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Julie Heryet joined us for our March meeting and what an interesting lady she is. Throughout the day she kept up an excellent running commentary on what she was doing, explaining the tools being used and stopping to give tips at certain points in her demonstration. The first item Julie turned was a very thin long stemmed goblet with a natural rim to the bowl from a sycamore log. First the end was hollowed out with a spindle gouge although a ring tool would work well here. This should be sanded and your chosen finish applied at this point. The rest of the log was roughed turned, leaving the rim of the goblet untouched. Before going any further she brought the tail stock up with a ball fitted to the revolving centre to avoid marking the finish. Now the spindle and outside shape of the bowl are worked on, taking careful cuts all the way. Spindle gouges and a skew chisel were used here, bringing the bowl to a very thin wall and a rim of bark left around the edge. The foot comes last and Julie likes to have the diameter of this to be about 2/3 the size of the rim of the goblet. The second item was an exercise in off set turning and this was to turn a cabriolet leg. To leave a nice crisp edge to the square end it is best to cut in with a skew chisel to break the corners clean although, with care, this can be done with the corner of the roughing gouge. The foot end should also be treated the same way. Next turn the centre part to a cylinder. Now the piece is remounted to its offset points for creating the slim part of the leg. A Steb centre gives a better hold with this type of work. I’m afraid I neglected to get a photo of the finished piece. At this point we took a break and Julie was asked to judge the entries for March and what a fantastic number of articles were on display. I have had to double the Gallery page to show them all. Brilliant. Julie spent quite a bit of time studying them and chose David Ward’s sycamore and rosewood bowl as the winner and Michael Fryer’s little oak bowl for the highly commended certificate. And then, for the first time for us, Julie talked about some of the other entries and pointed out small details that could have been included to make a very good piece of work an excellent piece. Before breaking for lunch Julie continued with a demonstration of thread chasing, once again explaining in some detail what was happening as she went along. Close grained, oily types of wood are the best for this. Most fruit woods fit the bill. After lunch Julie put the morning demonstration of thread cutting to use by making a box with a screw top. Again, the two thirds/one third proportions come into play. First the lid was turned and bored out to take the thread and then hollowed out some more behind the thread leaving the chaser free to clear the back. Soap can be used to lubricate the chaser and it doesn’t build up on the chaser as wax would. Finish the lid completely before starting the box. Turn the box and hollow it and turn the spigot to take the external thread. Measure the inside thread of the lid and add approximately 2mm to get the diameter of the spigot. This was for an 18 tpi thread. To be sure of a good fit only light cuts should be made. You can always take another cut if it’s too tight. Again, for some reason I didn’t get a photo of the finished piece. For her final piece Julie turned a sound box known as a Guiro. It is a hollow form that has two holes drilled on its side and a series of grooves along its length. A handle is fitted to one end and a top cap to close it off and it is “played” by sliding a stick along its length. Remember the days when us old’ns used to walk to school and home again and on the way, if we passed a garden fence we would run along with a stick against it, rat a tat a tat!! A bit like that. You didn’t? You haven’t lived. Our next meeting is on the 14th April and we will have Tobias Kaye with us who I am sure we all know is a demonstrator of world renown. So let’s have another turnout like last month and please fill the table again with entries for “Best turning of the month”. Maybe we will have even more than 20 and need two tables!! (and the secretary says he will try and photograph all of them next time.) That’s all for this month except to tell you that the Wyvale Garden Centre is not available this year so the venue for our Whitsun show will be at Farmers World at Faversham. The dates are the 27th and 28th of May. As in previous years we would like as many people as possible to man the stands and please donate something to sell. All money taken, collected, conned or otherwise obtained will be donated to Demelza House. See you all on the 14th. Graham For Sale A friend of Nick Adamek has asked if he can sell the following for her. Carba-tek Mk2 lathe. Complete with long, short and “v” tool rests, tools, spare belt and original manual. Selbix chuck with extra 12/10 and 44/36 jaws all boxed and with original manual. A selection of 6 Robert Sorby tools and a roughing gouge. £250 or near offer. Please contact Mrs. Mallett on 01304 812276 (near Sandwich) |
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