As promised after my rather quick demo at the end of the AGM, I have included a few links to videos on the correct use of the Robert Sorby Pro Edge.
Remember, The Pro Edge system MUST be used for sharpening the club tools. If you have your own HSS tools, then you can use any of the 3 sharpening systems but you should not use the CBN wheels for carbon steel as this damages and clogs the wheels.
If you have any questions, just ask.
Brian lives in Oadby, Leicester and has been turning professionally for about 7 years, specialising in making tools and handles, often to renovate old and often abandoned tools. He very kindly made available a printed page describing his demonstration which saved me a great deal of note taking !
For this evening’s demonstration Brian made a handle for a brand new 3/8” spindle gouge. The equipment needed for the project was listed as :-
The way the handle is produced is the same for most types and sizes of handles, all that changes are the overall dimensions.
Peter Tree Demonstration Evening 11-Oct-2017
Peter comes from Sleaford where he has been a chair maker for about 35 years. He is clearly a multi-talented individual, carrying out all aspects of his work himself; making his own tools, felling, seasoning and bending the timber, turning, assembling and carving the finished chairs.
He brought one of his chairs for us to see; a typical example of his work which would take him about 3 days effort to make and which he would sell for £495.
For his demonstration for us Peter was making a kitchen stool. In order to complete the project in the time available Peter pre-prepared the component parts:-
• an 11 inch diameter circular ash blank about 1 inch deep, drilled with 4 holes to accept the legs
• 4 octagonal section beech spindles for the legs, each drilled with a hole to accept the cross brace pieces
• 1 octagonal section beech spindle for the main cross brace, drilled through to accept the smaller cross brace
• 2 square section beech spindles for the smaller cross brace. Only one was needed, but since its eventual turned diameter is critical to the construction, a second piece was brought just in case !
Each of the leg spindles was turned between centres until the flats from the original section had disappeared leaving a cylinder which then was turned down to the required shape by eye using a very aged (and short) roughing gouge then shear cut with a skew to produce an excellent smooth surface. Next Peter added a simple 3 ring decoration; he used a flat scrap piece of wood which he marked with the desired position of the rings so that they were cut in exactly the same place on each leg. It was noticed that Peter made all the left hand cuts first then all the right hand cuts (initially with a spindle gouge and then with a skew) rather than completing one ring at a time. Apparently the style of decoration used historically was specific to the area where the chair was made, the 3 ring style was representative of the Thames Valley turners, so once you know your decorations you can tell what region the chair came from.
To ensure that all the spigots required for joining pieces together are the same size, Peter uses the same parting tool cutting the spigot two and a half widths of the tool. Then, rather than using callipers to get the spigot diameter correct Peter uses a home-made multi-cut template made from old saw blades (this material gives excellent rigidity to the template). Once the spigot has been turned nearly to size, Peter applies the template which cuts into the work piece leaving a burnt line that he can then turn the whole spigot down to to achieve the correct diameter.
The cross braces were then turned to shape and spigots added at each end in the same way as for the legs. The smaller cross brace was turned to the diameter of the hole in the larger cross brace, again using the multi-cut template; this was the bit where he needed to be careful – too large and it wouldn’t go through the hole, but too small and it would rattle around and not provide the required support. If he had had more time, Peter would have drilled through the centre of the two cross braces and fixed them with a glued dowel in the hole.
The seat blank was mounted on a face plate, the side trued and the face slightly dished to make the seat more comfortable. The top edge was rounded/rolled over, two simple rings added to the side for decoration and the bottom edge slightly beveled. If he had had more time, Peter would have turned a number of small conical plugs which would have been glued and hammered into the screw holes left from the face plate then sanded flush with the base of the seat.
Finally with the help of his trusty home-made mallet the cross pieces were joined to the 4 legs and the seat added, resulting in a very attractive simple stool created from scratch in less than two hours.
Philip Greenwood Demonstration Evening 13-September-2017
Philip has been a woodturner since 1986 and is based near York from where he makes his living turning and running 1:1 courses.
His demonstration for us was the turning and construction of a 3 part ear-ring stand (base, spindle and top). The design of the piece requires 12 or 24 (better) equally spaced holes to be drilled around the edge; the wood used is not important, but must be bone dry to reduce the possibility of the top splitting when holes are being drilled very close to the edge.
Since many of us don’t have lathes with a built-in indexing facility, Philip demonstrated how to make a home-made indexing system comprising three pieces (see pictures) …
• Part 1 is a circle of hardboard with the external diameter being large enough to allow a ring of holes to be drilled at the same diameter as required in the ear-ring stand. 24 holes are marked out using a protractor (15 degrees apart) and drilled, then a centre hole is drilled in the hardboard at the same diameter as the lathe spindle. This ring is mounted behind the chuck when the drilling is to be done.
• Part 2 is a block of wood that can be clamped to the lathe bed. This block has a piece of metal (eg. from a coat hanger) mounted near one end with a 90 degree bend at the top. The bent end of the metal spike is the same diameter as the 24 holes in the hardboard circle.
• Part 3 is a simple spindle sized to fit in the tool rest with a hole drilled at the top at the centre height of the chuck. This allows a drill bit to pass through and encounter the work piece accurately at the centre height.
The top piece was mounted on a screw chuck with a packing piece to ensure the screw didn’t go too deep into the wood. Philip turned the top piece round using a 50 degree bowl gouge, starting his cut on the wood (ie working from wood to edge). He starts with the handle down, touches the bevel to the wood and raises the handle gently until it starts cutting.
Once round, the face was then trued up (this will be the top face) leaving a spigot to be used for mounting for working on the underside of the top. The piece was then turned and mounted on the newly created spigot, the edge re-trued and another spigot cut to enable working on the top face. Next, the underside was shaped using the bowl gouge and a curved scraper used very slowly/gently to get a nice finish.
The chuck (with work still attached) was removed to allow the indexing ring to be fitted and then clamped in place by the chuck being replaced. Now 24 holes could be drilled using the 3 part indexing system (Philip only drilled about 3 holes rather than bore us by drilling all of them !). The holes do not have to be drilled all the way through, reducing the risk of tearing and splitting on the top surface, but must be drilled around 8mm deep so that they will be exposed when the top surface is turned down
With all the holes drilled, the underside of the top could be finished taking care not to sand the dovetail on the spigot to ensure that it remained circular – side grain sands faster than end grain which leads to a circle becoming very slightly oval. Philip used Yorkshire Grit (a mixture of wax and pumice stone) to achieve a great finish in one go.
The work piece was once again turned around (the indexing ring can now be removed) and mounted on the underside dovetailed spigot, held just tight enough to hold the piece without crushing the spigot. The flange (edge of the piece) was turned down to a thickness of about 6mm, exposing all the holes around the edge, and then the top spigot was carefully shaped rather than removed, remembering that the 8mm screw chuck hole is just underneath. The top surface was then dished to remove some wood so that the finished article isn’t too top-heavy and additionally providing a space for stud ear-rings to be kept ! The top surface was finished in the same way as the underside using a scraper followed by sanding and Yorkshire Grit or Carnauba Wax and a polishing mop.
The next piece to be turned was the base which was to be a smaller diameter but thicker. The face was trued up and a recessed chucking point was added, taking care to sand from the middle outwards to avoid wearing away the edge of the chucking recess. The base was then reversed and shaped, always turning away from the finished edge towards the middle to avoid splinter damage to the good face. Some detail was added using the point of a skew chisel and the top of the base was dished, again providing additional storage for stud ear-rings.
The final piece of the construction was the spindle, turned to a cylinder from a 1” (25mm) blank held using a small steb centre. Philip demonstrated the way to use a skew chisel for this task, setting the tool rest to just below the centre line which lifts the leading edge of the skew above the work piece allowing just the bottom 2/3 of the blade to touch the wood and working right to left (for right handers).
The spindle would need an 8mm spigot at each end to fit into the holes left from the screw chuck, but these were not turned down to 8mm right away to avoid the risk of splitting. The spindle was shaped starting at the tail stock end as there is more vibration at that end, so leaving the chuck end thicker provides more support and hence less vibration and play. The design included a bead turned at each end, achieved by starting with the gouge flute at 12 o’clock and gently raising the handle and rolling the flute to 3 o’clock or 9 o’clock as appropriate.
Finally spigots were turned carefully down to 8mm such that they made a soft fit in the top & base screw chuck holes (not too loose and not too tight) such that the glue would remain in the hole rather than being forced out. Before gluing the assembly together, ensure that the top and base grain are aligned – it looks better that way.
As a 10 minute finishing show, Philip turned a ring holder from a small scrap piece of wood by shaping a base and turning down a decorative finial, making a nice companion piece for the ear-ring holder.
Due to unfortunate circumstances, our planned demonstrator for August, Mick Hanberry, has had to pull out.
But it’s with great pleasure I can announce that Simon Hope has offered to stand-in.
As usual, the demonstration will start at 18:30. Non members are welcome by booking with the club secretary, through our contact page.
We were pleased to welcome back Steve Heeley to the new club house.
Steve’s project for the evening was a candlestick that incorporated some texturing to enhance the design. Steve started the evening by saying that ‘everyone turns in their own way’ and that this evening he was doing it ‘his way’ !
The candlestick was made in two pieces. Steve started with the base using ash, dimensions approximately 4.75 inch diameter cylinder by 1 inch depth. Initially Steve prepared the base of the candlestick, turning, sanding and then a coat of 50% sanding sealer and 50% cellulose thinner.
In preference he would leave the sealer to dry naturally, however, in a demonstration, time limited, he buffed it dry. After the basic shape of the base was completed, Steve set to work on the top section. Roughing from square to round then making the centre spindle to fit inside the base. He then joined the two pieces together to complete the project.
Unlike some turners who like to completely finish the base of a candle-stick, then completely turn and finish the top section before putting them together, Steve likes to partially finish the base then put the top and base together then finish the piece in situ. By doing this you can see the development of the whole design and modify as you go along.
After completing the candle stick Steve added some texture to the piece. He explained that had first added texture to a turned piece because the wood had some splits/imperfections in it, which he wanted to hide. However, having seen the results he now included the texture into other pieces to enhance the design. In some cases he also added colour.
Throughout the demonstration Steve continually stressed the importance of doing the 5 initial checks of lock down before proceeding with any turning and safety first. He was also very thorough explaining at each stage what he was doing, offering hints on the positioning and holding of the tools throughout the process. If he uses a parting tool he always finishes with the skew chisel.
An excellent evening, a good project accessible to all.
Some examples of work from Steve.
Barbara Feb 2017