Notes from the August 13th meeting, held at Russ’s workshop.
Bill wasn’t able to get to this meeting, so this newsletter is a joint effort between Russ and Roger.
Russ and Lee reminded the club members that they have been joint presidents for 4 years. They felt that it was now time for new officers to be found from the club members, and would like members to consider volunteering for one of these positions by the next meeting.
Russ and Lee shared with the group that first class demonstrators from the Professional Circuit of Turners are making themselves available for a full day demonstration. The group was keen to take advantage of this opportunity. Russ also told the group that he might be able to get a member of the Grass Valley Woodturners to also visit Fort Bragg and give a demonstration to the club. Again, the members asked Russ to pursue this possibility.
There was the normal show and tell and raffle. As usual, there were some excellent items for the show and tell. Below, are from left to right, Alfredo, Brian, Les and Jerry describing the pieces they brought for the show and tell.
Below are some of the show and tell items.
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- Les turned water worm bowl
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- Les’s redwood bowl
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- Alfredo’s Madrone bowl
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- Alfredo’s segmented goblets
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- Alfredo’s spalted Madrone bowl
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- Brian’s segmented bowl
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- Brian’s segmented bowl
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- Jerry brought this NOT TURNED
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- Lee’s Ebony bowl
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- Lee’s Pierced ebony piece
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- Les Bastogne walnut bowl
We had two demonstrations.
Brian demonstrated reverse turning. The lathe used must have reverse capabilities. The chuck must be secured to the headstock spindle as it will be turning in the reverse direction and if you get a catch or apply too much pressure while you are cutting the chuck may unthread itself and come off the spindle. Caution is a must. This method allows the turner to to shear fibers that may lay down when turning in the normal direction. This method is especially beneficial when turning segmented pieces with the changing grain directions. The demo explained and demonstrated this perfectly. AND, if you don’t understand call Brian for a deeper explanation.
Russ then went on to demonstrate offset turning.
Russ demonstrated the VERMEC multi center chuck. This chuck attaches to the Vicmarc (and probably other chucks as well). It is a screw chuck, or you can use it as a Jam chuck. It has repeatable off set indicators that can be set to 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 and 28 mm off center. Russ turned a jam chuck to screw on the chuck and then jammed a box lid and turned the lid off center by 12mm
You can see the dome is off center on the turned lid.
Russ also demonstrated the use of the multi center chuck to do through turnings. The inside of the box lids were turned while the lid was centered. The grooves were cut just over 1/2 the way through the lid. Then the lid was attached to the Multi Center Chuck and set at 12mm off center and the lid was cut just over 1/2 the way through the lid. The effect allows light to show through the lid where the grooves intersect. If any one has seen the wonderful pierced turning of Hans Weissflog (just search – hans weissflog woodturner) they are just fun to create. (photos below)
Education
Russ gave two educational pieces the first was about creating and using reverse jam chucking with foam pieces glued on to a variety of small to large pieces of wood. These are held in the headstock and jammed between the turned piece and the tail stock so the bottom can be turned.
The second educational piece and the presentation was texturing tools produced by Wagner. While the finished piece is turning on the lathe the texturing tools is forced into the wood and it spins leaving a pattern of marks on your turning. See the bottom of the box that Russ textured with the tool.
Next Meeting
September the 10th, probably at Les’s shop