As a result of our Open Day we have a lot of new members who have joined our club, this has resulted in our Training arranger Nick Simpson starting a new programme of training to accommodate some of the new members who require some training.
Nick arranged for the first 4 of the new members to start their training last Thursday 29th August 2024, this required the services of 4 of the teaching team so that we had a one to one training session with all 4 new members. All of the 4 trainees were to start at the very basic level, most had never used a lathe before. In addition to the 4 trainees Nick had Barry Cumming working on lathe 3 making captive rings, with oversight from Nick and David Hobson.
The session started with Nick’s standard talk on safety procedures and drew their attention to the safety rules that are readily available advising that they should read and observe these rules, also paying attention to the notice at each lathe on the safety check list rules.
Nick took a few photo’s that he then sent to me for inclusion in our web site, here are they along with a little information about each.
On lathe 5 was Judy MacDonald being tutored by John Ruickbie, John started Judy on face plate work, this has the benefit of having lots of cuts allowing the pupil to get used to the tools on how they work.
On Lathe 4 was Inga Ballantyne being tutored by David Hobson, again David has opted to start with some face plate work for all the same reasons that John did. Inga actually replace another pupil that on the day could not make there, she turned up on spec and was prepared to just watch but as there was a vacant lathe she was afforded the chance to start her training.
On lathe 2 was Matilda Rattray being tutored by David Ross, David took a different path into turning by starting Matilda on some spindle turning. This is perfectly acceptable, woodturning can be approached in lots of different ways, suffice to say Matilda managed to follow what David was teaching her with a certain degree of success.
On lathe 1 was Paul Troxler being tutored by myself (Alec Mutch), I opted for starting with some faceplate work, Paul had access to a lathe at Dingwall’s Men’s Shed and he had only started a few weeks ago, he also brought some tools with him most of which were carbon steel and would require frequent sharpening, I advised he should start to get some HSS tools.
On lathe 3 was Barry Cumming, Barry has been a member for some time now and was learning some more advanced skills, the items he was working on was captive rings, he has a programme coming up shortly that features captive rings, David Hobson and Nick were keeping an eye on what Barry was doing, although it appeared their input was not really required.
The session was interrupted at 8pm for a cup of tea and a chat on how everyone was getting on, it seemed to be a useful exercise and will be repeated at future training sessions. All the trainees appeared to be pleased with their training so far.