For the evening’s demonstration, we welcomed Rick Dobney on his first visit to the club. Rick demonstrated the making of a lidded ash pot with a fitted metal handle.

The project began with a blank of ash measuring 150mm x 75mm square. After marking the centre points at each end with a brad point, the blank was mounted between centres. Rick covered the essential safety aspects before spinning the lathe up to around 1300rpm.

Using a spindle roughing gouge, he turned the blank to round and then created a square tenon with a parting tool, checking its size with callipers. The blank was then mounted in the chuck, and its roundness confirmed.

Rick marked out the blank and turned the lid from the tailstock end. He carefully shaped the top of the lid, reducing it to a diameter of 65mm so it would later fit snugly into the pot. He reminded everyone of the importance of getting the bevel to rub before making a cut.

A Jacob’s chuck was used to drill a 7.5mm hole, 7mm deep, for the aluminium handle. With the tailstock supporting the workpiece, Rick moved on to shaping the main pot body with a skew chisel, achieving an elegant form. The lid seat was undercut, and the base defined with a parting tool.

After shaping, the piece was sanded to remove tool marks, and a brass brush was used to bring out the grain. Rick then applied Chestnut spirit stains with an airbrush – blue for the base area, blending into purple towards the top and onto the lid – while the lathe was spinning. Once dry, he applied sanding sealer and liming wax, working it across the grain to highlight the texture. After allowing 15 minutes to dry, the excess wax was removed with lemon oil, and the surface was buffed with a paper towel. A coat of Wood wax provided the final sheen.

The lid was parted off and set aside. Rick drilled out the pot body using a 13mm drill in the Jacob’s chuck, then hollowed it with a ring tool at 750–800rpm. The inner surface was sanded using locking forceps to hold the abrasive paper.

To finish the lid, Rick used a homemade Sycamore chuck with a cut slot that allowed it to grip the lid securely. He turned a decorative domed profile, taking care not to cut into the pre-drilled 7.5mm hole for the handle.

For the aluminium handle, Rick turned a 7.5mm tenon and shaped the outer profile using standard woodturning tools (suggesting older tools for working metal). He used MCC cutting compound with graphite grease for lubrication and sanded the aluminium to 1200 grit before polishing it with Auto polish. The aluminium used had a hardness rating of 60.82/60.83 and was sourced on eBay, 20mm in diameter.

Ricks Display Pieces

Club Updates

During the evening, we also welcomed guests from Wolverhampton Art Gallery, who spoke about the wood turned pieces being prepared to exhibit at the gallery later in the year. Steve Hackett is coordinating this effort, though members can submit their items directly with his support.

In addition, the club received £300 from the AWGB, presented to President Roger Cheshire by Barrie Fisher. This grant will go towards upgrading our audiovisual system. The AWGB also expressed their thanks for the club’s efforts during last October’s seminar and for supporting the gallery.

For our entertainment this evening, we have our very own member Steve Hackett, who will be turning a stem for a glass in the shape of a heart. Using the technique sometimes referred to as involuted turning.

Sycamore is the wood being used for the demonstration, three pieces are required. All the blanks must be square to make the jointing true with no gaps showing, to secure the two pieces of wood together Steve used CA glue which was only glued at the ends not all the way down, this was then taped together which is a good safety measure to keep the wood from parting.
Next is marking the centres from both ends, along the line where the wood is joined together and then mounted on the lathe between ring centres, ring centres were used so that they do not force the wood apart as a pointed centre would. By using a ring centre, if too much pressure is exerted on the wood, it would just stop spinning between centres on the lathe.
Next Steve marked out the shape of the heart that he wanted to cut, this is turned at a fast rate of 3800rpm due to cutting air as it is spinning.

For part of the heart where it curves back in at the top a carbide tool was used to undercut the wood, this is then sanded to the required finish, this needs to be done now as you will not be able to do it latter.
The two pieces of wood are now split by means of a chisel and hammer. These are then turned round and glued together using PVA glue with the heart showing in the middle, this is then left for 24 hours so it has time to dry completely. For the demonstration, CA glue was used for this process.

The outer shape is now turned to the required shape, making the edges sharp prior to sanding. A tenon is now turned so that it can be mounted in the chuck, a record SC1 chuck being used for this process. A 12mm brad point drill was then used to go into the top where the glass stem will sit, this went in about 17mm deep the hole was then undercut by using a spindle gouge. With the amount of wood that is protruding from the lathe, you need to be gentle so that the wood is not pulled out of the chuck.
A standard live core centre is then used to support the piece while the stem is turned down from where the glass is fitted back towards the lathe head, this way the strength is being kept within the turning.
When the shape has been refined the pointed part of the heart is then filed back and into the opening to refine the shape, the file needs to be used with a rounded movement of the file so as not to have a flat on the heart.
Moving on to the lower part, again we need to produce a shape that is pleasing to the eye, Steve used a 15mm spanner to determine the diameter of the lower part of the stem which was again sanded.

A screw chuck is being used for the base which is turned to a round and shaped with a spiralling tool, a good amount of pressure is required for this.
A 7mm diameter is required for when the stem is inserted into the base, this is then glued.
The piece can then be decorated with whatever you want.

Report by Barrie Fisher & edited by Steve Hackett