For our September meeting we had Gerry Marlow with us for the day.

He is a Yorkshire man and sometimes I think some of us didn’t always catch what he was saying.
However, after introducing himself he didn’t waste much time getting down to his first project of the day which was to be a long stemmed goblet.

He reckons that Scottish people aren’t the only thrifty people around and to prove his point he showed how you could make four goblets out of one 12” x 3” square blank.
First you set it up on the bandsaw and cut the corners off giving you four triangles.
These you cut into squares which gives you four pieces for the spindles.
He carries a sample of this to every demo he does. Then the body of the blank he cuts in to four. These are big enough to make the bowls of the goblet and the base.

Step one.
Turn the spindle. It was very slim and Gerry cut the whole thing with a skew chisel, including a small bead at either end and a spigot to fit the base and the bowl.

Step two.
Turn the bowl of the goblet by first turning the blank to round and facing off the end. Gerry then cut a small cone out of the end, put this to one side for use later. Then he cleaned up the recess, sanded it and then parted it off to be used as the base. Then he turned the bowl to the shape and size required and parted it off from the blank. He finished it off by reversing it in the chuck and carefully drilling a blind hole to take the stem.

Step three
was to mount the base in the chuck and shape it to blend in with the stem and drill a blind hole for the stem to fit in to.

He took great pains when assembling the three components to get the stem upright before the glue ha had used set.

Project number two was to be an off set candle stick.
Gerry mounted the blank in the chuck and turned it to round and shaped the top end and cut the recess for the candle. Then he reversed it, at the chuck he fitted a Steb Centre drive and at the tailstock a live centre and off set it as far as he could on the base and turned the centre section until the shoulder became one fine edge.

Once this part is finished and sanded, Job stationary, yep, look after the fingers, it is placed back on true centre and finished off.

This bit you can sand with it spinning.

Project number three was a couple of pendents, something we have seen demonstrated before, most recently by Fred Taylor at the September club day.
Gerry used chuck jaws with concentric grooves cut inside the jaws and used numbers 1 and 4 to give the maximum offset.

It seems that older buyers want to see the hole to hang the pendent from to be in line with the centre and younger people want to be different and see it off centre as in the photo.

On to project number four and this was a Christmas tree decoration made in four parts from a square approx. 3” square x 12” long.

Part 1.
Mount the blank in the lathe with a revolving centre in the tailstock and turn it to round.
Next turn a ball and hollow it out and cut a recess to take the LED light fitting.
Part off and turn a jam chuck on the blank and reverse the ball on to it. When you are sure it is running true drill a hole in the end to take the tail, then bring up the tail stock and turn a taper down to it so that the tail will blend in.
Next Gerry cut slots all the way round the outside with a tool he had made himself.
it looks a bit like hobby chop saw.
At this point finish the ball by sanding it, colouring it with dabs of different spirit stain and followed with liming wax and a finishing coat of bees wax. Buff it to a nice shine and remove itfrom the lathe.

Part 2.
Turn the tail leaving a small spigot to fit in the hole in the ball. Glue the two parts together.

Part 3
Turn a piece that fits on the shoulder of the ball and will contain the part of the ;lamp that unscrews to enable the battery to be changed and will also house a small pin to form the on/off switch. To make this more attractive Gerry mounted a small drum sander in the chuck and cut scallops around the edge.

Part 4
A final piece was turned to take the hanging cord and was glued in to the scalloped top.

A picture of the final result is in the gallery.
I’ve probably got the description of making this completely wrong for which I apologise and I once again use the thirteen year excuse for any errors!!

There was still 15 minutes left so Gerry used this to make a babies rattle.
His blank already had holes drilled in to the four sides before he started turning.

He turned it round and shaped the end with a slight curve cut a small shoulder on it and parted it off. This will be the end cap. Then he hollowed it out and finished with a recess to fit the shoulder on the cap.

Next the outside was given a bit of shaping and the handle formed and the whole thing parted off after sanding.
Any non toxic finish can be applied to this.
A small bell was dropped inside before the cap was glued on.

That just leaves me room to remind you that the next meeting is on the 11th October and we will have Tony Handford with us for the day. I don’t think Tony needs any introduction from me except it’s bound to big and bootiful.

For those that have booked it don’t forget the fish and chip lunch on the 4th.

Graham.

Notice board

SAW competition at Mytchett. We are again showing at the SAW annual open day and as usual we need some really special pieces to exhibit on the competition table. We have won it before then we didn’t for a couple of years and last year we came second with not a lot to choose between us and the winner.

We are allowed to show 10 pieces which have to be turned by ten different turners. Shame, it makes it more difficult for us.
Please bring as much as possible to the next meeting so that we can select ten items. The more we have to choose from the better. Graham.