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A Yorkshireman and all that goes with it!! After a brief introduction he opened his demonstration for the morning by waving a plank of ash about an inch thick at us and asking us what would we do with it. Naturally we came up with nothing sensible so John decided we should make a bowl. Yep, and this is where “one I prepared earlier” comes into it. He had marked it with circles starting from the outside to make maximum use of the wood and each circle decreased in diameter by twice the thickness of the plank. Next he cut the plank in half on the bandsaw and then tilted the table 45 degrees and carefully cut out the half circles numbering each pair 1 & 2 for later reference. Now comes the assembly. The outer two pieces are scrap as are the centre pieces. The rest are laid out on the base of a clamping jig, the largest first and then the next size down and so on till you have run out and are left with a hole in the middle. John had turned a bung of an alternative colour wood and also form the base of the bowl. As the bowl was built the numbers were set at 90 degrees to the last one to give variance to the grain pattern. The bowl was held on by the base/spigot and turned both outside and inside down to a fairly thin wall. The outside was then wire brushed to accentuate the annular rings and then coloured with red Chestnut spirit stain followed by a coat of liming wax and a coat of clear wax. This was allowed to dry while John judged today’s entries for turning of the month. After the break the outside was buffed to a shiny finish and the inside was finished with a couple of coats of melamine, also buffed to a fine finish. Finally the bowl was parted off and then mounted onto a jam chuck covered with a non slip mat with a running centre brought up to the base for support while the base was finish turned and polished leaving only a very small pip to be removed with a chisel. The afternoon project was to make an earring stand. I had to leave at lunch time but thanks to Fred and Alan I have some pics and notes to pass on to you. John chose mahogany for this piece. The top was turned and 18 equally spaced holes drilled close to the edge. The centre was bored out to receive the spindle and the finial. Next John turned the base and bored a hole for the spindle. The finish on the underside included his “mark”. The spindle and the finial came next and then the whole thing was assembled. With a little time left at the end of the session John turned a small bowl from a piece of mountain ash. How many bowls made out of a plank will we see at the next meeting? At the time of writing this I know of one and it comes with an interesting insight into bandsawing!!!? That leads me nicely into the next meeting and we will have Dave Reeks with us for the day. What more can I say. We all know how interesting a day with Dave is so all turn up on Saturday 9th October for a great day and not just read about what you missed in the next newsletter. Also, if you have anything you want to display at Mytchett on the 31st October please be sure to bring it along to the next meeting. If it’s won the turning of the month award it’s worth displaying. And don’t forget the open invitation competition as well. Entries for this have to be handed in to the organiser by 9.00 am on the day. The fish and chip lunch was held on Saturday 25th September and we had a good turnout with 28 people joining in the fun. The food was very good and when we were all full and looking for a corner to drift off to sleep in it was time to set up the skittles and make money for charity. Having just come out of hospital I was not allowed to join in so I asked Paul’s wife Billie to bowl on my behalf. I duly paid my money and Billie piled in and got top score of the afternoon so far!! And for quite a while it looked as though I had backed a winner but then others began to catch up and in the play off Brian Love ended up the winner. We ended up with £85 to share with the Sittingbourne branch of the MS society and club funds. Our next social event will be the Christmas dinner. A list of possible venues was sent round at the last two meetings and Oad Street Craft Centre came out as the choice of most of you. Following a meeting with the managers there we have booked a sit down dinner with waitress service for Saturday 27th November. I have enclosed a menu for you to look at but we are not pre booking anything. All orders will be taken at the table on the night. The cost is £20 per person which includes gratuities but NOT drinks. Beer and wine will be available. If you haven’t booked your place yet please get in touch with Pat Hughes. Money must be paid in by the November meeting. Graham Pat Hughes will be retiring from the position of Events Organiser at the end of the year and Bert has persuaded Peter Blake to take on the role. He said he will have a go because he is quite good on the phone but not to push our luck on the paper work!! I’m sure everyone will join me in saying a big thank you to Pat for all his hard work over the last two years and welcome Pete on to the committee. |
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