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July/August 2007Monthly Newsletter

Northwest WashingtonWoodturners meets everythird Thursday of the monthexcept April with the meeting isheld the fourth Thursday. Thereis no meeting in December.

We meet at Hillcrest ParkLodge in Mt. Vernon WA. ExitI-5 at Kincaid street, exit 226.Turn east up Kincaid to So.13th, turn right on 13th. HillcrestPark is approx. six blocks southof 13th. The lodge is locatedthe Northwest corner of theparking lot.

Club Contacts:Julian Lee – President

360-299-2900groundwk@earthlink.net

Ron Grant – Vice President360-658-2621narg@msn.com

Shirley Butturs –Secretary360-826-3984dumpstadiva@verizon.net

Bruce Campbell

Page 5July Meeting Demonstration

President’s Challenge: Christmas Ornaments

Page 7

Terry Tynan: Augustmeeting demonstration

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Club Business:

!Raffle Wood!Our wood raffle is an importantsource of income for the club.Please bring any surplus you canscrounge up but try to limit it tosomething you would enjoyturning yourself.

Deadline for submittinginfo to the Newsletter:

The first of themonth after the last

meetingContact Dennis Shinn with yoursubmission:360-854-9909hdshinn@eskimo.com

Meeting Minutes: July 19thAug 1st and 2nd set up display at

the Art Depot Gallery in Anacortes.Those wanting to exhibit and sell woodart can download the submission formfrom the club web site.

Aug 3rd Friday evening kick offparty at the Depot Gallery for the monthlong Wood Art exhibits. No host bar

Aug 4th Saturday at Polaner Parkin Bellingham. We are turning tops forkids volunteers needed.

Aug 16th this meeting is a picnicpotluck and after dinner Terry Tynanwill demo metal spinning on a woodlathe.

Aug 17th and 18th Metal spinningclasses at Dennis Shinn’s shop

Aug 25th Vern Librant camp outSept 7 the 9th Greater

Vancouver Woodturners Guild ishaving its annual West Coast Roundupwoodturning symposium at the Rich-mond Hotel and Convention Center,

Next Meeting20 Sep

Richmond B.C. This year they will fea-ture John Jordan,Richard Raffan,Bonnie Klein, Al Stirt, Betty Scarpino,Molly Winton, Dave Schweitzer andMartin Thorne.

October Demo and class by Chris-tian Bouchard

This month the demo was byBruce Cammpbell who showed us howto turn metal on a wood lathe usingconventional wood turning tools. Thiswas so interesting and something I havegot to try.

Fridays class was on spindle turn-ing and we produced quite a mound ofchips practicing and learning the skewand spindle gouge. As always Brucegave wonderful clear instruction andlots of help with problems.

Saturday’s class was about bowlsbut I didn’t attend that one but turnedtops in the park instead which was great

Tip of the monthHere’s a setup for turning large di-

ameter dowels to a consistent diameterproducing tops. Submitted by JulienLee, it consists of a long bar toolrest that supports a slidingfixture that in turn holdsa router. The particu-lar bit Julien choseto produce the dow-els shown had a bot-tom bearing so he chose topass the bit across the top of the workpiece. This jig might work as well witha plunge dado bit. Either way the workpiece should be roughed down to closeto the desired diameter before attack-ing it with the router. Also avoid ‘climbcutting’. with the router. This meanspassing the router over the work piecefrom the tail stock end, left to right toavoid having the bit grab the work.

If you have a bit ofturning advice please share it with

the rest of the club membersip. Whoknows, if we can make this a regularfeature of the newsletter perhaps wecan come up with a prize of some sort.

Founder’s day in Sedro-Woolley will take place Sep. 8TH &9TH this year. The Sedro-Woolley museum has asked if wecould participate by having a turningdemonstration. I’ve volunteered totake part both days. We can displaypieces for sale if we wish howeverthis is not anticipated to be a highbudget event – utilitarian pieceswould be more appropriate. It’s alsoa great opportunity to turn tops forkids that show up.

S e p t e m b e rmeeting September20th. Subject Gerrit Van Ness topresent” Thinkingoutside the Box”

October Demo and

class by ChristianBurchard

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Editor’s Comments:

Thanks for your patience withthe July edition of the news-

letter. This edition includes galleryshots from both the July and Augustmeetings. As Julien noted, for calendaritems that are time sensitive, noticeswill be sent out via email as soon asthey are scheduled. You can always goto the web site:www.northwestwashingtonwoodturners.organd view the up to date calendar of clubevents. Please check your email regu-larly and/or log on the club web siteabove for the most up to date listing ofevents and activities.

Several lathes for sale this month– be sure to check the classifieds on thelast page. Laura Matthews has a coupleof them and Dave Balyeat another.

Election of club officers will becoming up shortly. One position thatneeds to be filled is activity coordinater,the post that Gerrit VanNess has heldfor the past two years. Gerrit is morethan willing to ‘run alongside’ his re-placement to help get them up to speedso to speak so if you or someone youknow is interested in taking Gerrit’splace please, don’t be shy!

Gallery Submission:

Name:

Wood:

Finish:

Size (wxh):

Comments:

Please print the above form toaccompany your meeting gallery

A big

Thank You toVern and hiswife for host-ing the openhouse over theweekend of the25th August.We’ve in-cluded somephotos thanks to John Gruenewald andsome comments on page 8.

The cov-erage of

Bruce Campbell’sclasses doesn’t dojustice to the

submission. One form for each itemwould be appreciated. Thanks!!

Election of OfficersIt’s that time of year when new officers must be elected to continue our

progress toward education, awareness and sharing. With that in mind, the fol-lowing people have been designated as our nominating committee for this nexttwo-year appointment. George Way, 360-293-7305, grway@verizon.net, FredPahler, 360-387-0860, fpahl@aol.com, and John Gruenewald, 360-299-4564,vjgruen@fidalgo.net. The following positions are up for a two year appoint-ment: President, Vice President, Program Director, and two-year at-large boardmember. If you would like to nominate or are interested yourself, please contactany of the above nominating committee.

wealth of practical information he pro-vided. We need to have him back foranother session.

O u r

August meetingguest TerryTynan fromNorristown PAdispelled themyth that special lathes are required topractice the craft of metal spinning. Seepage 7 for more pictures and comments.

Dennis

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We are having an outdoorturning camping weekend,September 15 & 16th. Pot luckdinner on the 15th -bring a dish toshare. Come for the day orcomplete weekend. Camp siteshave power and water – bringwood to turn and your travelingtools. Four club lathes will be setup for use. This is a greatopportunity to hone your skills andget free instruction . Location:Deming Log show campground .East of Bellingham 9 miles on theMount Baker highway turn left onCedarville one mile. Email Julianto reserve your site:groundwk@earthlink.net

or call 360 299 2900 Bellingham Kids festival Top

Turning.We had a great turnout both interms of kids and members whoshowed up to support this event.7 lathes were set up with 12members to operate them. Mythanks to all concerned and happyBirthday to John Gruenwold whospent his 76th birthday turningtops with us.

The Depot Art Center exhibitis now set up and will run for themonth of August. I believe it isworth a visit and is a very goodrepresentation of our work. Wehave 150 pieces on display from16 of our members with a retailvalue of $ 57,000.00 . My thanksto all of the contributors and thosethat worked so hard to set it upand man the event during theAnacortes Arts and Craft Show.Located 611 R ave AnacortesOpen Tuesday thru Friday 1-4pmSaturday 10 am to 3.30pm.

Safety Notice! For those of you that have the

Grizzly Industrial 3 3/4 “ lathe

chucks H6265 H6267 etc. [ Vicmarclook alike.] you may have noticed ifyou have tried to change the jaws,that the jaw screws are very short.In fact the jaws are only held on with2 threads. I have contacted theircustomer service dept and after 2weeks of investigation they concedethat new longer screws are nowavailable. Part number PFH02M[m6-1x12] They would not sendme a box to accommodate all of theguild members that have thesechucks but would only deal witheach customer inquire in turn. I amnot convinced that the replacementscrews will actually work becausethe size quoted may be the correctlength but the thread pitch is wrong.So be aware of this situation - thechuck as is is not safe to turn within my view.

Julian Lee

Editor’s note: I visited theBellingham Grizzly warehouse onWed 08Aug to return my chuck asI’ve had the same issues with itthat Julien describes. Grizzly hadsent me a package of replacementscrews which were no longer thanthe originals. They accepted thereturn of the chuck with no ques-tions when I showed the salesperson the limited thread engage-ment. I also asked to speak to theresident head of QC for a responseto Julien’s notice before beingpublished. They were unavailablewithin the time I had to wait so Ileft a copy of Juilien’s email(above) with the counter personexplaining that they would defi-nitely have an opportunity torespond to the newsletter via myemail. We’ve not had such a re-sponse as of publishing this issuebut will provide them with anopportunity to do so if they wish.

Calendar Sept 7th the 9th Greater Vancouver

Woodturners’ 2nd West Coast Roundupwoodturning symposium at the RichmondHotel and Convention Center, RichmondB.C. Featured artists: John Jordan, RichardRaffan, Bonnie Klein, Al Stirt, BettyScarpino, Molly Winton, Dave Schweitzerand Martin Thorne. Classes are also avail-able:-

Al Stirt–two 1-day classes - Wed. Sept.5 and Thu. Sept. 6 (Island Woodcraft)

Project list includes:Simple Open Bowl–Roughing out

bowls in green wood, drying & re-turning.Emphasis placed on working with and align-ing the grain to get a pleasing pattern fromplain-grained wood.

Fluted bowl–Methods of holding workfor carving, use of pneumatic chisel, &sanding drum to shape wood.

Turned & painted & carved platter–Involves the use of the “sgraffito” techniqueof cutting through a colored layer to reveal apattern formed by the color of the underly-ing wood.

Textured square platter–Turning, carv-ing & coloring a textured square platter.

Betty Scarpino - one 1-day class - Thu. Sept. 6 (KMS?) Develop your ownunique approach to embellishingturned objects through a series of designexercises. Covers bleaching, texturing, andcoloring, with emphasison the individual’sstyle and interest.

John Jordan - two 1-day classes -Mon. Sept. 10 and Tue. Sept. 11 (IslandWoodcraft) John is willing to do a courseon hollow turning, a course involving carv-ing, or a course on exploring new ideas.

Bonnie Klein - one 2-day class - Mon-day Sept. 10 and Tuesday Sept. 11 (KMS orelsewhere) .

Bonnie’s class will focus on makingthreaded lid boxes. This course may be bro-ken into 2 one day classes as the others. Thefocus of this may change to 1day threadedlidded boxes and one day on another topic.

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A good deal of focus in the turningworld is on exploring other media beyondwood itself. For instance, Bonnie Klein inher recent demonstration exhibited somestriking pieces turned out of bone. Some ofour own club members are exploringenhancemets to their turning such as JohnMull who has produced some remarkableCorian® inserts.

Bruce Campbell’s July presentation,“Turning metal on a Wood Lathe” sparkedconsiderable interest.

To be totally accurate the types of“metal” most suitable for turning on a woodlathe are non ferrous materials such as alu-minum, brass, copper and so forth. Iron, steeland stainless steel along with such ‘exotics’as titanium are best left untouched by woodturners.

For some interesting applications ofturned metal incorporated into turned woodart visit Bruce’s website at:www.artisansworkbench.com.

As Bruce pointed out, turning metal isa different process than spinning metal,something we’ll be treated to at the Augustmeeting. As evident in the photo, it takes good concentration since the pieces tend to be quite small. But the advantage is– no grain and no tearout!

Bruce fashions a slender finial from aluminum bar stock. The material isavailable at most hardware stores. Sharp HSS tools can be used veryeffectively to turn aluminum, brass, copper and pewter although pewterbar stock may be difficult to find. Plus pewter is an extremely soft materialnot well suited to long slender turnings.

Technique is everything when working withthe non ferrous materials. It doesn’t pay toget aggressive any more than it does whenworking wood with long thin shapes.

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Our July class sessions wereconducted by Bruce Campbell withspindle turning on Friday and bowlturning Saturday. I took the Fridayspindle turning class and becameso engrossed in the process Ineglected to get any snapshots ofthe day’s activities. My thanks toGerrit for providing theaccompanying shot of the Saturdaybowl turning session.

Bruce is very much at home inthe teaching role and conducts awell organized class session. Hebrings everyone along at the samepace. He opened the class with abrief but thorough discussion ofsafety issues. The Friday class wasdirected to beginning tointermediate turners but the topicscovered were of value to all but themost advanced.

The importance of sharp toolsand how to get them that wayoccupied a fair amount of time atthe start. This included a lot of whatmight be called sharpening“theory”. That is the shape anddesign of various tool profiles andthe relative benefits of each. Brucedebunked more than a couple‘urban myths’ pertaining to toolprofiles and sharpening.

Right at the start Bruce put theskew chisels in our hands. Theskew is to most new turners thedevil’s own intrument of torture butunder his guidance we learned howversatile it can be for spindleturning. And with practice it

produces the best finish on spindlework.

One major, and I stress majorpoint that was made with respectto spindle tools was that what weordinarily refer to as a roughinggouge should in reality be called aspindle roughing gouge.

Why?Because the tang is not designed

to take the stress encountered onface plate turning where the grainis perpendicular to the axis of thelathe. It can be and usually is adangerous proposition to use aspindle roughing gouge on face

Photo: Gerrit VanNess

Bowl turning class session at Gerrit’s shop. Photo:Gerrit

plate (bowl work) mounted wood.A word of thanks to Gerrit

VanNess for hosting the classes inhis shop again. This representsquite a bit of work on his part settingeverything up to make it possible.Also thanks to Steve Pulver forbeing on hand to assist Bruceduring the two class sessions. Hisexpertise is always appreciated.

Dennis Shinn

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The August meeting servedtwo purposes; the annual clubpicnic and a demonstration ofmetal spinning using traditionalhand tools. A process that has inthe recent past given way to au-tomated and hydraulic machineprocesses. But the craft is verymuch alive, if not well populated.

Terry Tynan learned hisskills through working his en-tire life at the trade in or aroundYork, Yorkshire England. Hecame to America about fiveyears ago and has settled inPennsylvania with his recentbride Rebecca. We were fortu-nate to have someone with hisexpertise to introduce us to thecraft and demonstrate metalspinning from the ground up;from creating our own mandrelson which to spin the final formto designing two mating parts.

Quite surprisingly welearned that something as humbleas the mini lathe is capable of do-ing certain spinning projects. To be sure thethickness of material and project size are lim-ited. But for anyone with the basic 1/2HP minilathe there’s a potential for exploring the craft.

Ron Grant (foreground) & ShirleyButters (background) preparing theirspinning forms

Friday class session startup

Mark Straight(right) moving themetal disk overthe mandrel.

We should havesome interestingpieces in theS e p t e m b e rgallery!

A few follow up notes fromthe spinning classes:Ö After a period of use there

may be a build up of transferedmaterial from the spinning blankto the tool. Check the businessend of the tool frequently andpolish if you find any buildup toavoid galling of your spinningblank.Ö Be careful with the trim tool.

Always bring it in perpendicularto the edge of the spinning disk.Keep it anchored on the T-restand rotate it in gently against thefulcrum pin to maintain control.Do not be agressive with this tool.Ö Always use the smallest

disk possible to spin the part.Excessive material will lead tobuckling of the outter rim.Ö Spinning is indeed

dangerous if we don’t use ourheads. But with due dilligence it’sa real blast!

Happy campers from theSaturday spinning class!

Concentration was intense asshavings flew creating the initialspinning mandrels.

Terry’s web site discussiongroup is at:http://metalspinningworkshop.com/forum/upload/index.phpLog on and participate inthe discussion. If you havequestions or problemsthere are pros there thatcan help!

Mildred Holder finishing up thebottom piece of the class project

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Jean Lee, Joyce Young & RobbieShinn relaxing in the peace & quietat Vern’s place.

A portion of Vern’sshaving pile! Vernsays he turns up tofour bowls a day.

Easy to see where the massive pile of shavings comesfrom! Vern’s lathe consists of a block of concreteweighing perhaps half a ton and a two horse motordriving a 2” shaft on pillow blocks.

The sanding process could best be described as “TotalSubmersion” in the literal sense

Eight lathes were available for turning and few of themwere idle for any length of time

Photos by John Greunewald

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After the pot luck dinner Saturday evening no one had muchenergy to do more than stoke the camp fire.

One of several pieces producedduring the weekend

Yes, it’s a tough life, Vern, but someone has to live it!

cont.

Pretty much says it all.

We’d all like to send our thanks to Vernand his wife for hosting the Open House. Inspite of the threat of rain (it only showed upfor a short time) everyone had a great time.

Event’s like these are a great opportu-nity to just relax and make shavings. There’sno real intent on making anything of note,just a chance to turn wood. A chance to get acritique or tool use, learn how to best takeadvantage of a turning blank or anything elseyou want to try. But above all it’s a chance toget to know fellow club members. And thefood’s pretty good, too!

Mark your calendar for the upcomingturning campout at the Deming Log Showgrounds (check the web site for dates). Thebeauty of this event is there’s no cleanup!

Mike Young taking advantage ofopen air turning.

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A monthly showcase of members’ work

Aaron McIntire:

The Gallery for the July Meeting:

Both Aaron and Donovanbegan turning the weekend ofthe Deming Hills to Mills showthanks to their uncle MikeYoung. Their work and accom-plishment certainly demon-strates Mike’s ability to men-tor beginning turners as well asAaron’s and Donovan’s imme-diate passion for the craft.

One of Bob’s classicpieces, the pod

Bob Doop: Madrone

Chick Murray

Japanese Walnut (laminated)Danish oil finish

Maple burlDanish oil

HemlockDanish oil

Maple vessel withpedestal

Two pens inwalnut.

Aaron & Donovan McIntire

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Jan GarlingtonMahogany pepper mill withsalad bowl finish

Eastern aromaticcedar/wipe on poly

Maple burl/wipeon polyMaple burl/

wipe on poly

John Novak

George Way

MadronaOil & lacquer

AppleOil & lacquer

MadronaBlue & blackdie/Profin

MadronaProfin

Lucinda Van ValkenburgBirch/Salad bowl finish

July meeting: cont.

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Cookie jar:Black locust,rosewood &ebony. 8 1/2 x 9ProFin

Mike Young

Natural edge maple 3 x 8. Edge was stained,wax finish on inside and outside

Mildred Holder

Unknown wood with rose enginedecoration. Walnut oil finish.

Chestnut platter decorated with rose engine lathe.Wax finish

August Meeting Gallery Pieces

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Bob DoopMore pods!Madrona, of course.

Bill Cowan

Lilac “stick bowl”. 10” x 10”. Oil finish. Billexplained that this is a glue-up of lilac branch wood.

Myrtle6 x 3Beeswax

Chick Murray

Maple5 x 5Danish Oil

Cedar10 x 6Beeswax

Hemlock8 x 3Danish Oil

Cont.: August meeting

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John MullAppleBeeswax

Fred Holder

Fred’s signature Chinese balls, this time in cast polymer.Bottle stopper. Fred says the bowl was simply fortransporting the other pieces.

Wedding gobletwith two captiverings. Englishwalnut with waxfinish

Plate from cherry with varioius inlays.This was a collaborative work withmembers of the Seattle turning group.Buttons were turned onFred’s shop built rose engine and willbe used on the sweater Mildred iscurrently knitting.

Cont.: August meeting

Mark StraightOpen segmented maple4 x 6Spar varnish

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Thanks to the ini-tial efforts of George

Way, our videographer,the club had an opportu-

nity to exhibit members’work for the entire month of

August. The last accounting showedwe had about $57,000.00 worth ofturned items on display and for sale.

Our exhibit opened the week-end of the Anacortes Arts & Craftstreet fair which generated a goodbit of traffic to our venue.

The Art Depot is a charmingold restored train station.

It’s located near the ma-rina off ‘R’ street onlyabout two or three blocksfrom the main Old TownAnacortes.

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ClassifiedThis space is set aside for members to advertise free of charge to sell or purchase Tools,wood. etc. Please submit

your ad to Dennis Shinn (hdshinn@eskimo.com) by the last Thursday of the month or submit it to me at the meeting forinclusion in the next months newsletter.

MORE WOODTURNINGThe newspaper for turners.

Published 10 times a year by FredHolder. One year: $30.00; Twoyears: $50.00; Three years $70.00.

More Woodturning online at:www.fholder.com/woodturning/

woodturn.htmLots of great information for our browsing

pleasure.More WoodturningPO Box 2168Snohomish WA 98291-2168Phone: 360-668-0976email: woodturner@fholder.com

Club Discounts Available:Show your Club Membership

care and get 10% off at Rockler’sand Crosscut Hardwoods.

Targo Woods1104 C Street Bldg. BBellingham, WA

Just three blocks south of the old site.www.targowoods.com [orwww.hardwoodstoget.comLocal Bellingham wood source for

your projects. Hard woods, Burls,Veneers. Wood to replace a leg ona chair, make a whole dining roomset or turn a bowl, you will find it atTargo.

Oby says: NWWoodturner Clubmembers will get 10% off on theirpurchases.

Save on gas buy local.

Got a tool or two you no longerneed? Need an item related towoodturning (or general shop use)?

Contact other members of theclub here in the classified.

A good source of myrtle, maple burl andother figured turning burls

Useful Website LinksNote:Web links have been provided

on our website rather thanincluded in the newsletter.Please visit:

www.northwestwashingtonwoodturners.org

for club and resource links on

For Sale: Nichols custom builtbowl lathe. 3HP variable speed.Tailstock, 1-1/4” x 8TPI spindlethread. Turn up to 38” diameter.

$US4,000.00

Concact Ron Schrimsher:

360-293-8386

Dunlap 9" x 32" (bench top)lathe that I have for sale. It has a 1/2 hp motor, live and dead centers,three face plates, and a four jawwood chuck. The 1725 RPM motoris coupled via (4) step pullies (V-belt)in the head and on the motor. It isalso capable of out board turning,and the tail stock is adjustable foroff center turning. This lathe is inperfect (like new) condition, andneeds a new home now that I haveordered a bigger one that will causethis one be moved out of my smallshop.

I am asking $250 for the thepackage as described above. Iwould be willing to bring it to the nextclub meeting or it can be seen hereat my home in anacortes. Oncediscovered I’m sure it won’t last longthough. Also, I have a 1HP 3450 likenew motor (110-220 v) that I wouldtake $50 for. It has a standardmounting base.If a general E-mailing is in order thatwould be great.

Dave Balyeat360-420-4942

Delta Variable speed woodlathe model #46-700, 12 x 36. Spurdrive dead center, 4” & 12” tool rests,two face plates (3” & 6”) withinstruction manual: $150.00

General model 160 12 x 36gap bed wood lathe. 4 speed: 850 -3500 RPM, #2 Morse taper, spurdrive, live center, indexing head, 3tool rests (3”, 6” & 12”),two faceplates (3” & 6”), two home madecollet chucks, knockout barwrenches and tool holder. Twosandbags for ballast. $550.00

Laura Matthews360-757-7730

1HP totally enclosed fancooled (TEFC) DC motor withelectronic speed control $350.00

Laura Matthews360-757-7730

Tell ‘em you read about it in theNorthwest WashingtonWoodturner’s newsletter!