Cape Cod Woodturners Minutes and News May 6, 2015

Transcription

1 Cape Cod Woodturners Minutes and News May 6, 2015 The May meeting started at 6:40 following a pre-meeting hands-on demo by Jim Silva and tool sharpening tutoring by Mike Grady. President Clarke Buchanan welcomed 26 members and guests to the meeting, pushed the sale of wood raffle tickets, sandpaper, end-grain sealer and CA glue. Steve Patzman bought, sorted and bagged sandpaper for the club members to buy. Each bag has an assortment of grits from 100 to 400 and is a great value at $3.50/bag. You can buy a bag at the next few meetings where you can also buy end-grain sealer and CA glue. Thanks to Steve for handling the sandpaper, Wayne Shepard for getting the glue and Mike Gould for bringing in the sealer. Aside from the wood in the wood raffle, there were small blanks of Maple and Walnut for sale thanks to Bob Reynolds. Bob donated the wood with the intent that the proceeds from the sales would pay for the materials needed to build display shelving for the Club Tote. Mike Grady will be building the shelves and they will be available for the next club event where we plan to sell turnings. A big thank you to Bob and Mike! Clarke and the members congratulated Harrison Evans for being accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design where he will be attending in the fall. We all look forward to Harrison s growth as an artist. Congrats Harrison! Safety tip of the month--make sure that you know enough about your tools before you use them--know about safe operation and the hazards to be aware of. Remember, when you are set to do something and it does not feel safe, DON T DO IT! Our club copy of AAW's Safety for Woodturners book and it is available for anyone to borrow. Pick it up at the meeting or call Clarke to get it any other time.

2 Treasurer Toby Lorenzen reported that we have about $1200 in the treasury after all expenses were paid for the April professional demonstration day. There was discussion about the recent Professional Demonstration and the Hands-on Day by Cindy Drozda. On Saturday, April 18 th 36 members watched Cindy demonstrate an Ikebana vase, a multi-axis hollow form, and her signature finial box. On Sunday, 6 turners had the opportunity to work with Cindy, one-on-one, each making the Finial Box with Inlay (pictured). Clarke thanked Mike Grady for his enormous part in making the two day event happen so flawlessly. He also thanked Wayne and Max for opening their shop and property to us, Bob and Betsy Reynolds for hosting Cindy in their home, Robin for her Everything She Does, the members who loaned their lathes and tools and all of the members who helped clean up, set up, clean up and set up again as well as the final cleaning and putting machinery back in place in Wayne s shop. Comments on the demonstration were favorable and the members that the Program Committee heard from have said that it was a great experience and that they felt it was well worth the time and money. Clarke detailed the cost of hosting the demonstration and asked for comments about the cost to the club and how we might reduce the cost to the club treasury. Saturday s demo cost $1, to put on. 35 Members paid $35 each or $1, total leaving a balance of $ for the treasury to pay. Sunday s Hands-on demo cost $ to put on. The six participants paid $90.00 each for a total of $ and the club paid the $ balance. It has been the club s policy to subsidize the professional demo days to keep the price of admission affordable for all members. Suggestions for reducing the cost to the treasury were; Raise the price of admission. Find ways to reduce the cost (hire local demonstrator to reduce travel expense, provide a less expensive lunch and snacks etc.) Increase the number of participants at the demo by having it at a larger venue. Raise extra money for the treasury with special item raffles. (Tools, Gift Certificates, 50/50 raffle)

3 Raise money by having members donate Exquisite Turnings to be auctioned off. (this suggestion was post meeting) Mike Grady, Chairperson for the Program Committee, plans to have an in-house demo day as a fundraising event next summer. The concept is to have 6 demonstrators present short demos. The President suggested that the conversation about how to reduce cost and/or raise funds be continued over the course of the next few months to give members time to think about it and to include members who were not present at this meeting. Pilot Program on Sharpening and Tool Control The grinder was available at 6:00 before the meeting to assist members with sharpening tools they brought in. Mike Grady was assisting with the sharpening while Jim Silva was demonstrating cuts with a detail gouge and doing hands-on teaching with members. (If these pictures look familiar that s because I am recycling them from last month s newsletter due to the lack of a photographer. Just imagine that it is Mike at the grinder and Jim at the lathe. Miss you Robin.) Upcoming programs and events Mike Grady and Jim Silva will be putting on a sawdust session May 30th, 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM at Mike Grady s shop. The session will focus on shop made jigs that enhance the utility of the Wolverine Sharpening System. There will be jigs for setting up the Vari-Grind as well as the Wolverine Platform. These jigs make sharpening a breeze, guarantee repeatable grind angles, and save money. Mike will also have, for those who would like one, his version of a Wolverinestyle sharpening jig. It's made out of wood and it works extremely well. So well in fact, that Mike never bothered to buy the commercial version. Jim Silva will be demonstrating a natural edge bowl at the June meeting. AAW 2015 Symposium is June is in Pittsburg, PA. See the program at Jim Silva is planning to attend and will bring our bowls for the AAW ReTURN to the Community project. Please bring your donation to the June meeting or arrange to get it to Jim.

4 July demo is TBD. In August, Art Jalbert will be turning decorative mushrooms at the club meeting. Show and Tell Sorry, I don t have pictures of the show and tell items; our club camera girl is out in the world scouting turning stock. Somewhere in Michigan. Featured Presentation-- Mike Gould on turning platters. Mike turned two platters, one round and one square. The process was pretty much the same for both. For the round platter Mike had marked the center and drawn a circle and cut the blank round on his band saw at home. (You can also just knock the

5 corners off with a saw.) With the center marked, the blank was mounted between centers with the bottom of the platter towards the tailstock. First Mike turned the outer edge round and trued up the bottom. Mike roughed the profile of the outside of the platter, much like you would a bowl. (Plan to leave a large foot on the platter and shape it now). Next was to turn a tenon to fit the chuck jaws and then turn the platter around and mount it on a chuck. After turning the platter around, he made his finishing cuts on the outside profile and would have sanded it if it were not a demo. Mike then trued the rim of the platter and determined the width of the rim. At this point you can choose to decorate the rim with beads, grooves or as Mike did, burn rings around the face of the rim. To burn the rings, wrap copper wire around a dowel with some of the wire crossing the end of the dowel. Press the wire into the wood as it spins on the lathe. Mike removed the wood from the inside of the platter as you would a bowl, just much shallower! Final shape, finish cuts and sanding. To remove the tenon and make the finish cuts on the bottom, Mike chucked a scrap block and turned a friction drive with the face slightly rounded over and covered it with a piece of foam. Centering the platter on the drive using the point on the live center of the tailstock with modest pressure, Mike cleaned up the bottom of the platter and turned away most of the tenon. The small nub left on the bottom was knocked off and cleaned up with skew chisel. Turning the Square edge platter was done the same way with these differences; o The blank was perfectly square. o The outer profile was turned leaving the four corners where the rim would be. (leave the rim thicker at this time) o Mike turned the inside of the platter leaving the top of the bowl proud of the rim. (a good place for a bead or other decoration) o Mike took extra care to keep his knuckles on the right (proper) side of the tool rest. You should too! Many thanks to Mike for a great demonstration!

6 Check the club website for ongoing, updated information and previous newsletters-- Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 6:30 at the West Barnstable Community Building 2337 Meetinghouse Way, Route 149 W. Barnstable, MA