Posted on by Alec Mutch

Report on our training evening 28-07-2022.

Our latest training evening was on Thursday 28th July 2022, there were due to be 4 tutors along with 4 pupils, however one of the pupils failed to turn up leaving one of the tutors with nothing to do, there was some doubt about one of the pupils before the session started because he had indicated he might be late, we did give him the benefit of some time to turn up if he indeed was only going to be late, but he was a no show!

David Hobson was the tutor with the missing pupil, he was not left doing nothing, I asked him to take a few pictures of those that were here and being taught, these are his pictures.

On lathe 5 were Nick Simpson (tutor) with Ernie Gibson (pupil). Ernie was being taught how to make a small wooden box. Picture 1, shows Ernie working on his first cuts. Picture 2, forming a spigot to mount in the chuck. Picture 3, hollowing out the lid. Picture 4, forming the outside shape of the lid.
Pictures 5,6 and 7 are still with Nick and Ernie making their box. Picture 5, Ernie is setting up the piece that will be used to form the body of the box, held by the spigot formed earlier. Picture 6, Ernie working on the upstand of his box, it still requires hollowing out at this stage. Picture 7, trial fitting the lid, when making a box the lid needs to fit very well, this requires checking often, take small cuts as you reach the stage of fitting the lid, and trial fit until you get a good smooth fit.
On lathe 3 were John Ruickbie (tutor) and Catrin Anderson (pupil). John and Catrin had made a bowl in an earlier lesson, however John felt she needed a further lesson on her bowl work and this was that lesson. Picture 8, having formed the outside of their bowl, Catrin is sanding through the grades making sure to keep the sanding moving. Picture 9, shows John showing Catrin the angle the tool needs to be at to work the inside. Pictures 10 & 11, here John is again showing Catrin how the sanding is done, making sure it’s kept on the move.
Here Catrin is doing the final finishing, burnishing the inside under the supervision of John.
On lathe 1 were Alec Mutch (tutor) and Katleen Line (pupil). Kathleen was on her 4th training session working on spindle turning. A good practice item for spindle turning is to make weed pots, these contain all the usual elements in spindle turning and an excellent teaching item to make. Picture 13 &14 show the method used to drill the hole in the weed pot on the lathe. Picture 15, shows Kathleen opening out the hole at the top of the weed pot, here she is using a narrow parting tool and being guided by myself. Picture 16, we mounted a 2nd blank for making a 2nd weed pot, I had assisted in all parts on the first one, this one she was having to do it by herself with me mainly supervising.
Pictures 17,18 & 19 are still with Me and Kathleen. Picture 17, here Kathleen can be seen bringing the blank down to a cylinder. Picture 18, I marked out with a pencil where the next cuts should be and explained why they need to be identified. Picture 19, shows Kathleen shaping the top of the weed pot, following the pencil indicators I laid down. We ran out of time shortly after this picture was taken, Kathleen was tasked with finishing the weed pot at home and bringing it back for me to see at the next meeting.
This was the final picture of the session, the pupils with their work, some complete others still to be completed.

That concludes our report on this training session, our next training session is on the 11th August 2022.

To those already notified to attend the next training session, please notify Nick or myself if you have any change in circumstances that does not allow you to attend, the sooner we know the better, we may be able to bring someone else forward if you notify us, do also remember some of the tutors are travelling a long way to get here and if you don’t turn up it’s a wasted journey, not to mention the cost in fuel etc.