NEWSLETTER OF THE DERBYSHIRE DALES WOODCRAFT CLUB MAY/JUNE 2010 Woodworms

Issue 8 Woodworms “Do I need a better lathe?”

Every so often every woodturner, or would-be age, the treadle board walked away on woodturner if only they could avoid the dig-ins and every stroke, the drive rope fouled on the bed beam, and a lack of cross 50p breakouts, asks themselves this question. I've done it bracing resulted in the whole assem- many times, most recently being last year when one of bly lurching from side-to-side. I Free to our demonstrators brought along a nice little Record sorted these problems with a few members lathe which had many attractions. I didn't submit to more nails and scraps and then attempted some serious turning. If you the temptation, and I think I know why, it is about ever try to use a pole lathe you will find the how I came into , and what I expect to timing is critical, followed by the need to control the po- get from it. sition of the on the cutting stroke. You will also About 15 years ago, during a family outing into Lon- find it tiring on the working leg making left and right don, I was looking at a couple of rather nice music stands in a footedness as desirable as left and right handedness. shop window and said to my youngest daughter "Would you However, with some regrinding of my wood , the like a nice stand like that?" thinking it may make a good birth- careful use of a carving gouge or two to add some detail, day present. The reply I received was "Only if you make it for and an awful lot of , I eventually managed to me", which blew me over a bit, and set a challenge that I fashion a central column for the music stand which was couldn't really ignore. duly assembled, French polished and presented to An- After considering a few designs, somewhat influenced nette. The bungees went back on the roof-rack, and I by a workshop consisting of a garage fully equipped with a rested my legs for a year or two. Workmate, a smoothing and a few and wood- continued on page 2 carving chisels, I settled on an option which required the use of a lathe for the manufacture of the central column. I did have a lathe, a 1959 vintage Black & Decker accessory on which I had managed to scrape-up a couple of clutch alignment tools over the previous four decades, but it was nowhere near large enough for the project in mind. With an empty purse, I quickly decided my only option was to cobble together a pole lathe from whatever materials I had to hand. With no previous experience of pole lathes other than watching the odd demonstration at a craft fair, my first attempt at constructing a lathe was a little deficient. Assembled from old posts, pieces of and a few 4 inch nails, the lathe consisted of a single bed beam with an upstanding block at either end through each of which was threaded a ½ inch bolt on which I had filed a conical point to form two "dead" cen- tres. The bed was mounted on two crude A-frames, a simple wooden tool rest was clamped to the bed beam using a G- . With no handy sapling growing through the floor of my garage, I used a couple of bungee cords from the car roof- rack strung between the roof joists to act as the return spring at the upper end of the drive rope. This drive rope made a single turn around the workpiece before descending to the loose 14th. century print of woodturner treadle board. So what were the deficiencies? With no anchor- and pole lathe (not our author!)

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Pole lathe continued ......

Having discovered what can be achieved from simple tools, and approaching the time in life when one wonders about what to do during approaching retirement, I began to consider what I might do with a "proper" lathe. The purse was still empty, well almost, so I looked round the DIY stores for something cheap that might fit the available funds but most of the items on display were missing parts, broken, and made in China, and didn't instill any confidence regarding durability. From somewhere I hap- pened upon a Record Summer Sale Catalogue offering a range of lathes from a British manufacturer with a past reputation for quality and a 5 year guarantee. For around £150 I could buy a 3-speed, 24inch lathe, complete with tool rest, a 2-prong drive centre and a "dead" centre for the tailstock - WOW! and the name on the headstock was the same as the name on my G-clamp = continuity = done deal. In the fullness of time I learnt a little about , progressing to a borrowed set of 3 turning chisels ( a parting tool, a skew chisel and a spindle gouge). Thinking it was time to progress onto bowls, I revisited the local Record stockist to purchase a faceplate. "Haven't seen one of those used for years" he said as he plonked it on the counter and extracted £12 from me. This puzzled me at the time. Centres for spindle turning, faceplates for bowl turning, what else was there? Of course, as time progressed I found there is a almost endless range of chucks, jaws, gouges, ring-tools, and texturing devices, all designed to make woodturning easier and quicker, and extract more money from your purse. Lathes with five or more speeds, swivel heads, direct drive, electronic speed control, longer beds, greater swing, heavier build, all come at a higher price; I've had my DML24 for 12 years now. There have been times when I have considered upgrading, times when I have thought bigger would be useful, times when smaller and sweeter would be nice, but overall it does the job of turning the wood and supporting the gouge without crisis or complaint. So do I need a new lathe? In January for the competition table I entered a boxwood needle case copied from an example found at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in Northumberland and believed to date from around 200AD. The Romans would have used a pole or bow operated lathe. No chucks, no live centres, just simple tools and skill. I cheated. Late last year we had a demonstration on how to turn a flask, the result looked OK but traditionally these flasks would have been turned between centres on a pole lathe. Again, no chucks, and no fancy tools would have been avail- able, so while the demonstration was interesting, it did not represent the traditional technique. Perhaps by now you can see where I'm heading. Would it be right to make Sheraton style furni- ture using a spindle moulder, or cut using a laser profiler? The answer you give de- pends on your aim. If you are in business for profit, then cost effective technology is a must. If you are trying to keep traditional skills alive, traditional tools are a must. If you just want a hobby, you can use any tools you fancy or can afford. A more sophisticated lathe won't make you a better turner, but it may extend your range of products. It would of course be lovely to polish, caress and admire while you are thinking of what to make next! So, I still have my trusty DML. If I had a bigger workshop, I would build another pole lathe and try and master the skills and techniques of our forefathers. Perhaps the lack of space is a blessing - I don’t think I really want the aching legs again.

John Henbery

Thanks John for a very interesting article . A couple of thoughts come to mind: a) How do members feel about construct- ing a pole lathe as a club project to be exhibited at Fairs etc. b) How did YOU start out in woodturning ?- tell us and share your experiences - Editor

March Competition winners 1. John McConnell 2. James Sharpe 3. John Henbery

Left - the “also rans”. Note the clever recycling of an ex- charity shop knife set by Tom Livesey

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March Meeting

There was a particularly good turnout of members for the March meeting to experience the hands -on marquetry session. Chairman John Oakes introduced our two guests Quentin Smith and Terry Cambridge who gave a quick summary of their involvement in the world of marquetry; Quentin was the founder member of the Staffordshire Marquetry Group (http://www.staffsmarq.freeserve.co.uk/), Terry is also a member, and they are both members of The Marquetry Society of G.B. (http://www.marquetry.org) and have served on judging panels. Starter kits were dis- tributed to members who wished to “have a go” (about 3/4 of the membership) and then it was all systems go with pieces of veneer and surgical blades. Miraculously no blood was spilled during the session! Star pupil was John Henbery although in fairness he has had a little previous experience!

Right - Back to school! - looks like teacher is checking John McConnell’s work!

Left - John Hen- bery shows how it should be done.

Examples of the work done Right - Interesting use of by Quentin and Terry. Right wood grain ...... well, - detailed study of a Tiger, why else did you think I’d note that the description etc. include it?! (Sorry about on the reverse is also in mar- the light reflection.) quetry, not a pen!

Further pictures can be viewed on the web. www.jsharpe.co.uk and click on the DDWC link.

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April Meeting

Our demonstrator this month was Alan Truman who was making his first, and I’m sure not his last, visit to the club. Alan commenced by explaining he would be making two items, an octagonal bowl and a thin heart shaped dish - the idea for the shape of the last item was inspired by the shape of a box of Thornton’s chocolates Alan bought for ‘er in- doors! To add interest to the demonstration, Paul Beamy brought along his buet camera system together with projector and screen so we were a provided with a detailed view of what Alan was doing. In the interests of saving time, Alan had brought along some prepared blanks and started by mounting an ash octagonal bank on the lathe. To make the bowl he explained that he would be using only two tools, a ⅝″ bowl gouge and a part- ing tool; the former tool was one he was, or had been, par- ticularly attached to! An unfortunate event with a tube of super glue had welded Alan’s left hand to the handle until it could be released by his wife wielding a tube of “debonder”. The blank was slightly off-balance creating quite a challenge for Alan in the form of a wandering lathe (sprung dance floors weren’t designed for weighty lathe work). The base was completed and sanded as needed then given one coat of sanding sealer (50/50 dilution) while the work was stationary; polishing done with work spinning. Care should be taken when applying sealer to the irregular edge to avoid “digital dam- age” - a tissue soaked in sealer is wrapped around a brush and applied carefully to the rotating edge. Wax (Briwax or similar) was applied to the stationary work using 0000 grade wire wool and then again pol- ished with the work moving - the wire wool removes any traces of sealer rings. Alan warned not to use the wire wool for open grain such as as minute pieces can be torn off which later rust. Final polishing was carried out using soft cotton taking the usual pre- cautions near the edge. Alan continued by reversing the work, facing up the top side and marking out the area which would be removed from the bowl centre. He curved down the outer edge and then hollowed out the centre fin- ishing off as before, after sanding, with sanding sealer and wax.

Alan’s second demonstration piece was the heart shaped dish (final thickness ⅛″) but before he started Alan emphasised that this was not a project for a beginner - far too many fast moving corners hell bent on chopping fingers! Initially a spigot, which was to be the dish foot, was turned on the base and then the base turned to shape giving it a slight upward curve. After polishing the base, the work piece was reversed and the top side hollowed checking that the curvature on both faces followed the same line. Continued on next page

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April Meeting continued

Sealing and polishing was carried out as in previous stages the only difference was that Alan didn’t use wire wool to apply the polish but chose Webrax as it was better at withstanding the bat- tering from the irregular shape of the work piece. Unfortunately Alan had to finish his demonstration rather hastily as we had the “pop and jelly brigade” hammering on the hall door to gain admittance but this didn’t spoil what was a first rate dis- play of the woodturners skill. I’m hoping that Alan will be in- vited back in the not too distant future to educate us all in new techniques

Above: Blanks used to produce the shallow dish

Left: Alan’s demo seen to great effect on the “big screen” - we just need to get the hall lighting sorted!

April Competition - below and left

1st. - Peter Fantham 2nd. - James Sharpe 3rd. - Peter Fantham

Other entries in the competition (well, . . . . . most of them as some had been whisked away before the over- worked editor grabbed a photograph!)

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Chairman’s Words

This year we have our Open Day in June so time is getting very short. As it is on a club day I would firstly ask for all of our current members to make a special effort and show your full support on the day. You should all by now have your name tags, so please - get them on! Before the day’s events get underway there are very many jobs to be done, if as many are able to help with these preparations it goes to make life so much easier all round. So what’s to do? - 1. Get our event noticed in the local press and radio. So whose job is it to get in touch and with whom? Posters to be made and distributed to local shops, garages etc. Roadside signs to be updated and put out the day be- fore the event. 2. Refreshments - Ray, Lyn and Terry to organise so let one or other know what you can do in supplying same. 3. What will you as an individual do on the day? Will you do a bit of a demo? -hands on? - have a table to show all you have made to show/sell? Will one or two of you have a table to hand out our leaflets and/or starter packs? Sign up and/or encourage new members? I look forward to you all doing your bit, show all comers your turning, sticks, pens, , carving or why. So, before the May meeting I have called a committee meeting to largely debate the Open Day. If you can and wish, come to the meeting especially if you are to take a hands on part. Finally, let me say how impressed I was with the insight into marquetry and last month’s display by Alan Tru- man - these outsiders can and do pass on something to benefit us all. Whatever/whoever I have not covered re: Open Day, don’t be too afraid to let me know. Thanks J.E.O.

And a few from the Editor

Well, we’re still here! Woodworms is now in its second year so lets take a quick look backwards to see what we have achieved. DDWC is now on the web so members, even if they are on holiday in Clacton or China, can keep an eye on activities if they have missed a meeting; and more recently past editions of Woodworms have been published in PDF format so you can either view it on screen and/or print off your own copy. I did consider making the newsletter re- stricted by password but a) I couldn’t understand how to do this and b) if non-member stumbled across the newsletter he/she might be tempted to become a member - this has happened with the fishing club I run. Attached to this bumper Woodworms are 6 pages which detail the contents of the club library, please keep this for your future reference until a further edition is published. It is likely that there will be some amendments/additions etc. and you will be informed either by this newsletter or through John Henbery’s “starter packs”. I must point out that new member Roger King put in a lot of time typing up the lists . . . thanks Roger, and I hope that the blisters on the fingers have healed! Thanks also to John Henbery who opens the newsletter with a splendid article detailing his experiences with a home made pole lathe proving that if you have the determination and a certain amount of skill, it isn’t necessary to re- mortgage the house enabling you to buy the latest lathe. How many more people out there have an interesting tale to tell on how they started woodturning etc. Tell us all about it, you don’t have to be an expert writer, just jot down a few notes and I’ll feed it into the computer and publish what comes out the other end. A royal visit to Ashbourne was the catalyst for me starting in woodturning . . . . . but more of that another time. Finally, I would like to see more contributions for members - photos, articles, letters . . . . anything so long as it is vaguely legal. Editor

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Woodworking Show Round Up Show Dates

Did anyone go to the Alexandra Place Show? Peter and I put the sat. Woodfest Wales, nav. to the test and went for a day expecting to see an industry show St. Asaph, N. Wales piece - big dis- 4th. - 6th. June 2010 appointment! The trade oooOooo stands were well spread The Springfields Woodworker & Power out and not all Tools Show the advertised 11th. - 13th. June 2010 10.00am - 4.00pm ones were pre- Springfields Events Centre, sent; demon- Camelgate, strators too Spalding were thin on PE12 6ET the ground, fortunately Andrew Hall FREE Parking and FREE Entry from county Durham At this site there is also a shopping outlet (www.hallwoodhats.com) was present providing an interesting and and garden centre entertaining couple of hours as he turned a stetson from a lump of -it might interest the lady of the house. sycamore. He would be a good demonstrator for the club Dick if we could find the time and cash! oooOooo

Record Power/Startrite Open Day and Show 23/24 July Staveley, Chesterfield. S43 3LS Left - Andrew Hall (wood hat oooOooo milliner) and Above - more of his finished The North of England Woodworking and work. Power Tool Show 19th - 21st. November 2010 Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate HG2 8QZ

If you visit a Show, take one or two photographs and Anybody can become a woodworker, but send them to me with a few notes for publication - Ed. only a craftsman can hide his mistakes! William Blodgett

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Senior Health Care Solution For sale (as proposed by the “None of the Above” party.) So you’re a senior citizen and the gov- ernment says no health care for you, what do you do? Our plan gives any- one 65 years or older a gun and 4 bul- lets. You are allowed to shoot 2 MP’s and 2 Senior Government Offi- cials. Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get 3 meals a day, central heating, a roof WOODSTAR pt 85 Planer/Thicknesser over your head and all the health care you need! New teeth, no problem. This machine has a 1250w motor and has a Need glasses, great. New hip, knees, planing width of 204mm. Thicknessing ca- kidney, lungs, heart? All covered. And pacity is 204mm x 120mm. who will be paying for all of this? It has had very little use and is in excellent The same government that just told condition. you that you are too old for health Currently on sale at diytools.co.uk for £240 care. Plus, because you are a pris- £100 or nearest ofer oner, you don’t have to pay any income tax anymore. Contact Tom Livesey 01335 330 318 IS THIS A GREAT

Peter Spencer, an acquaintance of Bill Morley, is clearing an old work shop and asks if any club member(s) would be COUNTRY OR interested in a quantity of timber offcuts. The wood is free of charge except for a donation to charity. Enquiries WHAT?! to Peter Spencer - 01335 370 331.

The next time you have a dig in and the bowl or what- ever flies across the workshop, remember this:

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilde

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I had a suestion that we could print do/interesting recipes- here’s the first one - can you provide another one? - Ed. Larry the woodworker called his boss and said: "Hey, boss I'm not coming Granny’s Apple and Rhubarb Chutney to work today, I'm really sick, I got a headache, a stomach ache, my leg hurts, and I just can't make it in." 1. 3 large cooking apples peeled and chopped fine 2. 1lb rhubarb chopped The boss says: "Larry I really need 3. juice of one lemon you today. When I feel sick like that I 4. 1 large chopped onion + 1 chopped garlic clove go to my wife and tell her to give me 5. 1lb brown sugar sex. That makes me feel better and I 6. ½ lb chopped sultanas can go to work. You should give it a 7. 1 & ½ teaspoons ginger try." 8. ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 9. 5 teaspoons salt Two hours later Larry the wood- 10. ¾ pint vinegar worker calls again: "Boss, I did what you said and I feel great, I'll be in • Chop all the fruit and vegetables, add the vinegar, right away. By the way, you sure got a sugar and spices and bring slowly to the boil. nice house." • Simmer for about two hours, stirring occasionally, until thick. • Pour into heated jars and seal. • Leave for a couple of months, somewhere cool and dark, before eating. Woody’s Sudoku - solution overleaf

2 9 8 7 6 4 6 5 9 3 9 7 4 6 8 6 3 8 5 2 6 1 7 2 8 2 8 4 5 7 Roy Paterson demonstrates how he coloured the carved Blackbird (Turdus merula) he entered Worldʼs Best Bad Jokes and Puns No. 1 in the January competition. Here he is using a pyrography iron on his latest carving, a Puffin. My friend Max hates going up steep hills. (Fratercula arctica for the ornithologists out Heʼs always been a bit of an anti-climb Max. there!)

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Woody’s Sudoku Solution Club Programme

(May 13th. Visit to Wheathills) 8 7 6 3 1 4 9 5 2 June 5th. - Open Day 9 3 5 2 8 7 4 6 1 July 3rd. - Mark & Lisa Raby (wood finish- 4 1 2 6 5 9 8 3 7 ing and pyrography) 2 9 7 4 6 5 1 8 3 August 7th. - Hands-on (tool sharpening) 3 5 8 9 2 1 6 7 4 September 4th. - David Springett - 6 4 1 7 3 8 5 2 9 Woodturning Wizardry 5 6 9 1 7 2 3 4 8 October 2nd. - Colin Fishwick - Woodturn- ing. 1 2 3 8 4 6 7 9 5 November 6th. - Hands on 7 8 4 5 9 3 2 1 6 December 4th. - A.G.M. and Xmas Party

Web Watch

For on line videos featuring use of their tools, go to Club Contacts www.trend-uk.com/downloads Chairman - John Oakes Starting from their Homepage you can view instructions for various projects. Vice-Chairman - John Henbery

New Ryobi website gives a wealth of information on all their tools including downloadable product sheets. Secretary - Francis Goodall www.ryobitools.co.uk Treasurer - Digby Owen

***Copy Date for Next Issue*** Demonstration Co-ordinator - Dick Potter 26 June 2010

Woodworms - newsletter of Derbyshire Dales Woodcraft Club. Editor: James Sharpe Keep up to date with club happenings by going to www.jsharpe.co.uk and clicking on the DDWC link [email protected]

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