Club meetings

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Demo Report Oct 2022 – Chris Parker All-Day Demo

For our October all-day demonstration, we have booked Chris Parker who is a very accomplished woodturner who is very approachable and is willing to impart his knowledge to everyone who is interested. Chris, (also known as The Bald Woodturner) enjoys adding texturing to turned work, and likes his pieces to be organic and individual in their own right. He has stated that he looks towards ancient ceramics for his ideas.

Chris parker

The committee stated that the cost of the event would be £10.00 for the complete day with tea and coffee on tap all day, also during the day, we had a good selection of food for everyone who attended the event. Club members also were able to take their own items for sale in addition to the wood on sale for the club and the donated wood selection the profits from the sale are going towards the club charity.

Chris brought with him a couple of fellow woodturners as guests for the event, these being the Canadian woodturner and carver Kade Bolger, we will also welcomed Martin Clarkson from Lincolnshire, this is a big plus for our club as we will have had a good opportunity to discuss other areas of woodturning with these guys and take advantage of their combined knowledge, which I hope club participants took advantage of to a good degree.

  • Kade Bolger
  • Mark Clarkeson

For this event Chris planned out the following projects:

1 – Textured and coloured curved-rimmed platter

2 – Round-bottomed pot with external texture and internal stone layer colouring effect

3 – Making an off-centre jig, which can be used for many projects.

Project 1 – Textured and coloured curved-rimmed platter

Chris turned a recess for chuck expansion mode on the block of wood ready for shaping. The blank was reversed and the tool rest was set at the mid-point and also parallel to the work, this was then turned to the round, ready for shaping. In this position, a flat was turned smooth and parallel and then a 450 angle was turned across the corner. Chris showed how to mount the blank on the chuck correctly and safely.

A negative rake scraper was used to refine the base of the platter. This is now ready for sanding, a sanding disc was used by means of a battery drill, and an area on the outer section was then made ready for texturing.

The Sorby texturing tool with the largest fitting wheel, Chris also stated how to sharpen the texturing tools so that they remain sharp. The large wheel was used first then swapped to a smaller texturing tool, both tools being held in the upright position. In the centre of the band, an orange peel effect was used by moving the tool over and over the surface area, you must be able to traverse the surface without too much pressure.

The block is now reversed and the outer rim of the platter is rounded to give an interesting shape to the piece, this will allow people to handle the item with a pleasing effect and feel. The edge of the platter was sanded at this point. The centre of the piece is now removed but leaving a wood nub right in the middle to add strength at this point. An electric cutter was used at this point to give added texture to the inner area and then with a rotary sanding brush remove the fluffy bits from the texturing. A graphite stick was used at this point to embellish the raised points of the texture. (graphite stick available from Amazon)

Chris used an airbrush to colour from the inner to the outer edge of the texturing at about 600rpm. A plain shoulder has then added on either side of the airbrushed texture, the bottom rim is done when the base is removed. A matt lacquer and wax are then used to finish the project.

Project 2 – Round-bottomed pot with external texture and internal stone layer colouring effect

Chris used a 5″ x 5″ x 5″ blank mounted on a screw chuck, the tail stock was also moved up to secure the wood between centres and then it was turned to a round. A tenon is then produced so that the project can be mounted in a chuck when reversed, also at this time, a basic shape is put on the pot

When reversed the outer shape is also refined prior to applying a grinder with a wood sanding disc attached for carving, this being applied around the bowl in a random manner until all the required area had been covered, the lathe is switched off for this operation, move the grinder in a small circular motion for each area, do not put pressure on the piece as this could cause burning and you would need to carry out the process again.

The project is now remounted so the wood core can now be removed, this was started off by means of using a drill set to the required depth which will also be used as a depth measure. The edge of the pot is now cleaned off and made square. After it has been hollowed out a small-headed sander from Simon Hope is used, also a brush sander to remove the fluffy bits again.

The pot is then sealed with a spray acrylic sanding sealer and the inner surface is then painted blue, with a granite spray added over the top of the paint. The front edge of the pot is now cleaned up.

After the paint finish had dried, Chris turned away the tenon and textured the bottom of the pot to finish the project.

Project 3 – Making an off-centre jig

The blank for this project must be hard and have a good grain like Oak.

A screw chuck was used first to develop the round shape required, when this is done the offsets were marked onto the blank and drilled and then remounted on the screw chuck to each hole with a thread in, these can be strengthened by running CA glue down the threads to give longer life to the jigs. At this point, you will need to mark where the holes will be placed for the countersunk woodscrews to be positioned for attaching the blank that you require turning. These woodscrews need to protrude through the jig by about 12mm or ½ inch depending on what camp you are in.

From this position a blank can be attached and then by turning out the blank in one position, move to the next screw chuck hole and repeat the process, and then on to the last, in this way a bowl with three hollows int can be produced which Chris showed. When all three hollows had been finished the jig was again mounted in the central hole and the outer shape refined up to the outer rim of the project.

Thanks go to Rob for operating the camera and audio equipment for the duration of the event. A big thank you goes to Kim (Ian’s wife) for the food during the day which went down well if you will forgive the pun.

Finally, the committee would like to thank everyone who helped set up the room and also to take everything back down again at the end, to meet the college requirements.

Report by Barrie Fisher, edited by Steve Hackett

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Hands-On Evening – Group turning project July 2022

This evening’s hands-on event is a team challenge which was organised by Roger our club chairman, who came up with a project of a Clown Clock, with the parts being turned on three separate lathes.

Each team was to have three club members who will work from the provided diagram with all measurements being given to work from. Each team will work on a different aspect of the clock project and hopefully it should fit together by the end of the evening all being well.

There were three lathes on the go throughout the evening and these were overseen by three team leaders:

Rob Hackett

Steve Hackett

Paul Wiley

The team leaders were there for advice and guidance to aid the member’s development through the process, and they were not to be doing any turning themselves (no chance of that then). The club members started to take an active part in the turning process and this went down well as the evening progressed, I think we will be having a similar type of set-up in the future.

The major shock of the evening was when our very own Raffle King, Arthur actually won a prize, he spent the rest of the evening chatting whilst in shock. With Steve being on the lathe the raffle duties were undertaken by Richard with the taking of the money and handing out the tickets. This could be why Arthur won this week.

Ian was unable to attend for the evening due to his wife, Kim going down with the dreaded COVID, hope she recovers well from this, so all the best from the club.

Finally, our thanks go out to all the club members who undertook the setting up and cleaning away of the equipment and waste made during the evening’s entertainment.

The finished clock, courtesy to Roger Cheshire.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

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All-day hands-on meeting in July 2022

Blackcountry Woodturners had their All-day hands-on meeting today. It started at 10.00 and went on till 16.00, this is an event that when allowed is put on at least once a year.

During the day any club member could go along and try out different aspects of turning, this included the following:

  • Sharpening using different types of systems, (Nigel demonstrated his design of holding the gouges)
  • Carving with a rotary device, thanks to Rob
  • Colouring and waxing to develop a finish
  • Aspects of turning for the newer members, thanks to Steve, Roger.

The club was well attended by the committee and had a steady member base drop in during the day with some being in attendance all day.  This aspect of the open day will be an ongoing event in the coming years for the members.  We were also able to sign up a new member during the day who is just starting in the wood adventure.

We had four lathes on the go during the day, which were used to good effect, and some of the newer turners ended up with one-to-one instruction at times and some were given various methods of solving problems that they have encountered in a safe and effective manner.

Though out the day we were able to help ourselves to tea and coffee with biscuits, cake and savoury items provided for everyone, alongside the table with numerous wood blanks and tools for sale.

Ian was also very busy during the day carrying out the PAT testing on all of the club’s electrical items and updating each item with an updated label.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

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Demo Report May 2022 – Tony Jones

The demonstrator for this evening is Tony Jones. Tonys project for tonight is one of his signature pieces a thin-walled Vortex Bowl, The blank Tony has chosen is a piece of Spalted Sycamore 8” x 3”.

Tony came along with a good selection of his own turned work which was displayed at the back of the room.

The cameras were set up by a new crew this evening (Ian and Greg) who got on well with the process. with Rob assisting in finalising the set-up.

Tony started by turning the blank flat and squared the edges to get a true round-shaped blank to start working with.  The centre was identified by the use of skew and then this was used for the callipers to give the size of the overall diameter for the chuck which Tony stated was 44mm for this project.  This was then turned out ready for the chuck.

During the demonstration, Tony gave out some tips on how to keep wet sycamore workable and to get the best out of it.  At this stage, Tony also asked for questions from the assembled turners either at the break or during the session.

Whilst turning Tony started to get the overall shape of the outside of the vortex bowl that he liked.

Throughout the first half of the evening, Ian received additional training from Rob in using the camera broadcasting technology.

During the first part of the demo, it was hard to hear what Tony was saying due to the dust protection mask that he was wearing but this was sorted during the break with a different type of mask, which increased the understanding for all during the second part.

When he was happy with the outer shape the sanding began starting at 120 grit and working down to 400 grit, this was then sealed and finished with a microcrystalline wax finish.  Again during this sanding process, Ian helped out with the vacuum to clean the dust away.

The blank was now turned around and mounted in expansion mode ready for the centre of the bowl to be turned out.  During this process Tony only took out part of the centre and sanded as he was going down, leaving a lump of wood in the middle to keep the blank stabilised. 

The next part was to remove the central lump of wood to form the bowl shape itself, at this stage the thickness of the bowl was looked at during each stage to arrive at the desired thickness for the project.  Again the centre of the bowl was sanded down in the same manner as before.

At this point Tony started to use Cole Jaws to remove the dovetail chucking point of the bowl, remembering to use a piece of tissue between the aluminium surface and the blank to prevent any marking from showing up on the bowl.  This was then sanded and finished in the same manner as previously.  The bowl was then passed around the assembled turners. 

Tony was thanked for his demonstration by the club.

Thanks go to Steve for the raffle & refreshments and our new tech team of Ian and Greg.

Thanks go out to those who helped out in cleaning the room and getting it back to normal.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett