by

Sedgley Garden Club Flower Show August 2022

The Blackcountry Wood Turners were pleased to be invited to put on a display by the Sedgley Garden Club at their Annual Flower Show held at the Sedgley Community Centre. We had a good day with a lot of interest in our display and the live turning demo of turning spinning tops for the kids. There were many sales. and at the end of the day, we had made £115 for our charity Mary Stevens Hospice.

Thanks to all members who have contributed to the charity table, helped out on the day and visited the event to say hello and show us some support.

The Sedgley Garden Club members put on an excellent display of fruit and vegetables, many of which were given to us for free at the end of the show.

We would like to thank the Sedgley Garden Club for the invitation and we hope to see you again next year.

Report by Steve Hackett

by

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

by

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

by

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