Serving Southeastern West Virginia

• Learning Opportunities
• Meetings and Events
• Club Resources
• Club Information
• Members' Galleries
• Internet Resources

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.

Carnegie Hall Exhibit

The Club is exhibiting over 150 woodturnings by 16 of our members at the Carnegie Hall Museum Gallery until the end of April. The Gallery is open Monday - Friday from 9:00 AM until 4:30 PM. Go to the Carnegie Hall page to see more photos from the exhbition and the opening night reception on Lewisburg's March First Friday celebration.

Next Meeting: April 23

The April meeting will be held on April 23 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.

April is the month for the Club's semi-annual Wood and Tool auction. This is a great opportunity to make room in your shop by donating your surplus tools and wood to the auction and then bid on replacements during the auction. After the auction, Mike Cope will demonstrate how he uses a gouge with the Ellsworth grind to turn thin walled platters nd bowls.Club members were challenged at the February meeting to turn a natural edge bowl from green wood and display it at the April meeting.

April 2 Highlights

Nineteen members and three guests attended the March meeting on April 2. After enjoying coffee and donuts and the door prize and raffle drawings, eight Club members displayed somne of their recent turnings during the Show and Tell period. Bob Nickell showed how to set up and use the Club's Jamieson deep hollowing system and encouraged members to borrow the system and learn how to turn hollow objects.

Show and Tell

A number of Club members displayed their best turnings they created during 2015.

John Gregor grinds a sharp edge on the ends of open end wrenches to accurately cut tenons.

Bob Nickel turned this vase and bouquet of tulips.

Jerald Carter turned a set of whistle but found it difficult to tune them.

Charlie Myers turned this bowl from spalted maple.

He also turned this elm bowl and finished it with linseed oil.

Gerald Chandler turned this bowl and pedastle from spalted maple.

After last month's demonstration, Steve Butler turned this natural edge cherry bowl.

Tim Greene turned this 4" diameter bowl from maple.

This is a hollow form that John Gregor turned from maple, stained, and finished with lacquer

Demonstration: Setting Up and Using the Jamieson Deep Hollowing System

The Jamieson system consist of a boring bar, laser, and stabilising bar.

Variouos cutters are available to cur various portions of the form.

The wall thickness is the distance from the cutter tip to the laser dot.

The boring bar is adjusted and ready to use.

The left hand is used to anchor the boring bar to the tool rest.

Gerald Chandler has a similar system with a 1 1/2" boring bar that can holloow a 24" vessel.

Bob Nickell demonstrated how to set up and use the Club's Jamieson deep hollowing system. These are several of his tips and recommendations:

• The Jamieson hollowing system allows you to turn hollow vessels up to about 12 inches deep. The boring bar vibrates too much if you try to go much deeper.
• An allen wrench can be sharpened to turn miniature vessels and a tool like the Eliminator can be used for vessels up to 6 inches deep.
• The cutter tip on the boring bar must be horizontal and at or just above the axis to avoid catches.
• The frame, rails and tool rest should be waxed so the boring bar can be moved smoothly.
• A curved cutter should be used at the bottom of the vessel, a straight cutter along the sides, and a bent cutter for undercutting the top.
• The safety clip should be installed at the rear of the guide assembly to prevent it from going beyond the frame.
• The outside profile of the vessel must be turned first.
• Leaving a short tenon on the rim of the entrance hole prevents the tool from accidently damaging the rim and enlarging the hole
• Anchor the borinig bar firmly on the tool rest and turn at around 600 RPM.
• Adjust the laser so the dot is in line with the cutter tip. The wall thickness will be the distance between the dot and the cutter tip.
• Bore a small hole to the inside depth of the vessel. This will eliminate the problem of removing the small cone of wood that the cutter leaves at the center.
• Only cut about an inch deep at a time from the center to the wall. Keeping the remaining portion of the vessel solid will minimize chatter as the wall becomes thinner.
• The Jamieson system can also be used to turn thin walled natural edge bowls
• There are a number of videos on YouTube that illustrate how the Jamieson deep hollowing systen can be safely used. This is a link to videos that Lyle Jamieson has produced including one on deep hollowing: Lyle Jamieson videos

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.