March 2020 - Highland Woodturners Club (Scottish Charity SC053651)

31/03/202031/03/2020

HWC members pictures 31-03-2020

Here are the latest entries for the show and tell pictures, today I received pictures from David Hutcheson and Mike Day along with a little text from both.

These pictures were submitted by David Hutcheson.

These too were from David Hutcheson, he did include some text, this is what he had to say about his entry.
The overall size is 100mm x 50mm with the Sycamore bottom being 55mm and the burr elm top being 50mm so 5mm being incorporated in the join if that makes sense. Both bits were finished using a jam chuck made from the scrap Sycamore and its all finished with @ubeaut_polishes shellawax which is basically a friction polish. The elm was rescued from Dad’s firewood basket of which I have two more rescued bits.
Cheers Dave

These pictures were submitted by Mike day. The wood is Sappelle and yes a type of Mahogany from the philippines.

These 2 pictures were also submitted by Mike Day. He did include some text, this is what he had to say about his submission.
Pictures 1,2 and 3 are of my first attempt at a square bowl which I made yesterday. I have another identical blank so I might make another. Both blanks were given to me by my brother-in-law. Neither of us know what the wood is, but perhaps Mahogany. The resultant square bowl is 8″ x 2″.

Pictures 4 and 5 are of a 6.5″ x 3″ Spalted Sycamore bowl. Our neighbours had a Sycamore cut down many years ago and left the logs lying under some trees. They offered the logs to me and of course I snapped them up. The first two bowls I made went to them as a thank you.

Both bowls were sanded to 600 grit, followed by some Yorkshire
Grit and finished with one coat of Friction Polish.

All the best,
Mike

Our thanks go out to both Dave and Mike for their submissions, please keep them coming.

Do Remember the club house is closed and the meetings suspended for the time being.

30/03/202030/03/2020

HWC members pictures 30-03-2020

Hi Everyone, here are the first two lots of pictures I received from our members for publication on our web site. The first pictures came from Dave Line, and the next lot of pictures came from Geoff Potter.

These 2 lamps were made by Dave Line and this is what he had to say about them.
Now that I am the proud owner of a long hole borer, here are a couple of lamps I made last week.
The 1st (on the left) is 380 mm tall with a base of 175 mm in diameter. It is made out of an old table leg I found at the tip, I think it is laminated Pine.
The 2nd (on the right) is 250 mm tall with a base of 130 mm in diameter.
The main body and base are Ash with sycamore inlay, I burnt a couple of rings just to finish it off.

This entry came from Geoff Potter, 1,2 and 3 of 5.

Also from Geoff Potter 4 & 5. This is what Geoff had to say about his pictures,

Photo 1    Showing a similar log ( both from the firewood pile ). I think it is Scots Pine. Maybe I’m wrong?

Photo 2    The finished bowl 15cm by 7cm high. I like my bark edge to be wide – so that it shows off the bark. I had to use some superglue to stabilise some of the bark but not much. The outside of the bowl and the bark edge is finished in Melomine, the inside is finished with ‘food safe oil’ so that it is just ready for the salted peanuts to be delivered by Tesco’s next week. The Melomine was put onto the bowl with a cloth and buffed to a shine following the scraper, sanding sealer and 80 (tut tut …some small amount ) then 180/240/400 grit power drill abrasive disks. The bark was painted with Melomine with a brush.

Photo 3    The base. Reversed on to a jam chuck so that I could remove the spigot and apply a little decoration.

Photo 4    Problem 1. The highest side on the inside of the bowl is hard to finish. The bowl gouge is supported then unsupported as the bowl revolves so you get a vibration. At the same time the gouge is traversing the end grain. This leads to tear out and a darker patch even after a lot of sanding.

Photo 5    Problem 2. The knots in the bowl were loose and these needed to be left overnight with my cheap Pound Store superglue and pressed in fine wood shavings. I think this was reasonably successful. The reason it was left overnight is that previous superglue application looked to have set – but sprayed out when I switched the lathe on and put some spots on my glasses which will not come off. Thankfully not my eyes!

Approximately 3 hours work ie an hourly rate of £7 ?, unless I give it away! Any criticisms, hints or tips gratefully received from anyone.

Geoff Potter

Our thanks go out to both Dave and Geoff for sharing their work with us, please keep the pictures and their story coming.

28/03/202028/03/2020

HWC members pictures, 28-03-2020

During this lock down period I felt we needed to take advantage of the situation to stay in touch with each other by posting some pictures of what we have been doing whether it’s working on the lathe or anything else. I have done the first post showing some of the things I have been making since the lock down. You will all be receiving an email from Geoff outlining what this is about and what we would like you to do, we would like as many of you to take part as possible but there is no obligation to do so, you can if you wish just get onto the club web site and observe what others have been doing. This first post of my work should give you an idea what any picture and text you provide would look like.

To take part you would need to photograph what you are doing or making and send that to me along with some text giving me the dimensions, the type of wood if known and any other useful piece of information by email, attaching any pictures, you can use my own email address to do this if you feel uncomfortable doing it through the web site contact.

My email address is, a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com.

A spalted Beech bowl made by Alec Mutch, the bowl measured 190 mm in diameter by 90 mm high, some of the white areas were quite soft and required some fairy liquid being applied to achieve a good finish, the final finish was sanding sealer followed by a coat of Melamine.

A natural edged bowl made by Alec Mutch, the wood is spalted Beech made from a half log. The dimensions are 235 mm long by 175 mm wide and an overall height of 100 mm. The finish was sanding sealer followed by a coat of Melamine and buffed to a soft sheen.

A small shallow bowl made by Alec Mutch, made to hold your house keys. It was made from Beech with a decorated rim coloured with a felt tip pen, the engraving was done with the use of a laser.

Now it’s your turn to send me some pictures of your most recent work and I will post them here for others to see.

Do remember the club house is still closed and the meetings suspended for the time being, you will be notified when the club meetings will start again.

14/03/202014/03/2020

Clubhouse temporary closure.

Important notice to all HWC members.
Precautions against Coronavirus.

In light of the Scottish Parliament taking the decision to close all outside gathering of more than 500 people and all inside gatherings of more than 100 people we the committee for HWC have taken the decision to suspend all our meetings in the foreseeable future.

The reasoning for this is that our building does not allow for reasonable separation of the individual, the ventilation is poor and our members are mostly of a certain age. Although our numbers are less than 100 we are in a confined space with everyone breathing the same air.

The length of time the closure will apply will be open ended, but I would anticipate there being no meetings before the end of April and could be longer, a review of the situation will take place mid to late April.

Any new information will be posted on our web site and Facebook page.

Anyone with any questions or concerns can contact me or Geoff through the web site email contact.

Regards to everyone,

Alec Mutch, Chairman, this notice issued on behalf of the committee for HWC.

Updated 14th March 2020.

If you have made an item for the competition that was due to happen on Thursday 19th March, hold onto it, we will be holding that competition as our first meeting after the crisis has passed.

In the meantime our meetings have been suspended and the clubhouse is closed.

This applies to all meetings, committee meetings and training meetings.

09/03/202009/03/2020

Report on our meeting on 5th March 2020 making wooden goblets.

Our meeting on the 5th March 2020 was all about making wooden goblets. The meeting was organized by David Hutcheson and David had arranged for 4 more turners to man all the lathes, they would all be making goblets but not all the same design nor would their method of approach to making a goblet be the same. The turnout of members for this meeting was excellent and the 5 turners kept those observing occupied and fully involved with what they were all doing. The evening went very well and we hope those observing found it interesting and informative. The following gallery of pictures along with a little text should give you a flavour of just how the evening went, the pictures for this meeting were taken by Uisdean MacBeth.

We hope you enjoyed looking through all the pictures and taken on board some of the work practices that the turners employed.

Our next meeting is on the 19th March and it’s competition time once again, it’s being organized by David Hutcheson and it’s all about making wooden boxes, there will be 3 categories as usual, details to follow.