The day started off with the opening of the AGM by the Chairman followed by reports by all the committee members. Alan Smith had decided to stand down from his post as equipment manager and Steve Tredwell offered to take over. Because Des Segens had been unable to attend committee meetings for the past two years the decision was made to abolish the position of vice chairman because we had managed without this service during this time.

Bert presented the Bill Alston trophy to Howard Overton and presented Alan Dungey with a bottle of his favourite tipple for getting up so early in the morning to be sure the hall was up and running by the time the rest of us turned up.

The current committee were voted in for another year with Steve joining the team in place of Alan

After all this excitement Peter Blake took over to give a demonstration of, not turning, but what you can achieve with a bandsaw. Namely almost any shape of box you can think of.
The bandsaw blade needs to be narrow and sharp and tensioned correctly and you’re off.

Take a block of wood and cut a slice off. This will be the top. Then cut a slice off both sides and retain them. Next you cut the middle out so that you end up with u shape. Cut a slice off the piece from the middle and keep this.
Now glue the two side pieces back on where they came from. You should have a four sided box. Glue the slice that you cut from the middle, you know, that piece you have not thrown away, have you!!, to the slice you kept for the lid, somewhere, probably under the shavings, on the floor, or in your back pocket.
This will locate the lid accurately on the box. And there you have it.
You don’t have to be accurate because the bits you glue back together match the shape from whence they came, don’t they? Simples!!

One tip that Norman Smithers came up with was for lining the box. There is a product on the market that you can spray on and the result is just like a suede finish.
It is an American product called 'Suede-Tex' and is available from Turners Retreat at £18.95 for the starter kit in a choice of four colours.
It is two part, a matching colour glue and colour powder giving a suede finish.
Many thanks to Pat Hughes for this last piece of information.

Right. What’s happening in February.
The meeting is on Saturday 11th February and we have got Greg Morton with us for the day. Greg has been to us on a couple of occasions before and he used to specialise in large bowls made from monkey puzzle tree. On his last visit he was in to much smaller work.
What has he in store for us this time? I don’t know, but he is well worth watching so come along and find out what’s new and probably learn a few new tricks.

See you all on Saturday.

Graham

For those of you who are coming to the Club Annual Dinner on the 25th February don’t forget to enter your finest piece of work for the Orchard Memorial Trophy.

For the benefit of the new members I should explain here what this means. We have two trophies that are competed for.
One is the Bill Alston trophy that is won by the person who wins the most Turning Of The Month certificates in the year.
Bill was a member of the club from day one and when he passed away his family donated the trophy that was presented to the club by his son Ian.

This prompted us to come up with a trophy in memory of all past members and we named it The Orchard Memorial Trophy.

All club members at the dinner are invited to bring in a piece of work that has not been shown at any other meeting to place on the competition table.
The judging is carried out by the ladies at the dinner and their decision is final.
The trophy is presented to the member with most votes for his entry.

For the Best Turning Of The Month the entries are usually judged by the demonstrator of the day and four certificates are awarded each month.
One for the best piece on show.
The second best gets a highly commended certificate
and then there are two commended certificates for the runners up.
Once you have won either a turning of the month or a highly commended certificate you may no longer win a commended certificate for the rest of the current year.

It means you are too good!!!



Notice board

Club shirts etc. I have one order for a club sweat shirt but before I send it off is there anyone else who wants either a sweat shirt or a polo shirt, fleece jacket or a turners smock? I have included order forms with the newsletters to the new members but if anyone wants something please let me know as soon as possible so that the person who has ordered does not have to wait too long for his.
Polo shirt     £15.00 plus £2.50 postage
Tee shirt      £10.00          ditto
Sweat shirt   £16.00         ditto
Smock           £30.00        ditto
Fleece jacket £20.00        ditto

Sizes available are XS S M L XL XXL