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.
Turning Center at Lee Street Studios
Public Classes
Classes are scheduled each month at the Turning Center at Lee Street.
The next class the Club will be offering will be Turning Natural Edge Bowls on Saturday, August 18 from 9:00 AM until noon. The class will be taught by Mike Cope whose specialty is turning very thin, very large natural edge bowls.
On September 29, Fred Wiman will present a course on the Principles of Design and Proportions that will help turners create forms that are pleasing to see and feel. Each course is open to the public and the cost is $25 for members and $50 for non-members. Call Bob Nickell at 304.646.8147 to register.
All members can work in the Turning Center any time, any day of the week and use any of the Club lathes, tools, or specialized equipment such as the deep hollowing system and the coring system. Members will pay $2.00 per hour to use the Center. They will sign in and sign out, leave the area neat and clean, take their trash and shavings with them, and pay for their time at the next Club meeting.
The Turning Center will be open to the general public on First Fridays and Second Saturdays when the Lee Street Studio complex is open. A small gallery will be set up where Club members will be able to display and sell their turnings with the Club retaining a 10% commission.
Summer Barbecue: August 25
The annual summer barbecue will be at Bill Sproul's river house on Saturday, August 25. The Club will provide a wonderful spiral ham and lots of fried chicken as well as necessary fixin's, paper goods, and drinks. Everyone is asked to bring a side dish, salad or dessert. Please call or text Anna Stables at 304.920.7209 or email her at amstablesgvfd@yahoo.com and let her know what you will be bringing and how many are coming from your family (all family members are invited). Bring your recent turnings for Show-and Tell.
July 28 Meeting Highlights
Twenty one members and three guests attended the July meeting and participated in the door prize and raffle drawings. Members displayed ten recent turnings for Show and Tell pieces. After a discussion of upcoming shows and fairs, Harry Newman showed the steps for turning a lidded box and challenged the members to turn a lidded box and display it at the September 22 meeting.
Show and Tell
The Show and Tell judges selected three turnings for recognition:.
Wayne Bolen received top recognition for this 7" shallow poplar bowl. All curves were very smooth with no sharp transitions and the finish was excellent with no tool or sanding marks.
Dan Green received second recognition for this 11" box elder enclosed form. The form highlights the color patterns in the wood and there were no visible tool or sanding marks.
Gerald Chandler's 11" spalted maple candle stand was awarded third place. It has a pleasing design, shows excellent turning skills, and has an oil finish.
Additional Show and Tell Entries
Wayne Aliff turned this walnut wine bottle and goblet using the inside-out technique.
Gerald Chandler turned this small bowl from the Pearl Buck mulberry tree and will donate it to the Museum shop.
Bruce Brenneman turned this very attractive 10" honey locust bowl.
Charlie Myers turned this pair of pens, one wood and the other acrylic.
Harry Newman turned this 3-D segmented bowl from the corner of a large blank he made with the help of Jim Meyer.
Harry embedded watch gears in acrylic to create a very interesting pen and top.
John Marshall turned this bowl with a pedestal from box elder.
Demonstration: Lidded Box
Harry Newman presented a very interesting demonstration on how to turn a small lidded box. Club members are challenged to design and turn a lidded box of any size and display it at the September 22 meeting.
After the blank has been turned to a cylinder, the finial is turned.
Then a spigot is turned where the lid will fit into the box
The finished lid is sanded to at least 300 grit and parted off.
A recess is turned for the lid and the box is hollowed
and the outer profile is turned.
The box is carefully parted from the blank.
The blank is turned to form a jamb chuck and the bottom of the box is finished.
The completed lidded box turned from tulip wood.
Bill Bowers provides many ideas, suggestions and tips in this book. ISBN 978-0-7643-3027-8
Harry offered a number of tips and suggestions:
- Harry finds that turning around 1200 RPM is a good speed for small boxes.
- The spigot on the lid doesn't need be very large.
- Tighten the chuck before starting to hollow the box.
- Be careful when turning the recess for the lid - it's easy to remove too much material.
- If the lid fits loosely, turn off the rim and try again.,
- When sanding, make believe that someone else is buying the sandpaper for you - dull sandpaper sands slower.
- Always make a relief cut when parting off the lid or box so there is plenty of room for the tool.
- Harry likes to use a scraper with a negative rake for cleaning up the inside surface of the box.
- If you turn a jamb chuck and the fit is too loose, placing a piece of paper towel over the chuck will often give a better fit.
- Use a light pull cut when shaping the bottom of the box since the jamb chuck is probably not very secure.
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.
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