Turning Tool Series

There are four woodturning magazines I am aware of: Fred Holder’s More Woodturning, Woodturning Design, The AAW’s American Woodturner and Woodturning out of the U.K.

Woodturning has several tutorials for different types of turning, tools, materials and interviews with Woodturners. They have been running a series on basic use of various woodturning tools so if you have prior issues or access to them through your club you may want to take a look. These are from the last 18 months:

April 2010 Using Scrapers Effectively, Part 1
May 2010 Using Scrapers Effectively, Part 2
October 2010 Spindle Roughing Gouge
December 2010 Skew Chisel, Part 1
January 2011 Skew Chisel, Part 2
February 2011 Bowl Gouge, Part 1
March 2011 Bowl Gouge, Part 2
April 2011 Parting Tool
May 2011 Flat Gouge
June 2011 Spindle Gouge
tools

What’s Happening at Other Chapters

northwest washington woodturners logoThe Northwest Washington Woodturners in Mt. Vernon have a busy month planned. SPSW member Eric Lofstrom will be demonstrating at their regular membership meeting on July 21st. They will also be turning tops for kids at Hillcrest Park on the 16th. On top of that is the Camping and Turning Rendezvous in Ellensburg the 10th through the 23rd.

The Cascade Woodturners in Portland, OR will be meeting on July 23 for the annual picnic.

The Northwest Woodturners in Portland will be meeting on July 7th with a demonstration by Jim Hall on carving. Jim will also have an all day demo on Saturday the 9th.

olympic peninsula woodturnersThe Olympic Peninsula Woodturners calendar shows that they are having their annual show-and-tell and wood auction at their meeting on July 27th. They will also be holding the summer all-day turning event on the 17th. The club is also looking for people willing to demonstrate at the Festival by the Bay Craft Show. OPCAAW will pay for the booth space and demonstrators will be allowed to sell their wares in the booth.

The Seattle Woodturners meeting on July 14th will feature Seattle WT and SPSW member Jack Wayne who will be demonstrating techniques to build a 3-legged stool.

 

soodturners of olympia logoThe Woodturners of Olympia are holding their annual woodturning symposium on July 23rd. Featured demonstrators are Mike Mahoney and Stephen Hatcher. There is still time to register to attend this event.

The Greater Vancouver Woodturning Guild in Vancouver, B.C. is on their summer hiatus, but they do have an all day class on July 9th with Art Liestman demonstrating pyrography and acrylic coloring. The class will be held in Art’s Coquitlam studio. Cost and equipment requirements are listed in the chapter’s June newsletter. The GVWG is also holding their summer BBQ on July 17th.

AAW / woodturning events

Invention and Innovation, Part 2

I often wonder how anything beyond a basic bowl shape was turned twenty years ago or more. There have been a significant number of new tools and jigs invented that allow for an amazing array of designs. Several of those have been demonstrated at SPSW meetings.

klein threading jigBonnie Klein was our demonstrator at the April membership meeting. Bonnie is well known for small turnings and especially threaded lid boxes. Bonnie has developed a jig for cutting threads on the boxes.

SPSW member Dave Schweitzer is producing his own line of turning tools. One of those is a diamond beading tool. Those who are skilled with a skew can turn beads of any size with ease, but for those of us that don’t have that touch down yet, the Schweitzer beading tool is great. Dave has a video on the use of the diamond beading tool on our website in the learning center.

Another SPSW member, Paul Crabtree, has developed a line of tools for hollowing, especially long neck hollow forms. Paul has conducted demonstrations in both the monthly membership meetings and at the mini-symposiums. The tools allow for measuring the wall thickness of the vessell while it is being turned.

springett ball toolsFred Holder demonstrated another unique set of tools at the January 2009 membership meeting. Fred demonstrated tools used to turn Chinese balls. These tools were developed by David Springett and carry his name.

What other unique tools or jigs have you seen/used? Leave comments below.

Jigs / tools

AAW Symposium – Did you go?

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AAW 25th Anniversary SymposiumThe 25th Anniversary Symposium is over. The lineup looked great. Did you go? What demonstrations did you see? What events did you attend? If you were at the AAW Symposium leave a comment below and let us know what your experiences were.

AAW

GVWG

greater vancouver woodturners guildOur friends in the AAW chapter North of the border have a great newsletter. The Greater Vancouver Woodturning Guild (GVWG) June newsletter has several interesting items in it:

  • Listing of upcoming demonstrators including bios of Art Liestman and Avelino Samuel
  • Story of a near fatal lathe accident involving a B.C. turner leading to a simple lathe modification to prevent a similar incident in the future
  • Tech talk with tips on expansion chucks, bowl finishing and power vs. manual sanding
  • A tutorial on end grain hollow forms
  • A nice write up on skews – types, bevels, sharpening, use
  • A Woodturning 101 article on turning a candle holder
  • Lots of pictures of items turned by members

As of this writing the June newsletter was linked to the Latest Newsletter link.

Take a look, I think you will enjoy reading their newsletter and will probably come away with a few new ideas.

chapter profile / newsletter

Annual Picnic and Wood Auction

picnicSPSW members, its that time of year for the annual picnic and wood auction. This year the Swiss park is not available to us for the wood auction/picnic and as a result we have found a new place.

This year we will be holding the picnic on Sunday, July 17th at 2:00 p.m. at the Northlake Improvement Club. Chris Johnson is a member and has made it available for our use. This facility is very large with a large kitchen, indoor and outdoor areas for meeting, and restrooms. The club house is located on the corner of 38th Ave South and South 334th at 33228 38th Ave South, and is located on an acre of grounds. Take the Weyerhaeuser off ramp.

We are hoping that having the picnic on a Sunday will allow more members to participate. If you have questions regarding this space or need directions feel free to call Chris Johnson at (425) 228-3200.

Membership / Membership Meeting