Our last meeting for 2014 was a club day and as usual on these days we had a good turnout and also a lot of entries on the competition table.

We had five lathes out including the club big lathe which provided a couple of interesting moments.

Steve Tredwell was turning a large lump of wood with the object of producing a bird nesting box.
Yea, good, except the lump of wood was getting a tad p…….d off with this sharp piece of steel hacking around inside it so on a couple of occasions left the chuck in a marked manner and tried to hide in the cupboard behind.
Steve was having none of it though and finally gripped it very firmly by the throat and finished the job.

Paul Hunt took over when Steve had finished and finished off a large laburnum vase he started at the last club day meeting. Well not quite finished but it will be by the time he wants to show it off.

In other areas Howard was demonstrating how he undercuts the form to make his trees droop like a Christmas tree does.

Keith Leonard was turning Christmas decorations,

Geoff Horsfield had brought his own lathe in and was also turning Christmas decs, I think!

Dawn was turning novelty items and others were doing their own thing including just wandering around watching all that was going on or sitting down and talking small talk.

A very relaxed day for everyone. A few photos of the day in the gallery.

And then we move on into 2015 and another one bites the dust!
Our next meeting is on Saturday 10th January and most importantly the AGM when you can all fight for the chance to take over the committee and put your own stamp on how the club should be run. Yea?

If you, or you know someone who wants to take over, shall we say the secretary’s job!! hold your hand up at the meeting.

All positions are always open at this time for consideration and voting on by all club members.

We will also be presenting the Bill Alston Trophy to the member who has gained the highest number of points in the monthly competition throughout the year.

From around 11am we will have Coral Davis from Axminster Power Tools demonstrating pyrography.
She came to us last year and gave us very useful tips on how to achieve different effects.
For those who are not sure what pyrography is I suppose it could be called controlled arson against an unsuspecting piece of beautifully finished wood.

Coral will be with us for the rest of the day. See you all on the 10th.

Graham.