Author: Alec Mutch

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Report on our meeting 14th November 2019, main theme turned clocks.

Our meeting this week on the 14th November was mainly about making turned clocks, the meeting was arranged by Cliff Sim and he had 5 turners working the lathes. For the clock making he had John Ruickbie, Dave Line and himself, two other turners were making different things, Nick Simpson was making a small lidded box and Errol Levings was demonstrating the methods used to make oval turnings, with no overall finished product in mind. The turnout was good and according to the reports I received the meeting went very well.The pictures in the gallery below were all taken by Mike Day, these should give you a flavour of how the meeting went.

Here we have Cliff Sim setting up to start his clock. Cliff was to make a skeleton clock.
Here Cliff can be seen working the back of his clock.
Cliff now making the recess to fit the clock into.
Here Cliff is working the edge of his clock, some slight decoration could be used here.
Here Cliff can be seen sanding the face and edge of his clock.
Cliff ran out of time on his project but did have an example of one he had made earlier.
Here we have Dave Line as he is setting up to start his clock. He too would be making a skeleton clock.
Dave started by working the face of the clock first.
Here the face is almost complete, Dave is now making the recess for the clock movement.
In this picture Dave can be seen working the stand for his clock.
Having finished the face Dave mounted the surround on the bowl jaws to work the back.
Here Dave can be seen polishing the back of his clock.
Here is Dave's finished clock.
Here we have John Ruickbie as he sets up to start his turned clock. John was to make a clock using a chapter ring.
Here John has made the recess for the clock movement, now drilling the hole for the clock spindle.
Here John is working the face of his clock.
Here John can be seen making the slight recess for the chapter ring.
Here John can be seen trial fitting the chapter ring, these rings are self adhesive.
Here John is sanding all the surfaces on the face of his clock.
John uses a small saddle for the base of his clock , here he can be seen explaining how it works.
Here is John's finished clock. All fully assembles after sealing and polishing.
Here we have Nick Simpson, a new member to our club. Nick was to make a small lidded box.
Here Nick can be seen working the outside of the box.
The inside of his box now well underway.

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If you wish to see a larger picture of any in the gallery, just click the picture, this will give you a more detailed picture along with a little text. Our next meeting on the 28th November is again being organised by Cliff Sim, he has arranged for 5 turners to make lamp bases.

Remember that the Christmas raffles are on sale and we are still accepting donations of prizes and also items for the Fortrose craft fair organised by David Hobson.

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This week’s meeting, 14th November 2019

This week’s meeting on the 14th November 2019 is all about making clocks, it has been organised by Cliff Sim. Cliff has arranged for 3 turners to be working the lathes, those are Bill Munro, Dave Line and himself. They will all have their own method for making a clock and should all be different in the type of clock being made. We are looking for a good turnout as usual and do remember that the Christmas raffles are on sale, we are still looking for prizes to be donated, anything at all accepted. David Hobson is going to do a craft fair on behalf of the club nearer to Christmas, he is looking for items to sell that you the members have made, take anything you wish to donate to David at the next 2 meetings, all proceeds will go towards club funds.

Here is a clock I made some time ago, it could be something along this line that one of the turners will make.
Here is another example of a clock, this one used a miniature clock insert of only 37mm in diameter.
This is a skeleton clock, one of the most popular clocks to be made by any turner, I know that Dave Line will be demonstrating how this type of clock is made.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to attend the meeting this week, there are road works on the A835 at Garve that is closing the road between the hours of 7pm and 7am and as I live on the other side of the road works I would not be able to get home without a very long detour. However I hope you all have a good meeting and enjoy the clock making.

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Report on our meeting on 31st October 2019, working with natural edges.

Our meeting on the 31st October was arranged by Cliff Sim and our theme was working with natural edged. Cliff had arranged for 4 turners to work the lathes, those were, Bob Chisholm, Mike Day, Richard Comfort and myself (Alec Mutch). We were all doing something different but with the same theme that each item was to have some element of natural edges on it. The turnout for the meeting was very good. The pictures from this meeting were taken by David Hobson, and should give you a flavour of how the meeting went.

Here we have Bob Chisholm starting work on a Laburnum natural edged bowl.
Here we have Mike Day as he starts to make wooden mushrooms.
This is Richard Comfort's elm blank mounted ready to start.
Another view of Richard's elm blank, he is making this into a clock surround.
This is myself (Alec Mutch) starting on a wet turning in cherry.
Mike Day making progress on his mushroom.
My blank now with the inside almost complete, I am making a thin wall bowl.
Here is Bob Chisholm taking the inside out of his Laburnum bowl.
The final cuts on the inside , note the thread like shavings you get with wet wood.
Here is Richard working on the chuck recess for his bowl.
The inside now complete, no need to sand as the wood needs to dry a little first.
Mike can be seen sanding the head of his mushroom.
The inside of Bob's bowl almost complete.
Richard has cut the recess for the clock movement.
Here I can be seen setting up a light that will go inside the bowl.
The effect of the light inside the bowl shows the wood going bright red as the walls get thinner.
Another view of the inside of Bob's bowl.
Mike now working on the stem of his mushroom.
Another view of Mike working the stem.
Here I'm finishing off the base of my wet turning, it will be left for a few weeks to dry before remounting to sand and polish.
I did another similar thin walled bowl using Leylandii.
Here Mike can be seen sanding the under side of the mushroom head.
Bob Chisholm's finished bowl.
One of Mike Day's finished mushrooms.

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If you want to see some larger pictures of this gallery just click on any picture, they are accompanied with a little text. The next meeting is on the 14th November, again being organised by Cliff Sim and this time it will be about making clocks. Don’t forget to get your Christmas raffle tickets and any donations of prizes would be most welcome.

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Report on our meeting on the 17th October 2019, making wooden platters.

Our recent meeting on the 17th October 2019 was all about making wooden platters, it was organized by Jim Kelman and he had 6 turners working the lathes, Bill Munro, Richard Comfort, Douglas stewart, David Hutcheson, Alan Smart and David Ross. Whilst all were making platters, there were differences in what they were doing. The turnout for the meeting was very good and the turners kept the audience interested. What follows is a record in pictures and text of how the evening went. The pictures for this post were taken by Mike Day, sorry for the delay in getting the post done this was due to technical problems with the pictures.

Here we have Bill Munro as he makes a start on his Oak platter.
The base of Bill's platter being sanded
The base complete.
Bill makes a start on the inside.
The turning on the inside nearly complete.
Bill is sanding the inside of his platter.
The inside sanded, Bill will apply a finish to his platter.
Here we have David Hutcheson working the outside of his Ash platter.
The shaping of David's platter well under way and the chuck recess already worked.
The outside of David's platter now sealed and polished.
The outside complete.
Here David has just started working the inside of his platter.
The turning complete, David has sanded the inside ready for the finish.
Here David is applying a coat of sanding sealer to the inside of his platter.
Here we have Douglas Stewart mounting his blank to the lathe.
Douglas has shaped the base and can be seen sanding for the finish.
With the outside complete Douglas has turned it around ready to work the inside.
Here Douglas can be seen working the inside.
Douglas applied some colour to the rim ready for the next stage.
Here Douglas has applied several different colours to the rim.
Here is Douglas's finished platter with a decorative rim.
Here we have Richard Comfort as he make ready to start his platter.
Here Richard is working the outside of his Elm platter.
The outside of Richard's platter almost complete.

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This gallery should have given you a flavour of how the evening went, if you want to see a larger picture and some text just click on any of the pictures.

Here is a view inside the club house as the meeting was in progress.
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This week’s meeting, 17th October 2019, Platters.

This week’s meeting on the 17th October 2019 is all about making wooden platters, the meeting has been organized by Jim Kelman and he has 5 turners working the lathes, one of which is a junior member who will be supervised by an experienced member. The turners are Douglas Stewart, Bill Munro, David Hutcheson, Richard Comfort and Richard’s son Liam Comfort who is our junior member and will be supervised.

I have given you a few pictures of Platters I have made in the past, we may see something along these lines being made, but whatever the turners produce will be of interest to the onlooking members.

At the start of the meeting there will be a short statement made by John Ruickbie on the matter of safety. We are looking for a good turnout as usual and hope you enjoy the evenings proceedings. Do remember we are now selling the Christmas raffles and we are also looking for donations for the raffle.

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Demonstration by Andy Walters 3rd October 2019.

Our meeting on the 3rd October 2019 was a demonstration by Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning, Andy is a professional woodturner running his business on the Black Isle. He was tasked to make a wooden Quaich, this is a drinking cup of Scottish origin used for taking whisky. The meeting was organized by Jim Kelman, The turn out was excellent.

Here we have Andy Walters, our demonstrator for the meeting. Andy did a brief summary on what he was going to do.
He was to make a Quaich, here he can be seen mounting the blank.
The first job was to true up all the working faces.
Here Andy is showing the members a template of the design of the Quaich.
Here Andy is marking out where he was going to start.
The base of the Quaich being worked first.
Here Andy is marking out where the chuck recess will go.
Cutting the chuck recess, Andy made this quite shallow and a fairly small diameter.
With the recess cut, Andy finished shaping the underside.
Here Andy can be seen sanding the underside.
He used a hand held sanding system that worked on friction, progressing through the grades of discs.
Here Andy is using a very fine sanding pad to finish off the sanding process.
Here Andy is applying a coat of sanding sealer.
After the sealer a coat of Melamine was applied, here he can be seen buffing that to a fine soft sheen.
The work piece turned around and mounted in the chuck ready to start the top and the inside.
Andy started by levelling off the face.
This cut would determine the size of the Quaich handles.
Here Andy can be seen removing material from the inside of the cup.
The inside size and shape almost complete.
Andy started to sand the inside, again using a variety of grit sizes of discs.
The top rim and the area where the handles will be being sanded by hand.
Andy sealed the work piece and applied a coat of Melamine before buffing to a soft sheen.
Here Andy can be seen marking out where the cup handles will be using a template.
Here just a hint of where the pencil marks are for the handles.

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If you want to see a larger picture and some text, just click on any picture, the featured picture at the top of the page is a view of the members as they took their seats for the demonstration. Pictures by Alec Mutch. Next meeting is on the 17th October and that will be making platters.

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This week’s meeting 3rd October, a demonstration by Andy Walters.

Our meeting this week on the 3rd October 2019 is a demonstration by Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning, this has been organized by Jim Kelman and he has arranged for Andy to make a Scottish Quaich, this is a very traditional cup made for drinking whisky. The meeting will start at the usual time of 6.45pm. We are looking for a good turnout.

This is a Quaich I made recently, it’s made from a piece of Elm, the cup part measured only 80mm x 30mm.

We are expecting Andy Walters will be making something similar, an interesting project for anyone who has not made a Quaich to see exactly how it’s done. Do remember the Christmas raffles are now on sale.

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Report from this weeks meeting 19th September 2019, pen making.

Our meeting this week on the 19th September 2019 was all about making wooden pens on the lathe. It was organized by Jim Kelman, Jim had 3 turners on the lathes, David Hobson, Bob Chisholm and Dave Line, there was also a little help given to David Hobson from David Hay and Mark Dale who used another lathe to do some assembly work on the pens. The turn out was good and the 3 turners held the attention of the members very well. The following picture gallery along with a little text should give you a flavour of how the evening went.

Here we have Bob Chisholm as he starts his pen making, Bob was using recycled oak.
One of his first pen barrels being hand sanded.
Bob is now working on a second pen barrel, this time he is using an acrylic blank.
Another of Bob's barrels, again an acrylic, this time it's golden yellow.
Here Bob can be seen using a jig for the assembly of his pens.
Here we have David Hobson sanding the barrels of his pen.
Here we can see David uses a mandrel that allows for both barrels to be mounted at the same time.
Here David is sanding a pair of Purple heart pen barrels.
Here is where David got some help, David Hay and Mark Dale assist with the assembly using only the lathe.
One of David Hobson's finished pens, this one is made from Iroko.
Here we have Dave line, as he starts his pen making, drilling the 7mm hole for the brass tube.
Dave mounted both parts on the mandrel and starts the turning process.
Here Dave Line is coating the barrels with sanding sealer.
Dave can be seen flattening the sealer with a wad of wire wool.
The 2nd barrel being sanded and sealed.
A coat of Melamine was applied and buffed to a soft sheen.
Here are 2 of Dave line's finished pens.

If you want to see a larger picture with a little text just click on any of the pictures. Pictures courtesy of Mike Day. Our next meeting on the 3rd October 2019 is a demonstration by Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning, he will be making a Scottish Quaich, we hope to see you all there.

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This week’s meeting 19th September 2019, making pens.

This week’s meeting has been organized by Jim Kelman, he has made this meeting all about making wooden pens. There will be 3 turners working the lathes doing their own style of pens, those are David Line, David Hobson and Bob Chisholm. We are looking for a good turn out as usual and hope you find something of interest from the 3 turners.

These were some examples of pens and other items that were made at a previous meeting.

Here is a reminder that the Christmas raffles are now on sale at every meeting prior to the Christmas meeting at a price of £1.50 each, there will be the usual plentiful supply of prizes.

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Report on our Showtime meeting 5th September 2019

Our Showtime meeting on the 5th September 2019 went very well, there were 10 members doing presentations and we had a good number of entries from our members, most of them had more than one item to show. The turnout was good for the members who were not doing presentations and everyone appeared to enjoy the presentations. A summary of the meeting follows in the form of a picture gallery with a little bit of text included.

First up we had John Ruickbie, he showed a small barrel made from some whiskey barrel staves.
John went on to describe exactly how he made the barrel.
Here John is showing the members part of one of the staves as he got them and described what he had to do.
This was part of the waste material that John was left with but it showed just how the barrel was constructed.
Here we have Bob Chisholm (in the pink jumper) showing one of his entries, a vase shaped candle holder.
Here we have Bob showing a small spalted bowl.
Another of Bob's entries, a splated beech bowl, I'm answering a question from the floor on this one.
Last of Bob's entries was a very nice natural edged bowl, again in spalted beech.
Here we have Douglas Stewart, Douglas made a whole wide range of wooden jewellery.
Douglas had some bangles, ear rings, pendants, rings and a ring tree.
Douglas was also into making wooden toys, here he is showing a small spinning top he had made.
Just some of Douglas's many item of turned jewellery.
Here we have Dave Line, Dave made a hollow form from a turning that he then cut and reassembled giving him the boat shape.
Dave had taken a few picture of his hollow form to show the members just how he did it.
Another of Dave's entries was a small laminated hinged box.
Here Dave and myself are showing the members the finished item and the pictures of how he did it.
Here we have Geoff Potter, Geoff made this very nice spalted beech bowl.
Another of Geoff's entries was another spalted beech bowl, here he is showing the underside and how it looked before he started.
The smaller of the 2 spalted beech bowls that Geoff made, Geoff told the members he needed a lot of sealer on the soft areas.
Another entry from Geoff was this small hollow vessel made from Cherry and Mahogany.
Geoff's finished Cherry hollow vessel.
Here we have David Hutcheson showing on of his entries, a shallow natural edged bowl in Elm.
Another Dave's entries a very nice Burr Elm bowl.
David was in the process of making a Quaich for a special occasion, here he is showing the part finished item.

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If you would like to see a larger example of any of the pictures and see a little text, just click on any of the pictures. We would like to thank all of you who put forward your entries and did the presentations, we look forward to seeing even more in the future, Pictures were courtesy of Mike Day.