May Meeting

Wednesday May 18, 7:00 pm
Show & Tell
President's challenge:
  Turn a bowl with your 40-40 bowl gouge and push-cut
  technique only, as demonstred by Tom Gaston last month
  Or...bring an "unsatisfactory" piece or "need
  improvement" piece...it's about form
Program:
  Design fun(damentals) Part 2
  Seeing the good, Improving the bad, Fixing the Ugly!

Upcoming Meetings

June Program:
  Chasing your threads with local artist Lanchi Vo

June 23 - 26 2022
AAW 36th annual International Woodturning Symposium
Chattanooga, TN

July Program:
  The Intersia of Howard Whipple
  a review by Edgar Whipple

August Picnic/BBQ
  Wednesday August 3
  Hosted by Silicon Valley Woodturners

August demonstration by Kirk DeHeer
• Live Demo-August 21 Sunday at The Santa Clara High School. 9 AM -4 PM
• Hands on August 22, Monday. Enrollment to start soon. Final Cost TBD. ~ $90 per person.
• Private classes August 23 and 24- Interested parties let Bob Bley know. $100/ hour.
• Kirk DeHeer is a professional woodturner
   He is a full time member of the Product Development Team at Craft Supplies USA.
   He is a lead instructor in Craft Supplies 101 and 201 Workshops

Wednesday April 20 2022
Turn like a Batty with Tom Gaston

Tom Gaston gave us an excellent tutorial on the fundamentals of bowl turning. The focus was on which way the gouge shold approach the wood based on grain direction. The wood fibers like to be cut in a direction that they are not poked and uprooted. Pet a dog in the direction of the fur, not not against the fur. He also showed how to mount a piece to give best access for easy turning.
See the Power Point presentation
See Show & Tell

President's Words - Claude Godcharles

I am excited about our next meeting where we will continue with part 2 of Design (Fun)damentals. In part 1 last March we explored the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with lots of great examples and even a picture sorting game thanks to Laura Uden. This next segment will focus on how to create / how to improve pleasing forms for your pieces. There will be some live demo with hands-on form shaping, don't miss it!

At the last meeting, where Tom Gaston reviewed Stuart Batty's "Perfect cut" techniques, I forgot to announce the next president's challenge. I am still learning the ropes of my presidential duties, but it will get better as experience sets in! So although it is a bit short notice, here's two choices for the May challenge: try turning a bowl with your 40-40 bowl gouge and push-cut technique only, just like Tom talked about and demonstrated. You will find Tom's slides as part of the April meeting recap above as a reminder. Also a PDF copy is available by clicking here

I would also like you to bring in an "unsatisfactory" piece or "need improvement" piece that we were supposed to look at last March, but ran out of time. This is about the form of the piece, not technical difficulties or failures. We will use those to discuss options for improvements. That should make for an interesting discussion. I know I have a dog bowl or misshapen vase tucked somewhere!

Lastly, I will put up for raffle an ornamental egg I acquired at Dave Plemons sale. I think it is a nice memento of Dave's skills that would look nice in any collection, see the pictures.

Looking forward to see you all Wednesday May 18, 7pm at Bridges Church.

Claude G

"As the Wood Turns" A Story of doing Flatwork - by Dave Vannier

I’ve done very little flat work the last few years. Had too many issues running the random orbital sander. Fortunately the lathe has kept me connected with my wood working passion. But this slab and the potential to make a wonderful table top was just too much to pass on. I’ve learned a lot going through the process, and hope to finish soon. First, we spent 6 hrs running a router sled over the piece to flatten booth sides. Then, 3 days of sanding all the router marks off. Next, about a week and $30 of CA to try to fill in the bark inclusions from the underside. Fortunately, the weather turned great, and I applied a seal coat of epoxy. Did a pretty good job of sealing up so the epoxy didn’t just run out. Next, a flood coat. Sigh, too many air bubbles coming up through the wood. Guess my seal coat wasn’t good enough. Back to sanding, and another seal coat. $300 of epoxy has it looking pretty good. Now, waiting for some custom metal legs to be made. Small job, so keeps getting bumped for higher priced jobs. It will get there.

But, this experience has just proven there is no such thing as a shop that is big enough! Before turning, I designed the shop so I could have an assembly area. But this has become my lathe space, and then wood storage has taken over any other free space. To work on the table, I had to shove everything around, making it impossible to use the lathe. The result is that I’ve not turned for over a month. I have withdrawal. Lots of ideas, but unable to get there. Proves just how addicting this hobby can be! Hope to get back soon!

Dave
www.daves-turned-art.com

2021 WBW board members and committee chairs

President: Claude Godcharles
Vice President: Tom Gaston
Treasurer: Jon Bishop
Secretary: Roman Chernikov
Member at Large: Fred Colman
Meeting Program Coordinator: TBD
Visiting artist Coordinator: TBD
Anchor seal: Dennis Lillis
CA Glue: Tom Kenyon
Craft Supply:Tina Chou
Librarian: Kelly Smith
Audio Visual: Curtis Vose
Website & Newsletter: Tom Haines

click here for contact information on the above

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.