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Peter Blake kept us entertained for the day and gave us plenty to think about. He uses a Multistar chuck for nearly all his work and his first piece today was to turn a - - - -now then, Pete called it an off centre chuck but Pat Hughes insisted it was a wobbly chuck !! Call it what you like, you will see later what it does. Based on the shape of the multistar Pete first turned the body and cut a 16 TPI male thread on to which the top ring will fit. He then hollowed it out like a goblet to fit a ball he had that would become part of the chuck. The ball he bought from Hobbycraft. You can buy several sizes “and they are cheap and a lot easier than trying to make it yourself!!” This part finished he then turned the ring and cut the female thread to suit the thread on the body and then carefully hollowed it out to fit the shape of the ball so that when the body and the ring of the chuck are tightened the ball is held firmly. With the ball held in place a flat was turned across it and a hole drilled to take a wood screw, recessed quite a way through to allow for the head of the screw. A small circle of sand paper was stuck over the flat to help grip the wood blank you were to screw to it. Right. What do we do with it? Let’s make a box with a fancy lid. First you find a piece of wood (today it is oak) and turn it to a cylinder and part off a lump to make the lid and leave a bit for the body. Fit the lid section on to the screw of the wobbly chuck and let your imagination run wild as you slacken off the chuck, alter the position of the lid section, tighten the chuck and make some more cuts until you are in danger of running out of wood. That depends on how long you decided to make the lid!! The last cut will form a spigot to fit inside the body of the box and then sand and polish and part it off. The next step is straight forward as you turn the body of the box, hollow it out with a neat recess to accept the lid with a nice firm fit, as my Aussie mate would say, “like a bum on a bucket” The third piece for the day is to be a pedestal bowl which Pete has been assured that in far off lands it is called a sweet dish. Mmm OK!! For this a lime blank was chosen to form the bowl. The underside was turned first with a recess in the bottom to fit a spigot that will be on the spindle and then the inside was hollowed out in the usual way, then sanded and polished. Next Peter turned an attractive spindle and finally a base. The final job was to glue the three components together. With still a bit of time to go Pete turned two more items in quick succession. First was a mushroom from a knobbly bit of wood he found in a hedgerow. It looked like a root from a hawthorn but no one was sure but this is what was inside it. A mushroom And finally Peter hacked into a piece of left over wood, I think it was a piece of the lime, until there was not much left. “Any ideas yet?” said Pete. We all looked suitably blank so Pete carried on until he had a small taper sticking out from the chuck. “No?” he said. Still blank. Then he picked up a polishing mop and he spun it on to the taper, cutting it’s own thread as it went. “There you go, you are never without an arbour folks.” And that brought us to the end of a very enjoyable day. Our next meeting is on Saturday 10th July and we were to have had Alan Hazel with us but he is unable to join us so he has arranged for Phil Wolsencroft to be with us for the day. Phil is unknown to us but Alan says he is very good. He is a member of the Surrey association of woodturners and Jenny Starbuck knows him well and says he is a very talented demonstrator. Let’s have a good turnout next month and bring lots of pieces to put on the display table so that he can see why they ain’t got a cat in hells chance of winning their trophy back at the Mitchett show!! See you all on the 10th. Graham Those of you who have the Woodturning magazine will see that on page 60 of the July issue there is an article on the Orchard Woodturners. We submitted the write up and fifteen photos of work that members brought in specifically for this article. The editors of the Woodturning magazine made only minor alterations to the text but we were disappointed to see that they only selected three pieces of work to be included in the article. However, we did get a full two page spread which I have no doubt will show us off well and possibly encourage a few new faces to come along and meet us. We had a new member join us at the last meeting. His name is Collin Hoggins and his phone number is 01795 874831. Please add this to your membership directory. |
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