TIDEWATER TURNER. September meeting highlights MEETING AT 6:30PM NOW!!! Turn-A-Thon Demonstrators. Turnathon. Bill Calliet Tom Meade

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1 TIDEWATER TURNER A CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF WOODTURNERS MEETING AT 6:30PM NOW!!! The Tidewater Turner Monthly newsletter of the Tidewater Turners of Virginia Published monthly by the Tidewater Turners of Virginia, INC 764 Olivieri Lane Virginia Beach, VA VOLUME 10 ISSUE 8 Septembeber 2009 September meeting highlights At our August club meeting we enjoyed watching Fred Williamson s techniques for turning bowls. Fred only turns bowls and talked in depth about his techniques for turning and finishing bowls. During his turning demonstration Fred had chips and shavings flying through the air and a few of our club members decided to participate. OFFICERS President: Al Kiebert Vice President: Jim Vogel Secretary: Connie Shiera Treasurer: Chuck McCoy Board of Directors Bill Caillet Turn-A-Thon Demonstrators Mike DeRousse Reuben Everett Matt Lewis Tom Meade Webmaster Matt Lewis webmaster@ Tidewaterturners.net Bill Calliet Tom Meade Mike DeRousse Cliff Guard Jim Vogel Al Kiebert Designing Celtic Knots Turning Bones Bottle Stoppers Embellishing your work Photographing your work Lathe Accessories Editor Mike DeRousse editor@tidewaterturners.net Next Membership Meeting September 22, 6:30PM Woodcraft Store Janaf Shopping Center, Norfolk, VA Turnathon

2 Page 2 September brings the Annual Turn-A-Thon to our club meeting. Hopefully we will have something of interest for everyone. During our Turn-A-Thon s we do not have Show and Tell or the wood raffle. Come on out and see what is happening and enjoy the evening! The Bi annual Virginia woodturning Symposium is scheduled for October 23rd and Same place as last time, Fisherville, Virginia, straight down I-64. The Symposium will work the same as last time. We will have several rotations of multiple Turning Demonstrations (Mentors). Mixed in with this Alan Lacer will be our Featured Demonstrator and our Featured Virginia Demonstrator will be Tom Boley, who was a recent guest at our club. The Symposium website is up and running and Barbara Dill will be adding info as it becomes available. The web site is: Our club is looking for a few good Turners to lead us into the next year. All Officers and 3 Board position are up for grabs. Help share the load by stepping up and volunteering for a good time in making our club a great club to belong to. Al Keibert President s Notes Shop Talk Notes Summer is almost behind us and I suspect most folks are settling down after what I hope was an enjoyable and productive summer. Therefore, I think it is time to resume our fun with Shop Talk. Shop Talk is a Tidewater Turners program that we started last October. I have received quite a bit of feedback about the usefulness of the event and would like to invite you to participate. How does it work? It is a user driven event dependent upon folks who are willing to share their techniques, lessons-learned, and enthusiasm for wood turning. The event is scheduled from 6:45 9:00 p.m. every other month starting on September 17, 2009 in the lathe room of Woodcraft. Volunteers are scheduled to demonstrate and present material they think is appropriate. The format is generally a round robin type with two-three folks/topics presented, sampled by observers, and discussed. It is intended to be informal and much like you might experience in a friend s shop. Participate and present are the operative words and a must for the program to continue. Although not a complete list, the following are sample topics to consider presenting: The art of sharpening and tool design Self-produced/shop-made fixtures and jigs Making friends with the skew Putting a foot on a bowl Basics of gouge turning (or any other tool) How to turn a finial Turning problems and how to solve them Turning green wood If you are interested in being a presenter/demonstrator then call me at or me at board1@tidewaterturners.net. Matt Lewis Notes from our Den Mother and Secretary, Connie Shiera Dues are: One Year: $25.00 Two Years: $45.00 Sign up for demonstrations & workshops or to teach classes, contact Debbie Glaze, Keep your information updated with me. Address, phone numbers, & s.. If you can be a demonstrator for the upcoming Chesapeake Heritage Days in September or the Newport News Fall Festival in October, please call Ray Kallman or me. At present we have six demonstrators for the September demo at Heritage Days. If you recall, the Chesapeake Heritage Days was previously held in the Chesapeake Library but has moved to the Chesapeake City Park. It will be held September 19th and 20th and is a good opportunity to sell your pieces in an informal and friendly setting. Several members brought items for show and tell but due to the length of Fred Williamson s demonstration, we did not have a formal show and tell or wood raffle. The Hermitage foundation Museum has asked for Ornaments for display during the month of December. These will be in addition to those we have delivered in September. Tom Fisher will collect the ornaments at the November club meeting (the usual rules apply)

3 Page 3 Beginners Corner Portable Sawbuck The idea for this is simple. You plan on going deep into the woods or maybe just the neighbors yard or some other place where a tree is downed. You want to trim logs into blanks to carry home without carrying home waste. This sawbuck will provide a safe way to hold the wood while cutting out blanks. This can be made from 2x4 or 4x4 lumber or some combination of both. I just cut a 2x4 or 4x4 into 12 lengths. Nail them in a crisscross pattern similar to the picture below: The middle channel holds a log for cutting. It is light and easy to carry. For a larger more permanent sawbuck, it could be mounted on legs. Dimensions can be adjusted to suit your needs. (Thanks to the Around the Woods web site: Beginners project Mushrooms I am not sure about you but I have been to several craft shows and fairs where individuals were selling mushrooms made from all kinds of materials in various shapes and sizes. Mushrooms are great practice for tool control and can be done between centers, glue to a block and screwed to a faceplate or you can turn a tenon and chuck them up. First, decide what the finished mushroom will look like, the height, shape, the size of the cap and possibly if you are going to leave a little rim of bark on the edge of the cap. When turning between centers, you start with a roughing gouge to get the stock round. You also use the roughing gouge to create the basic shape of the mushroom cap. You can then switch to a skew to refine the shape of the cap leaving a small portion between the cap and the live center. The stem or stipe is turned in much the same manner. The cap is undercut with either a small gouge, skew laying on its side or a small scraper. Remember, in nature mushrooms have a fairly thick cap so you do not want to get the cap to thin. Next reduce the stem at the top with a small spindle gouge and gently taper it to a larger base. Having finished the tem and the cap, use a parting tool, gouge or skew to narrow the connecting points between the mushroom and the drive centers. Once you have gotten those two point to the smallest diameter you are comfortable, remove the stock from the lathe and cut the two waste section off with a hand saw, bandsaw or possibly with a sharp chisel. You can sand, paint, stain any finish any way you like. For an interesting change try Banksia Pods.

4 Page 4 What is Spalted Wood? Some would say One Man s Junk is another man s treasure. Spalted wood contains all the curiosities of the natural world. It is formed by organisms, stain, mold and decay fungi that are found naturally on the forest floor. When the conditions are right, humidity and temperature, spalting can cause many different and beautiful patterns in rotting wood. These unusual colorizations may be induced by reactions between the wood, fungi and insect deposits. They are often black, pink grey and occasionally multicolored streaks in the wood. Spalting is more prominent in light colored woods like, birch and maple. How to work with spalted wood: It can be very easy to extremely difficult to work with spalted wood. It primarily depends on what stage of decay you caught the wood in. In the early stage of decay there is very little decay and also little to no spalting. The wood is firm and is used like regular wood. As the decay progresses the amount of spalting increases and weakens the wood. Woods that have heavy spalting can break or crumble very easily. Many wood workers and wood turners use cyanoacrylate clue (CA glue) and will saturate the areas of dense spalting to strengthen it. Finishing: Spalted woods can have a tendency to splotch on finishing so most often a clear, de-waxed shellac is used as a sealer. Almost any finish can be applied as a topcoat over this once it has been sanded. Avoid oil finishes, they do not absorb into the wood and you will not get the affect you desire. Health concerns: Spalted wood by its nature is decaying, and therefore it should always be worked and sanded only when wearing a good dust mask or respirator, and using a dust collector. The dust created when working spalted wood has a toxic nature and has a reputation for causing respiratory problems. The fungi or mold that caused the spalting to occur is that triggers the respiratory problems and may result in asthma like reactions that can be severe.

5 Page 5 Turning a Weed Pot by Rex Haslip What is a weed pot? That s a very fair question? My definition is: any vessel for holding a single stem of grass or weed, that isn t a normally accepted vase shape. It s that simple. If it s capable of holding a scrap of grass, a cotton tail or a ear of wheat, then it fits the bill, regardless of shape, or material. Stock Selection When it comes to stock selection, the world is your oyster. There is no such thing as wrong choice. I have used old roots, clean material, bits of branches, and other odd pieces of wood. If it s wood use it. The only thing you really have to grapple with is how you ll hold it on the lathe. Also make sure that if you are turning an odd shaped piece that you watch out for the normal dangers with this sort of turning; barked knuckles, loose clothing, etc. Common sense really. Tools Needed I generally use the following tools to create my masterpieces: 3mm bowl gouge (1/2) inch 6mm bowl gouge (1/4 inch) for detail and neck work 6mm drill (1/4 inch) A Dremel with a sanding drum attachment (optional) And of course my trusty Teknatool 1200 and Nova Chuck In addition, you will need a range of sandpaper. Preparation Preparation for this project really consists of only two activities. Decide where you want the neck to be. This dictates the rotational center of your piece. And then mount your stick in whatever manner you can to rotate the piece with the neck as the center. Procedure I mount the stock between centers, across grain, and turn a spigot on the end that will be the bottom (photo 1). This is then mounted in the chuck. The tail stock can now be moved out of the way (photo 2). Photo 1 Photo 2

6 Page 6 Turning a Weed Pot (cont) by Rex Haslip Now with the piece initially shaped, I rough form the neck to the shape and size, ready for drilling (photo 3). The turning shown here is purely free form. You can make yours in the dimensions and shape that you feel will best present the textures, colors, and features of the wood you are using. I now drill the neck (photo 4). Again the size of the hole is personal. It can be small or large, shallow or deep. The reason that I drill the hole now is that the act of drilling can cause some break away. By drilling before the final shaping of the neck, you can catch any break our and incorporate it in the final design. Photo 3 Photo 4 Now shape the neck (photo 5). I prefer to put a flare on the lip in a traditional style, but again it depends on factors such as which way the wind is blowing and what you had for diner last Sunday night. It is purely your choice. Another shape that can be done is to have a straight neck, and cut the end off on an angle with a small saw later. I now apply a coat of whatever finish I am using. In this case I have used sanding sealer. This was then sanded back and a coat of friction polish was applied (photo 6) Photo 5 Photo 6 At this point you are finished and can part the work off. Here I am using my parting tool made from a power hacksaw blade (photo 7). Photo 7 Finished turning

7 Page 7 This Months Gallery Tidewater Turners of Virginia 764 Olivieri Lane Virginia Beach, VA Monthly Newsletter Come turn with us!