West Bay Woodturners Newsletter is a monthly update on the club activities. This free resource is available to beginner and professional woodturners.
Next Meeting
Wednesday August 7,
picnic at Cuesta Park,
Mountain View.
Program
The joint SVW/WBW annual picnic will be held on August 7, 2024, 5pm-8pm, Cuesta Park, Mountain View. Entrance is on Cuesta Dr.
President’s challenge:
No challenge for this month since it’s the picnic, but here’s one you can work on for September…
Make a tool or jig based on an idea you got at the last meeting on home made tools and solutions. Then use it and show the results, your thoughts on it, etc. It can be for solving a technical issue, create an embellishment, a texture… Get creative with your problem solving skills!
Upcoming Meetings and Demos
- August 7: picnic at Cuesta Park, Mountain View.
- September 18 meeting: tbd – Ideas anyone?
- October 5 (Saturday) demo: Eric Lofstrom, details to follow
President’s Message
It’s good to be back. Summer wood camp in Fort Bragg was a blast. I got to appreciate a different pace of work, aimed at producing the highest craftmanship possible. Not that I always succeeded at it, but there were many general lessons worth carrying to woodturning. A big one is to slow down and not worry about time or deadlines, and guess what happens? You get more focused, make less mistakes, and without really spending that much longer you get the best quality of work one can achieve! Who would have tought: slow down in order to get there faster with less mistakes and better results! Other tidbits: reduce risk and uncertainty by making mock-ups, practice a new technique or tool on scraps, take the time to properly set up a jig or support for your work or tool, you will be rewarded with better and more predictable results… I’ll share more on Slack as I think about it.
Claude Godcharles
Last Meeting Review
Wednesday July 17, 2024
Woodturners newsletter notes by Laura Rhodes, pictures by Angela Gunn and Roman Chernikov
Announcements
- guests: David Mince and John Perin
- The joint SVW/WBW annual picnic will be held on August 7, 2024, 5pm-8pm, Cuesta Park, Mountain View. This will take the place of our regular August meeting. There will be a show and tell. No alcohol is allowed in the park.
- Eric Lofstrom demonstration will be Saturday, October 5, 10 am – 5 pm at Maker Nexus. Personal lessons with Eric will be available Sunday, October 6, in the morning. If interested, contact Jerry Galli.
- Randy Pi’s personal turned art collection tour will be August 16, 7 – 9 pm. Spaces are still available.
A Discussion About Homemade Tools and Jigs
Several club members shared homemade tools and fixtures from their own shops.
Angela Gunn
- off-center turning fixture (a.k.a. Dux chuck) from Woodturning Magazine. It is held in place in a chuck with only two opposing jaws installed.
Jim Koren
- 3d printed tenon and mortise jig.
- 6-slot sandpaper holder with removable lids which help keep track of the current grit.
Dave Vannier
- laser engraved Jimmy Clewes-style tenon sizer that sits on the tailstock.
- a laser-cut gauge for the One-way coring system. It fits on the center post and shows the depth and thickness of the cutter. If desired, Dave can provide a PDF file.
- a doughnut chuck for working on the bottom of bowls
Kelly Smith
- sphere making jig. One piece goes over live center in the tailstock, the other goes into the chuck. It is also useful to hold the bowl to rework its bottom.
Bob Bley
- sphere cutting jig that cuts 20″ sphere to 2” sphere.
- vacuum chuck
- homemade hollowing tools using Easy Wood finisher and Easy Wood hollower cutters. Bob started with straight steel and heated it up with a torch to bend. He also has custom spacers for the tool rest to keep the tool at the correct height.
Jerry Galli
- Bandsaw jig for cutting round bowl blanks.
Daniel Saal
- Angled dovetail tenon cutter at correct angle for chuck.
Chip Krauskopf
- ER 32 collet handle system from robust tools with homemade handle with different sized collets from 3/8” to 3/4”.
- Golden Ratio tool
- Homemade vacuum chucks made from MDF (sealed with shellac), PVC pipe, nut to fit headstock purchased from McMaster-Carr and Fun Foam from Michaels.
- 3-D printed wall holders to hold vacuum chucks
Steve Dahout
- Various jigs based on wooden morse tapers. Steve has a Jig for making MT2 devices. Examples include a light pull drive and a head stock cleaner.
Kevin Lee
- MT2 jig with Roloc connector for holding sanding disks in headstock.
- Band saw sled to hold logs with T-slot.
Tom Mandle
- homemade tool rest
- Homemade thickness gauges
- centering tool for mounting faceplates
- jig for setting the proper tool insertion length in the sharpening jig.
- Jig for setting the proper table saw angle for segmented cutting.
- Under-lathe cabinet with retractable wheels using trailer jacks and W B D Weibida leveling casters. Strong enough to lift and move Powermatic lathe.
Ed Howes
- Jig used to help Center wood bowl blank on lathe.
Dean Caudle
- vacuum chucks with wood threads.
Bob Bley
- Dremel dust blower with foot pedal to blast air. Uses a Luer lock coupler on the air hose.
- carving station with downdraft and compressed air.
- Bosch carving stand
- Arms to position lamps at any angle.
- Using a small spring clamp as a Band saw tensioning reminder.
- cardboard on all horizontal metal surfaces to prevent green wood shavings from causing rust.
- ceiling mounted pedestal fan with remote switch.
- Hollow form dust collection system consisting of a compressed air gun inside the dust collection hose – allows clearing of hollow form interior without spraying shavings everywhere.
- Black hole dust collector system.
- Chain saw table at lathe height. Has a sacrificial top velcroed down (no screws). Winch lifts log onto the table, but then can drag piece directly onto lathe.
- wood drying rack in the crawl space under his house (built on a hill).
Al Holstein
- glue spreaders from plastic containers.
Mike Lanahan
- TPU (Thermoplastic polyurethane) vacuum chucks with flexible seals.
- 3d printed custom soft jaws
- 3d printed steady rest
- 3d printed face plates
Jon Bishop
sanding station on lathe.
Presidents Challenge: embellish a turning with holes
Drill holes at regular intervals using the indexing wheel on your lathe. Make holes of different sizes in random positions. Fill the holes with accent wood dowels, or resin… Let’s see how creative you can get around this “boring” idea.
Dave Vannier showed a Redwood Bowl with pierced butterflies and a painted bottom. Turning took 2 hours, layout / design took 3 hours, painting took 2 hours and piercing took 20 hours.
Tom Gaston showed a torched fir bowl made for orchids with drilled and burned holes for the orchid’s roots.
Cherry bowl with dots by Tom Mandle.
Chip Krauskopf missed the meeting for showing spindle turnings. He brought a Go board with 4 turned feet and an inlaid copper game grid.
Show & Tell:
Jerry Galli made a Black walnut Bowl with an undercut lip, coated with 3 coats of General Finishes Bowl Finish.
Edgar Whipple got small pieces of ironwood from Claude G. He experimented to see if Titebond glue would successfully hold ironwood to a glue block. He used new carbide tools and made a small vitamin holder bowl. He also made a small olive Bowl. Edgar was excited to have successfully bid on 3 Bob Stockdale pieces and, in honor of that, he turned his own Stockdale-style bowl from a piece of redwood decking.
Jon Bishop turned a Richard Raffan style square platter. The edges sanded back so they are more visible.
Tom Gaston had lemon tree wood from a neighbor’s tree. He made three twice-turned bowls and a goblet from a branch.
Tom Mandle made a cherry bowl with a wide rim. The rim featured holes made with a Dremel tool and filled with epoxy. Tom also made a madrone bowl but, unfortunately, got a catch and the pieces flew everywhere. He gathered the pieces and glued them back together. Now he has a Japanese kintsugi-style bowl.
Kelly Smith shared several pieces, including: two madrone bowls; a large cypress bowl with handles; Tulip poplar plates; a Tulip poplar natural edge bowl; an olive natural edge bowl; and a Black acacia mushroom.
Jim Koren made an Oak bowl with the outside ebonized with a solution of staples soaked in industrial strength vinegar.
Daniel Saal brought a large walnut bowl with a smaller bowl made from its core. The larger bowl was finished with Acks The smaller one with Mahoney’s oil.
Bob Bley turned a Pink ivory bowl with the blank coming from Dave’s estate sale. Jon Sauer did ornamental turning in the bowl. It was finished with Tried & True and it will be given to Dave’s widow. Bob also Turned a Black walnut bowl with a malachite rim. Buffed using the Beall Buffing System. In addition, Bob turned a large blue spruce bowl from a neighbor’s tree (which still smells like pine) and showed a large, delicate Buckeye burl slab with a birch tree design carved and filled with stone.
“As the Wood Turns” by Audre Bley
Trees speak to us. It’s not that I’m a tree hugger, not that I can feel the vibrations through the trunk, the branches, or the leaves. It’s just that I’m in love. . .in love with wood; well, with trees of every kind and their disembodied product, wood.
Bob and I seem to share this love. I don’t know he would describe it, and maybe I’ll ask him, but I see how he creates such beautiful bowls and platters from wood, enhances their inner and outer aspects; like respecting the tree by including and leaving intact, its bark on the edges of these treasures.
And he says I am his muse when he wants more ideas than he presently is coming up with, and I love this. I love honoring the immense Beauty emanating from such a blessing as Trees are. They seem to call out to me how they want to be seen…just as they call out to Bob how they want him to display, reveal, expose them to the world. Such appreciation for Beauty we share.
And this Beauty offers itself up to all of us every day…and if we’re lucky, every time we open our eyes. To be in the company of Trees is to come home to Oneself; to feel our own Beauty, as Trees show us their Love. They breathe in our breath, and we breathe in theirs. A deeper communion does not exist. And how, then, can we separate ourselves from Trees? Perhaps our eyes alone can see a distinction, but nowhere else, not really.
Such a Blessing, Trees are. I am forever indebted.
Audre Bley
Woodturners Newsletter Editing Notes
WBW members, if you have a personal website and would like it included in the President’s Challenge and Show & Tell sections of our Woodturning Newsletter, please let the newsletter editors know. Email us at info@westbaywoodturners.com.
WBW board members and committee chairs
President: Claude Godcharles
Vice President: Tom Gaston
Treasurer: Jon Bishop
Secretary: Laura Rhodes
Member at Large: Dean Caudle
Meeting Program Coordinator: Claude G acting
Visiting artist Coordinator: Dean Caudle acting
Anchor seal: Dennis Lillis
Craft Supply: Tina
Librarian: Kelly Smith
Audio Visual: Curtis Vose, Edgar Whipple
Website: Roman Chernikov
Woodturners Newsletter: Angela, Claude, David, Laura, and Roman
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