This month’s Chairman’s challenge submissions from club members
Club meetings
Demo Report August 2021 – Richard Finlay
For this evening’s demonstration and entertainment, we welcome Richard Findley who has his own business known as ‘The Turners Workshop’ and is a production turner for his living. The project will be a Box with Alternative Ivory Insert. The wood will be Walnut. Size being 80mm x 80mm x150mm
Tools that Richard will use:-
Slow speed grinder with a CBN wheel 
Spindle Roughing Gouge 
3/8 & ½ Spindle gouge 
Beading and Parting Tool 
Narrow Diamond Parting Tool 
Negative rake Scrapers, Round & Curved
For those that joined early, they were shown by Richard how he sharpens his chisels and gouges which is via a freehand method.
The Walnut blank needed to be turned down to approximately 75mm square, it was roughed down to round and had a tenon put onto each end ready for the chucking process. Richard roughly shaped the blank to help decide where to part off the pieces. At this point, the sections are parted.
TIP – When checking the size of the tenons with callipers, round the tips of the callipers so that they do not dig into the wood and also do not press too hard when getting the required size.
LID – This is mounted onto the chuck and then hollow out the inner area by using a spindle gouge with the flute at about 10.0’clock on the centre line, do not use an aggressive cut as this will tend to rip the wood out. The round negative rake scraper to clean the end and also cut a recess which must be square. When the desired inside is finished it is sanded to a final finish.
TIP – Use a rule to press into the recess and line it up with the lathe bed, in this way we would have a parallel edge on the lid.
BOX BODY – This is also mounted onto the chuck and the edge is now cut to match up with the lid, this is not the final fit at present, this is done later, therefore he starts with a cut that does not match up at present.
The hollowing is now carried out with a slight undercut produced within the confines of the body and then sanded to a finish.
At this point, Richard gave a good explanation as to why he prefers to use a negative rake scraper and also to keep the angles the same, which in his case is 350. This was followed by a demonstration of how he sharpens a negative rake scraper.
The tenon where the lid fits into the box has a rounded dome shape applied so that the lid will fit on without having to push down on the straight edge of the box body.
The lid is fitted to the box using the body as a jam chuck, the final shape of the box is then refined, prior to removing additional material from the lid to form a recess to take the alternative ivory.
The box body is now also ready to be parted off from the waste material prior to finishing the base. The remaining blank material is now turned so that the box base can be jam chucked onto it. The box base turned to clean the parting cut. Then sanded to a finish.
Richard demonstrated an ALTERNATIVE IVORY RESIN insert material for the lid. This is a dense material which is ideal to use a negative rake scraper with, we also need to be careful as it can chip.
The streamers that come off will need to be removed with the lathe off for safety purposes. This is cut to the required diameter to match the recess within the lid.
This material is now semi-parted off and then sanded, this needs to have a finer finish than the wood, and an abrasive of up to 1200 grit was used as a final abrasive, a burnishing cream was then applied as a final finish.
The depth of the disc is now measured and can be cut to fit the lid.
The project would be finished with hard wax oil.
Richard gave a good explanation all the way through the demonstration and answered all of the questions that were presented to him.
Richard recommended a book on turning boxes.
REFERENCE – Turned Boxes 50 Designs by Chris Stott. 1-86108 203 7
Yet another very good excellent demo from Richard, which went down well with the members.
Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett
August 2021 Chairman’s Challenge
This month’s Chairman’s challenge submissions from club members
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.
July 2021 Chairman’s Challenge
Demo Report June 2021 -Martin Sabin-Smith
The evening’s demonstrator was Martin Sabin-Smith from “Hampshire Sheen & The Woodturning Shop.”
Who will demonstrate a bowl with a textured and colored band to include Hot wax technique and a demonstration of Hampshire Sheen products.
Martin welcome everybody and started the demo, with prerecorded videos on how Zoom meetings run and how to use it, which was followed by additional information about health and safety and the requirements of PPE to be used within the workshop for the various aspects of woodturning.
Wood blanks for the project was Maple sized to 10 inches by 3 inches. Martin started off by producing the outside of the bowl to a set curve, following the rule of 3rds and the golden ratio, producing a shape that is pleasing to the eye.
At the same time as producing the outside of the bowl, Martin was describing the three-point contact for the tools, During this process, Martin suggested that we should always try using each cut as a final cut to get a good finish without tear-out of the wood, in this way we are always practicing a final cut. A tenon was produced on the base of the bowl ready for mounting into Axminster gripper jaws,
When satisfied with the shape Martin decided where the band would be placed, at this point he used an Arbotech carver which had a standard cutter disc attached, this was applied to the bowl at around the seven o’clock position, with the lathe running at 400rpm. The cutter produced a texture all around the bowl, it did take a couple of cuts to get the required texture
ready for coloring.
At this stage, a parting tool was used to put a line on either side of the band. A sanding sealer was applied over the band at this stage. This area was now sprayed with a black spray and allowed to dry prior to adding a gold embellishing wax over the raised texture, with a light touch, using a paper towel so that it only covered the top of the raised texture.
Martin then took questions from a number of participants and answered accordingly.
The area above and below the band was now cleaned up with cuts to remove the overspray leave an unpainted area ready for sanding, then for sanding sealer to be applied, and when dry a lacquer was used from the Hampshire Sheen range of products.
The bowl was now reversed and held in the gripper jaws, at this stage the center was hollowed out at the same time as describing how to manipulate the gouge and keeping the bevel rubbing when removing the waste wood. Martin gave good explanations all the way through the demonstration.
Sanding started from 180 grit using a drill & pad and then through to 240 grit, then to 400 grit, and sometimes 600 grit. Martin then applied the sanding sealer, when dry Hampshire Sheen finishing wax was applied, a very small amount was used and then buffed up by applying light pressure with the finger pads and continue to shine, a number of coats were applied.
The final application of wax was heated by a hot air gun to melt the wax to give a shine and then it was and buffed up as before with the pads of the fingers to give a high shine.
At the end of the demonstration, a number of people asked for Martin to be a demonstrator in the future, due to it being very well presented and enjoyable as it progressed in addition to being over the three-hour mark for the evening entertainment.
At the end of the night, Martin gave a discount code for his products which I would hope some people took up. In our opinion, the demonstration was to a very high standard and worth every penny that we paid for his expertise.
June 2021 Chairman’s Challenge
Another month and another excellent selection of pieces from this month’s chairman challenge
Demo Report May 2021 – Chris Parker
The evening’s demonstrator was Chris Parker from “The Bald Woodturners” who will demonstrate a Hollow Form with a Fluted Top and then colored similar to this picture.
Chris is a full-time Turner, artist, demonstrater & teacher. He enjoys being able to pass his knowledge onto others. His passion for our craft is as strong now as it was when he started. He enjoys texturing his turned pieces with various techniques from a simple wire brush to more advanced techniques, he likes his pieces to be organic & individual. He finds inspiration for his textures & forms from various places, but most notably from the ancient ceramicists.
https://www.thebaldwoodturners.co.uk/
The project itself is from a piece of Sycamore that is 7 1/2in x 3in thick and is turned at a rate of 1100 rpm for starters. It was mounted on a screw chuck for the initial process.
Chris started by curving the base round whilst also producing a tenon for the chuck, this curve being produced without the need of turning the blank to a true round. A pull cut was used to remove a large amount of the waste wood and then a push cut to produce a fluid curved form around to the top of the blank.
The marking out for the tenon was produced with a pencil attached to a piece of plywood sized to a set thickness, which when placed on the top of the tailstock and pushed against the blank to get the size required for a set of H gripper jaws made by Axminster.
Chris answered the various questions asked by the participants on the chat screen, with Rob relaying the questions to him, this in itself worked well.
Chris also used Blue Peter moments to keep the process moving at an even pace throughout the process, the blank was reversed onto the H jaws and then hollowed out, at this moment Chris produced his second blank which had been hollowed out and allowed to dry.
This then needed to be re-turned to bring it back to true round, this was achieved by mounting the blank onto Pin jaws that had hosepipe pushed over them so as not to mark the wood, this was inserted into the opening, and carefully secured.
A Simon Hope 6mm hollowing tool was used for this and a hook tool. When Chris was satisfied with the shape and the hollow form he then used his indexing plate to form 14 segments around the top of the form by drawing a line straight across the form using a pencil jig set to the height of the lathe center.
The hollow form was again refined with a curve from one aspect of the segment to another, (a French curve could be used for this) in this way a gentle curve was produced around the top of the form.
This was then removed with the chuck and fitted to a Woodcut Carvers Clamp that was inserted into the tool post holder. At this point Chris put a line around the top of the hollow form as a guide to how deep he could go, bearing in mind that he had a wall thickness of around 12mm to play with.
Chris then produced a Die Grinder with a Kutuall ¾ extreme bull nose burr which he used to start refining the top of the form in a sweeping motion for each segment, when satisfied with the depth and the progress he swapped to a 9.5mm smaller extreme burr to finish off the process. A further texture was added at this point by the use of a Dremel engraver with a blunt nail which was used in all of the flutes.
Chris demonstrated this process on three flutes and then produced another hollow form with all of the flutes cut and engraved. The smoothing process was carried out with a Silverline Filament Wheel which has a silicon compound embedded into it so that it always has a sharp edge.
The top of the form was then sprayed with Black Acrylic Paint from the center outwards to keep the paint spray away from the out edge of the curve, this was then dried utilizing a hot air gun although Chris did state that he normally allows them to dry naturally.
At this point a Metallic Gold Paint was applied to the ridges of the flutes utilizing a dry brush technique, this highlighted the ridges and also the texture produced by the texturing. This dry technique allows for more paint to be added if required but it cannot remove it if the brush is overloaded with paint. Stroke the paint onto the form, do not dab it on.
When the paint has dried a Lacquer was applied,with either a Satin or Matt finish as Chris prefers this to gloss. When dry the hollow form is again reversed to remove the foot from the project, at this point either a flat or rounded foot can be used, for our project a flat foot was produced.
Chris’s demo went down very well with all participants and was also mentioned that he would be coming back to demonstrate for us again in the near future.
All references to the tools and additional burrs used will follow at the end.
I would like to thank Rob Hackett for his work with relaying the questions and for the excellent job of co-hosting the event as usual.
I would also like to thank the BCWT club for putting on this demonstration at no cost to members.
Ian Brown gave a date out for the Mary Stevens Summer Fair which was 4th September 2021 and hoped that club members would undertake various projects that could be used to sell for the charity event on a table that has been provided for us to use, with access to PowerPoint for the club demo lathe.
I will finish by stating that I think this was one of the best demonstrations that we have had and has given us all an interesting sequence of developments that we can use for our own project in the future.
Remember that our next chinwag event will be held on the 3rd of June 2021.
Don’t forget to send in your photos for the chairman’s challenge and any other items you are working on to blackcountrywoodturners@gmail.com
Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett.
Dremel 290 Engraver – Compact Engraving Pen Tool with Carbide engraving Tip
Silverline 675087 Filament Wheel 75 mm Coarse
Abracs Nylon Filament Wheel Brush 75mm
May 2021 Chairman’s Challenge
This Mouths Chinwag saw a new set of Chairman’s Challenge and another new gallery of work.
For the member who missed the Zoom meet I’ve added a gallery below of the piece sent in.
Next months challenge can be found on the Chairman’s Challenge section of the website Link
Demo Report April 2021 – Sue Harker
Sue started the demo by welcoming the members and explaining the project she would be demonstrating, an open segmented vase.
Sue started with the base and was faced off so that the segments can be positioned correctly.
Sue produced a segment jig which makes it easier to position and measure between the spokes at the outer edge of the project,
Sue stated that we needed to use side grain and not end grain for these segments, (35mm x 7mm) the angle being 150, whilst cutting you will need to flip the wood over whilst cutting the required amount of segment,
These were then sanded and glued into position.
The glue used was Titebond Quick and Thick.
Sue explained how to position each segmented section and how to glue each one for the build-up and cut down on the glue where the openings will be. A pipe cleaner and water being used to wipe the excess glue out of the holes. A thick piece of paper was used between the top and bottom, prior to the complete glue-up process being undertaken.
At this point, it is time to shape the vase to your requirements.
We now need to separate the two sections where the paper is holding the two parts together, these should be able to break apart where the paper is holding the two pieces together.
At this point, we can hollow out the base to a depth as per the requirement. You will need to be careful of the wall thickness at this point you will need a wall thickness of about 5 to 6mm.
Sue then hollowed out the top section being careful with the segments as there are gaps between the wood shapes.
Sue then put the two parts back together by using CA glue ( CA for the demo quickness, Titebond is usually used) and only apply on the segmented ends, pressure can be put on the two parts by the lathe as the CA glue dries. When dry the final shape and sanding can take place to the required standard.
The entrance to the vase now needs to be cut, as the top was drilled out we know that there is a reference point within the vase that will be close to the top opening. By taking it carefully we can meet up with the drilled hole and shape the inlet part of the vase.
The complete vase can now be parted off from the waste wood. We now need to consider the process of removing the parting tool marks, therefore we will need to produce a type of jam chuck that the vase can be mounted on and held in place by the tailstock drive center. This jam chuck is not a tight fit as you will need to use a gripped mat to help with the holding. The base can now be turned off. The nub will now need to be removed and sanded.
A finishing oil of hard wax oil is used to cover the vase but you need to remember to also fill the gaps between the segments for full coverage.
As the evening progressed, I think that we all should have been able to take something from the demonstration as Sue explained everything as she went along.
On behalf of the club, We would like to thank Sue Harker for this months demonstration. Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett