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.
New Demonstrations Page
The Demonstrations page has been completely redesigned so individual demonstration topics can be easily found in the categories of Tools, Basic Techniques, and Projects.
Next Meeting: February 24
The February Club meeting will be held at Montwell Park on Saturday, February 24. After Show and Tell and drawings for the door prize and raffle, Bob Nickell will demonstrate how he turns pens using wooden and acrylic blanks.
Montwell Park has created a small office in Hill and Holler by building a floor over the stairwell. The landing at the bottom is separated from The Hub by a locked door and has been assigned to our Club as a secure place to store our equipment and supplies.
January 27 Meeting Highlights
Twenty eight members and six guests attended the January meeting and participated in the door prize and raffle drawings. Eleven members submitted recent turnings for Show and three received special recognition.
Show and Tell
The Show and Tell judges selected three turnings for recognition:.
Bob Nickell received the top recognition for his snakewood pen. The wood and metal parts matched perfectly and the CA finish was flawless.
Charlie Hall's 11" walnut bowl was awarded second place and showed excellent turning and finishing technique with no turning flaws or sanding defects.
Third Place recognition was awarded to Norman Moore for his well-turned Russian olive bowl.
Additional Show and Tell Entries
Ryan Cox turned this set of salt and pepper shakers
Wayne Aliff used walnut and maple segments to turn this 10" bowl.
Fonzie Fitzwater turned this square bowl from mesquite that a Club guest brought from Texas.
Dave Kuhn incorporated a very nice rim design on this attractive 7" cherry bowl.
Bruce Brenneman turned this bowl from a section of wormy mesquite from Texas.
Gary DeGraff incorporated a section of sapwood in this 9" walnut bowl.
Charlie Myers turned this bowl with a pedastle foot from red cedar.
He also turned this set of three goblets from walnut.
Gerald Chandler turned this lidded box from the Pearl Buck mulberry tree as a donation for the Pearl Buck museum shop.
Jerry Carter turned this small mesquite vase and bird's eye maple plate.
Demonstration: Spindle Turning
Bill Sproul presented an informative 3-part demonstration on spindle turning. He showed how to make the basic cuts (pommel, cove, and bead) using skew chisels and spindle gouges, turn a goblet using those tools and cuts, and the use of a story stick when turning duplicate spindles.
Club members are challenged to design and turn a pair of candlesticks incorporating the basic cuts from any wood and a small table leg using the story stick and cherry blank that Bill supplied. The three turnings will be displayed and judged at the meeting on March 24.
Bill uses the short point or the heel of the skew to cut a bead. The center of the bead should be marked but never cut.
A spindle gouge is used to cut the cove and complex motions are required to keep the bevel rubbing and cutting at the proper portion of the edge.
Completed coves and beads. Note that the layout line at the center of the bead has not been cut.
The roughing gouge is used to make the blank round. The blank is mounted on a 4-jaw chuck and the tailstock is used to provide extra stability and safety.
A Forstner bit is used for the initial hollowing of the bowl since it quickly removes the endgrain material.
A scraper is used to complete the hollowing. Then the stem can be formed since no other heavy cutting of the bowl is required,
Bill provided a number of spindle turning tips and several are listed below. Click here to see the handout Bill had prepared which provides additional tips and suggestions.
- A 4-jaw chuck provides a solid mounting for square stock.
- If there will be a pommel, the stock must be perfectly square in order for the pommel to be uniform.
- In order to avoid a catch when using a skew chisel, only use the lower third to cut.
- When you use a gouge to cut a cove, there are five motions that must be changed while cutting a cove: roll, pitch, yaw, left/right, and in/out.
- Always cut downhill! When cutting a cove, cut from an edge to the center..
- To turn a goblet, mount the blank between centers, cut a tenon at the headstock, then mount the blank on a 4-jaw chuck.
- Turn the bowl profile first, then hollow the bowl before removing any material from the stem portion..
- When turning duplicate spindles, use a story stick to mark the key points and turn the profile by eye.
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.
TurnTex supplies acrylic casting resin, solutions for stabilizing and hardening punky and spalted wood, and associated equipment.
by WVWA, a chapter of the American Association of Woodturners