and how to make some of them. He indicated that he is usually using a fan to suck the smoke away rather than directing the air onto the piece as the air flow towards the tip tends to cool it too much.
He went on to fill in the pyrographed patterns with a dye paying attention to not go over the burnt lines.
He also used a micro-carver to create some texture and to make round holes which he filled with some milliput (epoxy putty).
Thanks Tref for this very interesting demo with a lot of creative possibilities.
It was not exactly clear what we were about to see in the way of a “classic Veitch demo”. But it soon became apparent that Dick was going to show us how to convert a 150mm cube of diagonally grained Pohutukawa into a heavily tapered vase using six off-centres turning points, three on each end. The small distance between head stock and tail stock meant that the driving centre in particular was difficult to mount because of the angle introduced by the offset turning dimensions chosen. Large end was 41mm.
This endeavour by Dick encouraged multiple comments from his admiring and yet helpful audience. Several recommendations on offset dimensions raised the need to use 33 somewhere. Someone else thought that 120º might be more to the point. Dick battled on amid this banter and kept his attentive audience informed that if they watched carefully they would eventually see a spiral appearing down the side of his beautiful vase, as yet unfinished. When fulltime was called Dick stated that his spiral had got lost. At his next demo all would see a better looking final product.
So in fact everyone present enjoyed this presentation and departed happily with another satisfying evening watching some woodturning.
All of our Club Members should be proud of the fact that amongst us we have a man of multiple talents who clearly put his hand up at short notice to provide the demonstration for this evening. After all, we all come to each Club Night expecting to be entertained by “someone”.
Club Meeting: 8 Feb 2023 Report by: Kevin De Freitas
The Kendama is a variation on the Cup and Ball toy or a variant of the French game bilboquet.
Holm had presented one that he made last year at the club.
Part 1 – Turn a sphere.
Although there are many techniques to turn a sphere, Holm chose the method of turning a cylinder then increasing the number of facets until a sphere is reached. He demonstrated the use of a gauge that specifies the position of cuts to make octagon (8 sides) and then hexadecagon (16 sides) shapes. (Metric template available on website)
To turn a 60mm diameter sphere, start with a 120mm long square block slightly wider than the 60mm desired size. Mark the centres on each end.
Mount the block between small step centres. Make the block round and bring down to 60mm with a spindle roughing gouge.
Mark lines 60mm apart centrally on the cylinder and part down the waste side of each line ensuring you stay at right angles to the axis. A square cut is needed to keep the outer dimension of the sphere at 60mm. Turn away the waste leaving a spigot. Here is where the smaller steb centres are important – i.e they will not obstruct the formation of thinner spigots as the sphere develops.
The audience suggested that a centre line is required for later reference but, as we saw, this was not in fact needed with this technique.
Using the gauge, Holm then marked off the lines for the 45 degree cuts and using a spindle gouge, turned off the corners to form the octagonal shape. Holm suggested to use a gouge with a 45 degree bevel so that one could approach the wood with the gouge perpendicular to the wood. Check that all parallel faces are 60mm and remove additional wood if required.
The next step is to make the lines denoting the cuts for the 22.5 decree cuts. Then turn off the corners to form the 16 sided shape. Here Holm needed to reduce the size of the spigot to accommodate the extra cuts that are closer to the axis.
Next, carefully remove the remaining points to get a close approximation to a sphere. Cut through the remaining spigots with a saw being careful not to tear out any end grain.
Mount he sphere between cups and turn off the stubs of the spigots, then sand the sphere alternating gran 90 degrees each time.
Part 2 – Turn the cross Piece
Start with a blank 120mm long and 50mm square mounted between centres and turn round. The final piece is 70mm long and the two cups are different sizes.
Starting with the larger cup, at 44mm diameter, turn the blank down to this dimension.
Mark off the ends and make a partial parting cut on the waste side. Mark the widest part of the large cup and turn the taper towards the rim. Then turn the base of the cup and curve towards the centre of the piece.
Turn the smaller end down to the diameter of the second cup, mark the widest part and taper towards the rim as before. Complete the central portion turning down to the 19mm diameter of the thinnest part, using the previously made sphere as a guide to the curve.
Part the spigots down as thin as can be done safely and clear all waste to gain access to hollow the cups. With a bowl gouge, hollow the cups as much as possible. Flip the piece and hollow both cups.
Remove the piece and finish the hollowing with a curved chisel or rotary carving tool.
Drill a 9mm hole in the centre of the cross piece.
Part 3 – make the Vertical Cup and Spike part.
Start with a block 200mm x 40mm square to make a final piece 160mm long.
Turn down to 35mm dimension.
Mark the positions of the ends and the cup then turn the outer part of the cup as before.
Start to turn the taper and make decorative beads along the length where desired.
Remove waste progressively whilst reducing diameter along the length towards the chuck. This provides as much support as possible. Holm demonstrated that if there is vibration then you can support the piece with one hand while cutting with the other.
Before getting too thin, remove most of the spigot and hollow the cup.
Turn down to 13mm and step down to 10mm to create a seat for the cross piece. Continue the 10mm diameter for 20mm then taper towards the tip at 8mm. (see diagram for detail)
Sand the piece and shape towards the point before turning and breaking through at the point. The point is then refined off the lathe with sandpaper.
Add the string and assemble. Holes may need to be adjusted to get a tight fit.
