Simon Hope was our demonstrator for March and this time round all his pieces were small and didn’t call for using his heavy hollowing tools etc. He made six pieces during the day and first off was an off centre candle stick from a piece of sycamore about 6” square by 12” long. First he marked out the centres on each end and then from the corner on one end came in about 10mm and the opposing corner on the other end so that it could be mounted like this. He then turned the centre part to round and started cutting the wings and at the same time forming a sphere in the centre. The photos probably explain it better than I can.

Then he returned it to the true centres and finished shaping it. It all had to be done with great care. One careless cut and the whole thing would break up and also fingers could be seriously reshaped!! For the most part Simon used a gouge with a long point having a very small bevel which enabled him to get down to the small diameter at the base of the sphere. And the end result was a very attractive candle stick. Simon’s next item was an acorn box with a screw on lid which is where he demonstrated his latest tool for sale. A thread cutting set up. The cup with stem was turned from American walnut and the acorn from ash. He turned the acorn first, roughly shaped the outside and hollowed it out to take the thread and hollowed a little deeper behind to clear the cutter. The cutter was mounted in the lathe chuck and the box held in a chuck on the jig. At a speed of around 400rpm he brought the box up to the cutter then wound it in to set the depth of the first cut and simply wound it in across the cutter.He repeated this until the thread was complete. To stop it tearing he treated the last cuts with super glue before taking the cut. Next he turned a spigot on the piece that would become the cup to suit the thread diameter then mounted this in the jig chuck and cut the male thread, testing it against the cup to ensure a tight fit at this stage. With the two still together he mounted them back on the lathe and turned both the acorn and the cup to shape but before parting them off he unscrewed the acorn and lightly eased the thread to a slightly looser fit. To part it off he hand sawed it at an angle to give the impression of a stem. Simon then turned another plain box to demonstrate thread cutting using hand chasers. After this Simon demonstrated another of his tools (for sale!!) This was a sphere cutting jig. This is mounted in the tool post and the diameter of the sphere is set by adjusting the cutter to suit. You can rough turn the sphere before bringing the jig in to play or with light cuts you can use it from the start. After taking it down as close as you dare at the spigot ends remove it from between centres and snap the spigots off. To finish off mount the ball between cup centres and turn the waste away using the shadow outline as your guide. To polish it Simon used different mops fitted to the chuck and used Carnuba wax, White diamond paste and Triple E. Geoff Hunt reckoned “it was a lot of hard work for something to chuck at a coconut” Next item was a salt shaker shaped like a sea shell. He turned a block of spalted beech to round between centres and formed a chucking spigot at each end. And cut it in two. He mounted one piece in the chuck and turned the base and hollowed a recess then turned it round, shaped the outside and hollowed it out to contain the salt. The top was then turned and hollowed out and a spigot formed to fit the base. A 5mm hole was drilled in the top for the salt to pour out through. The top and bottom are held together by wrapping waxed hemp around the spigot to form a tight fit.The base was sawn off at an angle to give the sea shell appearance. Simon’s last piece of the day was a bowl to show the effects to be gained from the Robert Sorby texturing tools. Notice Board There will not be a meeting at Milstead this month. Dawn has arranged for us to meet at Stiles and Bates where we will be given a demonstration of cutting tree trunks in to planks and planks in to bowl blanks. I think there may be a bit about this on the club website from a visit that Fred and Dawn made at another time. If you would like to see pictures of our trip May 2017. they are available in the gallery "stiles&bates April 2017 There will also be a discount offered on things you buy in the shop. Ideally bring a packed lunch with you because the nearest watering hole is some distance away. See you all on the 13th Graham BACK