the December 2012 Newsletter

DECEMBER 2012
West
Midlands Woodturners
Secretary: Brian Goodall
Telephone: 01827 64114
email: briangoodall@gmail.com
A Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year
Chairman’s Comments
Another year has gone past at WMWT and with the exception of the hiccup of having to cancel Decembers Social event I think we can be well pleased with the way
things have gone. We should be particularly pleased that
we welcomed some new members and see them attending on a regular basis.
January sees us start the year with our AGM, where we
will discuss plans to take the Club forward and deal with
the running arrangements.
I am sure there is some untapped energy amongst you
which could take us forward, please see if you can contribute.
PROGRAMME 2012
December 9th.— CANCELLED
January 20th. 2013 —
‘Hands On’ Day & AGM
February 17th. 2013—
Demonstration— Nick
Agar
I am off for a month in the sun, so I wish you All a
Blessed Christmas, Health & Contentment in the New
Year.
Brian .
Notice to All Members
Prior Notice of an AGM Agenda Item
It is my intention to propose and encourage a wider involvement by the membership in the running of the
club. I will ask for members to offer to ‘shadow’ a
Committee position with a view to taking on that role
should circumstances demand it or as I prefer to suggest, that all appointments should be time limited.
Please give this proposal some consideration and think
how you may offer to help.
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
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WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
Page 2
Chairman’s Challenge Results for Sunday November 18th. 2012.
Sponsored by Earlswood Interiors & Crafts
An Autumn Theme of Fruit--------use you own theme of content &
presentation .
.
Basic Group
1st. Place— Phil Stephens
2nd.
Premier Group
1st. Place—Dave Nash
2nd. Place—Graham Lovett
No picture available
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
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WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
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Chairman’s Challenge for January 20th.
A Lidded Pill Box (for those Winter Medications!)
Photographs from the November Display Table
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
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WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
A Review of Mark Hancock’s Demonstration by
Phil Stevenson
It is exactly 10 years since Mark last did a demonstration for
West Midlands Woodturners (I checked!) and he has returned not
a minute too soon. We had a reasonable turnout on a beautiful
autumn day, Mark got off to a prompt start and we were all
pleased that turning actually started within 15 minutes of his introduction.
Mark's main project of the day was to be a legged / footed vessel
in order to show a range of techniques, including turning and finishing using a fairly large piece
of wet beech. Mounted between
centres, we're off with a fine display of flying shavings! Mark
punctuated much of his demonstration with comments covering
ring centres (use one! - tried using a plumbing olive over your
normal tail centre?) to full face visors (use one of them too!).
The piece was rounded and
rough-shaped, and after turning a
hefty spigot, it was remounted in
the faithful Axminster chuck with
hefty O'Donnell jaws for final
shaping. We saw Mark use a couple of gouges with varying degrees of sweep in the grinding of the wings. To refine the outer
shape Mark employed a clever trick we have seen him use before - a hand-help cabinet scraper. I own up to having tried this
myself and it really works! The scraper is cheap and is very easy
- and very safe - to use; grind it using a simple flat grind and
make sure it trails on the turning work. It can also be used inside
hollowed pieces.
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
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On to hollowing out - Mark is the
proud owner of a fairly rare,
hand-made tapered spoon bit
(hope I've described that properly); it looked very effective and
didn't bind due to the taper as
he took out the centre prior to hollowing out with his favoured
Rolly Munro cutter. http://www.rollymunro.co.nz . We had the
chance to discuss various other tools as well, and Mark showed
his depth of knowledge about just about every other tool we mentioned.
After tea, Mark reverse-chucked the piece and used the same
techniques to hollow out
the base. Interesting use
was made of a tiling profile tool to ensure the internal profile of the main
cup was followed on the
outside shape. Mark preferred to eyeball the leg
shapes to stop the piece looking too precise. The piece had received absolutely no sanding up to
this point and we now saw why! Mark
fired up his blow torch which uses
MAPP gas (a new one on me http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAPP_gas ).
MAPP gas burns far hotter than propane or butane so the ebonising effect
on the wood is nearly instant
and very effective. The burnt
surface was then burnished on
a brush held in the lathe to give
a really nice effect - and still no
sanding!
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
A number of Mark's gallery pieces have interesting partial incised slits on them and he then showed us how this is done.
The chuck jaws were refitted out of order (careful if you're going to try this!) which means that when the tool (a skew chisel
in this case) is held against the piece, the cut only appears on
part of the surface - very effective.
And now the inside, which Mark
wanted to gild, so on to a (very)
quick intro to the art of gilding.
Bearing in mind the complexity of
the art of gilding, this really only
scratched the surface but it may
be enough to give us a little inspiration to give it a go (another very
useful website is http://
www.tiranti.co.uk/ - a fantastic shop to visit if you're in the Big
City; I've been and it is an Aladdin's cave).
The afternoon's, briefer, project was a goblet featuring Mark's
trademark distorted stem, Similar techniques were used again
to shape and hollow the goblet and a captive ring was made
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
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utilising mark's own ring tools. The really interesting bit was
watching Mark flatten the stem using his cabinet scraper, then
abrasive paper (always taking the grain into account) to prepare
for the distortion. Mark uses
a musical instrument
maker's heated former to
shape the stem - a delicate
procedure using moisture
and gentle hand-bending.
This was one of the most
interesting parts of the day
for me, and whether or not
we have a heat former, this
a is a technique still to be
explored. Sadly, Mark explored the flexibility of this
stem a little too enthusiastically and broke it! I'm sure
he did this on purpose just to
make us all feel better about our
own disasters!
I thoroughly enjoyed the day with
Mark - the finished pieces were
interesting but more interesting
were the tools and techniques Mark used to arrive at them.
Check out Mark's own website for a wider view of his gallery
pieces as well as a lot of useful and unusual links http://
www.markhancock.co.uk/ .
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
WEST MIDLANDS WOODTURNERS
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General Information
Next Meeting January 20th. 2013. AGM and ‘Hands On’ Day.
This is a Full Day.
This will commence at 10.00 a.m. and finish at 4.00 pm. There is a
£5.00 fee for the day.
Helpers to set out tables and chairs from 10.00 a.m. please.
Do not forget your sandwiches and a mug for your tea/coffee.
Don’t forget your pieces for the display stand!!
Newsletter
So finally the end has been
reached.
My best wishes to the next
editor.
Items for the Newsletter
I would like to thank all of the contributors to the
Newsletter over the last four years. Please give your support to the next editor whoever that may be!
Axminster Tool Centre
We have set up an account with “Axminster Tool Centre”
whereby club members can get a 15 percent discount on anything purchased from the woodturning section of the catalogue.
This can only be achieved by placing your order with Brian
Gibbs or Les Saunby who are the administrators of the account.
You can only place an order through the Club, you cannot take
advantage of this offer by approaching Axminster directly.
For more information or to place an order please ring:- Les
Saunby on 0121 308 1076
Website: http://www.wmwoodturners.org.uk
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