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Although we have been closed for over a month now, we have still managed to get some useful work done with some of the equipment. Shortly after the lock down was announced Nick Simpson who is tasked with the maintenance brief offered to pick up all the lathe chucks and take them to his premises and do a full service on all of them. In addition to this John Ruickbie has been checking the premises regularily for security reasons.

Here is Nick Simpson’s report on the first of the chucks.

Nick’s News  – Week 2

Servicing HWC Chucks – #1. Nova G2

The Nova G2 chuck has an open back and is therefore certain to accumulate dust in all moving areas. This will lead to stiffness and potential jamming. It is important to clean the chuck regularly and re-lubricate. This is a simple process, which is illustrated in the accompanying photographs (G2. A-F).

Picture G2. A. shows the rear view of the chuck when removed from the lathe. There is a large amount of accumulated dust which partially obscures the teeth at the rear of the scroll plate which engage with the chuck key. The scroll is held in place by a circlip which must be exposed by removing the accumulated dust and debris. A simple way to do this is by compressed air jet as shown in G2. B.  PPE is essential with eye protection and a dust mask. The next step is to remove the circlip (G2.C). It is advisable to wear eye protection as the circlip is made of sprung steel and can ping off the pliers unpredictably. 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 (see picture G2.E). For the Nova G2  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 (G2. D). 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. (G2.E.). 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). You can now drop the lubricated scroll onto the jaws and with a little ‘jiggling’ it will engage with the carriers. Now replace the circlip and the job is complete.  JOB DONE.

Having now seen the pictures showing all the dust that has accumulated in the workings of the chuck, I think this servicing was long overdue, and I have to thank Nick on behalf of the whole club members for volunteering to do this work at this time. We will be looking at all the club equipment as soon as we get back to anything like normal to make sure the maintenance on all our equipment is carried out.

I will be doing a post shortly on the Showtime meeting that was due to take place on the 30th April, (that meeting will not happen, but hopefully we can have a virtual meeting). Watch this space.

Do remember the club remains closed.

I’m sure most of us are enjoying the nice weather we are having at the moment even in spite of the lockdown, that is those of us lucky enough to have a garden. I know I have been taking advantage of this fine spell to get my vegetable patch and tunnel greenhouse planted with this years seeds for the coming season. Now it’s on with cutting the grass, and I have a lot of it but the tractor mower makes light work of it. I have received some pictures and text from Nick Simpson that may just assist with your planting, it does also have an element of woodturning involved, so this post is not so much off the usual approach as may at first glance be thought, here is what nick had put through to me,

Nick’s News – Week 1

Seed Pot maker

This is a simple 2-part combination project which is useful and cost-saving for every gardener.

The principle is to produce seed pots from newspaper. These can then be planted directly into the ground and avoid the inevitable ‘check’ in growth that occurs with transfer from plastic pot to ground.

Picture 1 shows the two turned items and one newspaper seed pot. Pictures 2 and 3 show the dimensions of the 2 elements. I prefer to use Ash but any wood including pine will do. The potmaker tool is turned between centres and the base-forming tool is cross-grain. There is a 10mm deep recess with 5mm thick walls at the base of the potmaker tool. This recess and the dome on the base-forming tool form the firm base of the pot. It is important that the potmaker tool has a slight taper so that the pots can be slid off easily.

My version of the potmaker tool is marked with scorch lines at 1½ “, 2”,3”, 4” and 5” being the depth of the intended seed pot. The tool is placed on the newspaper as in picture 4. Decide the depth of pot you want and add 1½” inches to turn over to make the bottom of the pot. Draw a line and cut a full width of tabloid newspaper as a strip. Now, roll the strip around the tool as in picture 5 making sure you have the 1 ½” over at the base; a drop of paper glue will hold the flap in place but is not necessary. Fold over the newspaper at the base (picture 6). Now form the base by firmly rotating back and forth in the base-former (picture 7). Picture 8 shows the finished pot ready to be taken off the pot-making tool. The finished item is show in picture 1.

Now fill the pot with seed compost, sow your seed(s) and then water. Store in the normal way and plant out directly into the ground when growth and conditions are right. I like to cut off the base at planting out time but this is not strictly necessary.

I hope you enjoy this and find the tool useful. They make good birthday presents too.

I must add that this is not an original idea. I first saw this in a video by Steve Jones who is a production turner in the Midlands of England and whose wizardry with a skew chisel is a wonder to behold.

Regards to you all, and keep safe,

Nick Simpson.

Here are the pictures that accompany the text,

I thought I would show you what I have been doing over the past 10 days, my veg patch is almost complete, my small veg seed trays are in the greenhouse to germinate, I will harden them off prior to planting out.

If any of you want to use this space to get anything you are finding difficult to get during this shut down just email me with your request or question and I will post it on.

Regards to you all, and keep safe,

Alec Mutch.

Here are some more of our members pictures that I recently received, they have come from Gordon Leitch and Jeff Buttress. I did receive some of Gordon’s pictures before the post on Natural edges went out, but as these pictures did not have any natural edge element in any of the items he sent me pictures of, I decided to do them as a separate post, and here they are now.

A few days later I also received some more pictures from Gordon Leitch this time of a natural edged bowl, and Gordon had a couple of questions about the item he had made.

Thank’s to Gordon and Jeff for sharing their work and thoughts with us all I hope this will inspire some more of you to send in some pictures, but do remember to give me a few details along with them.

Also remember that our clubhouse remains closed, the situation will be reviewed after we see what the government does on the 7th May, in the meantime stay safe and avoid this virus.

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you are all staying well. I have received a few more pictures from our members that I will share with you now. The pictures are from David Hay, Martyn Torode and just in this morning from Nick Simpson.

We hope you can all have as good an Easter as possible under these lock down conditions, you may not be able to get away anywhere but your workshop is not out of bounds, keep the pictures coming and remember I’m looking for your pictures from the Natural Edged Turning virtual meeting, pictures to me by the end of 15th April please. I have 3 entries so far, hoping for some more by Wednesday.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed, you will be informed when we will be opening again.

Here are the latest pictures I have received from 2 of our members, the first lot are from Nick Simpson and the second lot are from David Ross.

Thank you Nick and David for taking the time to send your pictures, we hope to see many more pictures from any of our members, please keep them coming.

Do remember the clubhouse is temporarily closed, you will be advised when we will be re-opening.

Hi everyone, picture just in from Tony Wilson, although not wholly woodturning this is still very acceptable to be shown as part of Tony’s work. As this was the only picture received in the last few days I have included a small box I made over the last few days.

Below is a box I made recently, I’m calling it my Bell Box.

I do have one more set of pictures to post, but I’m waiting on some text information before I can upload them. In the meantime please keep the pictures coming, we are getting a good response from those viewing.

Do remember the clubhouse is closed temporarily, you will be informed when the first meeting will be after the crisis is over.

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.

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.

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.

The minutes from this years AGM on February 6th are now available in the members area after logging in.

Just a reminder – the members login details will be changed shortly, a notice will go up in the club with details and the date of the change.

If you experience problems logging in, remember to check your username & password is still correct. Due to ongoing attempted hacking issues on the site, the lockout for incorrect attempts will still remain at 24 hours before your connection will be allowed to try again.