Some Neat Stuff

Beaver made pond near Rock Lake, Ontario. Such beauty in late summer.

Painted kids in summer.

Cedar woods near Pickering. Magical.

Nelson turning at Lyndhurst Fair

Bed too short?

I needed to turn a tenon on some 45 inch long legs but my lathe is only 36 inches long!
So I clamped a board to the top and Voila! I have a longer bed. This worked fine for the tenon only but if some serious turning had to be done one would have to use a much beefier board.

Sheepdog Trials 2011

Kingston Woodturners is back at the Kingston Sheepdog trials. We had a good Saturday with quite a bit of interest. Here Percy is wowing the audience.

Another view.

Here I am making tops which have been great sellers at the fair. Since they are relatively quick to demonstrate they can be sold for a few bucks only and the viewers get to take home what they watched being made.

Process starting

Here are some of the blanks after bandsawing into circles. I drape wet rages over them to keep them damp and stop checking.


Here is the first of many blanks mounted and ready to rough turn into a bowl blank. Mounted between centers with a drive mounted in a Oneway chuck on the drive end.
I tried to core some of the curly maple but my motor is not strong enough. The straight grain wood of the same specie works fine but the curly wood is just too hard and tough and continually binds or rips the wood out of the chuck jaws. (I have large jaws for this purpose but still too much strain.)

First time turning

Grand daughter Victoria and her audience brother. Victoria is turning her second vase from butternut, the results are below. Good work Victoria.


I am still looking for the test tube inserts which I know I have but which have been misplaced.

Wood collecting

This huge old sugar maple tree had a big branch blown off in one of the spring wind storms. The owner of the tree contacted Herb and let him know and it turned out to have some very highly figured curly grain. Trees produce curly grain to reinforce vulnerable spots and this branch was huge which created a large area of curly hard maple wood.

Yes, those saws are too small. And one will not start! On top of that my saw chain was too far gone to sharpen any more so we had to return to pick up the last pieces. Still enough to keep me busy for quite a long time!

Butterflies

Just some amazing butterfly pics. Shot with my Ipod so quality is poor but the Ipod is always there, so...

Making Woodburner Pens Workshop

I had ten woodturners sign up for a "make your own woodburner" workshop. We used car battery chargers connected to light dimmer switches as the power supply. Then we made handpieces on the lathe.
As you can see from the above picture my workshop is a busy looking place.
Many thanks to Harry who arrived with a completed woodburner but was a great help with the electrics. Sorry about your charger Ron. I'm sure you will get a charge out of the story sometime...


The resistance wire I used was from a stainless steel boat cable as used for stays. One multistrand cable provides a plethora of wire for the pen tips. This design is from the Graeme Priddle style self made brands. The bit of extra copper acts as a heat sink to keep the heat away from the operator. However it also reduces the operator's control over the burn. So more sophisticated burners can be made - stay tuned.
Using fine brass tubing will enable one to get the tip closer to the operators hands.
Here is a link to a full description of the woodburner we were copying: Graeme Priddle style wood vaporizer.

Brilliant Idea Brush

Sometimes an idea so simple comes along and solves multiple associated problems. Here is such an idea. Not totally original but applied here it makes a lot of sense.
I have been using an oil finish on the bowls I turn for many years and have found that I like Minwax brand antique oil about the best. Once cured it is food safe. It has more durability than Tung oil and a little less shine, both factors that appeal to me.
I have been using small rags to apply the oil, usually three coats means three oily fire hazard rags that need to be carefully disposed of to avoid spontaneous combustion.
In order to apply the oil with a rag one has to use vinyl gloves to keep hands oil free. Using this foam applicator technique avoids that as the applicator can be easily held without getting oil on ones hand.


The clip is a four for a dollar paper clip. I cut the foam from a piece of 1/2 inch foam received as packaging. The used foam applicators are discarded into the empty cup I used to hold the oil.
Why didn't I think of this before?

Preparing root stock for turning

Here I am washing a Japanese yew root. Colours are spectacular.
As one can see the root ball is full of hair roots that hold the soil.
I use a pruner to cut off the small roots.

A definite summer activity. One gets a bit wet.
Here is a yew root.

More On Graeme Priddle in Kingston

Just some shots and comments about the demonstration evening.
Before the crowd arrived members of the Kingstonwoodturners executive and Graeme sat down to a nice dinner which Janet had been kind enough to prepare for us. With comfy surroundings it was nice to see Graeme get a chance to unwind a little before the evenings demonstration.
He talked about the safety issue around woodturning and stressed that one has to think safe rather than stress safety equipment. There have been three deaths recently all attributed to woodturning and all the turners had on the appropriate safety gear.
Remember to stand aside when you start that lathe!



Here he is. Ride em cowboy! (Actually he is a sailor. Do they windsurf down in NZ?)

Show a tool to some people and you have their attention.


Just a nice shot of a very personable guy.

Here is a view of the shop. I was worried that we would not have enough room but since we had a relatively small audience (17) all went very well.


This is Graeme in his "carving position". He reckons he uses the lathe to shape 10% and hand carves the rest.
Thanks for a brilliant evening Graeme.

Priddle Does Kingston

Graeme Priddle came to Kingston for an evening demonstration. He was going to do off center woodbowl turning but when he saw my woodlathe sitting untethered, he reckoned we would be watching the lathe dance out the door, so we decided to go with a smaller demo of creating his signature small boat forms as seen in the photo below.


Some of Graeme Priddle's carved work which he brought as samples for viewing. It must be sculpture if it has a hole in it.
Graeme was a very entertaining demonstrator. He started off by telling about where he got his inspiration. I reckon NZ must be quite inspirational.

Here he is demonstrating woodcarving with his self made woodburner using an underpowered electrical source. Did raise some smoke though.


This shows the woodburner handle.