Martin Pidgen is demonstrating this Sunday, 13 April at Border Woodturners in Brampton. He will be making a skeleton clock, diamond bowl, wine bottle holder, light pulls and bottle stoppers. Sales of wood and accessories. 10am – 4pm, price £6 on the door for members of other Clubs, buffet lunch is available for £2.
Galloway Woodturners members will be made most welcome.
Border Woodturners, Brampton Community Centre, Union Lane, Brampton, CA8 1BX
April
This month the topic is a ‘Show and Tell’ evening, so I hope you have brought a favourite turning, home made chuck, jig or gadget to tell us about it. If you haven’t brought anything it will be a short meeting !!
The competition item is whatever you managed to make from the chunk of wood you ‘won’ in the draw last month. The Club would like to keep all these entries for sale at future events. When marking these, members need to take the raw material into account.
The Wood of the Month is Oak.
The new bandsaw is assembled and ready for use in what should be a temporary location because it is next to an existing 20Amp socket. We need to put some policies and procedures in place to minimise the risks associated with using such a large and powerful saw. In the meantime, if you want to use it ask Roger or Phil H to give you an introduction.
Roger is organising some have-a-go sessions for a local Scout troop this month, dates to be confirmed. He has a few volunteer tutors but could use more. If you can help, please contact Roger.
The Power Tool, Woodworking & Garden Machinery Show is on at The Lanark Agricultural Centre, Hyndford Road, ML11 9AX on Friday 25th April and Saturday 26th April. Free admission and parking. Register on their website www.websterpowerproducts.co.uk .
May
In May we welcome Chris Pouncey from Robert Sorby who will demonstrate their latest ‘goodies’ and try to persuade us that we really need them ! Chris will bring most of the Sorby tool range with him, but if you want to order anything in particular, let Roger know ASAP.
The competition item is ‘Any item of your choice’ and the Wood of the Month is Sycamore.
Advance notice for probably our major event of the year over the Spring Fling weekend at the end of May. We have an advert for this in the Spring Fling brochure (20,000 copies) and in the May edition of The Bulletin which is delivered to every address in the Stewartry (12,730 copies).
Saturday 24 May. Full day demo by famous artistic turner Margaret Garrard.
Sunday 25 May, Monday 26 May. Watch, try and buy. This is for the public to come and see what woodturning is about, for us to recruit new members, and make some money. We are planning . . . .
Demonstrations by Club members.
Have-a-go sessions, buy a piece of wood for £1 or £2 and make a dibber or bud vase, guided by an experienced turner. Everything provided.
Make a wooden ball point pen for £5, again with a bit of help.
Exhibition and Sale of Members work.
Display and information about the club.
A raffle on each of Sunday and Monday.
Tea/coffee and traybake available all day for £1.50.
We will need help from YOU for all of these. If you can only come for half of one of the days, that’s fine as we have split each day into morning and afternoon sessions. Phil H has a list of the opportunities so please come and talk to me
We will need a few nice pieces to create a small exhibition of work; and lots of pieces to sell. These you can either donate all the proceeds to the Club, or we can sell on your behalf with the Club taking just a 20% commission. Everyone should be able to make at least one piece – exactly what is up to you. That way we should get a good range of items.
There should be an article and picture about out Lottery grant in Woodturning magazine, issue 267. We have sent a similar piece to a few of the local papers but I’ve not seen it published yet, at least not in the Galloway News.
And finally . . .
The multi-sided diamond honing block is still missing from the workshop. Several people have looked for it without success. Please would everyone have a look in their toolbox, bag, workshop etc to see if it has been picked up by accident and return it ASAP.
Roger has been negotiating with Simon Hope to obtain a supply of sanding arbours at keen prices. Watch this space . . . . .
We have the entire contents of a life long woodworker’s workshop For Sale. The Club will organise the sale and keep a commission for Club funds on everything sold. We collected the items from storage last Thursday but have not yet sorted them out into lots. Judith has a list of most of the items which we’ll put on the notice board – it includes a Record CL4 variable speed lathe, Fox bandsaw, Kity Bestcombi machine, drills, planes, sanders and much more.
Each lot will have a bid sheet with a minimum bid specified. You will be able to view and bid at the next few Turning Tuesdays, then we’ll arrange for a sale day, probably one Saturday. Highest bid by the deadline on the sale day buys that lot.
The next Committee Meeting is on Tuesday 22nd April at The Workshop. If members want to raise anything, please contact any Committee member.
Committee members admire the new lathe, L to R Phil Jones(Crossmichael), Roger Cutler(Kirkcudbright), David Simpson(Borgue), Phil Howard(Dalbeattie), Judith Simpson(Borgue) Rolf Buwert(Dumfries) is missing.
Members and visiting demonstrators to Galloway Woodturners Club have a superb new lathe to use thanks to an award of over £6,400 from the National Lottery ‘Awards for All’ programme. The lathe, a Jet 3520B for the technically minded, is a heavy, professional quality machine capable of turning a 50cm (20 inch) diameter bowl. The lathe was delivered, assembled and used all on the same day, as the monthly Club meeting just happened to be that day. Bill Johnstone from Craftman’s Supplies in Auldgirth was the visiting demonstrator and had the honour of first ‘shot’.
The Club has also invested in a large capacity bandsaw, 2 woodturning chucks and 30 new chairs. The Lottery grant will also fund new tables, dust extractors, a video camera, and a public address system. The Club is grateful to Creetown Community Initiative who helped Club Secretary Roger Cutler with the Lottery application process.
The Club meets on the second Tuesday of the month in their Workshop near the Recycling Centre in Castle Douglas. The subject for the next meeting on April 8th is a ‘Show and Tell’ at which members will talk about their latest creations and gadgets. Visitors are very welcome (£3).
The Memorial service for Dave Wright was held last Sunday. The Club was well represented; we counted 13 members present; well done.
The new chairs that most of you are sitting on have been bought with some of our Lottery grant.
During the marking of the competition items last month we understand that there was some discussion whether some items ‘qualified’ as a tazza. When setting the competition items we deliberately avoid detailed specifications to give as many people as possible the opportunity to enter; for example there was NO requirement that the tazza HAD to be made from more than one piece of wood. If you have any concerns about a competition item, please raise them with a Committee member, otherwise mark each entry as a piece of turning.
March
Those of you that didn’t come to the Andrew Hall demo day missed an excellent session. Andrew donated the pieces that he made to the Club and we will put them in the new display cabinet. We have bought a copy of Andrew’s notes and DVD on making a hat for the Club library so you can all have a go. There is wet holly and oak outside for you to buy, so wood should not be a problem.
Our new main lathe and bandsaw was delivered THIS MORNING and the lathe set up ready for tonight. We have also ordered a SuperNova chuck and extra jaws for use with our existing lathes, a Revolution chuck and jaws for the new lathe, and a Crown hollowing tool. We are looking into buying more dust extraction equipment, a couple of cordless drills, another video camera, a radio microphone, and three tables. Any other suggestions welcome.
We have arranged to rent a bit more space in the building to accommodate the new bandsaw, creating a sort of wood preparation area. We need to install a 20 amp supply for the bandsaw, and more sockets in the main area. Qualified electricians, please speak to Phil J.
Did you remember to bring a piece of wood to go into the draw ? Then you will get another piece of wood back from which to make your April competition entry. If you forgot to bring a piece you can always buy one from Club stock. I brought a couple of extra pieces.
The topic for the Club meeting this month is a demo by Bill Johnstone from Craftsman’s Supplies. Ian Dawson, Bill’s business partner, is in Australia – the lengths some people will go to avoid you lot !!!
The competition item is a natural edge bowl.
April
Next month the topic is a ‘Show and Tell’ evening at which YOU need to bring a favourite turning, home made chuck, jig or gadget and tell us about it. If you don’t bring anything it will be a short meeting !!
The competition item is whatever you manage to make from the chunk of wood you ‘won’ in the draw. The Club would like to keep all these entries for sale at future events. When judging these, members need to take the raw material into account.
May
Advance notice for probably our major event of the year over the Spring Fling weekend at the end of May. We have an advert for this in the Spring Fling brochure (20,000 copies) and in the May edition of The Bulletin which is delivered to every address in the Stewartry (12,730 copies).
Saturday 24 May. Full day demo by famous artistic turner Margaret Garrard.
Sunday 25 May, Monday 26 May. Watch, try and buy. This is for the public to come and see what woodturning is about, for us recruit new members, and make some money. We are planning . . . . . .
Demonstrations by Club members.
Have-a-go sessions, buy your piece of wood for £1 or £2 and make a dibber or bud vase, guided by an experienced turner. Everything provided.
Make a wooden ball point pen for £5, again with a bit of help.
Exhibition and Sale of Members work.
Display and information about the club.
A raffle on each of Sunday and Monday.
Tea/coffee and traybake available all day for £1.50.
We will need help from YOU for all of these. If you can only come for half of one of the days, that’s fine as we have split each day into morning and afternoon sessions. Phil H has a list of the opportunities so please come and talk to me.
We will need a few nice pieces to create a small exhibition of work; and lots of pieces to sell. These you can either donate all the proceeds to the Club, or we can sell on your behalf with the Club taking just a 20% commission. Everyone should be able to make at least one piece – exactly what is up to you. That way we should get a good range of items.
And finally . . .
The multi-sided diamond honing block has gone missing from the workshop. Several people have looked for it without success. Please would everyone have a look in their toolbox, bag, workshop etc. to see if it has been picked up by accident and return it ASAP.
Would everyone who emailed Roger about sanding arbours please do so again as the emails have gone missing.
Following the excellent demo on turning a hat by Andrew Hall, members have asked for details of the pencils he uses to colour the brim. In Andrew’s Hat Turning instruction manual he describes them as Derwent Drawing pencils Sepia range. He uses Black, Terracotta, Chocolate and Olive colours.
There is a copy of the manual and 2 DVD’s in the Club library.
Welcome everyone to the first Club meeting of 2014 and a belated Happy New Year to you all.
David Wright
Those of you on the email circulation will already be aware of this, but it is with great sadness that I have to announce that fellow member David Wright died recently after a brave fight with cancer – only a little while ago he ordered some candlestick cups, he kept on turning to the end.
As David has left his body to science there will not be a funeral service but there will be a remembrance service sometime during the next few weeks at St.Ninian’s, Castle Douglas, where David was a member.
I will let you know when the service will take place, in the meantime please keep his wife Marjory in your thoughts.
Club Champion
At the December meeting we didn’t have time to work out the final placings on the night. They were posted on our web site later and confirmed that the results, based on your scoring throughout the year were:-
First Chick Hampton
Second Reg Thirlwall
Third Phil Howard
This means that Chick retains the Club Champion trophy. Congratulations to him, and well done to everyone who entered. Our competition really IS about taking part and not just about WINNING.
February
You’ve had two months to make your tazzas for the competition so we’ll expect a good entry.
The demo tonight is by Roger who is going to make a natural edge bowl and explain some of the challenges and opportunities you may encounter !!!
Wood of the Month. Rather than spend a whole evening looking at different woods, which could get a bit repetitive, we are going to try looking at one a month for just a couple of minutes each. We’ll pass around some samples of each wood and talk about how to identify them and what they are like for turning. For no particular reason, we are starting with Ash this month.
Turning Tuesdays are really buzzing. It would be a good idea for you to bring your tools, chucks and even bench top lathes with you. Club lathes spindle sizes are one with ¾ “ x 16 tpi, No. 1 Morse Tapers and two with 1” x 8 tpi, No. 2 MT. The lathe that we have on loan is ¾ “ x 16 tpi, No. 1 Morse Tapers and Phil J’s lathe which he often brings is 1” x 8 tpi, No. 2 MT.
If you didn’t get your copy of the 2014 Programme previously, they are available tonight. I mentioned in December that there is already a change; Robert Sorby will now visit us in May and the Mallets demo will be in June. The Competition items for June and August also swap places. Please amend your copy of the Programme.
The next ‘Introduction to Woodturning’ course starts on Friday 21 February and is fully booked with someone interested in the next course after that !! The course is only open to Club members and the course fee is £50 which includes everything you need i.e. use of a lathe, tools, wood etc.
There is a Committee Meeting scheduled for February 25th, so if you have anything you want to raise, please have a word with any Committee member – namely Phil H, Phil J, Roger, Rolf, Judith and David.
March
Saturday 1 March is a full day professional demo by Andrew Hall, The Hat Man. Not to be missed, get your ticket TONIGHT.
The topic for the Club meeting next month is a demo by Bill Johnstone and Ian Dawson from Craftsman’s Supplies, and the competition item is a natural edge bowl.
You also need to bring a piece of wood to go into a draw, then you will get another piece of wood back from which to make your April competition entry. If you can’t be at the March meeting for some reason, please arrange for someone else to bring your contribution and pick up your drawn blank, otherwise you’ll not be able to make your April entry. Clear ???
If you use your bandsaw to cut any of the fresh oak from Danevale, check that the blade is clean as soon as you have finished. I didn’t and found that the dust was compacted onto the blade and spent an hour scraping the dust off ! The left side where the dust was pressed between the blade and the wheel was much worse than the right side.
Still, two 12″ bowls roughed out from the chunks I ‘acquired’.
April
The hollowing have-a-go session on the Saturday after last month’s meeting went very well. We had four lathes going and members had the opportunity to try at least five different hollowing tools. The notes from the presentation are on our web site with some additional information about the retailers and prices of various tools.
May
The topic this month is ‘It’s about time’, a demo on clocks and other timepieces with Phil Jones.
The competition item is a hollow form. There have been a few discussions about what is meant by ‘a hollow form’ so we circulated an explanation via email which we hope you found useful. This was ‘For the purposes of the competition, a hollow form is a vessel where the diameter of the opening is considerably less than the maximum diameter.’ When you are marking the entries – large size, elegant shape, fine surface finish, thin wall, small entrance hole should all get good marks. Small size, poor shape and finish, thick wall (heavy for the size), large entrance hole should be marked down.
We hope that lots of you have brought a chunk of wood to enter into the draw. To remind you – this is how this will work . . . . .
1. At the May Club meeting, everyone who wants to take part brings a turnable lump of wood. Wood is photographed, then allocated by lot to all participants. The challenge is to make the best item you can from what you are given.
2. In June, the items are judged by members according to the skill and ingenuity shown, with the starting point taken into consideration. A second question on the judging form asks members to suggest a selling price for the piece.
3. Then at the fundraising events we hold over the summer the items are sold for the average price recommended. The two winning items (most expensive and most ingenious) are raffled.
From next week, 21st May, for three weeks, we will run Turning Tuesday in the afternoon and evening as a trial. In the afternoon from 2pm – 4.30pm and 7pm – 9pm as usual in the evening. Then there may be a pause in the afternoon sessions as Phil H will be on holiday.
On Saturday 25 May, Mark and Lisa Raby from Mylands will be presenting a full day of demos. Mark will be covering all aspects of Wood Finishing and Lisa will be demonstrating Pyrography. The full range of Mylands products will be available for sale. This should be of interest to all woodworkers, not just turners so please spread the word as widely as possible. There are some posters on the table below the Notice Board. Admission will be £6 per person, tickets are available tonight at the Shop, and on the day if there are tickets remaining. There is an opportunity for you to bring a piece of work for Mark to finish – bare wood, fully turned and sanded with the spigot or recess remaining so that it can be remounted.
On Monday 27 May we are running a Coffee Morning and Sale in Kirkcudbright to raise funds. It will be in St. Andrew and St. Cuthbert’s Church hall, High Street, DG6 4JW from 10 – 12.30 (map in the Calendar entry on our web site). As it is a Coffee Morning we need members to donate lots of home baking and to help on the day. Judith is leading this fundraising effort for the Club so speak to her to discuss your contribution. We will be demonstrating woodturning and selling work so we need you to get busy in the workshop as well as in the kitchen. You can either donate items for sale so that the Club gets the whole of the sale price OR we do a 75/25 split with the Club getting a 25% commission. Any unsold items will be returned to their makers, so make sure that all items are clearly labelled with your name or initials and selling price. You can bring items to Turning Tuesday or to the course on a Thursday evening or to the Coffee Morning. Speak to Phil H about this aspect of the day.
Spring Fling, the finest open studio event in Scotland, runs from Saturday 25 to Monday 27 May. This year a record 93 artists and makers invite you to visit them in their studios and workshops. Brochures are on the table below the Notice Board.
We have an ‘Introduction to Woodturning’ course running at the moment. If there is a demand we could start a further course in July – speak to Phil H if you are interested. The syllabus is on the Notice Board and on our web site.
June
The competition item next month is ‘a timepiece’.
The Turning Tuesday on June 4th will be a special have-a-go session with Texturing Tools, mainly the Sorby tool and the Decorating Elf.
On Tuesday June 11, Chris Pouncy from Robert Sorby will be with us to demonstrate their latest goodies. If you are considering any Sorby product this is the best opportunity to buy them direct. As usual, if you want anything from the Turners Retreat catalogue, let Roger know by the end of May and Chris will bring it without any Post and Packing charges.
July and August
The idea of having Club meetings in July and August has been raised. Here’s the deal – if members come up with some ideas for topics by the June meeting, the Committee will consider holding the extra meetings.
We have booked tables at the Dumfries (Sat 3 August) and Wigtown (Wed 7 August) shows to promote woodturning and the Club. This year we are asking YOU to provide bowls to sell on the same basis as at the Coffee Morning.
And finally . . .
The Shop has a good stock of wood for sale and we need the money. If you want a particular size or species, let us know and we’ll see what we can do.
Susan Colley has suggested that we design and sell Christmas cards to raise money for the Club. Members could provide a picture, or a piece of their work that they want photographed. What do you think ???
Our new web site continues to develop. The Calendar shows details of all our events. The Document Library includes 13 projects and 14 sets of Presentation Notes, all of which you can download and print for your own use. To get the most benefit from the site you need to REGISTER with the site. You simply need to enter a user name (make this easy to understand e.g. fredbloggs, not cleverturner) and your email address. Then you will receive an email when anything new is added to the site.
The Beading and Parting tool that went missing from the workshop has returned. Thanks to whoever returned it.
My notes from the demo of hollowing tools on 9 April is available in the Document Library section of the website. I’ve added some extra info on tool prices and retailers.
April
The topic this month is ‘Holloween’ comes early, a discussion and demonstration of standard and specialist hollowing tools. If there is sufficient interest we may run a hands-on, have-a-go type session this Saturday. We’ll pass a sign-up sheet on a clip-board round later; please put your name down if you are interested.
The Competition item is a pepper mill. The Shop still has a few pepper and salt mill mechanisms in stock if you didn’t buy them last month and want to have a go.
The current ‘Introduction to Woodturning’ course finishes this week; another course starts next week and is fully booked. If there is a demand we could start a further course in July – speak to Phil H if you are interested. The syllabus is on the Notice Board and on our web site.
May
The topic next month is ‘It’s about time’, a demo on clocks and other timepieces with Phil Jones.
The competition item is your interpretation of a hollow form. Note : a discussion during the evening came to the conclusion that for the purposes of the competition, a hollow form is a vessel where the diameter of the opening is considerably less than the maximum diameter.
On Saturday 25 May, Mark and Lisa Raby from Mylands will be presenting a full day of demos. Mark will be covering all aspects of Wood Finishing and Lisa will be demonstrating Pyrography. The full range of Mylands products will be available for sale. This should be of interest to all woodworkers, not just turners so please spread the word as widely as possible. There are some posters on the table below the Notice Board. Admission will be £6 per person, tickets will be available at the May Club meeting and on the door if there are tickets remaining.
Spring Fling, the finest open studio event in Scotland, which has been widely copied but never bettered, runs from Saturday 25 to Monday 27 May. This year a record 93 artists and makers invite you to visit them in their studios and workshops. Brochures are on the table below the Notice Board.
And finally . . .
The various ideas regarding possible uses for our workshop which were listed in the previous two Notices have generated very few responses – one person thinks it would be a good idea to run Turning Tuesday in the afternoon. There is a Committee Meeting on 29 April so now would be a good time to put your ideas to any Committee member.
We will need to run some sort of fundraising in the future and we will need to have some turnings for sale. Judith came up with the following idea to make this more interesting for everyone . . . .
1. At the May Club meeting, everyone who is willing to take part brings a turnable lump of wood. Wood is photographed, then allocated by lot to all participants. The challenge is to make the best item you can from what you are given.
2. In June, the items are judged by members according to the skill and ingenuity shown, with the starting point taken into consideration. A second question on the judging form asks members to suggest a selling price for the piece.
3. Then at whatever fundraising event we hold over the summer (coffee morning, soup and sweet, open day etc.), the items are sold for the average price recommended. The two winning items (most expensive and most ingenious) are raffled.