Serving Southeastern West Virginia

West Virginia Woodturners Association

The West Virginia Woodturners Association provides woodturners in southeastern West Virginia and western Virginia with an opportunity to meet other turners, enhance their skills, and share their skills and interests in woodturning. Send an email to info@wvwoodturners.com to request additional information about the club and its activities.

Next Meeting - March 22

The March meeting will begin at 9:30 AM at Gerald Chandler's shop in Crawley. Harry, David, Mike, and Bob will hold a tool sharpening workshop. Members are encouraged to bring their own tools to sharpen using several different sharpening systems.

February Meeting Highlights

Twenty one members and two guests attended the meeting on February 22 at Gerald's shop. In addition to the door prize and raffle drawings, a number of members displayed footed vessels for the current Club Challenge. David Vehrs, Gerald Chandler, and charlie Myers were recognized for their footed vessels.

Club Challenge: Footed Vessels

#1: Dave Vehrs, Inlayed Platter

#2: Gerald Chandler, Walnut Bowl

#3: Charlie Myers, Cherry Burl Lamp

Show and Tell

Walnut Vase with Inlay

Tops in a Long Footed Bowl

Inlayed Footed Bowl

Cherry and Walnut Segmented Bowl

Silver Maple Footed Bowl

Mahogany Segmented Bowl

Demonstrations

Bill Sproul: Turning Duplicate Spindles

Bill uses a curved skew chisel design of Alan Lacer rather than the straight cutting tip. It is made from heavy tool steel, 5/8" wide and 3/8" thick, with a slightly curved cutting tip. Needless to say, it is important to practice the basic spindle cuts (coves, beads, pommels, and tapers) before starting a project requiring multiple, identical spindles. Once a spindle has been designed, a model should be turned in a soft wood to be sure the design looks right. Then using it as a guide, turn all the spindles from cabinet-grade material. Unless dozens of identical spindles are required, it is easier to mark the critical points on the round blank based on the design dimensions rather than create a story stick. The critical points marked with a notchs are the ends of beads, coves, and of pommels. The centers of beads may be marked with pencil as a "do not cut" line.

Dave Vehrs(l): Offset Turning Faceplate and Charlie Myers(r): Custom Tool Handles

Dave made this faceplate for turning the overlapping inlays on his inlayed platter. The platter is held by Cole-style blocks in a circle that is off-center relative to the spindle axis. Once the first groove is cut, the platter is rotated 120 degrees and the next groove is cut.

Charlie needed a tool handle that is long and strong so he combined his experience in metalworking with his woodturning skills to produce this custom handle.

Lathes and Lasagna

Lathes and Lasagna sessions are held on the first and third Tuesday evenings of the month at Bill Sproul's shop in Lewisburg. Turning is from 4 pm until whenever with dinner and a surprise dessert about 7 p.m. In addition to turning, one person also serves as "Chef of the Day" and prepares dinner and dessert for the group. In order for the Chef of the Day to prepare sufficient dinner for everyone, participants must RSVP to Bill no later than the Monday evening before the session.

General Club Information

For further information about Lathes and Lasagna or any other WVWA activity, call Bill at (304) 645-5332.

Supporting Companies

We would like to thank these companies for the support they have provided to the Club during the past year. Check out their websites when you are ready to purchase products that they stock.

Craft Supplies USA is a one-stop shopping site for everything a wood turner might need or want - lathes, tools, accessories, project supplies, materials, and more.

Woodcraft offers a 10% discount at the Roanoke store to WVWA members when they show a current membership card.

by WVWA, a chapter of the American Association of Woodturners