Club gets Lottery Cash


Lottery photo
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).

Notices March 2014

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.

 

Pencils used by Andrew Hall

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.

Notices February 2014

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 ??? 

Competition Results – Feb 2014

2014-02-12 Tazza Competition

Competition results attached – the excellent standard of entries being reflected in there being less than 2 points between them all!

To re-iterate what Phil H said on Tuesday, the purpose of the competition is to encourage everyone to do more turning so I encourage anyone who hasn’t yet ventured a piece into the competition to do so. It’s an excellent way to improve your own skills and provides inspiration to others.

Good luck for next month – a natural edged bowl!

Cutting fresh oak

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’.

Oak Tree Down!

Anyone available with a chainsaw on the first weekend in Jan?

There’s an oak tree down near Crossmichael that the club can have if (a) we want it and (b) we can get it!

There is a big trunk with a base of about 2 feet diameter and there are numerous branches that would be big enough for turning.

I don’t see any problem with trimming the branches off, but getting the trunk back to the main road might be difficult. There are no obstacles but there is only a small track nearby and I’m not sure what transport it would take.