November 2017 Newsletter

Tony Handford was our demonstrator for our November meeting and in spite of feeling under the weather with painful sinus problems he gave us an interesting and entertaining day using logs that the rest of us would be nervous of tackling. His first piece of the day was a vase made from a diseased lump of beech . The picture shows the log and what he will make from it or as they say, here’s one I made earlier!

As always he first looks at it from all angles to see where he will get the best result and then mounted it between centres and turned it at a slow speed until he had got the log reasonably balanced and a chucking spigot turned on one end. Then he mounted it in the chuck and now he has got a good grip on it he can take heavier cuts and increase the speed as he goes. After cutting a bit more of the outside away towards the shape he wanted Tony started hollowing it out while there was still enough strength in the body. He worked some from the outside and some from the inside until the inside was as deep as he wanted then finished forming the outside. He was not doing any sanding today so he stopped at this point and I’m not sure who but one of us was designated as finisher offer with a warning from Tony not to “mess it up”!! Tony’s second piece of the day was another vase, this time from a log of yew cut from where it branches out to two boughs. A challenging and could be dangerous piece to work with. After carefully looking at it to use it to its best advantage he first drilled a shallow hole in the end to set the drive centre in. This prevents it from coming away from the log if it slips and loses its drive. Set up between centres he started shaping the outside at a very slow speed until it began to balance when he was able to increase the speed. He also started to hollow it creating a pair of wings. As soon as possible it pays to increase the speed so that the gouge doesn’t try to skip between the wings. Could be painful!! He kept turning in this way until it was time to remove the tailstock centre and hollow out a bit deeper until he had reached the depth he wanted to reach. The sequence of photos here tell it better than I can.

In spite of his saying he wouldn’t do any sanding he couldn’t resist it and hand sanded the wings and in to the hollow before passing it on to someone else to finish. Tony has offered both pieces to be used as a raffle prize at one of our charity events. Many thanks to Tony for another interesting and informative day and for carrying on even though he was feeling somewhat under the weather. We had another very successful day at Woodlands raising £1020 which will be shared equally between MacMillan nurses and the Wisdom Hospice Rochester. A couple of photos for you. We invited one of the staff from Woodlands, named Lesley, to pick three tickets at the end of play on Sunday. One winner came from the riding school just down the road and two others came from Meopham area. The raffle accounted for £178 of the total taken. Many thanks to everyone who gave their time and donated items for us to sell. We need a few more of your wonderful works of art to sell at future events so please have a look to see what else we can have or even get stuck in and make a few. With this newsletter you should find enclosed a list of the demonstrators for 2018, Diary of social events 2018 and your club membership renewal form for 2018. As usual you can send the form and your cheque to me or you can pay cash at the door or use your debit/credit card. Which ever way you pay please let me have your completed renewal form so that I can keep my records are up to date and you get your updated badge. Our next meeting is on Saturday 9th December and will be a club day and all that goes with it. Looking forward to seeing you all for the last meeting of 2017. Graham.

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