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Mel Turcanik gave club members a tour of his almost finished converted-barn shop and studio and capped it off with a short demonstration on bud-vase turning. For details click on the Newsletters tab above and take a look at the December, 2007 newsletter. |
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Harmon Pierce Demonstrates
Harmon makes it look so easy. A good turnout on a stormy night did not prevent about 25 members from showing up to
watch Harmon demonstrate his wet-bowl turning technique. Starting with a half of a 10 inch log, he took us through
all of the basics of bandsawing the blank, mounting it in his lathe, roughing and turning the outside, turing a spigot
for reverse mounting for the hollowing process, hollowing, and finally reverse mounting again to finish the foot.
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Bill Beckman Demonstrates Bill Beckman is an avid hobby photographer, has been taking pictures for many years, and has won many blue ribbons. He started his presentation with an explanation on how digital cameras work and how digital technology relates to film technology. He briefly covered shutter speed, aperture size, focus and depth of field, light properties, and ISO settings. After showing us several examples of what makes a picture good(composition and rule of thirds, exposure, focus, etc.), Bill showed and explained his setup for taking pictures of woodturnings, and answered many questions from the club members in the process. |
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We had a good response from members who brought a variety of turning aids and explained how
the aids helped them in very specific situations. Bottle stopper holders,
guides for sharpening round-shafted skews, fixings devices, and measuring aids were well represented.
Show and tell included a pair of cremation urns accompanied by the people who expected to some day inhabit them.
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Bill Beckman Demonstrates
Bill Beckman, an agronomist specializing in researching breeding short-season white corn, has "turned" himself into a
part-time profession pen turner. He presented his method of pen turning, emphasizing mistakes to watch out for,
and made a few to make his point. He makes "cigar" pens exclusively and showed us several home-made jigs and fixtures to help him
produce several pens at a time. This keeps the price he charges reasonable. He is currently making a batch of pens engraved
with bride and groom and date as gifts for a wedding party.
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We devote one meeting every year to help members tune their sharpening skills and solve shapening problems. This year, Harmon Pierce and Lyle Solem led the discussion. |
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It was a storm-warning evening with strong winds and slippery roadways, so it was no supprize that attendence was low.
However, it was a real opportunity for those who did show up at the Rochester Covenant Church, about 10 of us, to socialize and
get to know each other a bit better.
Lyle led the discussion on problem solving. It included what to do with cracked burls, how to hollow out a really unbalanced
beautiful hunk of "who knows what," and a quiz on "what kind of wood is this vase made of?"
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Mel Turcanik Demonstrates
Many of our members are novices or are have narrow experiences in turning. Others have spent a lot of time turning, but haven't taken the time
to learn some of the basics. This is the audience that Mel fine-tunes his presentations to. Starting with a lecture on the basic differences
in turning wet wood and turning dry wood, and there are significant advantages and disadvantages to either approach, Mel then showed us his method
of using sacrificial waste blocks to mount 1-inch thick blanks on a screw chuck for faceplate turning. This allows him to turn a platter using the full
thickness of the blank and to reverse the blank only once, to finish off the foot. After a discussion on wood selecton, and other basics,
we left the chalk board and gathered around Mel's lathe where he turned a small saucer demonstrating the concepts that he had just talked about.
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Wayne Van-Every Demonstrates
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in making a lamp is making the long channel for the lamp's electric cord, or for an optional threaded
rod that holds lamp parts together and provides a channel for the cord.
Wayne told us the mamy ways to do this, and then demonstrated boring with lamp boring bits. This was after he
showed us how to wire a lamp safely, and gave us some ideas on how to approach lamp design. His handouts included sources for lamp parts and shades.
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Dave Dunn Presents
Dave started with a small piece of Corian mounted on a waste block.
Dave uses double-sided fabric tape, frequently described as the mother of all tapes.
The Corian piece was to be a small dish used for spinning tops. Dave turned the topside first and then reversed
the piece to finish the bottom. Dave explained how he used a small drill to mark the center of the piece through the
waste block so that the finishing of the bottom could be adequately centered on the lathe.
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