Cape Cod Woodturners Minutes and News October 2018

Transcription

1 Cape Cod Woodturners Minutes and News October 2018 President Clarke Buchanan welcomed 25 members and guests to the meeting. Feedback needed! There will be a club BOD meeting prior to the November meeting. Let Clarke or other board members know what you do and don't like about the format of club meetings, other content that would be good, etc. At the November meeting, a slate of candidates will be presented for the January 2019 elections. If you are interested in running for any of the offices or director positions, let Clarke know. Upcoming programs and events November will feature Mike Grady doing a Christmas tree demonstration. The Holly Berry Bazaar on Saturday, Nov 10 at the Orleans Middle School benefits Cape Cod Hospital Behavioral Health Expansion. Two years ago at the last Bazaar, wood products sold about $5,000 overall. Please consider donating turnings to this worthy community project by the Orleans Branch of the Cape Cod Hospital Auxiliary. They have already raised $200,000 of their $500,000 pledge toward the project. Either you can price items or ask them to price them. Get your pieces to Clarke ASAP. The CCW December Show and Sale at the Cultural Center is booked. Dave Arnone will be the point person again for the club. A new feature this year will be a $50 and under table for smaller items. Get your lathe cranking so you can participate in the show! We will also have the Great Gifts one day sale of smaller items during the Yarmouth Cookie Stroll. More details to follow soon. The Rhode Island Historical Society has another John Brown Elm tree which will be coming down Oct 24 or 25. They are looking for some of the wood to be turned and returned to them, preferably $50 and under pieces, for their gift shop to raise money to re-landscape the property. Contact Clarke if you are able to help with collecting the wood or turning.

2 Cape Cod Woodturners Presents Mike Mahoney via Remote Demonstration Saturday, October 20, 1-4 pm Plan to arrive at 12:45 for a prompt 1:00 start Cultural Center of Cape Cod 307 Old Main Street, S. Yarmouth Mike will be presenting on the following topics via web-based videoconference: Shear scraping Finishes for woodturners Drinking cup or kuska Platter This is not a static YouTube video! Participants will be able to ask questions live just like you do at a typical demonstration. Suggested member donation $5, non-members $15. Register by contacting Toby Lorenzen at lorenzen@bridgew.edu. Money collected at the door.

3 Marstons Mills Village Day 2018 MMVD was a success with good interest from the public in turning and our club, and $225 in sales from the club tote (unheard of in the past) plus one order. Thank you to those that participated with doing demonstrations, chatting with the crowd, selling turnings from the club tote, handing out 29 tops made by club members, and set-up/clean-up--bob Reynolds, Denis Casaubon, Mike Grady, Robin McIntyre, and Clarke Buchanan. Two bowls were donated to the library as a thank you. Thanks to those who donated tops or stopped by to support the club.

4 September Picnic at Bass Hole Bass Hole in Yarmouth was the picturesque setting for our picnic which 46 members, family, and friends enjoyed. Under beautiful blue skies, we enjoyed good food and good company. Many thanks to Clarke who chaired the event and everyone who helped with cooking and set up and clean up. If you weren't there, hope to see you next year! Resource for October From Dick Silvia and Bob Brooks--check out Premium Plywood at 700 Bearse's Way in Hyannis as a supplier of dry and specialty wood. You can buy wood by the board foot. They also have a good assortment of finishing products, the Rikon line, and will give you internet advertiser's prices, and you save on shipping. Safety tip of the month Richard Wright has a good safety addition in his shop--do you? Packets with sterile gauze are available at meetings if you didn't get one in September.

5 AAW October Tip of the Month Undecided about becoming an AAW member? Click on the MEMBERSHIP tab on the Home page and select Member Benefits. Scroll through this page and read all about everthing that comes with your membership. Like what you see but still not sure? Click on the MEMBERSHIP tab on the Home page and select Be our free GUEST for 60 days! and start experiencing all the wonderful things that a membership gives you. After you ve tried out your free membership, be sure to click on the link at the bottom of this page to see a list of publications and services available to full/paid AAW members. Think about becoming a member. You d be amazed at what you can find.

6 Friends Don't Let Friends Breathe Dust! Hello Fall--the humidity is finally gone! Have you let the dry, cool fall air clear out your shop recently (now you can do it every time you clean up)? Have you blown out your air cleaner and shop vac filters in the last few months? Make sure you have your respiratory protection on when you are doing it, even outside. The Club Tote has gotten lighter due to the sales at Marstons Mills Village Day! If you have some turnings that you would like to donate for club sales, please get them to Clarke. We will get you a donation slip for your taxes along with our thanks. Smaller, inexpensive items tend to sell well. Need supplies? The club has thin and medium CA glue for $8 per 2 oz. bottle, double backed tape for $11 per roll, and end grain sealer for $12/gallon. These are available at meetings. You can also contact Clarke about the end grain sealer. The club makes a small profit on these bulk purchased items but you save! December sawdust session Toby Lorenzen and Bob Beardsley will be offering a sawdust session on making a bowl from a board on Saturday, December 1, from noon to 5. Eat early and join them at Bob s house at 37 Southview Way, E. Falmouth for an afternoon of fun and learning. Contact Toby at lorenzen@bridgew.edu if you are interested. You can participate 3 ways--just watch, bring prepped wood and work on your own glue up, or work on Bob and Toby's glue ups. Check with Toby for advice on prep. Bowl from a board--bob Beardsley and Toby Lorenzen

7 For Sale Rikon VSR lathe in great condition/minimal use, purchased in 4/2016 and replaced in 4/2018. About 3 years left on warranty. 12-1/2" x 24" capacity, electronic VS from rpm, LED display, forward and reverse, 24 position index head, 24" bed extension which expands spindle turning capacity to 44", 8" Rikon toolrest, 4" Nova toolrest, 13" curved toolrest, spur drive, live center, faceplace, 2 wrenches, knockout bar, toolholder, $675. May be seen and tried in Harwich, MA. Contact Marc Sitkin at , marcsitkin@gmail.com. Mentoring program Remember that our club mentoring program is available to all members. About a dozen club members serve as mentors. New turners will be matched with an experienced turner who can help you learn the basics. Experienced turners who want to learn more about a certain technique or project will be matched with a mentor. Sign up for the program on our website or chat with Dave Arnone or Mike Grady who are chairing the program for the club. Learn something new and have fun. Also, if you would like to experience working on a variety of size lathes, let Dave know and he can set up that exposure for you in one shop setting. Remember that we have mentoring for demonstrators, too. In Memory of our friend and fellow turner, Jay Kennedy

8 Show and Tell--bring your successes and questions to share! Beech--Bill Dibella Cherry--Alan Reed Segmented--Denis Casaubon Ambrosia Maple--Robin McIntyre Cherry--Alan Reed Memosa--Clarke Buchanan

9 Myrtle--Ken Whitecross Cedar--Jan Casiello Cherry--Denis Casaubon

10 Featured Demonstration To Turn or Not to Turn, Twice! by Clarke Buchanan Why would you rough turn a bowl, let it dry and then turn it a second time to a finished bowl instead of turning it start to finish all in one session? 1. Wood moves as it dries and when a bowl is turned from green wood, it warps, some woods more than others, causing the bowl to be oval with a rim that is high in some areas and low in others. 2. Some turners only turn green wood start to finish and are very successful doing that. When a green blank is centered on the pith, the bowl tends to warp evenly and is more likely to be pleasing to the eye. When turning a bowl that is not centered on the pith, the resulting shape can be quite off balance and unattractive. 3. Not everyone likes the look of a warped bowl. 4. If you get more green wood than you have time to turn to completion, you can quickly rough turn bowls and avoid having the wood split and become firewood. I suggest turning 1 to finish and 2 or 3 roughed turned each time you turn. This will give you some warm up time at the lathe and very quickly build a supply of rough turned bowls to work from later. 5. Color and character changes as wood dries; Rough turning a bowl tends to stop some of the changes that would otherwise happen if the log were to be left whole. Holly for example will stay white rather than turn grey, brown, pink and blue as it does when left to dry in log form. Rough turning will also eliminate or reduce grey mold in woods with high sugar content.

11 To avoid uneven warping or at least control it to some degree, you can; 1. Turn the bowl from green wood to the finished point and control the drying process by drying it slowly. This can minimize warpage but will not eliminate it. 2. Use kiln dried wood instead of green wood. 3. Cut oversized blanks, coat the end-grain and dry your unturned wood slowly and risk losing it to checking or rotting. Date and mark species--you won't remember! 4. Rough turn the blank and control the drying process. Then turn it a second time to the finished point. This will produce the most evenly round product. When rough turning bowls; 1. Turn a tenon that is larger than you would if you were going to finish it in one session. This will allow you to true up the tenon for re-chucking it after it dries and becomes oval. 2. Leave enough wall thickness in the rough turned blank to allow for the side to side warp and leave enough wood for the finished bowl. This photo shows an example with the second bowl thickness marked on the rim.

12 3. A thickness of 10% is a good rule to follow, i.e., a 10-inch blank turned to 1 inch thick is good, unless it is a wood that goes crazy then it dries, then you will want a thicker wall thickness. The wall thickness can and should be thinner as the bowl diameter becomes less as the shape moves toward the bottom. 4. Other considerations when rough turning blanks; a. What form would you like the finished bowl to have? b. Will you want enough wood at the top for a wide rim? c. Will you want a foot on the finished bowl? d. Are you in a hurry for the finished product? The answers to these questions will guide you in roughing the shape. What to do with the hidden flaws in a rough turned blank? 1. Turning them away is one option, making what ever you were planning smaller and or something entirely different than what you set out to make. 2. Some cracks can be managed with glue, stopping or slowing expansion or running. 3. You can also plan to fill voids and cracks when you do the final turning. (Brass filings, saw dust or shavings of the same wood or contrasting wood, stone dust, coffee grounds.) 4. Interesting cracks and voids can be great features if left as they are, especially in burls. Control the warping and cracking by controlling the drying process. There are several ways to handle the drying. 1. There is the alcohol method where you submerge the turned blank in denatured alcohol for a few days and then wrap it in paper bags for a time. This is quick by comparison to other methods. 2. Boiling is also a quick method. Boiling and the alcohol method both drive the water that is trapped in the woods cells out, causing it to dry quicker. 3. Dry your rough turned bowls in a homemade kiln to speed the drying. 5. Drying the rough turned bowl slowly. a. Coat the end-grain sections of the blank with either a mixture of inexpensive dish soap and water (50/50) or an end-grain sealer like Anchor Seal and set them on a shelf with good air circulation in the open air, or in paper bags for a few months. b. I have had great success with putting the blank in paper bags without sealing the end-grain to slow the drying. I use several bags on very wet or large bowls. I change the bags out for dry ones after a week or so. As the bags get damp I continue to change the bags out for dry ones. After the initial moisture is gone the blanks can be set on a shelf to finish drying without a bag. I use kraft paper for the bowls that are too big for bags.

13 How long does it take to dry a rough turned bowl and how to tell if the blank is dry enough to remain round when turned to finish? 1. You can do like I do and just leave them for years to be sure they are dry. 2. Or, if you weigh your blanks after you turn them and then again from time to time, recording the weight, they will lose weight as they dry and when they stop losing weight, they are dry. (Even the driest of blanks may still change shape some) Re-mounting the blank to complete the bowl once it is dry; 1. A small bowl can be mounted for turning by mounting it between centers with the top of the bowl toward the tailstock and truing up just the rim, flatten the top and round the inside of the rim. Turn a recess in the inside of the bowl to accept the jaws of a chuck expanded into the recess. This allows full access to the outside of the form when reversed and mounted in the chuck with the tailstock out of the way. Shape the outside of the bowl. At this point you have the choice of truing the tenon or cut a recess to fit the chuck when reversed. A recess instead of a tenon will allow you to call the bottom finished at this point if you like, eliminating the need to remount and turn away the tenon and finish the bottom after you have turned the inside of the bowl. I saw this done in a demonstration and thought I would try it at home. The demonstrator had turned the recess down inside of the blank near the bottom of the bowl. While it worked in the demo, my blank was much deeper, and I could not get the chuck key into the chuck once it was inside the bowl. This method will work for small bowls and large bowls if they are shallow.

14 2. For large bowls you can true the outside of the rim and a few inches down the sides and then mount the blank in a Cole jaws. This too will give you clear access to shape the outside of the bowl. Always keep the tailstock engaged as long as possible. Double check the holding power of the jaws before turning off the last bit of wood. Think about using fiber packing tape to help keep the blank on the Cole jaws. 3. My preferred method is to mount the blank between centers with the bottom of the blank toward the tailstock. i. For small bowls I just put the inside of the blank against the jaws of the chuck. You can open the jaws for slightly larger bowls. ii. Alternatively, you can use a donut, danish, faceplate with sticky back sandpaper or a wooded disc mounted on a faceplate or in a set of jaws on a chuck, add sticky back sand paper or a soft foam to the disc for extra drive friction if you need it. Remember that you will be turning away all the inside of the blank so don t worry about scuffing it up.

15 iii. Once you have it mounted, check to see how it rotates. Adjust so that you can get the most out of the blank or more importantly, that it does not become too thin on one side. iv. At this point you have the choice of truing the tenon or cut a recess to fit the chuck when reversed. A recess instead of a tenon will allow you to call the bottom finished at this point if you like, eliminating the need to remount and turn away the tenon and finish the bottom after you have turned the inside of the bowl. v. Now you can rough shape the outside form and then turn it around and refine the outside form, or, turn the outside to its finished shape and hope that it will run true when turned around and remounted. vi. It is also possible to just true the tenon and turn it around and mount it in a chuck and then shape the outside form. This may be more difficult as you will have the headstock to deal with. It will however, give you a good opportunity to practice pull cuts and sheer scrapping. vii. Turn the inside of the bowl. Sand and finish.

16 Thanks, Clarke, for an interesting and informative presentation and a good handout! Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 6:30 at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod 307 Old Main Street, S. Yarmouth Visit our page at Facebook/capecodturners.com Bass Hole photo courtesy of Deb Chase