Huron Valley Woodturners
May 17, 2020 On-line Meeting Summary
Executive meeting at 12:45.
It was exciting to have 16 participants this time as opposed to the 12 in our April Zoom meeting! Calling and inviting folks seemed to help.
Thanks to Sophie for taking care of our website and keeping it updated!!
General Meeting began at 1:10
Steve came on a little late so the Treasurer’s report – our account is $15 less. He is awaiting an invoice for website charges. We should have no problem paying for professional demonstrators in the future if we agree to have them.
Safety: Mark cut his thumb making a plastic mask—6 stitches
Discussion about getting professional demos. Should we invite other clubs? Which of the famous turners has the set up to do these demos? Officers will check into this. Bill wondered if we could invite other clubs like the Michigan Woodworkers, or the woodcarvers. We will put out an email of potential demonstrators for club membership to let us know who they might want.
Misc. Bill talked about getting co-vid tests as a retiree. He also brought up how mulberry checks so easily. Russ suggested using a sealer quickly, and has used CAglue.
Show and Tell included the President’s Challenge. Although pictures of the items mentioned below were requested, only Dan sent any so only his and Jeff’s have pictures at the end of the summary.
-Carroll is working on a native American flute and discussed how he bored it. Now he would like anyone interested to help him discover how to do the mouthpiece. He also is interested in making a large chess set and he talked about how blind turners make them. He has made dulcimers in the past.
-Mark called his latest creations “captured volume.” He showed us “cookie jars” made from a variety of wood with mahogany tops. He uses rabbet joints.
-Jeff showed us his birch burl which was the President’s Challenge. His wife has turned it into a candle holder.
-Steve K showed us how he classed up his wife’s office by making her a walnut pencil holder.
-Dan showed us a cherry burl bowl for the President’s challenge and also a very colorful holder for a pipe.
-Jack showed us his segmented knitting bowls and also his wife’s and his quilted creations using 7 different kinds of wood. Looks kind of native American…
-Erica showed her President’s Challenge gift to her granddaughter—a cherry bowl.
-Jack Frost showed us a beautiful apple wood bowl for the President’s Challenge.
-John Fink showed us a cup with coves for fingers to wrap around. And a bottle stopper that mimics a shape made 1600BC in the Mycenaean culture. Apparently they had lathes 3500 years ago!!
-Steve Beckman asked about whether the lines in the stopper were burned. John suggested getting a High E guitar string and putting handles or balls on the end. It gets very hot. He also puts a groove in the wood where he wants to burn before addressing the wire to the wood
-Bill showed us his maple ambrosia and mulberry bowls.
President’s Challenge for June Meeting: something that involves end grain turning for next meeting.
Dan’s virtual workshop tour.
Dan has thought of everything for his shop. He has a Laguna dust collector which has 8 inch pipe throughout his workshop and he turns the “gates” on and off depending on the use of the machine he is working on. He separates his Robust lathe in a separate room and has strips of plastic curtain in doorway. He showed us his positive ventilation face mask and the box he created to lay his tools on that fits the ways of both his lathes. He uses magnets on his lathe to hold items he regularly needs and has a nifty set up for tool storage. Under his grinding bench he has a pull-out buffing system which he demonstrated. On one wall is the steady rest that came with the Robust lathe and air and vacuum for his vacuum chuck.
Steve Kolpacke will do the next virtual workshop tour for our meeting in June.
John showed us John Jordan’s demo on sharpening. From the AAW website.
John Jordan prefers a slower grinding system and likes 8-inch wheels which need to be dressed frequently. He showed two kinds of dressers. My internet shut down briefly so I missed some of this discussion. He suggested an H or J hardness for the wheels. He also demonstrated at least 3 different grinding jigs, the Wolverine, David Ellsworth’s, and an old Glaser jig (no longer available) and talked about the advantages and similarities of each.
Discussion after demo.
-Bill talked about his sense that there will be fewer and fewer art fairs in the future and that his daughter is using etsy. Which has been very profitable! He also talked about what he has learned about cutting trees—using a Humboldt notch.
-John suggested that when we invite others to our zoom meetings, we let him and Steve know so that they can let them in.
11. The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 20 again using Zoom. The officers plan to meet before then to discuss several items and will consider if it should be rescheduled since that is Father’s Day. Look for the normal email notice of the meeting as we get close to the date.
Dan’s Cherry Burl Bowl and ring holder from a burl scrap.
