Night Class Diary

[loz]

Hope no-one minds me putting this here,

28th Jan - Started night class - wooodturning for beginners, Quite a large class at a local school, 10 Record Power lathes and a few older ( but touch looking ! ) machines.

Mostly male group but a few women, and i was surprised at the range of ages. I was expecting to be the youngest there, but i think i shared that spot with about half the class.

Met Joe the instructor - Hes a cabinet maker by trade, Very nice man. Started the class with lots of H&S stuff, drilling into us the need to check the lathe speed setting before we ever switch on, explaining with diagrams and a demo tool rest position, bevel rubbing , and catches if you do it wrong !

We selected a foot long 4x4 pine stock and turned to a cylinder, i was amazed at the speed we could rough when shown how to use a tool ( i thought i knew how to use ) properly !

 

[loz]

So after a weeks we remounted our pine cylinders, I was surprised that my perfect looking lump had actually bowed slightly ! and so we had to get these back round.

Joe then demoed the use of a spindle gauge in beading, and then set us to task on our own.

Well i needed some special attention as i was moving my right hand all over the place, and forming terible pointy toblerone like beads ! - until being guided on just rotating the tool, but keeping in the same 90 degree to the wood plane.

I improved immediately - showing hands on tutorage being so much more than what i could gleam from a book !

I ended up with this,

 

[gasmansteve]

Hi Loz
Well done with the training. Good you could find a local school to offer the tuition. I have tried most of our local (York) colleges,schools etc to setup woodturning tuition/night classes but to no avail .Seems the demand isn`t there apparantly!. I would beg to differ.
Cheers
Steve

 

[TEP]

Lookin' good Loz, keep up the good work.

Got to agree with you Steve, there ain't now't down this way either. In fact I can't find anything to do with woodworking, never mind turning in the local colleges.

When I have called up and asked about it the answer has always been "there doesn't seem to be the demand". Yet there is a demand for cake decorating, or bridge.

Took up the wrong hobby I guess.

 

[YorkieT]

I found a woodworking course just up the road and it's free but it starts too early for me to get there from work

It's run by a local charity using the facilities of a nearby school, it's aimed at the unemployed but open to anyone.

YorkieT

 

[Paul.J]

Looking very good Loz.
Just shows what a bit of personal tuition can do.
Wish there was club local to me. :roll:

 

[dickm]

Glad to hear that some tutors take H & S seriously. About 10 years back, I went to a course in a local Arts centre, with a guy who was an excellent turner, but totally hopeless as a teacher. And there was no H &S briefing, no encouragement to wear any protective gear (and certainly nothing supplied). On top of which, the floor was more like an ice rink than anything else. It was a miracle that noone got hurt.
Wonder how many other courses are like this?

 

[loz]

Missed updating the last two weeks, Been busy - got married on 8th Feb, then was in NewYork for a short Honeymoon last weekend, but managed not to miss a class !

Well after out bead practice we started on our first project - a between centres single piece candle stick, Its been two weeks and still not finished, ill throw some pics up later, its form is complete and has been sanded, but requires a finish and have the area below the foot to be [parted off.

Learnt a lot ( i thought i knew ) about simple use of the spindle gauge, and found i was beginning to become over confident and thus leading to ignoring basic rules like rubbing bevels !!!

However i think the resulting piece is quite nice, will finish in a few minutes on monday - then we are starting our next piece - two part lamp.

ideas for shapes of a 2 part lamp anyone ?

Have a good weekend all,

Loz

 

[boysie39]

Loz, glad to see you found a class , I'm down here in Carlow and have been waiting for the woodturning group to contact me for 4months now. I spoke to a bloke tthat was in one Chapter as they call them down here and he said you pay tour fee and you might not here anything until next year. By the way there is a Demo by a Robert Sorby Rep. in Richard Goughs on Sat.8 March so dont miss that.It's from 10am to 4pm
Best of luck to you and the Bride,and also with your turning. Regards Boysie39.

 

[Rich]

I do wish we had something like that here in Reading, or is there maybe someone out there local to me who could spare a couple of hours a month to give me some tuition? I don't mind paying for the kindness,heres hoping,
regards,
Rich.

 

[Bodrighy]

Same here in South Somerset. I am sure that there are turners around and there are some pros down here but I can't afford to go on courses too often and a club would be really useful. I am sure that I could learn (and unlearn) a lot from someone with more experience.

Pete

 

[loz]

Demo by a Robert Sorby Rep. in Richard Goughs on Sat.8 March so dont miss that.It's from 10am to 4pm

On Capel St ? - Is it a proper demo ie with some actual turning ! - or a sales day ?

 

[loz]

Completed the candlestick,

click to enlarge



And started on the 2 part lamp, Got a lovely block of slightly spalted beech for the lamp column, and rounded to a cylinder, then shown proper and safe use of the skew, and learnt that i have been using mine at home with the tool rest very much too low, and also allowing mine to chatter by not gripping securely with an overhand style.

Managed to get some quite good technique, and shows how little can actually be learned from books alone.
[/url]

 

[TEP]

Hi Loz, keeping up the good work I see. That is a good finish to the wood, and I like the final polish as well. Not too sure about the shape of the stem though, I would have preferred to see some more detail and shape in it, and a bit slimmer.

Only my opinion of course, :roll: doin' well though keep it up.

 

[Bodrighy]

Excellent work there Loz. Like Tam I might have designed it differently but that's peronal choice. Hope you are proud of what you are achieving.

Makes me even more determined to try and get some decent tuition in.

Pete

 

[Paul.J]

That is a very well finished piece Loz looking at it
I would also like to have seen a little more shape to it,but this will come with time as you get more confidence and experience no doubt.

 

[boysie39]

Demo by a Robert Sorby Rep. in Richard Goughs on Sat.8 March so dont miss that.It's from 10am to 4pm

On Capel St ? - Is it a proper demo ie with some actual turning ! - or a sa

les day ?

Sorry Loz it's on Thur.6th in Goughs. Regards Boysie

 

[loz]

Well school was closed last 2 weeks for half term , so delighted to get back on monday.

finished rounding my cylinder shaft piece, and then had to make a tight fitting tenon to slot into my predrilled base. I had slightly over turned this and was about .5 mil too slim, snug but loose. ( and that was using calipers ! )

I was was shown to make two groves in the tenon with the skew to help sort this, the groves push up the surrounding wood to help a tighter fit. I did this , rather than parting off the tenon and starting again !

Glued the shaft to the base then started to true the base up, with pulling cuts ( due to end grain ) with the detail gauge,

Removed from lathe, and the replaced the end live centre with a lamp kit hollow centre, remounted and then started to bore a wire hole with a 2 foot long boring tool. This was very noisy, and required to move only 2 or 3 inches before removal to clear the waste. We lubricated the hollow dead centre and the boring tool with wax to assist.

I bored half way before the end of class. I will reverse the stock on the lathe before boring from the other end, hopefully to meet in the middle ! - we were told to do this, else the bore can come out the side !

 

[loz]

Got the stock reversed on the lathe and bored from the other end without any issues.

Then remounted and started to shape as per my " plan" - my plan very soon was ignored and the tool took a life of its own , and before i knew i ended up with this,




I think its quite nice, and not too top heavy.

Only got to start sanding, last night, will finish, and run the cable ( need to drill into rear of base to the centre borehole ) and bulb mount next week.

Any next week sadly is the last week ! - Wow 10 weeks went very fast !

Already left deposit for the new term in sept,

 

[Paul.J]

Loz.
That looks really nice
Should be even better when the finish is applied.
What will you use :?:
Time flies when you're enjoying yourself