Without a meeting in April we were all looking forward to June and a day with Tony Walton.

Tony teaches as well as demonstrates and covers all aspects of turning which showed in his day with us.
To start the day he chose a log of beech to turn a natural edge very thin bowl. The outside was turned leaving a spigot to hang on to when it came to hollowing out. The only precaution to take here is when coming to the rim of the bowl. Normally one would turn the outside from the centre out to the edge but in this case it would tear the bark off so the outer cuts are taken going towards the centre. Once happy with the shape the piece was reversed and hollowing was started in the normal way. Fairly heavy cuts were taken to start, getting lighter as the wall got thinner, and thinner, and thinner!! As he got nearer to the bottom there was a danger of the shaft of the gouge hitting the rim and wrecking it so Tony changed to a gouge with an almost straight across grind for the final cuts. A tip about using a light to gauge the thickness. The light shining through will be less intense where the wood is a darker colour as is common with most heart wood. DON’T try to get the same intensity as the rest, you will get a big hole!!

Tony’s second piece was a lidded pot with a rounded base and sitting in a three legged stand. The wood used here was ash. Turning the pot was pretty standard but the stand was more intricate and required an expensive tool to finish it. It involved turning a cylinder slightly curved at one end. Next the three legs were marked out using a jig marked out at 180 degree pitch. Pat Hughes pointed out that you could use the indexing on your lathe if you have it. After marking out the legs Tony drilled holes either side of the mark to cut in to as can be seen in the photo. Next he used a power carver with an oscillating blade to cut away the waste material. All that’s left is to sand the base and finish it with your choice of finish.

I had to leave before the end of the meeting but thanks to Paul Hunt I have a picture of Tony’s last piece of the day. A burr oak pot finished with a gold gilding paste. Tony donated this to be raffled at one of our charity shows.

Our next meeting is on Saturday 9th June and we were to have Tony Handford with us but he has had to cancel so the day will be a club day. We will have a couple of small lathes and the big one and we have a few volunteers to do a spell on one. Paul will no doubt be churning out something on the big side. Chris Withall, one of our new members, has offered to put in some time and I’m not sure who else but things will be going on to wander round and look at. These days always seem to go down well so let’s have a full house. Notice board

Graham.

Notice board


The Fruiterers Arms have offered to lay on a BBQ for us. The date has yet to be set and depends on how many people are interested. A list was left out for people to sign at the May meeting and first impressions look good so watch this space.

The fish and chip lunch is on again this year. The date is the 15th September. The club social fund will pay the cost of hiring the hall so we will just pay for the food. Time and costs to be advised.