Category Archives: General

Harrogate Show

The Club will be hiring a bus to go to the Harrogate Show on Sunday 20th November. The bus, which will take 14 is almost fully booked, however no booking is final until the full cost (£25) has been paid. If you have your name down to go and have not paid please see Jimmy Brown ASAP – Final date for payment will be at the next club meeting on the 13th September.

August Notices

Lots of notices this month. Lots going on in particular next years programme. Please let me know your thoughts before the next committee meeting.

Also are there any further takers for the Simon Hope Workshop?

Notices –August  2016

Tonight will be a question and answer session hope you all have your questions ready!

Following the June meeting the  competition tonight is a  Platter

The wood of the month is Plum  and Geoff Thomas has short straw..

Next month- September- Rolf will be continuing with Easy Bowls Part 2 returning to the part turned wet bowl he rough turned in February.

The competition will be Items to be judged for the interclub competition (Anything)

Diary Dates

Sunday 14th August (Next Sunday) – Sharpening using the grinder (see notice for details

Sunday 28th August – Part 2 of sharpening with the Sorby Pro Edge

2nd Oct and the 1st Sunday of each month – Timber conversion at Barwhinnoch, Twynholm (See web site for details)

Sunday 23rd October – Auction – (See web Site for Details)

Professional Demonstration

The next professional Demonstration is on September 24th with Simon Hope – Please support this event – get your tickets early and not at the last minute They are on sale tonight.

Master Classes

There is one place on the Simon Hope Master Class on Sunday September 25th. The cost for the class is £55 for the full day. If you would like to come to this please let me know asap – first come first served.

Harrogate – The North of England Woodworking & Power Tool Show  – 18th-20th November

The “Harrogate Show” is the largest and longest established retail woodworking and power tool show in the Country. An excellent day out with over 30 demonstrators taking part, plus a woodworking clinic, and more than 70 companies exhibiting. The club is hoping to hire a mini bus to go to Harrogate details are on the notice board. Please sign up if you are interested.

Constitution Due to some recent developments the Committee has had to revisit our Constitution and make some changes. The most significant change is to include a section on discipline. Copies of the constitution are available from myself for those interested and posted on the notice board– the new amendment will come into force following tonight’s meeting

.Band saw – It has become obvious that members not used to using large band saws have been using the club saw. This has resulted in two of the bearing beings mangled at a cost of £20+! In future only competent, experienced members will be allowed to use the saw, a list of whom will be poster next to the saw. If you would like to know more about the saw and be taken through its workings in order to become a named user then please let me know.

Health & Safety We have now had a Health & Safety check done on the workshop – thanks to Steve Young for that – and we now have three fire extinguishers located around the building. Please make yourself aware of them and how to use them.  First Aid – We will be holding a First Aid course in the near future to cover possible accidents in the workplace please watch the web site for further details

Club Meetings 2017

The following Events have been put forward as possible topics for our Tuesday Evening Club Nights.

Big verses Small – Different techniques for turning large item and very small items.

Pyrography – A demonstration on how to use pyrography on turned items – or how to burn your turnings!

Is your bottom attractive – how to finish the bottom of turnings

A three legged stool

A winged bowl

Using non basic tools –

Turning material other than wood

Kitchenalia – turning items for use in the kitchen

Demonstrations

Chris Pouncy (Sorby)

Brian Conchie (Border Woodturners)

Mike Poole ( Ayr)

If you have any thoughts on these or any other topic you would like to see please let a member of the committee know.

Professional Demonstrations 2017

The following have been booked for full-day demonstrations next year

Saturday February 25th – David Lowes

Saturday May 27th – Andrew Hall

Sunday May 28th – Andrew Hall Masterclass

September – Dave Atkinson (Date to be confirmed)

Roger

Stuff, lots of stuff!

A few things to mention:

Woodturners’ Question Time

The club meeting next week is Woodturners’ Question Time so try and spend some time between now and then thinking of any questions you’d like to put to our panel of experts. How do you stop tear out, what’s your favourite wood, what’s an ogee, why doesn’t my wax finish burnish up properly, where’s the best place to get 60 grit? No question is too daft but, as compere for the evening, if you’d prefer me to ask questions on your behalf just let me know beforehand.

Sharpening

Following the popularity of the first pro-edge sharpening workshop we have two more lined up: sharpening on a grinder on the 14th August and more on the pro-edge on the 28th August.

Auction!

Some of you may have noticed a growing pile of tools and equipment in the kitchen at the workshop, well we thought we’d try to convert it to funds for the club by holding another auction on Sunday 23rd October. Make sure you keep the date free and if you’d like to sell anything let me know and I’ll see if we have capacity.

Wood Prep at Barwhinnock House

We have been offered a regular supply of wood from Barwhinnock House near Twynholm. The wood is in its raw form so needs to be cut and planked before being moved to the storage racks at the club workshop to dry out. This needs to be a regular event to make sure we stay on top of it and keep a steady supply of blanks getting to the workshop. We are therefore planning to meet there on the first Sunday of every month at 13:00 starting from 2nd October. It may take an hour or it may take longer depending on the size and quantity of wood and how many people turn up to help. As we progress I guess it will be easier to work out what needs to be done and how long it might take.

First Aid Course

I’m going to arrange a first aid course for any interested members – if that includes you please let me know at the next meeting.

Sharpening the Club Tools

Our recent sharpening workshop was well attended and everyone seemed to think it was worthwhile and successful. We only managed to get through the Spindle Roughing Gouge  and the Bowl Gouge but everyone seemed keen to have a further workshop to cover the remaining tools so I’ll try and get a date arranged for that sometime soon.

One of the key outputs from the workshop was the following list of rules which were discussed, debated and agreed unanimously by all who attended:

  1. All club tools must only be sharpened on a pro-edge
  2. All club tools must only be sharpened to the following standard grinds:
    • Spindle roughing gouge: 45° using v-block
    • Bowl (deep-fluted) gouge: 45° bevel angle standard (aka short) fingernail grind
    • Spindle (shallow-fluted) gouge: 45° bevel angle standard (aka short) fingernail grind
    • Skew: 15° using triangle block
    • Parting Tool: 20° using side of the v-block
    • Scraper: 80°
  3. Blunt or unusable tools must be sharpened or put in the red Tools To Be Sharpened box (i.e. not put back on the shelf)

Some explanatory notes:
The main purpose of these rules is to keep things as simple as possible and thereby make it easier for members of any ability to sharpen tools well. This should reduce the chance that tools will be sharpened poorly or not at all for fear of getting it wrong.

By “all club tools” we mean the six standard tools listed above. Exceptions are hollowing tools, texturing tools and the like.

If you are proficient enough to start using long or extra long grinds then you can adapt your own tools. For simplicity, club tools will only have the short grind.

Our standard grinds are the same as those suggested by Robert Sorby: see pic below or their instruction video.

sharp

Lathe and tools for sale

I have been told by a member that there is an advert in Tarff Valley, Dumfries for a lathe and tools, £350 and a Dewalt planer/thicknesser, £300.

If this is of interest to you, reply to this posting and I will email the telephone number given on the advert to you.

David

Sharpening

Thought I’d do a quick post to clarify what we’ll be doing this coming Sunday at the sharpening workshop.

The workshop will run between 12 and 4pm

The primary aims are:

  1. Get a core group of members competent in using a Sorby Pro-Edge
  2. Sharpen as many club tools as possible using a Pro-Edge
  3. Clearly mark all the club tools to show
    • whether they have standard grinds or not
    • whether they are to be sharpened on a Pro-Edge only

Secondary aims:

  1. Sharpen personal tools
  2. Look at honing for skews, hollowing tools or other tools
  3. Use of the grinder

Things to bring:

  1. Your own tools
  2. Spare tools to practice on
  3. Your own Pro-Edge if you have one

Before you come it might be useful to check out some online resources such as Doc Green Woodturner or some of the Pro-Edge videos on you tube such as the one from Robery Sorby.

If successful and there is sufficient demand we will look to having another workshop later in the year to cover the use of Pro-Edge alternatives such as a grinder or a Tormek.

Band Saw

IMG_2001IMG_1999

Please note that the band saw is currently out of action. This is because of mistreatment by those using it!

Both of the rear support bearings have seized and have been damaged by excess pressure. From now on only those members who can satisfy the committee that they are competent in using the saw, and that includes how to strip down and set up the saw will be allowed to use it.