April will be a club day so usual rules apply. If you do not ask questions you will never know the answers.

Also the fish and chips with skittles will be held the following Saturday 18th 1100 to 1500.

During the fish and chips there will also be a table top competition (Judged by the ladies presen) for the Orchard Memorial trophy. Bring your best piece
We would appreciate if you would donate a raffle prize for the draw to raise money for MS Sittingbourne. (Golf related items banned)

Fred

Gary Lowe was our professional demonstrator this month and we must say thank you to Peter Holt for picking up & providing accommodation for Gary during his travels and saving the club a considerable amount of money, enabling us to bring Gary in as a special extra demonstrator for this year!

Gary has a background as a Mechanical Engineer, a career that he says lead him to try woodturning and after a brief break from the hobby, he returned and turned it into a new career.
His first piece was an Elm spindle that would be turned into a Triangular box, this was roughed to a cylinder. The top was marked out using a printed template to enable the top to be divided into 3 points in a triangular shape. These points were then joined down the length of the item to mark 3 lines in total down the length of the piece. Then using a ring centre and drive for support, the first line was turned by placing the drives into the first of the very off-centre markings at each end. This was turned down until the lines were almost removed, before moving to the next pair of marks. Once complete, Gary moved the drives to point 2 and base 2 before turning down to the lines once more. This was then completed between points 3 and base 3 as well.
At this point you have a 3 sides piece which can be sanded by hand on each face before continuing. Gary recommends using a block and sanding with the grain to ensure that the edges remain crisp.
With the piece back on the centre marks, a chucking point is added as one end, before mounting the piece in a chuck for hollowing. The top was cut to a convex shape before using a Forstner bit to drill out most of the centre of the wood for hollowing.
This was then hollowed using a Simon Hope 6mm carbide hollowing tool at around 1200 rpm (apparently carbide prefers hollowing at this speed, but you have to stop frequently to clear the shavings!). Ensuring that the tool post is directly under the hollowing tool helps reduce vibrations and once the hollowing was finished a scraping tool tidied up the inside.
The piece was reversed onto a wooden drive and the ‘feet’ were cut tidying the base to make it flat, and then turning behind the corners using a parting chisel to create the 3 feet in the corners of the box. The centre was then turned away and tided up, removing the last of the chucking point.

The ‘Lid’ of the box was going to be a ball made out of African “Mahoe”. This was turned as a cylinder to 42mm diameter. The centre of the blank is then marked and a line added 21mm either side of the centre line to show the extents of the ball. The side of the blank is then removed up to this line to provide space to cut the ball. The ball is then cut by removing the corners, each time removing across the edge and slowly forming the sphere shape. Once the main stem contains a good sphere shape, this is parted off using a small saw. The released sphere is then trapped between two timber drives to allow the remains of the centre stem to be removed and the ball to be finished. The ball can be rotated within the drives to allow for all over sanding.

The next piece was a wet Ash cylinder measuring 102mm in diameter. This was marked using the indexer into 24 increments (although Gary did have problems as our indexer doesn’t seem to have 24 marks!). Once this was marked out, Gary used a formula calculated by Max Brosi to create a more scientific sphere, cutting away .293 of the distance between edges to remove the correct amount to form a sphere. Once the sphere was formed, a small tenon was formed on one end and the ball mounted in the chuck. A Forstner bit was used to drill into one end of the ball, this is then reversed onto the chuck and a second hold drilled until the meet through the middle of the ball. At this point, we have a ball with a hole through the middles and 24 indexing marks around the circumference. These are then placed between centres, allowing segments to be cut using a simple cove shape. This is then repeated around the form using marks 1, 3, 5 etc, with the Odd marks becoming the Wings of the coves. Unfortunately the indexing got the better of Gary and he had to abandon the piece as the Coves formed wrongly, however he did show pictures of what was intended. (Once the coves were formed, he would have mounted the piece back on the chuck and hollowed the centre, removing the inner part of the coves to open the form up, removing any evidence of the between centres turning at the same time.

The next piece used a slab of pallet timber from Asia. This was turned on a screw chuck with tailstock support and a significant offset. The back was formed by removing the majority of the timber, leaving a small cylinder with a chuck grip on the back of the plank between centres. Gary did say that if the offset is a problem for a lathe, it can be made from a bigger piece of wood with the bowl more central and then some of the side wing removed to make the bowl off centre later.
Once the back is formed and sanded (with the lathe stationary!), the piece is then turned and mounted on the chucking point to allow the front to be formed. A small recess was cut to form the entrance to the bowl and to provide a hidden chucking point to allow the rear to be finished. The bowl is then formed keeping a close eye on the depth. Once formed and finished, the front was marked out with a starburst pattern which was then marked out using a Dremel and a burr tool. Various textures were demonstrated using a variety of tools to show possible effects. Once this was finished the piece was remounted using the rim of the bowl as the chucking point. This allowed the original chucking point to be removed and a round bottom to the bowl established.
Once completed, a small sycamore ring was created and sprayed black using ebonizing lacquer. This was then mounted into the chucking point to hide it and to create a new lip on the bowl, held in using Super glue.

The final piece was a small square of Maple with some damage from Woodworm. To hide this, Garry created a square platter, shaping the rear first and going against the grain on the corners to ensure there was no chip out. This was then reversed and the front formed, keeping the weight in the middle to prevent flexing until the wings were completed and then the middle was removed and the front finished uniformly.
The worm damage was across a small section of the plan, so Gary marked this off with tape, textured and then sanded the area before spraying it black. This was then dry brushed using Jo Sonya interference paints in multiple colours before removing the tape.

Overall, a very enjoyable and informative day.



Paul