James Brokaw
Frank Bowers turned a long stemmed goblet involving 3 components. He began with the stem using a less expensive piece of cherry so it wouldn't be as painful if it broke. The base and the cup were turned from cocobolo. The audience was on the edge of their seats as Frank turned the 10 inch stem from tail stock to head stock down to 1/8" in small increments. For the last inch of the stem, there wasn't a word said by the 40 people in attendance. At the end the finshed piece was awarded via a raffle drawing to Jack Morse.
Todays class was a two-fer. Bob Brokaw began with a demo of some band saw sleds he made for the club's new Powermatic band saw. He discussed why the need for caution when cross cutting round objects on a band saw. He first demonstrated a dowel cutting sled. He followed that with a demo of cross cutting a log in preparation for a turning project.
Rob Austin then showed how he turns screw driver handles and installs the hardware in the finished piece. There are a large number of choices of hardware to choose from.
Mike Peace demonstrated how he manually uses thread chasing tools to add threads to the lid then the body of a turned box. He then demonstrated the results of a collaborative effort of several members to construct a lathe mounted fixture to cut threads into a box. The device resembled a hybrid of end mill table controls and metal lathe tool post controls mostly made of wood. The end result was remarkable at how fast and easy threads could be applied. Mike has authored soon to be published articles on the topic and wil soon make a video on the topic.
Hans is a master at cutting 3D objects with a scroll saw. He showed numerous objects requiring inside cuts. He followed that with figurines that were mostly outside cuts. He demonstrated in cooking show style finishing cuts of numerous 3D objects so audience members could see the pattern still on the object and how it was taped together. Lastly he amazed the audience by cutting an articulating decorative leaf hinge using a finishing nail for a hinge pin.
Fresh from a first place win at the Georgia National Fair, Butch Davis explained how he designs and develops layers or rings to create complex turned shapes from dimensional lumber. He explained how he uses a grid to layout a design and then cuts rings out of boards that have been prepared for the theme he will use. The concentric rings are cut out of multiple boards using a scroll saw and then stack glued to resemble a rough turned piece before it has ever been turned.
Wayne Martin went through much of the process of how he creates his award winning whirlygigs. He demonstrated his rendering of santa taking a bath before Christmas. He then covered various ways of creating motion by attaching cams to a slowly rotating threaded shaft and then fabricating cam followers out of a variety of wires. Wayne went on to explain a number of ways to transfer motion to the desired direction and distance. He showed a prototyping board he uses to work out concepts until he gets the motion he wants. On the prototyping platform, he had created a multilobe cam from a large plastic washer. He cut away portions of the washer to create lobes of varying height and duration and then created a wire follower that would ride on the cam to cause another wire to cycle up and down as desired. Several audience members derived an "Ahhh Haaa" moment from the demonstration. Perhaps we will soon see some new whirlygigs at show and tell.
In this meeting of the GWA turners Special Interest Group(SIG), Steve Mellott showed the attendees how he turns oval goblets without waiting for the green wood to do it on its own. The process begins with a caarefully machined piece of waste wood. The finished product relies on the squareness of the waste core. Centers are marked on the core. The wood for the 2 halves of the goblet are glued to the core with kraft paper separators. Once the piece is turned round and the center hollowed out, the goblet halves are removed from the core and glued together. Impressive!
Jimmy Rocker demonstrated how he finish turns the exquisite platters he brings to "show and tell". At Jimmy's previous demo, he rougturned some platter blanks and then allowed them to dry. At this session he demonstrated his reasons for cutting a round mortise in the bottom and then dovetailing it. In this way, he can use expansion chucks to hold the workpiece to the jaws. He also demonstrated alternatives to that process with the use of double stick tape and sacrificial glue blocks.
Hans Meier presented a subset of the toy groups he sells on the craft show circuit. He explained many of the features and attractions of the groupings and a bit about how they were made. He went on to give a lot of information about his sources for patterns and what can be done with them. Several of the members also demonstrated toys and patterns they had brought.
Bill demonstrated the process he uses to make laminated Christmas tree ornaments. He begins with a carefully machined cube that he accurately marks centers on before drilling halfway through each facet of the cube. This accomplishes the weight reduction of the body of the ornament without hollowing. Next he glues a contrasting 1/4" thick lamination to each facet of the cube. Before turning, he drills pilot holes in the caps. He turns the ornament body, finishes it and drills an 82 degree taper into the pilot holes to receive the finials.