Category: Meetings

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

Here we have David Hutcheson as he makes a start on his goblet.
David is using a roughing gouge to bring his blank into a cylinder.
Here we see David hollowing out the inside of his goblet.
The hollowing our complete, David would now sand the inside.
You will see David has put a tennis ball into the open end of his goblet, this gives him somewhere to put the tailstock.
With the tailstock secured, David is now forming the outside of the cup.
The cup shape now taking on the shape David is looking for.
David continued to work the stem.
The goblet almost complete, David has now started his finishing process.
A final polish and the goblet is ready to be parted off from the lathe.
Here we have Dave Line as he makes his first cuts on his goblet blank.
Dave's now hollowing out the inside cup.
With the inside complete, Dave would now sand the inside of the cup.
Here we can see Dave starting to form the head of his goblet.
Dave did try to offset his goblet, but for safety reasons had to stop.
Dave re-positioned the goblet and continued with a standard stem.
The goblet almost complete, ready for the final finishing.
Here is Dave's finished goblet.
Here we have Errol Levings as he makes his blank secure in the chuck.
With his blank now turned into a cylinder, it was now time to start the hollow.
Here we can see Errol making the first cuts on the inside of his goblet cup.
Errol used a variety of tools, here we can see he is using a ring tool.
Another tool in use, this time it's a round nose scraper.
With the inside of the cup complete, Errol went on to sand the inside of the cup.

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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.

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This week’s meeting, 5th March 2020 making wooden Goblets.

Our meeting this week is all about making wooden goblets, this meeting has been organized by David Hutcheson, he has arranged for 4 more turners and himself to man all the lathes. The turners will be David Hutcheson, Errol Levings, Mike Day, Dave Line and Nick Simpson. I’m sure we will be seeing some variations on what type of goblet each of the turners will be working on and we hope you will find the programme interesting and informative. Do remember that you can ask any of the turners a question if you are unsure of exactly what any of them are doing.

Here is one of my own goblets made some years ago, made from Sycamore with a bark inclusion.
Here is another of my own goblets, this one is made from Sweet Chestnut and as you see has 2 captive rings on it, I wonder if we might see something along any of these lines at the meeting.

We hope to have a good turnout as usual and for you to give all the turners the support and encouragement they deserve.

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Report on our meeting 20th February 2020, bandsaw safety and use.

Our club meeting on the 20th February 2020 was all about the use of a bandsaw, it was organized and carried out by John Ruickbie. John firstly discussed the setting up of the bandsaw, this covered things like the setting of the guide bearings for the blade, the height of the blade guard and the tension in the blade, all these things were discussed with the power source being isolated, I.E. the machine was not plugged in. John stressed the importance of having the machine isolated whilst any of the setting up or maintenance was being carried out. He also went on to discuss that the correct type of blade should be used for the purpose intended, and drew attention to the blade chart posted near the bandsaw that gave the correct blade type and size for both straight and curved cuts, this chart is now also on our web site. John went on to demonstrate using the bandsaw, making use of some home made aids like push sticks, he also showed another useful aid for use with the bandsaw, a parallel clamp that he had made, this clamp is particularly useful when cutting very small pieces of wood that are used in polychromatic assemblies. John then said he would make one of these clamps but due to the restrictions of time he had done some of the work at home, leaving the remainder to be done at the club, the clamp had some specialised tools required to make the clamp and he was to demonstrate their use, this involved a threading system. John went on to make the final pieces required to make the clamp, assembling the finished clamp and showing it to the very attentive crowd.

The turnout of members for this meeting was the highest I had ever seen at any meeting in all my time attending the club meetings, so much so that we ran out of chairs, reducing quite a few members to standing room only, for this the club apologizes. The following gallery of pictures with a little text should give you a flavour of just how the meeting went, pictures by Alec Mutch.

Here we have John Ruickbie making his opening remarks on his demonstration.
John was to demonstrate how to set up a bandsaw safely, the first job was to unplug it from any power source.
After discussing the set up and the blade types, John went on to cut some example pieces.
John used a few aids whilst cutting, in the foreground you will see a push stick.
Here John is putting the push stick to use with his left hand and used an additional piece of wood in his right hand to hold the wood against the fence.
This was an example of some of John's work, made up from lots of small pieces, he went on to say he used a parallel clamp when cutting some of the really small pieces.
This is the type of clamp John referred to, it's home made and John was to show one being made.
The parallel clamp required some specialised tools, one of which is the tool he is showing, it's a threading tool.
Before going on to make the clamp, John did do a short demonstration on it's use, here cutting very small pieces that you would not want to be holding with your fingers.
Here John is showing one of the main components, a threaded part that he was now going to demonstrate how it was made.
He started with a length of squared Beech and turned it into a cylinder, the speed was about 1200 rpm initially going up to about 1500 rpm .
Here John is marking out the position of the handle.
For the threaded part John used a set of calipers to get the right diameter for making the threads.
John made a series of depth cuts in order to get an even thickness on the part to be threaded.
Once the depth cuts were completed John used a gouge to bring the remaining parts down to the same thickness.
Now John is working on the last area to be brought down to the threading thickness.
John did a final clean up along the threading area, then made some decorative cuts on the handle with a beading tool.
The last part to be done before the threading was to round over the end of the rod, this would assist the start of the thread.
The turning complete John applied some lubricant on the threading part.
Here John can be seen starting the thread with the use of a hand held threading box.
The threads now approaching half way, the box is turned by hand whilst the lathe spindle is locked off.
The threading complete.
A short piece of the thread on the end of the threaded rod needed to be removed, approx, 12 mm.
John assembled the clamp and bandsawed the ends to finished clamp.

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If you would like to make one of these clamps, there is a post on our web site with a sketch of the clamp giving all it’s dimensions, the use of a threading tap and box is required, it might be possible to borrow these from John or myself if you want to make one.

The chart with all the blade sizes and their use is also on our web site should you wish to print off a copy.

Our next meeting is on the 5th March, it’s being organized by David Hutcheson and it’s all about making goblets.

We hope you all enjoyed John’s presentation and found it both interesting and informative, and we thank you all for your attendance.

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Parallel clamp plan

Here’s a plan of John’s parallel clamp from his build last night. I’ve increased the contrast a bit from the pencil drawing to make it clearer.

Parallel Clamp Plan

If you’d like to order one, this is the link to Axminster Tools. They also sell then through Amazon, but want £2.95 for delivery – order through Axminster and it’s free for over £30.

Axminster wood tap set

There are a number of pre-made clamps available on Amazon (Axminster don’t appear to sell them), although these have metal threads:

Amazon hand clamp search listings

If you do make one of these, please take a photo and we can upload it to the site.

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This week’s meeting Thursday 20th February, safe use of a bandsaw.

Our meeting this week, Thursday 20th February 2020 is going to be how to use a bandsaw safely, John Ruickbie will be demonstrating how to set a bandsaw up, how to put it to best use, the use of some safety aids and how to recognize when a blade needs changing. John will also be making a tool on the lathe that’s also used with the bandsaw.

This is one of my own bandsaws, it’s used with a wide blade of 30mm and 4TPI , I find this saw most useful for cutting large depths or for straight cutting. It has a cutting depth of 305mm.
This is my 2nd bandsaw, it has a cutting depth of 180mm maximum, the blade size is 10mm wide with 4TPI and used almost exclusively for cutting discs.

The club bandsaw will be used for John’s demonstration and we hope you find the information helpful and informative.

The dates and programme for the whole year to December 2020 are now on the club web site, just go to the site and click on “meetings” there is no requirement to log on first, this information is available to anyone.

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Report from our AGM on the 6th February 2020.

Our AGM (Annual General Meeting) took place on Thursday 6th February 2020, there was a good turnout for the meeting, the purpose of an AGM is to communicate what has happened over the past year and to discuss with the members anything they wish to raise. Reports were given by the Chairman, the Secretary and the Treasurer. This meeting also deals with who is on the committee, ratifying those committee members wishing to stay on the committee along with proposing any new members onto the committee, for a complete list of all the office bearers log on to our web site for all the positions and who filled them. Suffice to say 10 of the existing committee members remained on the committee for another year, we did have 2 resignations and they have been replaced with 2 new members onto the committee. The minutes of the meeting are now available in the members section of our web site, log on using the username and password.

Here are some of our members as they take their seats prior to the meeting starting.

Our next club meeting is on the 20th February 2020 and it will be managed by John Ruickbie, John is going to give a tutorial on the use of a bandsaw and also make a tool on the lathe for use with a bandsaw. We will also have a committee meeting that evening, the first of the new year and will include the new members on the committee, start time for the committee meeting, 5.30pm, start time for the main meeting 6.45pm, hope to see you all there.