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Demo Report January 2022 – Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau

Welcome back to the first in-person club night of 2022, where we had a live demonstration from our very own committee member Wolfgang whose project will be a Chinese Style Square Box with Lid.

Thanks to the club’s audio-visual setup, we were able to broadcast the demonstration via zoom to other members of the club who were unable to attend the meeting, Many thanks to Rob for his expertise.

Covid regulations and guidelines were followed and in line with the club’s covid policy. 

This evening Wolfgang will be turning a Chinese Style Square Box with a Lid made out of Crab Apple which has a fine grain.

Tools he used were 2 x bowl gouges, 2 x skew chisels, and a basic chuck.

Wolfgang started by marking the centre and setting up the lathe so that the blank was positioned against a pressure pad for the drive with the tailstock positioned up close to apply a ridged and secure position for the blank.

The first thing to carry out was clean the surface and then form a tenon for mounting within the chuck later, the speed was set up to 2700rpm which means that you keep your fingers and hands away from the edges whilst it is spinning.  Whilst the blank is spinning at this speed and the square shape it is essential to have sharp tools for developing the corners and keeping them sharp and clean, also you have a better chance of not having the corners chipping off.

When shaped the corners will need to be sanded whilst the lathe is stationary and your fingers are safe.

When he was satisfied with the base of the box Wolfgang turned it round and mounted the tenon into the chuck, at this point the flat wings were perfected and the bowl part formed, at this point we are now at the halfway point.

Sanding was carried out at this point, which Wolfgang stated that he goes to 240 grit only unless it is a gallery piece.

The same process was carried out for the lid apart from making sure that the lid actually fitted the box base

Wolfgang explained and demonstrated how gentle you needed to be so as to get a sharp edge on the corners.

To remove the tenons from both parts of the box a jam chuck was used which was a softwood so as not to damage the crab apple project, this chuck was used with both parts with the smallest being done first and then the largest, in this way we only need to produce one jam chuck.

The club would also like to thank all of the club members who helped out during the night with putting everything together and taking it back down again. 

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

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Mary Stevens Charity Coffee morning December 2021

The day started with a small number of Black Country Woodturners members being in attendance to erect the stall area and the covers due to being in a position outside due to Covid rules.

Apart from the charity table which was the main part of the event we also had a number of members (Mel, Steve, Rob, Ian & Barrie) in addition to a couple of members items but could not be with us in person, to sell their own turned items, which included some Christmas items.

From items that members had sold, we had a 10% donation which went with the charity table amount to hand over.

A big thank you from the committee goes out to all club members who gave their time and effort to produce the donated items for the charity table.

The day itself was very cold which kept a number of people away from the event, but thankfully the rain kept away and we did have a steady stream of people passing through and buying the odd piece.

Ian looked after the charity table along with anyone who was free a the time and in the area of the table.

Ian’s wife Kim was also in attendance selling her Christmas cards table decorations and presentation bags which she had produced herself.

All in attendance also helped to take the equipment down whilst Ian sorted the funds to be handed over.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

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Demo Report Sept 2021 – Stewart Furini

The demonstrator for this evening is Stewart Furini. He will be carrying out some basic turning and applying various colouring techniques. He will be using a Sycamore blank 8″ x 2″. He began the evening by going through some basic Health and Safety issues to observe whilst woodturning.

Stewart started by finding the centre of the blank and drilling an 8mm hole to accept the screw chuck which was 19mm deep.

He used a draw cut to produce a flat surface with the use of a 3/8 bowl gouge, he then started to cut across the corner to produce a basic bowl shape with a recess for the chuck to be mounted and a foot for the bowl to stand on.  The recess was cut to 4mm deep with a dovetail shape for the chuck, the lathe speed being 600 rpm to start with.  The foot is not as deep as the recess so when the chuck is expanded it is not expanding onto very little material but is more solid.

The bowl was now reverse mounted and the face was flattened but without the centre being hollowed out.  This face is now sanded down to 240 grit ready for spirit stains to take effect.  The dust was removed with a tack cloth to keep it clean.  The surface is now hand sanded with the grain to remove any circular scratches that may be present.

Technique 1

A white colour spirit stain is applied first to half of the bowl surface from Chestnut Products, this was painted on and a hair dryer was used to dry the base colour.  

Airbrush was used to apply the various colours that will be applied in sequence, and the lathe will be running for this, the closer to the wood then the colour is cleaner and more precise.

The first colour applied was blue and produced a ring, followed by Chestnut blue, Purple and then a lighter blue whilst expanding the rings to get an even covering, the stain is showing up cleaner on the white background.

A further set of rings were also produced using Red, Yellow and Orange, it was at this point that black was added for definition on the edging, this would normally be left overnight prior to using a sanding sealer aerosol, Stewart stated that he would not apply a sanding sealer by hand due to the possibility of the stain breaking down.

 Technique 2

Just after half time Stewart started by using an ebonising lacquer to cover the bowl surface black, this was done twice to get the required coverage.

Stewart then produced his homemade box to stop the paint flying from the bowl and onto the walls and ceiling, this was fixed down by use of two magnets which held on to the lathe bed.

The paints used were produced by Chestnut Products with a flow medium by Jo Sonja, this will thin the paint without diminishing the pigment content of the paint.

Yellow will be applied first with the lathe spinning and then the speed will be increased and then the pattern checked, this colour was then applied again to get the pattern spread a bit further.  A Sherice colour was then applied over the top again with the lathe spinning.  The finished colour was a sprayed-out system.

Technique 3

Dabbing and Centrifugal 

The ebonising lacquer was again applied, over the top of the face of the bowl ready for the next lot of paint to be applied.

The next paint to be used was the Jo Sonja Silver, this was applied by the use of a paper towel and dabbed onto the bowl in a non-uniform manner around the edge.  The same technique was used for the next colour Gold.

The next colour to be added was Crimson which when applied was set off spinning to form a starburst, the next colour was Gold and also spun around.

At this point, the centre of the bowl was then taken out to the required depth.

Technique 4

For the next session, Stewart used a Proxon long-necked grinder and a cutter with six blades is used, this was applied to the bowl at approximately 7 and 8 with reference to a clock face.  The lathe is set to 600 rpm to form the texture.  At this point, the textured surface is brushed out with a brass brush to remove the residue.  A Nylon filament rotary brush was then used to smooth the texture of the surface.

A green colour was applied first in a solid block, then splodged on, streaked and then dots so that we have four example areas on the same bowl when applied a purple was used over the top of the green.

Technique 5

For this one, the cutter was used again but with the lathe being switched off and the bowl being turned by hand, the cutter was used across the bowl both back and forth.  This was then brushed and cleaned with the nylon grit wheel.

The airbrush was used again with red colour and is applied from the side at the bottom, Yellow was then used but sprayed on from the top again from the side.

A black was then applied across the top of the ridges by using a dry brush technique.

This would be finished with a sanding sealer aerosol and then a gloss lacquer.

Technique 6

The top surface of the bowl was again turned flat again, this was then taken off the lathe to apply the paint effect.

The paint applied was colours by Montana 94 Acrylic

The yellow paint was sprayed over the complete surface followed by red, then yellow again and finally white.

Whilst the paint is still wet either a newspaper or a paper towel is folded to form a creased edge, this was then applied to the paint and lifted off this removed a certain amount of paint, and this was carried out over the area of the bowl.  This technique was moved around the bowl with a radius.

A lollypop stick was also used with the edge and also the flat part of the stick, other ways of doing this can also be used.

We finished off by giving Stewart a big thank you for the evening’s demonstration, all questions were answered during and after the demo.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett

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Mary Stevens Charity Summer Event September 2021

Today we were at Mary Stevens Park for their open day. The event was open to the public from 10.00 till 16.00 hours.  It is a charity event organised by Mary Stevens Hospice as a fundraiser for their organisation.

The Black Country Woodturners put on a charity table of turned items that were donated by the members, for the purpose of helping the hospice in fundraising.  At the same time, we are able to put our own turnings onto the tables of which 20% of the takings are also donated back to the charity.

After the chaos of setting up the tenting area with three units, we had eight tables with a good mixture of various items for sale during the day.

The charity table was totally full and needed an additional table to display the items donated by the members.

The club had a good turnout of members who all had a good selection of turned items for sale.  We also had a lathe running and was manned by Steve who kept up a stream of spinning tops for the kids free of charge, this kept him out of mischief for the day.  It must be said that he was tired at the end of the day, but it was for a good cause.

During the morning there was a steady stream of people going through the selling area with the charity stall doing very well and clearing a number of items.  During the day we also had a good many people taking our club cards with a number being interested in starting to turn, it’s a case of watching this space for this, we were also asked about the club and how the items were formed and developed.  The weather was very kind to us during the day, with it being sunny which also helped with the turnout of people who attended the event.

Along with the turned items we also had a couple of wives joining us,  Ian’s wife Kim & Steves’s wife Georgina, who had their own craft stalls of hand-crafted items along with us.

A big thank you must go out to all who turned up for the event and helped throughout the day with setting up, selling, and breaking down again.  This help was very much appreciated with us being able to clear the site quickly.

We raised a total of £244.72 from the charity table, and from the club members the sale items we raised £90.00 at 20% commission, this makes a total of £334.72 that was handed over to The Mary Stevens Hospice.

Report by Barrie Fisher and edited by Steve Hackett