November
John Beasley
"Long Stem Goblets"
John
Beasley Handout
My
name is John Beasley and I have lived in Denton
for 36 years. I have been married for 45 years to my wife Roni
and have 4 married children who have blessed us
with 13 grandchildren (11 boys and 2 girls).
My career was in
manufacturing management where I started as a
management trainee with Brown and Sharpe Mfg.
Co. after graduating from Notre Dame University
in 1967. I was transferred from Rhode Island to
Denton to run an industrial drill plant here. I
then took a job with Poco Graphite Inc. in
Decatur. While working there I received my MBA
in 1983. I retired from Poco in 2008 after 35
years, having served as President and CEO from
1986 until retirement.
I recently became the
proud owner of some Crepe Myrtle wood and
thought I would try to turn it. To my amazement
it turned easily and I was able to make
beautiful extremely thin stemmed goblets. I
demonstrated this at the GTW Open Shop last
month and several turners have attempted to
duplicate the process.
My plan is to
demonstrate the technique to make the goblets,
without breaking a single one. At least that is
the plan. I will also be bringing several
green blanks to the meeting for members to take
home and make their own goblets.
October
Glynn Cox
"Christmas Ornaments"
My name is Glynn Cox. I was
born in Shreveport, Louisiana and raised in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I attended the
University of New Mexico majoring in Electrical
Engineering and graduated from the University
of Texas at Arlington in Mechanical
Engineering. I retired 7 years ago from a
37 year career with Bell Helicopter where I
wasin charge of Customizing Engineering. In my
job I traveled to 34 foreign
countries
working with customers on their custom
configurations. I have always been a “hands on”
type of person and was tutored from an early
age by my dad in the art of fixing and building
everything. I have not deviated from that as I
not only enjoy woodturning but also “flat wood
work”, metal work, antique restoration and
electronics.
Now about the demo.
After seeing a demonstration last year by
Robert Rosan on turning Christmas ornaments I
decided to give it a try. I turned several for
family and friends who thought they were great
and have “ordered” several more for this
Christmas
season. I have incorporated a few
of my own ideas along with some gleaned from a
finial class with Cindy Drosda.
I will
attempt to demonstrate turning hollow thin wall
globes with very long decorative “icicles”. I
say “attempt” because it is quite easy to cut
through the side of the globes or break the
thin icicle. Hopefully that will not happen
during the demo though I am sure the audience
would enjoy an Uh-Oh! or two. I will discuss
materials, proportions, tools, turning and
finishing techniques.
September
John Solberg
"Offset Turning Ducks
with a ShpeShifter Chuck"
Mike
Darlow’s book
Woodturning Methods
has
a chapter on multi-axis turning and
includes an article on turning
off center ducks. He discusses
three different methods of turning
them. After reading his article I
became
inspired to create a gaggle of
my own. It is my nature to explore
alternative and cheaper methods for
holding
material. My original thought was to
build an off center chuck out of PVC. I
wanted to experiment with various
sizes so several PVC chucks of
different sizes were made. The very
first ducks were turned with these
chucks.
They worked well until one of
the chucks exploded while turning.
That’s when it was determined that PVC
should
not be used off center. It
doesn’t just come apart; it explodes
with pieces flying everywhere. When PVC
breaks
it is like glass with very sharp
edges and is very dangerous. That put
an end to my duck turning, or anything
off
center with PVC, until I could
come up with a safer method of doing
it.
The
demonstration for this month will be
how to use the ShapeShifter Chuck in
turning off center ducks safely,
and how the chuck works. We will
explore a couple different ways of
holding wood on the chuck along with
ways
to reduce the weight for reduced
vibration. The chuck is very versatile
and can be used to turn a variety of
items
off center: bowls, pens and
bottle stoppers for example. The one
concern that you will need to address
is the
speed at which your lathe will
allow for off center turning before it
“walks” via vibration.
At
the AAW convention last year in
Hartford, Ct I met Dan Hoffman of
Offcenter-Tools and was introduced to
his
ShapeShifter Chuck. After
discussing with him my desire to find a
safe way to turn off center he
convinced me to
try his chuck. It turned out to
be the solution that I was looking for
and is a safer way to turn off center.
August
Tom Lohr
"Everything You Ever
Wanted to Know About Abrasives"
After
several years in the radio, television, and
recording studio fields, I spent 5 years with
Honeywell, then 30 years with 3M.
At 3M, I started with liquid adhesives,
then they added double coated tape and hook and
loop.
Later they added single coated tape.
After all of this they decided they
needed specialists in each field, so I became
the Adhesive Specialist for the south central
United States and Northern Mexico, with a side
trip to China to train their sales reps.
Several years ago, my manager asked me
to help by moving to selling abrasives and
training all of the new adhesive reps at the
same time.
I have been interested
in woodworking ever since 7th grade
shop class.
I have progressed from simple things to
decks, kids’ playhouses, furniture, cabinets,
and entertainment centers.
I was able to acquire tools as I needed
them for new tasks and when I retired in
December 2009, I took the Jimmy Clews class
at Canyon Studios.
Several months later, I bought a Delta
Midi lathe and started practicing on cheap
wood.
After a lot of practice bowls and
spindles, I used some of the good wood I bought
last at SWAT.
After storms, I now travel with a chain
saw in my truck because I love free wood.
July
Chas Thornhill
"Making Jewelry on the
Lathe"
Member WNT since September, 2009
Demo Handout
www.chasthornhill.com
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16244522
My
love of woodturning started innocently enough
in early June, 2009, in Ketchikan, Alaska. I
was standing in an art gallery shoulder-
to-shoulder with dozens of passengers crowded
around a display of native crafts. I had
probably seen hand-turned bowls at other times
in my life, but there in that gallery, I saw
bowls and platters turned from native Alaskan
woods and displayed, not as kitchen utensils,
but as art. The beautiful lines, rich colors
and textures, and exorbitant prices captivated
me. And I uttered the words my wife has come to
expect in just this sort of situation: “I bet I
could make that.” When we returned from
that cruise, I wasted no time. I dug an old
Shopsmith out of mothballs (it was rusting away
in a buddy’s barn) and cleaned it up. I had
never used it as a lathe before, so I had to
find all the parts to make it serve that
purpose. I recognized that I had no idea what
to do. So I looked online for a class and found
one scheduled at the Woodcraft store in
Addison. It was to be taught by a fellow
by the name of John Horn. You might know him.
I took his class and discovered in those few
Thursday evenings a new and somewhat addictive
art form that suited my particular aptitude for
creativity, design, and motor skills. In the
two years since (August 2011 will be the 2nd
woodturning anniversary) I have covered a lot
of ground.
Soaking
up woodturning and everything that goes into it
became my main objective. I pestered John
constantly with photos of my latest attempts
and questions about this or that technique,
finish, or tool. To his credit, he never
stopped taking my phone calls. One day, I
was at his house to learn the finer points of
making an interior finishing cut with the
Ellsworth Signature gouge. During a break in
the action, John showed me some earrings he
made on the lathe. I was impressed by the
elegance of the simple drop design and the
exotic wood. I had to try that myself.
Over
the months, I turned many beads, pendants,
medallions, and little things I call talismans.
I found that wood leftover from turning pens,
bowls and other larger items did not
necessarily have to go into the trash. They
were likely candidates for pendants, earrings,
broaches, crosses, and lots of other objects
that both conserved the wood and improved my
turning skills at the same time. I
discovered that as long as I was comfortable
working small and near the headstock or chuck,
I could convert leftovers into great little
gifts or (as I found out later) a little extra
income. I will demonstrate for you how I
create beads, pendants, and, if we have time,
I’ll turn a small cross. Since I am still
relatively new to woodturning and don’t profess
to know the “right way” to do everything, I
don’t consider this a class. It is simply a
demonstration of how I make the pieces and a
few tips and tricks for turning them into
simple, yet functional necklaces and earrings.
Chas Thornhill
Member
WNT since September, 2009June
June
John Horn
Topic - Sharpening Your Tools
The program for
June will be “ Sharpening Your Tools”. We
will have four sharpening stations set up and
the members attending the meeting will have the
opportunity of seeing how four experienced
turners recommend sharpening their tools.
Dave Marshall, Glynn Cox, Jim Tanksley, and
John Horn will be demonstrating how they
sharpen different kinds of tools. If you
have a single tool that you would like
sharpened, please bring it and possibly one of
the stations can help you. Obviously we
cannot sharpen even one tool from everyone in
attendance but we plan for you to learn how
different people accomplish the task of keeping
their tools sharp.
Download handout-
PDF Version
John Horn
May
John Herber
Topic - Ornamental Turning
The 2007 spring issue of American
Woodturner had three articles relating to
Ornamental Turning (OT).
These articles inspired me to
investigate OT as a possible way to enhance my
wood turnings.
One of the articles described the
construction of a rose engine lathe constructed
primarily of medium density fiberboard (MDF).
I thought to myself: "That is kind of
neat, but it doesn't do all of the things I
would like to do; besides I have a perfectly
good mini-lathe.
Why
should I make one out of MDF?
Why
don't I just figure out how to make my mini do
the job?" So,
I proceeded to do just that.
A rose engine lathe works on the
principle of a pivoting headstock that is
controlled by a cam as it rotates.
A rotating cutter cuts a pattern into
the work as the work rotates.
The
resulting shape is controlled by the shape of
the cam. The
mini did not have a pivoting head stock, so I
decided to just pivot the whole lathe.
The
mini did not have a place to mount the cam, so
I created an extension of the spindle shaft on
which to mount it.
There
was no means to manually rotate the mini, so a
rotating mechanism was added.
There
was no place to mount a rotating cutting tool,
so a movable compound platform was added.
All of
these additions created a rose engine lathe,
but I wanted to be able to make spiral cuts and
straight cuts(flutes).
In
order to do these cuts I had to devise a means
to couple the translation of the compound to
rotate the headstock at a controlled rate to
make spiral cuts.
Then in
order to make a series of complementary
spirals, I needed a means to index the work
relative to the lead screw of the compound.
A means
to lock the work in a fixed position while the
cutter was translated by the lead screw was
added allowing it to make straight flutes.
Multiple
flutes are then cut by indexing the work in
increments. As
a result of these additions the mini has
approximately doubled in weight and the
Herber Hybrid Ornamental Lathe (HHOL) was
born.
In my program I will cover some of the
history of OT, I will show some pictures of
examples of OT (both past and present), and I
will demonstrate some of the capabilities of my
HHOL.
I have been retired since 1999.
I
worked in my former life as an
electro-mechanical design engineer.
I have
been a member of WNT since 2002 and I am also a
member of Ornamental
Turners International (OTI), an AAW chapter of
ornamental turners from all across the USA as
well as Canada, UK, Australia, Finland,
Germany, and New Zealand.
April
I would definitely list my specialty as square
turning. My initial experimentation in square
turning was published in the
December 98 issue of the AAW journal, a
quarterly publication of the American
Association of Woodturners. At the
encouragement of the publisher, I started
demonstrating my techniques. Like all things
that are practiced and experimented with, it
too has evolved into the current methods
described and illustrated on my web site
www.turningwood.com, and in numerous
correspondences with other woodturners.
I live in Plano, Texas, with my very
understanding wife and two wonderful children.
All of them are very supportive of my wood art
obsession. My future goal is to be a full time
studio artist, but in the meantime, I still
have to put a roof over their heads and food on
the table by working a day job. For more info,
you may contact me at Steve@turningwood.com or
(972)424-7958.