Demo Report July 2021 – Steve Hackett

Unfortunately, Wolfgang had gone down with sickness and wasn’t able to give the evening’s demonstration, the club a get well soon to Wolfgang.

So with this in mind we have had a very quick change of venue and woodturner, many thanks went out to Steve Hackett for standing in, at very short notice and carrying out the demonstration.

The evening’s project was a Caddy Spoon inspired by a project in Phil Iron’s book, Two-in-One Woodturning.

Rob is looking after the cameras and the sound system as normal, Ian was in attendance as well. learning how to use the equipment.

The wood used – Iroko, Wood size – 55mm x 55mm x 120mm

Tools used – Spindle gouge – Callipers – Parting Tool – Bowl gouge – Sphere Jig with 8mm cutter – Ground down holesaw – round rasp file

The blank was pre-turned to a round shape.

Steve started the lathe at 1100 rpm and began to remove the waste from the handle area after he had marked out the area for the ball to be turned.

The turning continued until Steve had a shape that resembled a rough ball shape with approximately 45° sides.

He then fitted his Sphere cutter to the lathe, the cutter was lined up with the centre of the ball area and the height was adjusted to be at the centreline for cutting, this was then cut to a round by swinging the cutter back and forth, advancing the cutter about half a turn at a time.

With the ball now being finished, Steve also showed the holesaw method and how it could be used to form the ball shape. This method uses an old holesaw with the teeth ground away leaving a burr on the cutting edge

It was at this point sanding of the ball area took place (120 – 240 – 320 and 400 grit), keeping health and safety in mind at all times and using the appropriate PPE.

The handle area was now turned down to shape and size. Steve made sure the opposite end of the ball was left the same diameter as the ball. Ready for mounting into a bandsaw cutting jig, at the same time the handle was slimmed down for ease of use. At this point, the ball and handle were sanded.

A sliding bandsaw cutting jig was made to lay the caddy spoon into and then small blocks were used to position and secure the blank in the jig by the use of CA glue.

A centerline was marked onto the caddy and then used the jig on the bandsaw to cut along the length of the caddy, at this point, we now have two caddy blanks.

Steve then turned a jam cup chuck to mount the caddy into,

with an area cut out for the handle to sit as it will revolve outside of the cup chuck.

This will mean that the caddy is turning with an out-of-balance area, it was suggested by Chris to put the tool rest across the work it will tend to minimize a fly out of the chuck. The caddy was turned at 1200rpm to start with and then increased to 1600rpm while using a shear cut along the length of the caddy.

The bowl of the caddy was turned out initially with the tailstock in place for support.

Sanding took place, with the various grits being used. With the caddy out of the cup chuck,

a sanding disc pad was installed into a Jacobs chuck attached to the headstock to finish off the sanding and shaping of the caddy handle.

When finished the caddy had a coat of hard wax oil applied.

We had our normal banter from the attendees, whilst having a joke about what was happening.

All questions were asked and answered as we progressed through the evening.

I would like to thank Steve for standing in at the last minute on behalf of the club, and for his effort, also for taking over his workshop again for our entertainment on the night.

On our next demo night, we will have a professional turner taking the helm to guide us through the demonstration.

See you next time.

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