CALGARY WOODTURNERS GUILD
(LIKE
MINDED PEOPLE EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE OF WOOD TURNING)
SEPTEMBER 2005 – NEWSLETTER
GUESTS
Member Tony Lucas together with a friend William both from
Kimberly, and member Kathy Sommerville from Edmonton also joined our meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEW BUSINESS/OTHER
- Dennis Milbrandt provided the following:
Re: member Dale Keith's shed upgrades
We will meet at the Tim Hortons on the corner of 61 avenue and Barlow Trail SE (same parking lot as Staples) at 0900h Saturday September 24th. This is a rain or shine affair so dress accordingly. (Hawiian shirts preferred). After a quick coffee and planning session, we will head over to Dale's and turn his turning world upside down for a few hours. We have a wooden sidewalk to build, some framing and electrical work, skylight to install, insulation, interior wall boarding and a few shelves to put up. If any member has a hammer and the will to build or even just to hold the other end of a board, please show up for this great CWG project. We still need insulation and 6 sheets of 4X10 x ½ inch wallboarding if anyone can round up any donations you will get a free coffee at TimmyH on Saturday. Contact Dennis Milbrandt at 403-605-8420 for further info and donations.
- Canwood show November 4-6. We need recruits to help with this. Bring your pens for this show if you received blanks from Don West.
- Glenn Summers informed us of a Celebration for the Arts is to be held in Red Deer in October and that submissions need to be in by September 16. Contact Glenn at 403-224-3282 for more information on this event.
- Dennis Milbrandt reported on the Stampede demo which went well. Dennis and Jim O. split shifts for the event.
- The Spruce Meadows November International Craft sale event is on track.
- PRESIDENTS CHALLENGE:
This has been set up by Don West who provided glass inserts (in reality small
vertical sided beer glasses) for $2.00. The challenge is to use the insert
for a vase turned from something in your workshop. Bring in your attempts
to our October meeting and Don will award first, second and third prizes.
The cash goes to our club video fund.
- WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR A MEMBER TO LOOK AFTER OUR NEWSLETTER.
This is a job well within the capability of most of our members. Let's have
someone offer to do this. Call Wilf or Carl.
REPORTS
Secretary-Treasurer - report waived as Carl was absent.
Library -
Exhibitions -
Programs - Jim Osenton reported:
November meeting - Hand Thread Chasing by Jim osenton and Don West
December meeting - Member participation so sharpen chisels!
NOTE: We need a new coordinator to replace John Simard for
Exhibitions (Dave Beeman is ready to assist the new Coordinator) and a member
to take over part of Carl's Secretary - Treasurer duties.
DEMONSTRATION
Don West presented one method of turning burl caps. The following are his notes from this informative presentation:
ONE METHOD OF TURNING BURL CAPS Don West September 6, 2005
Nutshell
Attach a 3" face plate to the outside of the burl cap, turn the piece and replace the face plate with a separately turned foot.
Steps:
1. Drill a 3" flat surface where you want to mount the face plate. This
is easy if you have the perfect tools.
- sturdy drill press set to slowest speed for maximum torque.
- custom bed of 3" (three ply of 1") plywood with holes drilled
to seat the clamps. The holes I use are 9" from centre on a 14 ¾"
square bed. I use two VERITAS hold-down clamps purchased at Lee Valley. These
10" hold-down posts give you 8" of clamping capacity matching the
8" throat capacity. The clamps fit a ¾" hole. These clamps
are wonderful but pricey at $69.50 each. Please consider coming to my shop
and in 15 minutes you are ready to turn your piece.
2. Use six #14 screws which are as short as possible to properly secure the
piece. Pre-drilling the screw holes is recommended else your face plate may
not secure flat to the piece. Having recessed screw holes on the face plate
is a plus. (i.e. on the wood side, not just on the screw side.) #14 screws
fit my face plates perfectly - never use smaller diameter screws.
3. Turn the piece. If you want crisp (non torn) natural edges then sharp tools,
tool selections and turning techniques are key. I prefer to use an Elsworth
shaped (fingernail grind) gouge using the trailing edge vs the leading edge
of this tool. This ensures a fine bite with minimal surface contact. I do
not use it as a bowl gouge is used. I also find that my spindle gouge works
well. After removing the wood desired I use a 1" skew as a scraper to
finish the wing tooling. Kathy Somerville advised me at the meeting that this
is known as negative scraping - a technique used by Allan Batty - an internationally
renowned turner from Britain.
4. Sand the piece. I hand sanded the wings with 220, 320 and 400 grit. Then
I power sanded the bowl to 320 grit with my drill and used 400 grit sand paper
for the final finish. Note: Sanding to 400 grit can be very satisfactory for
most burls. If you are hand sanding with the lathe turning (I prefer highest
possible speed) be cautious that your digits aren't hit!
5. Carefully select a matching wood for the foot, turn it and glue it to the
piece. Avoid selecting a contrasting wood - the foot should not be looking
for attention. Tony Lucas had a good suggestion - centre save the bowl and
use this for the base. In this case, my center save was not a large enough
piece of wood. I made a very bad error when finishing this centre save. When
I approached the centre I slowed the speed but did not stop cutting before
the save popped off. The saved piece caused some chaos - it was struck by
a wing, dislodged a dust collection shroud, which in turn was struck by the
spinning burl. The damage may have been inflicted to me - I was lucky! I should
have stopped the lathe and popped the saved piece off using the tool as a
pry bar.
6. I applied one coat of tung oil to all surfaces.
NOTES:
A. I usually choose a geographically centred spot to mount the face plate.
This will generally mean that the piece is not balanced on the lathe. This
hasn't been an issue on my lathe, but you may want to choose the centre of
gravity for the piece by pre-balancing on the lathe.
B. This process works equally well to showpiece natural edge logs.
C. I have used three turning tools only for my natural edge burls.
1. Ellsworth gouge (or gouge with fingernail grind like Ellsworth) or a spindle
gouge.
2. 1" flat skew for finishing the wings.
3. ¾" rounded profile skew for finishing the bowl.
D. Thickness at bottom of piece is easy to find - it is total gauged thickness
less screw lengths. (Avoid pre-drilling the screw holes too deep.)
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RAFFLE
Kathy Sommerville provided a parting tool for the raffle
and also several pieces of wood were also drawn for.
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NEXT MEETING
Tuesday, October 4, 2005 at 7:00 PM at Black Forest Wood Co.
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AGENDA
Dennis Milbrandt will talk to us about "Esthetic
Design in Turned Vessels"
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Carl