ZVW Displays and Demonstrates at the 2014 Rochester Woodcarvers Show on March 22nd and 23rd.

Each year the Rochester Woodcarvers hold a two-day Woodcarvers Show in the 4 H building at the Olmsted Co. Fair Grounds to display their handiwork.

We thank the Rochester Woodcarvers for welcoming the Zumbro Valley Woodturners to join in this event to display our turnings, demonstrate on the lathe and educate the public in the art of woodturning.

Lyle Solem, Mike Schmidt and Chuck Grimm answering questions at our display table.

ZVW volunteers also demonstrated woodturning on our Club's small lathe. We turned honey dippers, holiday ornaments, finger tops, small bowls and other objects to give away to the crowd.

John Thorson turning a small bowl for someone

The Zumbro Valley Woodturners club donated several turnings to the collection of items on the raffle table that the crowd could bid on. All money collected in the raffle is used by the Rochester Woodcarvers to pay for this show, there was no attendance charge.

Raffle table at the Woodcarvers Annual Show

One of our club members, Chuck Grimm, gave away one of his hand-made lamps with a turned Boxelder lampshade. You may have to zoom in on this photo to see it in the center of the front row. This turning had a very full 'bid bag', very generous Chuck!

Our Volunteers at this Event

Lyle Solem and his wife Donna
Dale Eppen
Chuck Grimm
Mark Bherends
Mike Schmidt
John Thorson
Bob Post and his wife Karen
Dave Dunn
Jerry Huneke

A big thank you to Chuck Grimm who took on the organizational responsibility required to make this project a success for our club.

April 24
"Carving on Your Turnings"

by Cherl Jones and
Ron Jensen.

Rod introduced power carving by discussing the various types of systems on the market and when he would use a rotary system as opposed to an impact system.

Ron prefers the results of the power carver (impact) system and uses this type of tool whenever appropriate.

Ron discussing carving systems and his approach to relief carving on a bowl

Ron shared details on his approach for the layout of a pattern and working with the wood grain of a bowl surface for relief carving. As in all types of woodworking Ron had to go to plan-B and modify his design a bit to work on this bowl. Keeping his tools sharp was very important to getting a clean cut.

Relief carving example by Ron on a Silver Maple bowl

Cheryl introduced the club to carving on our turnings using hand tools.

Although Cheryl also demonstrated the traditional triagular-chip form of chip carving she used a free-form, flowing line style of chip carving on her bowls.

Cheryl educating in traditional chip carving techniques

Cheryl discussed the various knives she prefers for each carving technique, her approach to each type of cut and how she sharpens her hand tools.

Cheryl has an acquaintance that helped design her patterns on computer so they could be scaled to fit the piece and printed in a manner that she could transfer to the bowl with a small iron. Using this technique Cheryl transferred the same pattern to two bowls, carving one in reverse of the other creating a very different visual affect.

Intricate pattern Cheryl is carving on a Basswood bowl

Show and Tell for this month

Education hour for this month

Todd began using his table top micro lathe after a skiing accident made it hard for him to stand at a standard full size lathe. Although now healed Todd still favors this small lathe for ornaments and pens.

Todd Turning While Seated at Micro Lathe

Todd had a wealth of information on how to turn an object of this type efficiently, safely as well as how to avoid all of those things that could go wrong when turning an object with an internal void.

Part of the trick to making a good rattle is to get the walls thin enough to produce a good sound but still thick enough to be strong. Todd mentioned the diameter required to keep the rattle from being a choking hazard to an infant and this point is stressed in the Nick Cook article too.

Question and Answer Portion

Show and Tell for this month

Education Hour
Bonnie Klein
ABC Woodturning Basics

Education Hour
Lyle Jamieson
AAW Winter 2006 Article
How to Avoid a Catch

In the presentation hour of the June club meeting David Svien shared his knowledge of the characteristics of the wide variety of tree species common here in south eastern Minnesota.

The Minnestoa DNR lists 65 deciduous and 21 confierous species of trees for our area. David discussed most of these including those species few of us have considered for turning.

David answering questions

David also reviewed two reference books we have in our club library on the topic of identifying and understanding wood.

Highly Recommended by David
Understanding Wood
by R. Bruce Hoadley

Audio recording of this presentation

Show and Tell for this month

Many other other woodturning clubs in America have either invited Jimmy Clewes in to demo his techniques or done their own version of his Oriental Box demo. So it is not surprising that the ZV Woodturners put this topic on the agenda for our July, 2014 monthly meeting.

Jimmy Clewes holding his Oriental Box in a shot from his Turn it On DVD set

John approached the task with a goal of eliminating tear-out on the interrupted cuts of a winged object by working with the grain as much as possible. A 1/2 inch bowl gouge was selected due to its ability to resist vibration. The gouge was sharpened with a 40 degree bevel angle and the heal of the bevel ground back to give a clean cut and turn a tighter radius.

The winged box would be cut as if it were two bowls...

Basic desing and plan of attack

Number 1 in the photo above: push cut the underside of the wing as if it was the inside of a bowl

Number 2 in the photo above: push cut the outer surface of the box as if it was the outer surface of a bowl

Number 3 in the photo above: push cut the upper surface of the wing as if it were the outside of a bowl

Sharp tools and a relatively fast lathe speed helped made the cuts easier to do in the time allowed. John admitted that we would not normally turn a side-grain obect at over 2,000 rpm.

Design prototype for this demo

Video recording of this presentation

Show and Tell for this month

Education Hour for this month
A review of basic bowl turning tools and techniques

Tim Sullivan is formally trained in wood finishing.

Tim Sullivan presenting

His mentor, Bob Flexner, has written many books on the subject of wood finishng.

The Bob Flexner book referenced in this presentation

Tim gave us a quick overview of all of the many types of finishes we might choose to use in our various wood turnings. The discussion included information on what what was in the can as well as how the finish worked and stood up over time.

The first category discussed were the solvent based wood finishes; primarily lacquer and shellac. There are a variety of solvents used to deposit lacquers on the wood surface but alcohol is the primary solvent used for shellac. A solvet not only deposits deposit the finish on the wood as it evaporates but it can also be used to repair or renew the finish as Tim demonstrated by roughing up a finish and then repairing it using a French Polishing technique.

Tim's documentation on surface finishes

Blonde shellac flakes

Next were the finishes that cured, mainly varnishes but some varnish and oils mixes. Some of these finishes cured in the wood while others cured on the wood. This category was very broad covering a wide variety of finishes from chemically complex plastics to those based on the traditional resin varnishes and turn or other polymerized oils.

What is in a name? As it turns out, nothing. To find out what is really in any of these finishes one must read the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on the product.

Waterlox familiar finish to club members

We ran out of time before getting to the final category, the oil finishes.

Tim's documentation on oil finishes

Question and Answer Time

Show and Tell for this month

September 25th
Annual Picnic

Joe Grimm presented the turning, drying and finishing techniques he uses to create his wooden cowboy hats.

Joe discussed various cowboy hats, both full sized cowyboy hats large enough to wear and mini hats.

Joe turning a mini cowboy hat during the demonstration part of the presentation..

The event was well attended, members had been waiting eagerly for this event.

Perfect fit!.

Show and Tell for this month

During the social portion of the event each club member as well as their guests were all introduced.

As always the Show and Tell sharing time was very lively with many questions and suggestions coming in from the expanded crowd.

Show and Tell for this month

One topic was wood butter, a mixture of beeswax and oil. The oils used by members were walnut oil or mineral oil and the mixes ranged from 4 parts oil to 1 part wax for thicker paste to 6 parts oil to 1 part wax for a creamier butter. Many instructions for mixing your own wood butter can be found on the web, most often on cooking sites where the focus is on care of your wooden spoons.
Home made spoon butter

Another question of note was on where the closest woodturning museum was. The best answer to this is the American Association of Woodturners Gallery of Wood Art in the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. There is a live demo of wood turning every Sunday from noon to 3, a hands-on section that is very family friendly and the main exhibit is constantly changing. Check the Gallery web site for details on the current exhibit, hours for the day you intend on visiting, parking suggestions and other details. Admission is free and AAW membership is not required.
AAW Gallery of Wood Art