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.
Turning Center at Lee Street Studios
The Club is establishing a Turning Center at Lee Street. It will be equipped with several lathes and all necessary tools. The Turning Center will be available to all Club members for a nominal fee and a variety of classes will be offered. Additional details will be provided at the next meeting.
Next Meeting: March 24
The March Club meeting will be held at Montwell Park on Saturday, March 24. After Show and Tell and drawings for the door prize and raffle, Bill Sproul will review finishing techniques and examples of the more common finishing products will be displayed.
Shelves have been installed in the Club's new secure storage room and all equipment is now kept there.
February 24 Meeting Highlights
Twenty members and four guests attended the February meeting and participated in the door prize and raffle drawings. Six members submitted recent turnings for Show and three received special recognition.
Special thanks are extended to Phil Parvin for setting up a video camera to make it easier to see the demonstrations. The Club will be obtaining a better camera and make videos of the demonstrations available on the website.
Show and Tell
The Show and Tell judges selected three turnings for recognition:.
Bruce Brenneman turned this 10" figured maple lazy susan from the collection of Amish blanks that helped the Club become established.
Charlie Meyers recived second place recognition for this 9" natural edge twisted willow bowl.
Third Place recognition was also awarded to Charlie for this 8" bowl turned from a plum burl.
Additional Show and Tell Entries
Charlie was busy last month, he also turned these four smaller bowls.
Tim Greene told how he uses the Woodturner's Journal (Amazon, $8.60) to document his favorite turnings.
Rocky Parsons is experimenting with sandblasting as a technique to emphasize the grain pattern of walnut and other open pore woods.
Steve Withrow turned this set of votive candle holders.
Dave Kuhn explained the challenge of designing and turning a cabriole leg using the off-center turning technique.
Demonstration: Pen 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.
Bob Nickell offered many tips as he turned an Apprentice Classica pen.
Bob uses many specialized tools to, but only a small number are needed for turners to make their first pen.
The easiest and most accurate way to drill the blank is to use a 4-jaw chuck and a brad point drill bit.
He uses a 3" rubberized wheel (Craft Supplies or Amazon) on a shop-made mandrel to hone his tools.
Bob prefers to turn blanks between centers using this pair of Delrin drive cones that he turned.
Sometimes he uses a pin chuck and live center to turn a barrel. A round pin locks the barrel to the notched chuck.
He also likes the Penn State mandrel system - bushings in the pen tube and mount between the mandrel centers.
Bob described a number of lessons he has learned and offered these tips and suggestions:
- Use a 4-jaw chuck and brad point bit to accurately drill the blank. Blanks are generally 3/4" square and 6 1/2" long.
- Mark the length of the barrel on the blank, drill to that depth, cut off the barrel, and drill the second one if required.
- Roughen the brass tube with sandpaper, apply a thin coat of 5-minute epoxy, and twist the tube into the blank.
- Either seal the end of the tube with a potato plug or use a reamer to remove the epoxy from the inside of the tube.
- Be sure the inside of the tube is clean and barrel trimmer to square the barrel ends,
- Turning between centers is more accurate than using a pen mandrel since the shaft often bends or flexes which leaves the barrel out of round.
- Most materials can be turned, sanded, and finished with the lathe running around 2000 rpm.
- If the pen uses 2 barrels of different sizes, turn the larger one first in case it is turned too small.
- Use a 3/8" gouge for rough turning, then finish with a small skew.
- Don't rub the bevel so hard that the wood is burnished - it is likely to show up after the finish is applied.
- Be sure that the ends of the barrel are the exact diameter of the mating pen component so you can't feel a ridge after the pen is assembled.
- Sand with 240 and 320 grit paper. If there are open pores in the grain, place a few drops of thin CA glue on the 320 grit paper and sand - the sanding dust will fill the pores. After the glue cures, sand again with 320 grit paper.
- Continue sanding with 400 and 600 grit paper, sand lengthwise by hand with 600 grit paper to remove any remaining swirl marks.
- Place a few drops of boiled linseed oil on a rag, apply to the barrel, then place a few drops of thin CA glue on the oiled rag and rub on the barrel.
- Only go up and back once on the barrel, otherwise the glue will start to cure and leave ridges.
- Apply 5-15 coats of CA glue to build up the finish.
- After the finish has cured for 24 hours, use micro mesh sanding pads up to 12.000 grit.
- If there is a flaw on the upper barrel, cover the flaw with the clip when you assemble the pen.
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