General News Archives - Page 27 of 34 - Highland Woodturners Club (Scottish Charity SC053651)

11/05/202011/05/2020

Platters virtual meeting 14-05-2020

This Thursday 14th May 2020 would have been our meeting where platters were on the programme, it was to be organised by Peter Lawrence, however this meeting will now be done virtually over the internet and not at the clubhouse, to take part you need to make a platter or two, then photograph it or them and send the pictures to me along with some information, such as , type of wood used, size of item made and anything that may be of interest to the rest of the members. The platter can be made from any wood in any size and even laminated or decorated if you prefer. Below are some examples of platters that I have made over the years.

This platter was made from a piece of Wych Elm and measured 325 mm in diameter by 50 mm deep, Wych Elm is quite easy to recognize as it has these pale green streaks throughout the wood.

This large platter was made from Spalted Lime and measured 400 mm in diameter by 60 mm deep. The spalting turned this rather plain looking wood into something much more interesting, almost landscape like in appearance.

This platter although quite a bit smaller than the others was made from a piece of Native Cherry, the grain structure was so nice that I kept the design to an absolute minimum, it measured 250 mm in diameter by only 30 mm deep.

You are more than welcome to use any of my designs as an example for your platter but what we really want to see is for you to come up with your own design.

All pictures and text to arrive by Thursday 14th May 2020 and should be sent to me by email at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

I have one more piece of information to pass on to you all, after the Prime Minister’s address on TV tonight nothing much in Scotland has changed, we are still under lockdown, our first minister has only relaxed the amount of exercise you can do, we are still all expected to stay home. As the lockdown situation changes we will be advising you of what we are doing to comply with the government regulations in regards re-opening the club. To that end we have already formed a sub committee, a task force to look into how we can open safely again, I am chairing the task force with Geoff Potter recording all meetings as secretary, John Ruickbie dealing with all safety matters as our safety rep, Nick Simpson dealing with all matters medical and Peter Lawrence representing the membership. As soon as we know anything you will be informed.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed and do try to stay safe.

09/05/202009/05/2020

Members pictures 08-05-2020

Just in today a picture from John Ruickbie, John’s usual work is mainly woodturning and that often consists of mainly laminated work pieces, however John admitted to me today that due to the lockdown he was running out of suitable woods for woodturning, this has led him down a different road where he has made use of a lot of very small pieces of wood in a wood craft called Intarsia, for those who are not familiar with Intarsia it’s very similar to that of Marquetry the main difference is that the Intarsia is cut 3 dimensional, where as the Marquetry are all cut very thin and all the same thickness. This is an art that requires a very good knowledge of shape and form and most of all very accurate cutting,

This is what John had to say about his picture,

I have attached a photo of my first attempt at intarsia they are fridge magnets and as you see use very little wood but require very accurate cutting. Some parts are natural wood others are coloured using spirit stain. They are assembled on a thin backing board with rare earth magnets inserted.

Regards John Ruickbie.

These are John’s Intarsia fridge magnets.

These are not woodturning in any way, but we are a woodworking club that specialises in woodturning but not to the exclusion of any other type of woodworking. We are always going to be accommodating to any other type of woodwork that any of you who follow the web site and facebook pages want to show, this will include anyone who is not a member but who follows the online service.

Please keep sending me your pictures and text, I’m sure the members are always looking to see what other members are doing.

Remember the clubhouse remains closed.

05/05/202005/05/2020

Servicing the Super Nova Chuck 04-05-2020

As most of you will be aware some servicing of some of the club equipment has been carried out whilst under lockdown. This is being done by Nick Simpson who brought all the bits of equipment back to his own workshop to do the servicing. Here is his report on the 2nd of the chucks he has serviced, a Super Nova 2 chuck.

Nick’s News – Week 3

Servicing HWC Chucks – #2. Supernova 2

The SuperNova 2 is similar in design to the earlier Nova G2 but has a backplate which keeps the insides relatively free from dust and uses a rack and pinion drive for the scroll. It is important to clean the chuck regularly and re-lubricate. This is a simple process, which is illustrated in the accompanying photographs (SN.1-5). Details of cleaning and re-assembly are shown in the photos G2.D and F from my previous article posted by Alec on 25^th April.

Picture SN.1 shows the rear view of the chuck when removed from the lathe. The backplate is seen in situ and is held in place by a circlip (SN. 2). The next step is to remove the circlip (SN.3). It is advisable to wear eye protection as the circlip is made of sprung steel and can ping off the pliers unpredictably. The back plate should fall out when the chuck is turned over. If it is reluctant to separate there are 2 slots which can be accessed by 2 small slotted screwdrivers and the plate can be levered off. The 2 pinions should now be exposed and withdrawn from the housing to expose the back of the scroll (SN.5). The scroll can now be removed by inverting the chuck. Having removed the scroll, the jaw the jaw carriers may be slid out of their corresponding slots in the chuck housing. Each carrier is stamped with a numbers 1-4. For the SuperNova 2 chuck there is no need to record which slot the individual carrier came from. Now, in a well-ventilated area with nitrile gloves and eye protection, brush off all surfaces with a brass wire brush and then steep the parts in a de-greasing solvent (see G2. D in my previous report). I used paraffin but any solvent will do. Dry the parts on paper towel and leave to fully dry or to speed the process blow with compressed air using the above PPE.

Reassembly is the reverse process with certain caveats. Spray each part with lubricant prior to assembly. My preferred lubricant is PTFE spray, because it is a ‘dry’ lubricant, but any fine oil will do. Do NOT use grease of any grade. With the chuck on its back insert jaw carrier labelled 1 into any slot. Now insert all the other carriers in order 2-4 into slots in a clockwise sequence. Bring the carriers together so that their inner edges form a square and turn the whole over (G2. F of previous). You can now drop the lubricated scroll onto the jaws and with a little ‘jiggling’ it will engage with the carriers. Now replace the lubricated pinions and engage them with the teeth of the rack, replace the backplate locating the recesses over the appropriate pinion and refit the circlip and the job is complete. JOB DONE.

Read the text and then use the corresponding numbered picture to understand what Nick has done.

You may have to look at the post on the G2 chuck servicing to follow the full procedure.

Nick is now working on the Patriot chuck, details of which will follow shortly. In the meantime I would like to thank Nick on behalf of the club members for all his good work on the servicing.

26/04/202027/04/2020

Showtime virtual meeting 30-04-2020

The showtime meeting scheduled for the 30th April 2020 has now become a virtual meeting, (it will not take place at the clubhouse) we will be treating this meeting on line. We need you all to send in your pictures and some text on the items you would have brought to the showtime meeting, you can send in more than one picture, in fact more the merrier. We had a reasonably good response to the last virtual meeting on Natural edged turnings, we had 44 pictures for that meeting, I want to see at least this amount, preferably more for this virtual meeting, remember it can be of anything you have made turned or otherwise, we are looking for a very good response so please send me your pictures along with a bit of information on each item.

Here are some of the items you brought in for the showtime meeting on 15-02-2018.

These are some of the items you brought in for the showtime meeting on 21-06-2018

Here are some of the item you brought in for our last showtime meeting on 05-09-2019

Get busy in your workshops and produce as many items that you can. we want to see lots of entries.

Send your pictures and text to me by email to a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

All entries to be received by Thursday 30th April 2020, and thank you for taking part.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

24/04/202026/04/2020

Project for you all to make a wooden mushroom. 23-04-2020

Here is a little project for you all to have a go at, make a wooden mushroom, you don’t need a lot of timber for this project any bit of branch wood will do, even something out of your garden, don’t worry if it ‘s not quite dry or what shape it is, just use what you can. I have put together some pictures with a little text to guide you through the making of a wooden mushroom, I hope it will be helpful to some of you. The mushroom I have made did not require a lot of tools, a thin parting tool along with a couple of spindle gouges, the lathe chuck did have 2 sets of jaws, the standard dovetail jaws and a set of pin jaws, it also used a forstner drill bit and a morse taper drill chuck for the tailstock end.

Using a pin chuck means that you can hold the mushroom by this method to firstly remove the pip at the head of the mushroom without it causing any difficulties this would include the final sanding, sealing and polishing, and secondly there is no need to part the mushroom off when finished, just release the jaws and the mushroom comes off finished.

If you don’t have a pin chuck, a screw chuck will also do the same job, as indeed will a hot melt glue chucking system, I have the details of a mushroom made using the hot melt glue method on my web site along with a much more detailed account of how it’s made.

http://www.howtodowoodturning.com/mushrooms

Let me see any that you make. please send me the pictures.

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

17/04/202017/04/2020

Report on our virtual meeting 16-04-2020 working with natural edges.

As you are all aware our normal meeting would have been tonight 16th April 2020, as this did not happen we asked you to make this a virtual meeting, treating the meeting as if it had happened. The subject of the meeting was working with natural edges or inclusions and we asked you to make something along those lines and have it finished for the 16th April, we then asked you to send some pictures of what you had made for inclusion on our web site. I am very pleased to report that 10 members have done exactly what we wanted you to do and sent a total of 44 pictures along with some text, the best way to show all these is with a picture gallery, the text I will deal with separately, I will give the name of the member followed by a number system to identify whose pictures belong to whom, these will all be listed here and the pictures will follow.

Pictures 1 to 6 are from Alan Ross. Thanks for giving us something to target our efforts on.
Find attached photos of live edge bowl I have had a go at making.
dia- 150mm x 80mm high.
Made from a birch log with three branches on it.
Finished with sanding sealer and sanded to 400 grit. Three coats of melamine lacquer, buffed with ‘cut and paste’ then polished with Wood wax 22
Alan Ross (Nairn) .

Pictures 7 to 11 are from Dave Hutcheson.

Hope you are all well and staying safe. Here’s a hollow form I made today.This unusual blank came straight out of the firewood pile so required a wee bit of thinking as how to approach it. It’s a natural edged hollow form in burr elm and it’s finished with Liberon finishing oil. It measures 130mm wide by 95mm high. The branch inclusion only became apparent once turning was underway but I think it adds to the overall effect.

Cheers Dave Hutcheson

Pictures 12 to 14 are from Dave Line.

Please find attached Pictures of a couple of natural edge bowls as requested by Geoff.The 1st I made today is cross grain, it’s 150mm Dia by 90mm high. I don’t know what kind of wood it is. I picked it up a couple of years ago when I came across someone chopping a tree down in his garden.The second 2 are pictures of end grain turning I made a while back, again I don’t know what wood it is, I got it from you about a year ago. It is about 200mm high by about 140mm Dia.

Regards Dave Line.

Pictures 15 to 19 are from David Hobson.

The Bowl is made from Cherry

Finished with sanding sealer ,Yorkshire Grit and Liberon liquid wax

Size 230. X200 x 80.

David Hobson

Pictures 20 to 24 are from Errol Levings.

Hope the attached will be of interest.
As you can see, a very spalted piece of silver birch crotch of too small an angle between branches, so bark is included very deeply into the vase. Quite punky and difficult to avoid the soft bits breaking out – lots of sanding sealer and CA glue to harden them. Did not dare to make either a spigot or tenon, so sized bottom to fit direct into 965 mm chuck. Angle of bottom could have been slightly better to avoid marking by the chuck, despite several layers of masking tape to cushion the re-chuck. Also there had been some movement of the wood so no longer fully concentric.

Thank goodness we all live in our wide open environment and have our workshops as part of our “home.”
Kind regards
Errol Levings.

Pictures 25 & 26 are from Geoff Potter.

Here’s my submission of a natural edge bowl.
The small bowl is made from wood which I won in the Club’s fortnightly raffle and it is Laburnum I believe. The bowl was finished with a 400 grit abrasive, sanding seal and a melomine finish – inside and out. The bowl measures 15 by 7 cm.
Laburnum wood is highly coloured, retains its bark well and seems to produce a very glossy smooth finish.

Geoff Potter

Pictures 27 to 30 are from Hamish Stuart.

Hope you are all well and staying safe. Had a wee play this afternoon don’t know if it’s any good to you but thought I would send it anyway. Finished with melamine

Hamish Stuart.

Pictures 31 to 34 are from John Ruickbie.

I decided to make a natural edge clock for this occasion and wanted to change from the usual form. I used the first slice from a log the outer one with the bark on it. The circumference is important if it is too small the clock face resess will be too deep as in the first one I tried which was made of elm. The second attempt was made with sycamore and has a much shallower face. I also used a lighter base which improved the overall effect. I have included both pictures.

John Ruickbie.

Pictures 35 & 36 are from Nick Simpson.

Here are 2 natural edge pieces now that my workshop is up and running.The first is one of my own sycamore trees from Northumberland. It is a section of sound wood from a rotted-back section of branch at the trunk. It measures 8” by 4”. The damaged edges have been textured by burr and then scorched and wire-brushed. Finish was by sanding sealer (after scorching!) and Renaissance wax.

The vase is from a Yew branch in which the natural edge section was simply the irregularity characteristic of yew but the bark couldn’t be retained.. It is hollowed to 8mm but heavier at the base and stands 6” tall. Finished with 10-400 mirca, sanding sealer and Renaissance wax, which I like because it resists fingermarks.

Best wishes

Nick Simpson.

Pictures 37 to 44 are from me, Alec Mutch.

They show a natural edged bowl I made some time ago from a piece of Laburnum, it measured about 200 mm in length and just over 100 mm in height. The finish was my normal finish of Sanding sealer followed by a coat of Melamine and then buffed to a soft sheen. I like to use some weird shapes of blanks, as you will see it was made from a branch intersection.

Alec Mutch.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who took the time to make your items and more so to then send them to me for this post, we will be repeating this process for every meeting we have to miss due to this Virus, the next meeting would be on the 30th April 2020 and that will also be a Virtual meeting, the programme for that meeting is a Showtime meeting, it would normally be handled by myself. You can start to think of what you might make for this meeting, just imagine you will be there and send me the pictures of what you would have taken along for the members to see, remember there is no actual criteria for this meeting, just make whatever you like and send me the pictures and the text of course, pictures for this to be in by the 29th April. This should not stop you sending me any other pictures to upload between now and then, so keep sending me your pictures.

Remember the club house is still closed, you will be notified when we will re-start our meetings again, but in the meantime I hope you all stay safe from this deadly virus.

08/04/202008/04/2020

Virtual Woodturning Meeting.

All HWC members should have received an email from Geoff informing you how a virtual meeting would work. We were due to have a meeting on the 16th April 2020, (this will not be happening) instead we would like you all to use our programme for that date to make something in accordance with that programme, the subject matter for the programme was Natural Edged Turnings, it was being organized by Geoff Potter and he did have 5 turners arranged to man all the lathes. However we would like you all to make something with Natural edges in line with the programme, I have included a few pictures of the type of thing you might consider making, once you have made your item take a picture of it (can be more than one picture) and send it or them to me, include some text giving me the size, the species of wood or woods and any other interesting information you think relevant. I will then do a post on all the pictures sent to me, as the meeting was due to be held on the 16th April, I would like to have all your pictures and text sent to me by the 15th April and I will upload them on the 16th April just as if we were at a meeting.

We intend to use the club programme in this way until we get back to having our normal meetings, if you want to see the full programme for 2020, click on “meetings” on our web site.

Here are some examples of the type of thing you might consider making.

These are all turnings I have done in the past. 2 were done in end grain, 2 made from full logs, and one made from a half log.

Natural edged turnings can also be made on items between centres, here are 3 examples.

A selection of small bowls made with natural edges intact.

I hope some of these pictures will give you ideas of what can be done using Natural Edges. We are not limiting the entries to just our members, we would like to see any entries from turners outwith our club and those who follow our web site and facebook page.

Half Log Natural Edged Bowl.

If you need any information on how to make a natural edged bowl click on this link.

We are looking for lots of entries. In the mean time you need to keep sending me your pictures of anything you have been making, don’t just wait for the Virtual meeting keep sending your pictures now.

Send your pictures and text to me at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

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.

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.