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Simon’s speciality is making bowls etc. decorated with a contrasting material and his first piece of the day was to turn a bowl from imbuya with a sycamore insert in the face. I like imbuya. It gives off a nice peppery smell as you turn it and it lingers in the workshop for several days after. The piece he used had a beautiful grain in it and the plainness of the sycamore set it off nicely. He turned the bowl in the usual way but used a small skew chisel to shear scrape the outside before sanding through the grits with a Sorby Sandmaster rotary sander. The recess for the insert was cut with a tool made from round stock and he cut the recess with a very slight taper to ensure the insert fitted right to the bottom. The glue he used to fix the insert was thin to be sure it flowed to the bottom of the recess and he used an accelerator to set it. As he faced it off flush to the bowl he showed us that the superglue was still wet further down so he re-sprayed it with accelerator to be sure the insert stayed in place. Once finished turned and sanded it was treated with “Organ Oil” although I expect most of us are more likely to have Danish oil sitting on the shelf. Simon’s second piece of the day was to turn a small pot from a blackwood bell, usually used for making the ends to clarinets or bagpipes. This pot was to be different though in that it has a pewter top. Simon had some small blocks of pewter that he melted in a saucepan (cheap one from Tesco’s) over a camping gas stove. Yep, no expense spared here folks!! Pewter melts at a fairly low heat and before too long it was ready to pour into a mould that he had turned from a piece of scrap pine. This had been turned with a very slightly wedge shaped recess to retain the moulding. When it was cold he ran some superglue around it to be sure it stayed firmly in place while he turned the face to follow the shape of the shoulder of the pot and also form a spigot that would be glued into the mouth of the pot, which he did after tapping it out of the mould. Once glued in place he finished turned it, ending up with a very nice bud vase. His final piece for the day was a boxwood box with a screwed lid. The lid was decorated with a chatter tool but unfortunately the photo I took was not clear enough to print. In other words it was crap!! Many thanks Simon for an interesting day. Our next meeting is on Saturday 10th March and Julie Heryet will be with us. Bert informs me that she has a very wide repertoire and her demonstrations are always interesting. There’s only one way for you to find out!! See you all on the 10th. Graham. (Edit by Fred Taylor) Congratulations must go to one of our members Howard Overton on his success at winning 1st prize at the International Woodworking exhibition Alexandra Palace in the enthusiast section. Two photographs are in the February gallery. Well done. For Sale Record CL2 lathe. 36” between centres with stand, bowl turning attachment, faceplate, Multistar chuck and long hole boring kit. £150 For more details please contact Ian Alston on 07957 572294 —————————————————— HELP Brian Love has been asked to make a crocodile clock as illustrated in the Good Woodworking magazine issue 130 dated Jan. 2003. Brian cannot find his copy. Has anyone got a copy that he can borrow? If you have would you bring it along to the next meeting please. Brian can be reached on 01622 676117 |
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