What’s Happening at Other Chapters

The Inland Northwest Woodturners will be meeting on October 6th. The demonstrator will be Keith Gotschall, a professional turner and sculptor who operates a woodturning school in Colorado. He will also be conducting a hands-on turning class on October 7th.

The Seattle Woodturners meeting on October 13th will feature Martha Collins demonstrating techniques used to create wooden bracelets. Martha is currently on the faculty of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.

The Cascade Woodturners in Portland, Oregon, meet on October 20th. This will be the annual club auction.

The Northwest Washington Woodturners are meeting on October 20th. No subject for the meeting was available yet.

The Island Woodturners Guild on Vancouver Island will be hosting Bonnie Klein at their next meeting on October 22nd. Bonnie will be demonstrating lidded boxes. Bonnie will also be holding two “hands on” workshops the 23rd and 24th.

The Greater Vancouver Woodturners Guild meeting on October 26th will feature John Nelson talking about wood. The club also holds an all-day Turning 101 session. October’s will be on the 29th and will cover turning a tool handle.

The Olympic Peninsula Woodturners are also meeting on October 26th. The demonstrator has not yet been announced.

10-3-2011 UPDATE: The Woodturners of Olympia have announced that their next meeting on October 27th will feature John Magill with a presentation on Rose Engine Lathes. You can find a previous post on how to build your own Rose Engine Lathe with plans created by John Magill.

AAW / chapter profile / woodturning events

Chainsaw Reviews

husqvarna 240e chainsawI recently bought at nice big chunk of Maple burl and need to cut it down into blanks. Many woodturners get large chunks of wood and need to cut them down to manageable size which means the need for a chainsaw. Which made me wonder if there were any reliable chainsaw reviews. A quick check of Google shows many spammy sites, but there were a few from sources I would trust. Here are some that I found:

Popular Mechanics 7 New Chain Saws Reviewed: Comparison Test

The saws tested were all 35 to 38 cc engines and 16 to 18 inch bars. Their top rated were the Husqvarna 240e (5 stars), Stihl MS 210 C-BE (5 stars) and Echo CS-370 (4 ½ stars). Read the reviews here.

Popular Mechanics Chain Saw Comparison Field Test

These saws are larger, 55 to 60 cc and 18 to 20 inch bars. The top rated were the Echo CS-600P (4 ½ stars) and Jonsered CS2159 C (4 ½ stars). Read the reviews here.

First Chainsaw

About.com has a generic list of saws that would make a good first chainsaw purchase. There are no reviews of specific saws, just brands that they review based on company reliability, professional arborist popularity and one chainsaw shop expert’s opinion. Read the reviews here.

Amazon

Another place I like to look for reviews is on Amazon.com. If you search for chainsaw you will get a list of all chainsaws available on Amazon which shows the average rating with a link to the individual comments. You can look here.

tools

Segmented Woodturners September Chapter Summary

Pac Man
Pac Man by James Lynn
The Segmented Woodturners virtual chapter of the AAW has released the September Club Summary. Here are some of the goings on:

“Key portions” of the Segmented Turners website were close to non-members a few weeks ago. It was felt that they could no longer give away for free what paying members supported. If you are a member and have not renewed, or would like to become a member, go to the Segmented Woodturners website.

Chapter President Malcom Tibbetts issued a chapter challenge, that is a challenge for members. The first challenge is:

  • Create any segmented turning (a vessel, bowl, platter, sculpture, it doesn’t matter, but it must have at least two pieces of wood).
  • You may only use one species of wood.
  • No embellishment (paint, dyes, carving, burning, etc) of any kind is allowed.
  • Size is not important, nor a consideration; it is suggested that the largest dimension not exceed 8” in any direction.

There was a lot of discussion in the forum as this one kicked off since most segmenters generally use multiple species in their turnings. But as the photos of complete works are posted it is apparent that using a single species of wood can produce stunning work. Here a couple of examples:

chapter challenge sphere vasechapter challenge canister 001

Some of the current forum discussions include:

  • disc sanders and whether one is really needed
  • a lively discussion of why some segmenters list the number of segments in a piece and why others don’t
  • can you use a planer instead of a drum sander
  • two threads on buying or building open segment jigs

There is also a classified ads section in the forum.

Segmented Chapter members have recently released videos:

1) Club member, Jim Romick, who plays the lead part in the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway has produced a fun video which shows an abbreviated segmented turning process to making a coffee cup holder for those stainless steel inserts. He also does a great job of showing how to apply a CA finish.

http://romickraft.com/JavaJive1.wmv

2) Club member, Don Leman has partnered with WoodTreks to produce a series of videos on
segmented wood turning.

  1. Thoughts on Turning Segmented Objects
  2. Calculate the Dimensions of Segmented Pieces
  3. How to Cut Segmented Pieces for Turning Projects
  4. How to Glue Up Segmented Turning Pieces

You can visit WoodTreks to see other interesting videos on wood working.

3) Club member, Denny Edwards, has put together a video to show how he’s made his scalloped oak bowl. You can see it here:

http://dennyedwards.com/Movies/files/page1-1019-pop.html

Chapter web stats:

The chapter website received 4,942 unique visitors in August and 244,190 page views.

AAW / chapter profile / segmented

Powermatic/Jet 3520B Review

Jet 3520BPowermatic 3520BThe SPSW recently purchased a new lathe, a Powermatic 3520B. If you have been to recent meetings you will have seen it in action. This lathe is sold in Europe as the Jet 3520B.

As it turns out, Woodturning magazine has a recent review of this lathe on their website. If you are not up-to-date on the different lathes available, this article gives a great look into the capabilities and craftsmanship of this lathe. You can read the review on their Jet 3520B Heavy Duty Woodturning Lathe page.

Lathes / reviews

AAW Board Message

The following message is from AAW board member Kurt Hertzog

School is back in Session

Kurt Hertzog
As summer closes and the schools return to session, most of the chapters will begin their new season. Three of my chapters meet in public school facilities so we have a forced hiatus during the summer. I assume that most chapters either slow down or have summers “off.” As we begin anew, I’d like to suggest we remember two key components to our woodturning mission. First and foremost is safety. With the unfortunate passing of fellow member Joan Kelly, we should be reminded how important safety is to our pastime or profession. There is no such thing as being too safe. Personal protective equipment, good practices, and continued vigilance are paramount. Believe in them and practice them, continually, not on occasion. The other key item I’d like to remind everyone about is our mission of education. Teaching newcomers, young and not-so-young, is the cornerstone of our foundation. It is our reason for being. Whether you meet in a school, a church, a barn, or a member’s shop, help teach someone else with the skills you have. Help them enjoy the craft. The thrill of the first pen, bowl, bottle stopper, or any other turning is something they’ll remember forever. When your club demos at the bazaar, county fair, 4H, or other event, lend a hand. There is always a need for another turner, helper, greeter, or coffee assistant. Don’t let someone else do it. Raise your hand and volunteer. Remember that someone helped you get started. Share that with others. That also goes for club demos. Don’t wait to be asked. Find the programs officer and volunteer. You don’t need to be a master turner. You need to be willing to share the expertise that you have. Woodturning is all about safety and sharing. Make sure that you are active in both.

Don’t forget that the Board of Directors elections are under way. If you haven’t voted yet, please get to it as the deadline for ballots is October 21. You can find links here to the candidates information and balloting.

Welcome back!

Kurt Hertzog, AAW Board Member

AAW / Message / safety

Carving Accident

[warning]This account and image of an horrific injury resulting from careless use of a rotary carver was forwarded to many woodworking clubs. We have posted it here also to make sure as many people as possible have seen it to emphasize that safety comes first. The original author has provided his permission to re-post.[/warning]

The purpose of this post is to help prevent others from having an accident while carving legs on a bowl. I have posted several pictures of natural edge bowls with carved legs and feel a sense of responsibility to warn others of the dangers of using a King Arthur’s Lancelot carving disk. The 4 “disk is made with a small piece of chain saw chain with 22 teeth that circle the disk. The disk is mounted on a 4 ½” grinder and is extremely aggressive and dangerous and runs at 40,000 RPM’s.

WoW member and friend Dennis Doebler had seen several of my 3 leg bowls and wanted to turn and carve a bowl with legs. I had offered to show Dennis how I carve the legs so he would have a total and complete understanding of how to safely carve the legs. I made absolutely sure that Dennis understood how dangerous the Lancelot tool can be.
All of the carving I do is performed between centers on the lathe. The piece is jam chucked and the tail stock is brought up to secure the piece so that it can not move. The headstock locking pin is engaged and the pressure between centers is very strong to insure that the piece to be carved will not move. TWO HANDS AT ALL TIMES is the only way I ever use the Lancelot.

Dennis decided to carve the legs in his shop with no direction or supervision. Dennis will tell you that this was a huge mistake. The bowl was turned and ready to carve. Dennis removed the bowl from the lathe, set it on the work bench, plugged in the grinder with the Lancelot carving disk and was ready to begin carving. He sat at his stool, picked up the grinder, turned it on and held the grinder with one hand and the bowl with the other. The instant that Dennis touched the grinder to the bowl, the grinder violently jumped out of his right hand striking his left hand then surged upward striking him under the chin then powered around his neck to just below his right ear. He was air lifted by Life Flight to the University of Kentucky Hospital. His little finger, ring finger and middle finger were badly injured requiring 2 hours of initial surgery to close the wounds and an additional 3 hours of surgery yesterday to reconnect the tendons and ligaments. The knuckles and bone were ground into powder by the Lancelot and no useable bone fragments existed. The Lancelot cut into Dennis’ neck more than two inches deep, missed his jugular vein by 2 millimeters, miraculously skipped over his carotid artery, dug back in and continued cutting around his neck to just below the right ear. It took well over 100 stitches to close the injuries to his neck. Dennis said the doctors quit counting when they reached 100 stitches then continued sewing him up for over one additional hour.

Dennis called this evening, assisted in the writing of this and asked me to post this information for him. He is facing several months of healing and physical therapy before he can get back to turning.

Dennis insisted on posting this information in an attempt to help keep others safe from doing the same thing.

If you are going to use the Lancelot, please make sure the piece you intend to carve is mounted solid so that it can not move and use both hands when carving with the grinder and the Lancelot.

carving accident injuries

safety / techniques / tools