Christmas Dinner

On Tuesday the 13Th of December we had our Christmas dinner.
Last year we had it in January but everybody thought it would be nice to have it in December this year.We decided to go to the same Venue as last year The Brent house Restaurant.
The food as usual was perfect and good value.I do think the drinks are extortionately expensive £14  00 for a bottle of wine that you can buy in Azda on three for a tenner is a rip off.
We had a very good turn out and everybody enjoyed themselves.
Mark Sanger took a few pics.
A nice happy crowd.

To enlarge the pics ,Click on pic

I think Liz is trying to pick Martins pocket but he is having none of it.

They have calmed down



November Meeting.

This was one of our best ever meetings.Lots of members and one of the best displays of members work I have ever seen.The best bit is how much the works we are now seeing has improved greatly so we must be doing something right.

These are the pieces that graced this months table.

This was our last meeting of the year except our Christmas meal which will be on the 13Th of this month at the Brent house.
We will have about 30 attending so it should be a good night.We need to be there for about 7 O clock to sit down for about 7 30.
A polite reminder we have to pay our membership fee to the AWGB by the end of the year therefore all membership moneys need to be in by the end of December latest.

I will be doing demonstrations at several clubs next year so I used our members as Guinea pigs to try out a demo turning a large candlestick.
Sue Meads our Secretary has kindly done a write up of the process to help you  if you need a reminder when you make one.
Thank you sue.
The last meeting before Christmas drew most members to watch George demonstrating his 3 piece pine candlestick that he will demonstrate to several clubs in the New Year.
He explained that ideally you need to make a template. To make the initial board draw the sizes on some MDF.
He makes templates out of MDF so that they can be saved for another day and hung in the workshop.
All the sizes are marked and one side is cut to shape to give a visual aid and all sizes are to hand. Dimensions have to be accurate as they will be transferred onto the wood. The cut out is just a reminder of the form you are creating.
George used a 4" square of pine and rounded down to an even thickness with a spindle roughing gouge. Next the sizing and reference marks are transferred from your template to the roughed out cylinder.
A Mark Sanger tip is to create an indent for the pencil to sit in on your template - it makes marking easier.
With reference points marked he was ready to turn them down to size. George held the parting tool in one hand and callipers in the other to check the size. He turned the wood down for the spigot and then the adjacent cove. The cove was created between the two lines leaving a shoulder both sides. The pencil line marking the centre of the ball helps get a balanced ball. George worked both ways either side of the line to make sure the biggest possible diameter was left. All the time George had the template positioned behind the piece he was turning.
He then turned the flowing Baluster shape that made the body of the candlestick. He continually checked the shape with the callipers. When he was happy it was gently sanded.
He then started on the top and bottom.
The two pieces are cut from 6" x 3" pine and rounded. George would ideally then mount the pieces on a screw chuck while roughing out.
He put two marks on the blank one for the mortise and the other to show where the shoulder will start.
He used dividers and made sure that only the left hand point touches. George advised that when turning cross grain pine use as high a speed that is safe and take small cuts as big shards /splinters can break off if you take big cuts.
He then made a recess with a thin parting tool to fit the jaws. This will serve as the recess for work holding then it will be used on the finished piece for setting the candle in. On the base it would not show as it will be on the underside. The pieces are sanded.
A correct fit has to be achieved as you have to allow a bit for glue expansion.  Both the bottom and top are now ready to be fitted with the use of a hot glue gun.
After assembly there was further sanding and colouring with spirit stains to create the desired finish.

Myself and your committee would like to take this opportunity to wish you all A happy and prosperous new year.

Another enjoyable evening by Sue Meads.(ClubSecretary)

The second of our recently established small group sessions was held on Tuesday in Georges’ workshop . Giles, Dan, Trevor and Sue took particular projects and challenges in the hope that the ever patient George would help them overcome their difficulties or be on hand to support projects. During the evening a sharpening system was set up on a plywood base; a set of new  tools were sharpened; a candlestick was finished by curving the base and drilling the hole for the candle; a green ( cut on Friday )  macracarpa bowl was rough turned ready for drying; wood was cut into blanks and a yew vase was shaped ready for hollowing.
Sue was struggling with her bowl so we watched as George effortlessly helped  – a project that would have taken her hours but George completed in minutes, a true masterclass!
A great evening and many thanks to the long suffering George for his help and assistance.

September club meeting by Sue Meads.(club Secretary)

This month we were treated to a demo of bottle making by Mark Sanger.  The main form being cross grain sycamore with an insert that was then turned and inserted to the top of this form. Texturing was added by the inclusion of grooves using a point tool.
During the demo he spoke about the rule of thirds, the “Divine Proportion” and Fibonacci sequence in nature as a way to investigate proportion.  He also spoke about the difference between designing for a utility item or a purely aesthetic piece and the considerations of the size of foot respectively.
The form was turned using a 3/8th inch bowl gouge with a Celtic grind.
Both roughing and finishing cuts were shown using this tool.
He then discussed about using scrapers and how to achieve the best finish from the tool prior to finishing. No sanding was carried out as the finish from the tool was buffed using the chestnut buffing system after sealing the wood with liquid Cellulose sanding sealer.

Some pics of the evening.

Yandles.

Don't forget it is Yandles show this weekend Friday and Saturday.
I am sure you all want to come and see your favourite Club Chairman demonstrate.

Rod and Sue

Last year two of our members left our club when they moved to Yorkshire .Rod has Emailed me a couple of pics from a show they attended and won the best of show stand.

This is the Email and pics Rod sent me.

The award was for Best Trade Craft Stand at the Wensleydale Show (out of 29).We have been pretty busy since the move up here, both turning and work on the house/garden. We have had a table in the craft marquee in a few shows  (see http://www.beautifulwoodbysue.co.uk/ ‘for sale’ tab) just to see if this would be a good outlet for sales of our stuff – profit (and enjoyable) every time. We also have our stuff in a craft shop at a local beauty spot which is going well, so the future for selling up here looks good. Our problem at the moment is that following these shows we have so little stock that we will probably not be able to do a Christmas fair. Anyway, we are enjoying life up here, and I still keep an eye on your website/blog – regards to anyone in the club who remembers us.All the best, Rod

Thank you for the pics and info rod it is good to hear from you both and you are both looking well.
Stay in touch.

August Club meeting

Another good meeting three new members and about twenty regulars very good for August as there is always a downturn due to holidays.
One of our members Barry was going to give us a demonstration on off centre turning but unfortunately he was stuck on a job in Cornwall.At five O clock I had the message that he was just not going to be there which put me on the spot a bit as I was planning to have a lazy evening watching Barry.
Anyway as that was obviously not going to be I jumped into the breach and showed the members how to make an off centre goblet.
We had another lathe set up for them that wanted to do hands on but everybody seemed more interested in how to make the goblet.
Most off the members were up and down getting a closer view and asking questions
I have been a little concerned whether we are doing the right thing doing a teaching demo every month although there is always at least another lathe for hands on.
The general feeling from the members seems to be that they benefit from being shown different techniques and they are then able to go away and practise what the have seen,
These evenings are very relaxed and the members tend to gather around the demonstrator  rather than just sit and watch wich is good.
We have decided to have our Christmas meal in December this year and Sue is sorting it out with Brent house as all the members said they enjoyed it there last year.
In the future we are going to have an extra meeting each month in my workshop but the numbers will be limited and we have started a rota.
Because of all the extra facilities on hand members will hopefully benefit greatly.
We now have a large screen television available to us at the centre thanks to Ken Hindle all we have to do now is work out how to use it with a camera.This will be a big asset on our teaching demos as we will then be able to see a lot more detail.
The table was a little bit sparse this month as most members have been busy but Hopefully we we will see an improvement next month.

New member Kerry

Today our latest member Kerry spent the morning with me having some tuition.Kerry has not done any turning before so it is all very new to her.We spent some time on health and safety then progressed to Kerry making a beautiful bowl. As you can see from the following pic Kerry has taken to turning like a duck to water.I am sure we will be seeing great things from her in the future.

August Committee meeting.

On Monday 22 Aug your committee met to discus how things are going and how we can improve our club for the future.
The first thing we had to deal with was a letter from John Brewer resigning from the committee.
To replace John we have co-opted our librarian Dereck Smith onto the committee.
Dereck as you all know has been a member from day one and has managed our collection of books and DVDs.
One of the items we discussed was the possibility of having two meetings a month instead of one as we have now.
Another thing we discussed is the possibility of having a camera and screen which would be a big asset when we are carrying out teaching demos.
These things will be discussed with our members at our next meeting.
Finally something we must not forget is that Christmas is rapidly approaching and we need to decide on a date and venue for our Christmas meal.

Sue and Kerry

Yesterday Sue Meads and our new member Kerry joined me in my workshop for some tuition.Sue produced a lovely natural edge bowl from Cherry.Picture below.
Kerry started to make a wide rimmed bowl out of Sycamore but never had time to complete it as she could only stay until about mid day.She will finish it at a later date and will will take a pic then.
Sue is coming on in leaps and bounds and i think we have natural in Kerry as she took to it like a duck to water.

Demo by Frans Brown last night.

Last nights demo by Frans Brown went down really well with the members .It was a good turn out considering some were on holiday and others could not make it for various reasons.
Frans demonstrated how to create a thin walled bowl with a carved and scorched edge to give the appearance of a natural edge.
Everybody seemed to enjoy the evening and Frans was asked lots of questions.
Thank you for a very interesting evening Frans.

Frans Brown demo

Next Tue 27 07 2011 We are having a demo by Frans Brown.
This is an opportunity not to be missed and is sure to be a great evening.
Click on link to see examples of Frans work on his Website.
Click here

Posting comments

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The community Centre opening.

Yesterday was the Grand opening of the Burnham on Sea community centre where we hold our monthly

meetings.

The opening was to celebrate the completion of  an upgrading of the building.

The Mayor of Burnham on Sea carried out the official opening.

Ourselves and other groups and users of the centre were asked to attend and support the works of the Friends of the centre which we were pleased to do.

We presented a coloured bowl to the Mayors wife from the  club unfortunately iI forgot to get a pic of that.

Here are a few pics of those of us that set up a display and attended the event.

 Click here for more news

Tuition today.

Today myself and Mark Raby had our first day of our Finishing texturing and colouring courses.Three of our members attended and hopefully had a good day and learnt a lot.
The first pic is the group shot of all of us and the second is our three members Sue Dereck and Burt.

That is our second day completed.

Below is our group pic and our club member Dan.

Our next Finishing texturing and colouring courses areon the 17th and 18th of September.
If you want to be booked in let me know as places are disappearing fast.
For more info click on link Click here

Weed pots for our Finishing texturing & colouring coarses.

I have had to turn some Weed pots ready for when Mark Raby and I do our Finishing texturing & colouring courses the first of which is in two weeks time.
These are turned down and the spigot left on but not sanded.As I had quite a few to do I thought it would be an ideal opportunity for our Secretary Sue to practise her tooling and here is the result.
If anybody is interested there is one place left on the Sunday 26Th of this month.

To enlarge pic click on it.

Sharpening tools

Last night I had three members of our club around as they were all having problems sharpening their tools.
When I saw the state of their tools I was amazed just how bad they where.
It took three hours to profile and sharpen their tools, it is no wonder they have problems with their turning.
The thing that surprised me most that one of the tools a 3/8" bowl gouge was brand new and strait from the manufacturer.
The grind on this tool was very much like you would expect on a spindle roughing gouge strait across.I  have just had a word with the supplier who said this is what is called a traditional grind and that it is up to the turner to create his own grind.I think this is a bit of a cop out and I am waiting to see what the manufacturer 's response is.
I have been turning now for seven years and have never seen anybody that knows anything about tool profiles use anything other than a fingernail grind or long grind on a bowl gouge.
I think this highlights a real problem with novice turners that they are not getting the absolute basics right as for instance sharpening.If you are not sure that your tools are profiled and sharpened properly either go and see a pro turner and have a bit of tuition or seek out someone from your club who turns out very high quality work and ask him or her to check out you tools.
Don't assume that because somebody has been doing it a long time that they know what they are doing because they might just have just been doing it badly for a long time.But the chances are that if someone is turning out consistently good work they will know what they are talking about.

Pictures and items of interest.

If this Blog is going to work I will need plenty of pics and any woodturning item of interest  any pics of members their work themselves or their workshops.
All pics have to be good quality don't worry about re-sizing I will do that.
If you have any items that you think might be useful to other woodturners that you want to sell send me info to include pics description and price.
Please leave comments then i will know that you are taking an interest

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 It would seem that a lot of visitors to Blogs are having problems leaving comments.
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Google, Google account to sign up
Then when you have typed in your comment.
Click the Post comment it will then ask you to choose a profile
Click on the drop down box then click Google and your comment will be sent to me  for approval.
This is to stop spam and abusive comments being printed.
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I have now added a facility at the bottom of the page to enable you to follow this Blog.
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New Blog

George Foweraker.Chairman.
This Blog has been created to make it easy for me to keep you all up to date with info reports and whats happening in our club.
Our Website was kindly built for us at no cost by our Life member Mark Sanger who will still do any updates that are needed.
However I have felt on occasions that there are things I would like to report on but felt that I would be imposing on Marks kindness.Mark has always assured me that it is no trouble to him but this does give us the opportunity to make our site more lively and interesting.
If any member has something interesting to say or any pics to show here is the place we will be able to do it.