Monthly Newsletter...
October 2007 President’s Message
The October meeting was a great success. Our demonstrator, Ed Swanson, gave us some great tips on making pepper mills. Thanks Ed.
The annual elections were held at the October meeting. The current slate of officers was re-elected to serve another term. The officers are: Michael Holland, President; Rick Drown, Vice President; Collin Gibbons, Treasurer; and David Walser, Secretary.
Stuart Batty will be a guest demonstrator on November 3, 2007, at the Sundial Recreation Center in Sun City. Check the web page for more information. This is a fantastic opportunity to see a truly world class turner. The cost is $20.00, and the club will furnish lunch.
The Symposium committee is gearing up for 2009. Mike Lucckino will give us an update at the November meeting. Get in on the ground floor, volunteer to help.
Avoid the rush, now is a great time to renew your membership for 2008. See Collin at the next meeting to pay your dues.
Michael Holland
October 2007 Vice President’s Message
Hey! Where’s fall? This just isn’t right---record temperatures day after day after day. This is the time of year when it’s supposed to be downright pleasant in the workshop, when your glasses don’t slide off your sweaty nose, when the shavings don’t stick to your sweaty body, but enough about sweat.
Being a retired guy with a flexible schedule, I had the opportunity to take both the two-day and three-day courses offered by Stuart Batty here in the Valley last week. I think everyone knows that Stuart is widely recognized as one of the most accomplished turners in the world today. What you may not know is that his teaching ability is absolutely superb, as is his humor and patience. As a self-taught, left-handed turner, I knew there had to be a better way to make shavings. I had gotten to the point that I could “turn” out pieces that I was comfortable bringing to the instant gallery at our meetings. Heck, I’d even had success selling my work at a gallery in Sedona. That said, my process for producing an “acceptable” turning was to hack it to a roughly finished size and then sand the snot out of it to get my final shape and finished surface to make up for my lack of technical expertise. There were the catches that mystified me---I knew I had done something wrong, but often didn’t have a clue as to what that something was. Sharpening was also a mystery. I thought I had solved the sharpening problem when I bought a jig system. A jig makes a beautiful looking cutting edge, but you can get one scary tool if you don’t understand how the angle you grind affects the performance of the chisel or gouge. Yup---made myself one of those gouges that superman couldn’t have controlled, but it looked great! Then I took Stuart’s classes.
Back to the basics. During the two-day class, Stuart covered all the various cuts required to do both spindle and bowl turning. He would demonstrate, we would practice. Practice was something I hadn’t done very much of. My modus operandi was to get a really nice piece of wood, and try not to screw it up. I quickly learned in class that there is no substitute for practice. And practice we did---every day, five students generated two 55-gallon bags of shavings! We learned what tools to use for various cuts, proper stance, body and tool position, sharpening techniques, the effect of grain direction on surface finish, and SAFETY. We all know that a chunk of spinning wood is capable of doing some significant damage if it comes loose. Stuart emphasized safety constantly, from proper speed (fast, but not scary-dangerous) to chucking techniques and tailstock usage. During the three-day class, we had the opportunity to continue to practice various cuts in addition to actually making some finished items.
Now that the classes are over, I’ve had time to reflect on what I learned. First and foremost, I wish I had gotten some formal hands-on instruction years ago. I realize how much further ahead I’d be at this point, and how much more enjoyable turning over the years would have been. It’s one thing to watch someone turn, it’s another thing to turn while someone knowledgeable is watching you and providing feedback. A point Stuart made was that if you took ten people, gave them no instruction, and told them to become woodturners, at the end of ten years, all ten would have learned to turn, but each person would have developed a different technique. Assuming those folks had extremely long lives and continued to turn for the next one hundred years, they eventually would all have developed the same technique. His point was that woodturning is an ancient art, developed over hundreds of years, and that there is one way to make each type of cut correctly. Bottom line: you can save yourself a lot of time and frustration by not trying to reinvent the wheel. I also intend to make practice a big part of my turning experience. I’m going to find wood I don’t love and turn it into shavings!
So where does this leave us? Stuart is headed back to Colorado and we weren’t able to clone him while he was here. That said, we have some very talented folks in our club. If what I shared with you about my turning experience strikes a cord, I would urge you to find one of our local gurus to get some hands-on instruction. If you are one of those folks who knows the correct techniques and wants to share your expertise, you may be one of the gurus who could greatly benefit the new folks who are learning to turn before they try to reinvent the wheel.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Rick
Web Site Information:
Our website
has some beneficial links. Some connect you to local
woodturners and businesses. Others, such as “Buy Tools” and “Arizona
Woodturner’s Merchandise” can benefit the club. When you buy a tool or an
article of clothing at the above mentioned links the club gets a percentage of
the purchase price. We are all looking for good deals on tools and clothes.
What could be better than getting a good item at a fair price and part of the
cost going to your woodturning club?
All pictures taken at our monthly meeting will be
placed in the photo album. Only pictures with a name on the bottom of the
turning and paid members will have pictures placed in the photo album. We can
save each months picture through out the month this way. To see the pictures,
click on the Photo Album link, and when that opens, click on the Gallery link.
These pictures will still be added to your personal photo album.
Our Buy Tools page is still working the same way. If
you are going to purchase a tool, and it is shown on our Buy Tools page. Going
through this area to purchase your tool helps out our club. We get a small
return on each purchase and so far it has been paying for our web site. Keep
up the good work.
Pictures in the Photo Gallery can be enlarged by clicking on them and then
clicking a second time to see the full size picture. Once a quarter, the older
pictures will be deleted to make room for the newer pictures. This helps keep
our web site speed at it's best quality.
You
can now purchase Arizona Woodturners logo items through our products link.
This includes, shirts, sweatshirts, caps and more.
Arizona Woodturners Merchandise
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