West Bay Woodturners Newsletter is a monthly update on the club activities. This free resource is available to beginner and professional woodturners.
Next Meeting
Wednesday, March 18, 2026, 7pm
Bridges Community Church
(second floor meeting room)
625 Magdalena Ave
Los Altos, CA 94024
Program
- Introductions of guests and new members
- Demonstration – Edgar Whipple “Egg and Cup” featuring roughing with a skew and back hollowing end grain
- Break
- Reminders and updates
- Review of “President’s Challenge” items
- Show & Tell
President’s Challenge – Spheres or Eggs
Upcoming Meetings and Demos
15 April 2026
Tina will turn some pens showing various methods.
President’s Message
I was well pleased by the participation in the President’s Challenge, ‘umeke (calabash), and by the beautiful examples created. See the review below. I hope to see a similar good response to Vic Mitnick’s sphere demonstration as the President’s Challenge for March 2026 is “Spheres and Eggs”.
I am also glad that the warm weather has returned at least for now, because working in an unheated garage is unpleasant, and my face mask fogs up, which is dangerous. I will be practicing and preparing for my demonstration, “Egg and Cup”, at the 18 March 2026 meeting.
– Edgar Whipple, President
Woodturning Book Library
A large woodturning and carving library is available to WBW members as part of our partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Carvers. Browse the online catalog, reserve a book or two, and pick them up at our next meeting. Some books feature galleries for inspiration, and some describe hands-on turning techniques.
Last Meeting Review
Wednesday February 18, 2026
Woodturners newsletter notes by Laura Rhodes; pictures by Roman Chernikov and Angela Gunn.
Announcements
- No guests were in attendance.
- Angela Gunn noted that SVW is collecting wig stands for donation to cancer care point. A representative from that organization will be at the next SVW meeting on March 4, 2026 to receive them, so you still have time to turn one (or more!).
- See Jim Koren’s e-mail of February 5, 2026 to sign up for the Derek Weidman demonstration on March 15, 2026 at Maker Nexus from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
- Joe Martinka is requesting other members to sign up to present their favorite finish (not walnut oil or wipe on poly) at a future meeting. See Joe’s email from February 1, 2026 for details.
Demonstration – Vic Mitnick Turning a Sphere
Vic started with a brief slide show demonstration showing several ways to turn spheres:
- Using a sphere jig (such as the Perfect Sphere Tool from Carter Products for $409). (Note: Bob Bley noted that he made his own for about $10).
- By eye – completely freehand.
- Shadow method – using an overhead light to cast a show of the piece on the lathe onto a circle template.
- Template – holding a template against the wood to test the curve.
- Easy Turn Chucky from rubberchucky.com
- Octagon method
On the lathe, Vic demonstrated how to turn a sphere using the octagon method. You begin with a rounded blank whose length is greater than the diameter. The blank’s diameter, d, is the diameter of the final sphere. The blank is then marked out as follows:
- A center line is drawn in the middle. This becomes the equator of the sphere.
- Two lines demarking the edges of top of the octagon are drawn. The length of this segment is A=d*0.414.
- Lines are drawn distance B (B=d*.293) from each side of the octagon top face. These demarcate where the tenons will be located.
Tenons, with diameter (A), same as the top face of the octagon, are cut on the ends using a parting tool. Then the side facets are cut using a spindle gouge in a straight line from the edges of the octagon top down to the tenons. The edges are rounded and the tenons are then cut off. A set of cup chucks (either commercial or homemade) are placed in the headstock and tailstock and the sphere is placed with the marked equator in the cups with the cut-off tenon ends facing out. A bowl gouge is then used to complete the spherical shape. Multiple shifts around different axes may be needed to perfect the sphere. Sanding is done in a similar manner.
Rather than doing math, Vic demonstrated a couple of other ways to figure out the two measurements A and B. One used a graph with a pair of angled lines. Find the diameter along the X-axis and read the A and B measurements on the Y-axis. Another uses a specially designed caliper designed by Soren Berger.
Vic demonstrated the first portion of turning a sphere using the Easy Turn Chucky. He started out with a rounded blank whose length was equal to the diameter. Specially shaped “spiky” centers held opposite corners of the blank between centers. Small sections of the blank near these centers were turned off so that collars could be slid up to more securely hold the blank. The rest of the turning would proceed much the same as with the octagon method.
President’s Challenge – Hawaiian Calabash
Dennis Lillis showed four calabash bowls – one of cocobolo, one with both bow ties and little turtles, one of madrone burl with jet black stone inlay. For the turtles and bow ties, he used router templates made by Big Island Engraving. The turtles were wood on the inside and stone on the outside.
Angela Gunn missed last month’s president’s challenge so she showed off her corn cob holders with a design from the AAW.
Daniel Saal made a bowl with a bead on the top.
Bob Bley couldn’t resist repeating last month’s kitchen item president’s challenge with an enormous spoon worthy of a witch’s cauldron. He also showed an end grain walnut bowl with a three-quarter inch flat on the bottom so it would sit without rocking.
Ed Howes made a calabash bowl from an unknown wood. He also had a bag full of Pens for the Troops engraved with “USA” on one side and “Thank You” on the other.
Tom Gaston showed a catalpa calabash bowl that came from a crotch of a tree so you can see three piths. He also made an oak calabash bowl.
John Bishop made two small bowls with round bottoms, and three bowls with lids.
Joe Martinka made a little walnut bowl, an olive bowl that didn’t survive, and a deeper walnut bowl. To sand the inside of the deep bowl, he used homemade inertial sanders. Joe also showed a custom vacuum chuck, and a 3-d printed vase with a texture that would be difficult to reproduce in wood.
Alison Lee made two calabash bowls – one cross grain and one end grain with a lid. She made a calabash-like bowl with a top that can also serve as a saucer.
Kevin Lee turned to the little bowl from English Elm that had too much sapwood.
Dean Caudle turned a calabash bowl from camphor.
Jon Sauer showed a tiny calabash vase made from kingwood.
Kirsten Mouradian carved a cherry spoon (for last month’s kitchen challenge). She showed a real calabash gourd, a sugar bowl made from a gourd, the calabash bowl that Mike Mahoney had turned (that she had won in the raffle), and her own small calabash bowl.
Laura Rhodes made a small calabash upright form from a branch of acacia wood.
Dave Vannier made a round bottom calabash bowl. He noted that round bottomed bowls don’t sell.
Vic Mitnick made a small end grain calabash bowl from tiger wood (also known as Goncalo Alves), and a bigger calabash bowl from Norfolk Island pine.
Chris Quesada turned this beautiful calabash bowl from Claro walnut.
Tina showed a calabash bowl with a little flat bottom.
Show & Tell
Bob Bley made a redwood burl vessel. He was gifted the large blank from Edgar. The vessel featured opals inlaid around the rim. These were tricky to install. Bob described how he was able to inlay the opals in stages by making small dams of larger stones, filling in a small section, and letting that dry before rotating the piece to work on the next section. Before Barry and Laura Uden moved, they gave Bob a large piece of red fruited Mallee burl. Bob cored it, and made a small bowl from the core, and a large platter with the live edge rim from the main portion of the burl.
Dean Caudle made an unusually shaped vessel.
Laura Rhodes brought in two bowls – a delicate little walnut bowl and a twice turned elm bowl made from a piece of elm she got from Dennis.
John Bishop showed a pair vessels where he combines lathe turning with routing. For the first he used a 3/8 inch bull nose bit, and the other a 1/2 inch roundover bit. Jon creates a template with the external shape of the vase, and his router jig follows that template to carve the vessel. These were finished with Tried and True.
Vic Mitnick made a bottle stopper from a kit. The kit normally requires a mandrel, but since he wasn’t sure he was going to turn any more, he made his own mandrel that goes into a chuck . He also made a tiny bowl (and noted that it started out much larger).
Tom Nagy made a black walnut vase with various woods as rings. He showed an olive bowl with epoxy tinted with sparkles on both sides of the bowl. To retain the same tinted epoxy for the two separate pours, he put the epoxy in the freezer. When he took it out the next day, it was still liquid. Both bowls were finished with Tung oil.
Daniel Saal finished his big walnut bowl that he showed us last month. He mounted the bowl with its tenon in the chuck onto the tail stock to line up with the vacuum chuck. He was then able to bring up his tail stock and hold it securely to turn off the chucking tenon. He finished it with wipe-on poly. Daniel also showed a winged walnut bowl finished with walnut oil. He had rough-turned the bowl and then dried it in the toaster oven at a very low heat before finishing turning it.
Tom Gaston showed a couple of lidded boxes from made from spalted birch (which was almost punky). Tom turned a deep ogee-shaped bowl out of maple.
Jon Sauer makes little things. He showed a collection of pieces – leftovers from previous projects that maybe he’ll use some day.
Participation Prizes
Edgar presented five items for the President’s Challenge prizes – pieces of osage orange, beech, drooping sheoak, olive, and a $10 Craft Supplies gift certificate.
Woodturners Newsletter Editing Notes
WBW members, please let the newsletter editors know if you have a personal website, and would like it included in the President’s Challenge and Show & Tell sections of our Woodturning Newsletter. Email us at info@westbaywoodturners.com.
Board Members and Committee Chairs
President: Edgar Whipple
Vice President: Jon Bishop
Treasurer: Jim Koren
Secretary: Alison Lee
Member at Large: ?
Meeting Program Coordinator: Claude Godcharles (acting)
Visiting Artist Coordinator: Dean Caudle (acting)
Anchor Seal: Dennis Lillis
Craft Supply: Tina
Librarian: Kelly Smith and Roman Chernikov
Audio Visual: Curtis Vose
Website: Roman Chernikov
Woodturners Newsletter: Angela, Edgar, David, Laura, and Roman
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