Category Archives: Workshop

Better Bowls Course Saturday 4th August

Less than a week now to our next Better Bowls course at Castle Douglas, and I am very much looking forward to it.

The course is from 10 am and finishes at 4pm. In the past I have been happy to extend this a little, and am happy to do so again, however I do have another appointment at 5:15 so we will try our best to be closer to 4 than in the past.

As you all can turn bowl, this is more of a WORKSHOP to make better bowl, so bring some previously turned bowls if you want, some blanks that you are not sure about how to turn, some photos or drawings, or just some ideas. (also bring a packed lunch).

Woodturning is all about having fun, so we aim to make better bowls, but just making better shavings would also do. Please feel no pressure, we will all learn something, be better turners and the better bowls we strive for may not be made during this workshop but the better thought processes that enable us to make better bowls will be developed here. I will bring some blanks, and the club has some for sale.

Often we are more comfortable using our own tools, so bring them if you want (and we can maybe sharpen them too as part of the workshop).

The five places allocated for Saturday are all I can manage, so if you have signed up and can’t make it on Saturday let me know and I will see if someone else from that 50% of the population can step in. If you can make it it would be nice to get a confirmation from you, and let me know if you want to try anything specific, as it may need me to find a matching blank, tool, or materials.

I know that I wanted to fix a date for another course/workshop in September or October but the gap in my diary has not opened up yet so I will have to put it on hold just now. I will let you all know as soon as I can find a free day.

Rolf

Turning Tuesday, and Wednesdays

The club is open Tuesday evenings, and Wednesday afternoon and evenings for paid up Club Members to use club facilities.

The purpose is for members to use the club lathes and specialist tools in the company of other club members, and in so doing can call upon other turners for advice and assistance. These sessions are not for teaching or any form of training, classes are on Thursdays.

We are happy for non members to call in and see what we are about and see what we do, but it should be clearly understood that our insurance does not allow non members to use our equipment. Woodturning can be dangerous and we care about our members and visitors, and want them to have a fun, safe experience, therefore we would like all club members, and course participants, to demonstrate a basic knowledge of workshop safety before they use any club machinery or tools.

Visitors should therefore not expect to have-a-go when they come, but our members will be happy to show them what can be done, and if the visitors like what they see we can sign them up for a Taster Course, Introduction to Woodturning Course, or other courses as appropriate from one of our qualified tutors.

Wood Prep Tomorrow (Sun 7th May)

So it looks like there’s lots of wood prep to do tomorrow. The plan is as follows:

Meet at 1pm at the workshop, aiming to be finished by 4pm.

  • Group 1: Workshop, 1pm
    • Phil H + ? others
    • Plank and stack the pile of cherry
    • Blank and seal some of the older, drier planks
  • Group 2: Barwhinnock House, 1:30pm
    • Phil J + ? others
    • Work TBC
  • Group 3: Craichlaw, Kirkcowan, 2pm
    • John B, HGJP + 2 others
    • Retreiving laburnum from the woods

If you have them, bring your chainsaws and PPE. If not, don’t worry there’s plenty of other work to be done.

See you all there!

Wood Prep Workshop – Sunday 5 March

Having taken the cold, wet winter months off, I’m kicking off the wood prep workshop on what looks to be a cold, wet wintry Sunday this weekend!

Partly due to the weather and partly due to the amount of jobs needing to be done at the workshop, we’ll be staying at the workshop.

The usual time of 1pm to 4pm still applies but I plan to be there from 10am so if anyone prefers the morning feel free to join me.

Jobs to be done include:

  • Make new bars on all the lathe legs to make them easier to move by pallet truck
  • Clean and reorganise the wood prep area
  • Continue wiring the lights and sockets in the new work room (Roger)
  • Move the shop and work bench
  • Take the rubbish over to the tip
  • Move the measuring tool board from behind the finishing cupboard
  • Assist with gloss painting (please bring any spare paint you have)
  • Create something to hold the TVs, camera and spot lights on the new ceiling
  • Create new brackets and put the electric heaters back up
  • Tidy up the cupboards and lathe boxes to make sure everything is in the right place
  • Replace mug cupbard in the kitchen

There’s probably more, that just a few things that spring readily to mind.

See you there!

Wood Prep – Sunday afternoon 6 November

Thought I’d post a few details for what to expect on Sunday.

Meet at the workshop for 1pm and then we’ll split into two groups, one staying at the workshop and the other travelling to at Barwhinnock House. If you’d rather go straight to Barwhinnock House I aim to be there for 1:30pm.

The aim is to be finished by 4pm.

Workshop party

  1. Cut, seal and price blanks and put on shelves
  2. Tidy up the wood shelves and move any non-blanked pieces of wood back outside
  3. Outside, convert useless wood to firewood

Note that a proportion of the firewood is to go back to Barwhinnock, the remainder is available to members in return for a donation to club funds.

Barwhinnock party

  1. Clearing a section of branches (loppers and axes might be more suitable than chainsaws)

 

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

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.

Workshop opening times this Christmas

The workshop will be open as normal 7pm-9pm on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings throughout the festive period.

The workshop will also be open all day on Tuesday 29th December from 10am. I will be spending the day doing workshop stuff so feel free to pop in and help or do some turning with your new tools from Santa 🙂