Notices – March  2016

Tonight our demonstration should prove interesting with Phil and Jake producing some “Wee Critters” for our edification!!!

The wood of the month is Bog Oak presented by Judith Simpson

Next Month (12^th April)  the demonstration will be by myself and will concentrate on Off Centre Work

The competition will be Animals and the wood of the month is Hickory (volunteer needed)

 

Last Saturday we had an excellent demonstration from Richard Kennedy which was well attended with people coming from both Strathclyde Woodturners and Border Woodturners. Thank you to all who help make this an enjoyable event.

Our next Professional Demonstration will be by Mick Hanbury from Lincolnshire on Sunday 22^nd May.  Mick is a skilful and artistic woodturner who has been turning for over 20 years. He is listed on the Register of Professional Turners as well as being a member of Association of Woodturners of Great Britain. Over the years Mick has developed a unique style of decorative finishes to his pieces and is well known for his beautiful finial boxes, elegant spiral stem goblets, and delicately patterned platters.

Again tickets are on sale from the shop – get your today..

 

Afternoon Turning Session – The Wednesday afternoon sessions are proving to go down well and David has agreed to continue for the time being. The session runs from 2pm until 4pm. These are not aimed to be teaching sessions in themselves, members should be able to work by themselves; however help is at hand for any advice needed.

 

Dust Masks – Last Saturday quite a number of people expressed interest in purchasing the dust mask used by Richard Kennedy. I now have 18 of these on order and they will be in the shop asap.

Club Purchasing Offers

www.pen-kits.co.uk are offering special offers to clubs where members combine orders.

If club members combine their orders, will they save on postage costs, they will also include free bushings for every kit style bought.

If you are interested, please see their web site and then let me know of your interest.

 

Events and Demonstrations at G&S Specialist Timber

Woodturning by Chris Pouncy: 14 April.  Woodcarving by Michael Painter & Peter Berry: 23rd & 24th September. More information see; www.toolsandtimber.co.uk/events-demonstrations

 

Launch of Europe’s largest woodturning competitions

Created for both amateur and professional woodturners, The Worshipful Company of Turners has launched its 2016 Competitions. Entries will be judged and displayed at Carpenters’ Hall in the City of London in October, the 2016 Competitions will be the largest event of its kind in Europe.

All entries registered with the Turners’ Company by Monday 12 September and received by 11.30am on Tuesday 11 October will be exhibited as part of Wizardry in Wood.

This is expected to attract several thousand visitors between 12th and 15th October at Carpenters’ Hall. Further information at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/turners-company-2016-competitions-tickets-20942012122

Saturday 5th March saw a Professional Turner Richard Kennedy  give a marvellous demonstration at the Workshop. Richard started with a small hollowform using the Simon Hope camera directed hollowing tool. This was then coloured using spirit based stains. Richard then turned and carved one of his signature tree bowls going through each stage of the process in some detail. The final piece was a Rude Osolnik Candle Holder which was turned using only a roughing gouge. The demonstration was well attended with members from Strathclyde Woodturners and Border Woodturners joining us for the day.

Tonight the demonstration is by Rolf and it will part one of simple bowls
The competition, following Decembers Demo, is a Box with an inlaid lid or a plain lid for novice turners.
The wood of the month is a Banksia nut presented by John Brown.

Next Month we have an all-day Demonstration by professional turner Richard Kennedy. This is on Saturday 5th March – Tickets on sale tonight – if possible could you please take a poster and display it around the area. The day starts at 10am until 4pm – soup & sandwich lunch included

The club night on the 8th will be taken by Phil and Jake tuning some “Wee Criters”
The competition will be a small bowl with a QUALITY FINISH
The wood of the month is Bog Oak by Judith

There are still places left on the Workshop Tutorial days – but please note the dates
17th march – Wood preparation
17th July – Sharpening
25th September – Boxes

Spaces on these days will be limited so please sign up as soon as possible – forms on the notice board.

Raffle Prizes – If members see anything that they think may make a good Raffle Prize please bring it in – Costs will be reimbursed (usually about £5)

Afternoon Turning Session – The Committee has been asked about the possibility of running an afternoon session in the winter months for those who are retired. David Simpson has agreed to run a session from 2pm – 4pm on Wednesdays for the next 4 weeks. If there is no response to these then we will have to rethink day sessions.

Course Tutors – At present there are only two people taking courses (Rolf and myself) which, given the demand is quite an undertaking. The AWGB has recently started a course for tutors, followed by an assessment. They are willing to come along to the club and run an assessment day but need a minimum of 4 people. If anyone would like to volunteer and train to become a tutor then please see either Rolf or myself.

Workshop Practise – Attendance at the Tuesday and Wednesday Turning Sessions are quite full with members commenting about not being able to get on a lathe. To help overcome this, if all the lathes are in use and there are people waiting, then time on the lathes will be curtailed to one hour. There will be a list posted on the notice board with time slots for 7-8pm and 8-9pm.
The committee is also concerned at some of the practises being seen when turning at the club particularly the speeds being used when turning and about large groups gathering around lathes when they are in use.
A table of appropriate speeds has been posted on the notice board and will be on the web. Would members please adhere to these when turning on club lathes.

I’ve not been turning very much over the last few weeks because I finally got round to making a cabinet for my turning tools. They used to live in a heap in the bottom of a cupboard !

The cabinet is mainly made from wood I had kept ‘just in case’ including some bits of hardwood floor boards.

Large tools go in the main cabinet and smaller tools in the doors.

General view, overall size is 1200mm by 800mm.

Closer view of main cabinet.

Closer view of right hand door for medium sized tools, left hand door is similar for small tools.

Last Tuesday a few people were asking about the light and jaws I used.
The light can be purchased from a company called Woodart –
www.woodart-products.co.uk
The jaws are the 75mm bowl jaws from Teknatool code N0.6014
These can be purchased from Dave Biven via Peter

Sorry for the delay – My computer started typing backwards – again!

Please note the date for the Sharpening workshop should be July not June as published last Tuesday.

Notices – December 2015

Tonight the demonstration is by Roger and it will be a simple box with an inlaid lid
The competition, following last month,s demonstration is a Toy Car with Turned wheels that turn!
The wood of the month is Rhododendron presented by Jake.

As we do not have a meeting in January our next club meeting will be on the 9th February and Rolf will be taking us through Easy bowls part 1
The competition, following tonight’s demo will be a box with an inlay for experienced turners and a simple box for beginners.
The wood of the month is a Banskia nut .

Next years programme is now available as well as the club nights and professional demonstrators we will be running three Workshop Tutorial days. These will be
o 13th March ~ Wood preparation
o 10th July ~ Sharpening
o 25th September ~ Boxes
Spaces on these day will be limited so please sign up as soon as possible – forms on the notice board.

The Committee has been asked about the possibility of running an afternoon session in the winter months for those who are retired. The main problem with this is getting somebody to run the session and be responsible. If you would be interested in an afternoon session please see a member of the committee and we will see if we can get a volunteer to be responsible.

Following a discussion at the committee we have decided that next year the wood of the month will be shared out among members. Jake has volunteered for this evening and Judith will be doing Bog Oak in March but we need volunteers for the other months. If we don’t get volunteers then names will go into a hat. All that is required is to talk about the merits of the wood as it relates to turning – it takes about 5 mins max and most of the information can be gleaned from books or the internet.

We now have 5 people interested in a beginners course so we will be starting a further course towards the end of January. If there is anyone who would like to join a course please see Roger.

I have had an e mail from a member of Grampian Woodturners ( Mark Cowan) who has started up a group on facebook called Scottish Woodturners and Crafts which you are invited to have a look and join if this would be of interest to you.

Who is Richard Raffan?

• Internationally renowned Australian professional wood turner.
• Acclaimed for his gallery-quality work and his teaching.
• Author of books and magazine articles.
• The club has a Richard Raffan bowl on permanent loan from David and Judith.

His book on turning toys

• Book, “Turning Toys with Richard Raffan”, discusses basic wood turning techniques.
• And wood turning tools
• Basic safe workshop practices ~ Reprinted in Woodturning Magazine September 2015 pp 83 – 85
• Safe design
• And then goes on to projects.

Safe Design

• Avoid choking hazards.
• Rules vary by country
• He uses a 1¾” hole in a scrap of wood as a guide.
• Very difficult to find out British Standards without shelling out £300+ for a full copy of the rules, but we have found a small parts cylinder ~ see post on club website.
• If selling you can’t make a toy obviously for a toddler, then cover yourself by saying not suitable for under 3s.
• No sharp points.
• Smooth surfaces.
• Non toxic paints.

Templates

• He advocates the use of homemade templates for ease of sizing different components.
• I made one for sizing the diameters of the drivers, front wheels and rear wheels.

His toy cars consist of

• Axles
• Wheels
• Car body
• Driver and perhaps passengers.

He Suggests

• Experiment with cheap wood to determine the size/proportions of the car you want to make.
• Age of the child?
• Potential use as a weapon against siblings?
• Don’t use lignum vitae! Lighter wood is better, ash or sycamore.

Car Body

• Don’t intersect driver hole with axle!.. I did!

Show marked Block,

• we homed in on these dimensions, but they are not sacrosanct. 
• Block                     40 x 45 x 150mm ash
• Doesn’t have to be square,
• oblong may make a wider car for 2 people to sit beside each other.
• wider and longer may make a bus.
• Driver position       45mm from rear
• Axle position         15mm from base, 40mm from front, 20mm from rear.
• Holes drilled 1” for driver/passenger, axle holes 0.5mm bigger than axle.
• If a flat boot lid is required ~ bandsaw a section off first.
• If a recessed grill or exhaust is required ~ Forstner drill in Bench drill first.
• Off centre turning ~Steb centre, (or spur centre), determined the position of rotation ~ on centreline 15mm from base.
• make sure you leave enough room for the steb centre or spur centre to get a good grip.
• I showed an early example which was not turned enough off-centre and  became a cylinder.
• Further off centre, get a flat bottom.

Demo of body making

• Sand to the finish you require, depending on whether you’re going to paint it or not. 

Wheels

• Whole chapter on wheels.
• Axle options.

Sizes

• Front            45mm dia.
• Rear             55mm dia.
• People          1” dia ~ determined by the Imperial Fostner drill set we have!

Demo of wheel making

• 15mm wide, hole depth 10mm, tread/no tread ~ inside against car body a little concave?
• Rough cylinder to right size, mark the width, then using tool of your choice (skew, spindle gouge), turn the wheels.
• Drill the hole before it’s parted off. Use a depth stop or measure very carefully and mark your drill.

People 

• 1” dia body with 1”diameter head could make 25mm if you prefer, or any safe size.
• Piece of wood, rough it to size, shape the head and body,
• can make a shapely lady if you’re so inclined, (and have a good imagination!)

Axles

• He can make narrow spindles ~ sometimes using odd tools.
• I bought 6mm doweling from TAS in Castle Douglas. (our sponsors)
• Rolf says this is not sturdy enough and 12mm oak axles are better!
• G&S Specialist Timber, Penrith sell dowelling in a large range of different timbers and diameters.

Finish

• Paint…non-toxic
• Or food safe oil
• Or Treatex, which is toy safe, and will give a lasting finish.
• Add transfers, but cover with sealer of some kind if for a young child who may pick them off.

To find the toy safety cylinder test referred to in the Toy Car Demonstration please follow this link;

http://www.bsieducation.org/Education/14-19/developing-testing/tests/cylinder.pdf