Serving Southeastern West Virginia
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: May 21
The May meeting will be held on May 21 at The Fort. We meet on the ground floor, below the Hill and Holler restaurant. The meeting begins at 9:30, but come early and have a cup of coffee and a donut with the other members.
Harry Newman will present the final demonstration in the series "How to Turn a Bowl". Previous demonstrations showed how to turn bowls using conventional bowl gouges and how to effectively use a gouge with the Ellsworth grind. Harry will demonstrate his approach in which he uses scrapers for both rough and finish cuts. This is a technique he learned from Stewart Medeiros who, in 1993, was honored as a living treasure of Hawaii.
April 23 Highlights: Wood and Tool Auction
Twenty five members and three guests attended the May meeting and Timm Schleiff was welcomed as a new member. After enjoying coffee and donuts and the door prize and raffle drawings, five Club members displayed somne of their recent turnings during the Show and Tell period. Mike Cope demonstrated how he uses gouges with the Ellsworth grind to turn thin natural edge bowls and platers. After his demonstration, Club members had the opportunity to bid on a large variety of wood and tools.
Show and Tell
A number of Club members displayed their best turnings they created during 2015.
Bruce Brenneman: 10" plate, black gum crotch.
Mike Cope: small 4" bowls, cherry burl.
Mike Cope: 4" flared bowl, cherry burl.
Charlie Myers: goblets with captive rings, elm.
Timm Schleiff: 20" platter, walnut with walnut oil finish.
Harry Newman: 16" hollow form vase, cherry burl.
Natural Edge Bowl Challenge
Club members submitted twelve natural edge bowls that they had turned after the February Challenge. John Gregor's 16" walnut vase was recognized for first place and Bill Sproul's 12" spalted maple bowl received second place.
These are the bowls created for the Club Challenge "Turn a natural edge bowl".
First Place recognition: John Gregor
Second Place recognition: Bill Sproul.
Mike Cope: Turning a Bowl with the Ellsworth Gouge
Mike uses a spur drive for turnings under 18" in diameter.
He uses his whole body to get a smooth profile curve.
Mike completes the outer profile by turning a small tenon for proper alignment at the final step.
The wall is turned to final thickness in 1" steps.
Mike uses a gouge with a 75 degree bevel for turning the bottom of the bowl.
Here are several of Mike's tips and recommendations. There is a link to detailed instructions for using the Ellsworth gouge at the bottom of this page.
- Gouges with the Ellsworth grind are available from most woodturning suppliers or grinding jigs can be adjusted to reshape existing gouges.
- Mike uses a larger gouge for making most of the cuts but smaller gouges leave a smoother surface on the final profile cut.
- He uses a faceplate only when the turning willbe more than 18" in diameter
- When he uses a spur drive, he tightens the tailstock, wiggles the workiece to set the spurs, and then re-tightens the tailstock.
- For safe and smooth turning, the product of the diameter in inches and the RPM speed must be between 6000 and 9000.
- Since the diameter decreases towards the center, slower cuts are required to get a smooth surface near the center.
- Mike uses his hand to anchor the tool on the toolrest, locks his elbow to his body, and rotates and rocks his whole body to get a smooth profile.
- He hogs off excess wood and leaves the wall about 3/8" thick. This keeps the wall fro vibrating when he turns to final thickness, generally less than 1/4".
- When turning to the final wall thickness, the bevel must be parallel to the outside wall.
- Putting a light or dark colored board on the lathe bed helps you to see the edge of a natural edge turning and avoid bruising your knuckles.
- Even with a gouge with a 75 degree bevel at the tip, it may not be possible to get to the bottom of a dep bowl so he uses a scraper in that area.
- Mike's favorite finish is Salad Bowl Finish by either General Finishes or Behlen and then wax using the Beall buffing system..
Craft Supplies has written a very useful set of instructions on how to prperly use the a gouge with the Ellsworth gouge. Click here for the instruction sheet.
General Club Information
For further information about any WVWA activity, call Bill Sproul at (304) 497-2319.
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