1 Next Meeting: November 10, 2002 Sunday, 2:00 p.m. Sharp at Crescenta Valley Regional Park Recreation Center. Presentation: Challenge: At the November meeting, we will judge children’s toys. There are no restrictions on size, or design, but we request that they contain some turned wood parts. Prizes will be awarded to the person who brings in the most toys, and to the person who brings in the best toy as determined by judges selected at the event. Mem- bers are invited to donate those toys to the club. We will coordinate with the Conejo Woodworkers to ensure your toys go to needy families in the SoCal area. Volume 10, Number 11 -November 2002 Slightly Skewed Brigantines Report Continued on Page 3 By Bill Kelly Mark Fitzsimmons, whose topic will be ideas for re-orienting a “turning in process” on the lathe to take ad- vantage of features discovered in the wood that the artist doesn’t want to lose in a pile of shavings on the floor. For example, about a year ago, a turn- ing was brought in for show & tell that had a bullet embedded in the side. The cabin soles (floors) have been installed in Irving. Construction of bearths in compartments A & B be- gan Friday. I have completed 18 larger cabin lights. We’ll be making about 25 parrel beads for the gaff boom throats soon. These beads are 3” diameter with 5/8” centers. Work has commenced on splicing the ratlines and attaching batlines to the shrouds. The rigging crew has al- most completed the bending on of sails on Irving while Exy waits pa- tiently for her yards. Still shooting for Christmas to get ‘em sailing! Activities Report By Dan Hogan December Meeting: The December meeting will be on Sunday, December 8, 2002. Workshops There are no workshops scheduled for November or December, 2002. The “Multi-Center” Workshop (pre- viously scheduled for October 26th) and the “Photographing Your Work” Workshop (previously scheduled for November 16th) have both been post- poned until next year. You will be advised of the new schedule once it’s re-established. Presentations: For December, there will be no pre- sentation and no challenge. That meeting will be dedicated to our end- of-the-year holiday potluck and fund- raising auction. This is one of the primary ways GWG raises funds to support the year’s programs. Plan to bring spouses to that meeting and dress for the holidays. Bring a pot- luck food item to share. Also bring items you want to donate to the club for the auction. We will auction those during the event. In addition, we’ll also auction those items made by the professional demonstrators we’ve had over the past year. Survey Also during the November meeting, we will ask all members to consider what events and topics you would like to see during 2003. This is an important survey because it is the
Transcript
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Next Meeting:November 10, 2002Sunday, 2:00 p.m. Sharp atCrescenta Valley Regional ParkRecreation Center.
Presentation:
Challenge:At the November meeting, we willjudge children’s toys. There are norestrictions on size, or design, but werequest that they contain someturned wood parts. Prizes will beawarded to the person who brings inthe most toys, and to the person whobrings in the best toy as determinedby judges selected at the event. Mem-bers are invited to donate those toysto the club. We will coordinate withthe Conejo Woodworkers to ensureyour toys go to needy families in theSoCal area.
Volume 10, Number 11 -November 2002
Slightly Skewed
BrigantinesReport
Continued on Page 3
By Bill Kelly
Mark Fitzsimmons, whose topic willbe ideas for re-orienting a “turningin process” on the lathe to take ad-vantage of features discovered in thewood that the artist doesn’t want tolose in a pile of shavings on the floor.For example, about a year ago, a turn-ing was brought in for show & tellthat had a bullet embedded in theside.
The cabin soles (floors) have beeninstalled in Irving. Construction ofbearths in compartments A & B be-gan Friday. I have completed 18larger cabin lights. We’ll be makingabout 25 parrel beads for the gaffboom throats soon. These beads are3” diameter with 5/8” centers. Workhas commenced on splicing theratlines and attaching batlines to theshrouds. The rigging crew has al-most completed the bending on ofsails on Irving while Exy waits pa-tiently for her yards. Still shootingfor Christmas to get ‘em sailing!
Activities ReportBy Dan Hogan
December Meeting:The December meeting will be onSunday, December 8, 2002.WorkshopsThere are no workshops scheduledfor November or December, 2002.The “Multi-Center” Workshop (pre-viously scheduled for October 26th)and the “Photographing Your Work”Workshop (previously scheduled forNovember 16th) have both been post-poned until next year. You will beadvised of the new schedule once it’sre-established.Presentations:For December, there will be no pre-sentation and no challenge. Thatmeeting will be dedicated to our end-of-the-year holiday potluck and fund-raising auction. This is one of theprimary ways GWG raises funds tosupport the year’s programs. Plan tobring spouses to that meeting anddress for the holidays. Bring a pot-luck food item to share. Also bringitems you want to donate to the clubfor the auction. We will auction thoseduring the event. In addition, we’llalso auction those items made by theprofessional demonstrators we’vehad over the past year.SurveyAlso during the November meeting,we will ask all members to considerwhat events and topics you wouldlike to see during 2003. This is animportant survey because it is the
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Sören Berger has developed aworkshop that not only features su-perb quality but also something ofinterest to almost everyone with aninterest in turning. He began withsome basic turning tips, one of whichwas in direct opposition to traditionalschool teaching. He showed how heachieves a fine finish using what isessentially a roughing gouge with astraight edge which my instructor inschool told us avoid using at all! Hemoves the chisel in a direction that isopposite to the opening with the heelresting solidly against the work. Anew use for under-used tool.
He next turned a canister suchas might be used to store coffee orflour on a kitchen counter while de-livering a bit of his philosophy ofturning. As close as I can recall, hesaid, “Our aim should be to have ahand turned item such as this canis-ter in a prominent place - such as thekitchen counter - in every home in a
America so that we take would turn-ing out of the ‘exotic’ category andstart people thinking of wood turn-ing as simply a good way to decoratetheir homes with beauty and origi-nality.”
During the break one of SteveDunn’s buddies who lives in Texassold the participants some wood thatis ordinarily quite rare and expensivein this part of the world, includingcocobolo, red palm, black palm, andothers. Because he’s a direct im-porter, his prices are more attractivethan most other sources in SouthernCalifornia.
1. A blank about 2" x 2" by 5" isshaped roughly into a ball with a sug-gestion of the handle towards thetailstock.
The Sören Berger Workshop
After a tasty lunch provided byJackie Comer, Sören showed us howto construct his trademark piece, alarge bowled spoon (or small ladle)with an artistically curved handle thatlooks like it could not possibly beproduced on a lathe. It’s done in thefollowing fashion:
2. The ball is fully shaped and fin-ished except that the piece is still be-tween centers3. Next the ladle end of the piece ismoved off center around ¾”. Theoutside (or top) of the ladle is shapedwith the piece still between centers.4. A jam chuck is created to fit theball.
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Show and Tell
5. With the ball in the jam chuck, theunderside of the ladle is turned andfinished. This operation takes a verydelicate touch since a catch wouldsend the piece flying across the room.Less talented turners might be ableto cut the underside of the ladle on aband saw before starting on the ball.6. Finally, with the ball in the chuckand the handle flying precipitouslyaround in space, the top of the bowlis faced off and the bowl is hollowedout.
In a tribute to Sören’s design pro-ficiency, note that no expensive jigsor fixtures are needed for thisproject! The only fixture used was ajam chuck created from scrap wood
on the spot.Sören finished his workshop with
another illustration of working inex-pensive parts, a home built vacuumchuck. A perennial problem for turn-ers is how to finish the foot of thebowl or platter and eliminate all evi-dence of chucking. A vacuum chucksolves the problem by gripping eitherthe inside or the outside of anyspherical surface without any telltalemarks.The main parts of the system are:1. A vacuum source which can beas sophisticated as a commercialpump or as simple as a householdvacuum cleaner.2. Some sort of plug-bearing to fitinto the back end of the head stock
with a hose to attach to the vacuumsource.3. The chuck itself that Sören cre-ated out of P.V.C. pipe and duct tape.
All in all, I think most of the at-tendees thought it was a very inter-esting and satisfying workshop.
Sören showed a number of inter-esting tools from his shop in down-under New Zealand. Cntact him at:www.berger.co.nz.
Don Comer also submitted threeitems including a tall hollow vessel(pictured) of ebony, silver and
Continued on Page 4Bill Haskell showed three hollow
formvessels. One of the neat things
about hollow formis that was that theinside is inaccessible and thus neednot be sanded. He is shown holdinga large turban shaped hollow formdone with richly spalted Californiabuckeye containing intriguing barkinclusion windows. A second onewas strikingly spalted silver mapleand the third was an interesting andvery old piece of distressed fig. Allthree pieces had a finish that Bill be-lieves optimizes the visual experienceof the wood’s figure and color. Thefinish consists of a CA base coat overwhich a number of rubbed out lac-quer coats is applied.
basis for much of the year’s events.Please give this some conscientiousthought prior to the meeting. Thatway, filling out the survey form at themeeting will go smoothly.
Activities Report Cont. from Page 1)
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In this month’s President’s Col-umn Don Comer lamented the factthat there weren’t even enough en-tries in the last Challenge (SurfaceDecoration) to hold a contest.This in spite of the fact that surfacedecoration has been a significant partof the last four workshop demonstra-tions, two of which many memberspaid $20 apiece to attend! There’s adisconnect here.A similar fate has befallen other chal-lenges, so Don suggested droppingall but the most popular. I have adifferent suggestion.
I was reminded of a similar situ-ation in my other avocation, playingpool. There are a few traditionalpool tournaments around LA that
offer significant prizes every week. Ientered one in Pasadena. Therewere 15 or so “regulars” and about 5beginners like myself. All the begin-ners, some young, some female,were eliminated from the competi-tion within an hour, and that out-come was repeated week after week.In two months I was the only begin-ner left. I found out that tourna-ments generally progressed in thatfashion with a few players winningall the time and the rest eventuallydropping out. Most tournaments hada life span of about a year beforethere were too few players left to sup-port it.
About that time, I also discoveredthere was a whole different set ofpool players playing in “handicap”tournaments. The pro’s scoffed atthese as not “real” pool but as I foundout they were very popular and therewere lots of young people andwomen participating who continuedto play year after year.
The idea was simple: every playerin the league has a handicap between2 and 7. In a match, each player hasto win the number of games in herhandicap before the opponent winsthe number in his handicap. Myhandicap is 4 so if I play against some-one with a 2 handicap, we play be-tween 4 and 5 games. I have to win
Continued on Page 5
From the Editor’s Desk By Cheryl V. Schneiders
bleached maple finished in lacquer.Don also showed a lacquer fin-
ished returned lip bowl in spaltedhackberry with turquoise inlay, andthree decorated tops that he intendedto enter in Challenge.
Dick Lukes showed a black torusof basswood and maple that wasmounted on a black conical base.The finish was black leather dye andblack patinating wax. He alsoshowed a white off-center hollowedhemisphere with a white ball madeof maple on a rectangular column
base. It was finished in white limingwax and acrylic spray.
Mel Foncannon exhibited a CAand lacquer finished carob vase thathad an interesting history. While Melwas removing the boring bar (withthe lathe running, of course) the vasesort of exploded. Mel repaired it byturning a new neck, gluing the partsback together and filling some voidswith tourquoise. The result (below)would play nicely at Del Manos.
Steve Jacobs showed a handsomemahogany Minorah (right).
Dave Heresheimer exhibited a6” diameter Ash bowl with a natural
edge, an overlapping-edge Cherryvessel 3” in diameter, and an 8” di-ameter mortar & pestle (below), allfinished in Lacquer and wax.
Bob Stumbo eshibited a birdhouse finished in Deft.
George Wintermantle showedsome spiral turnings in oak, blackwalnut and maple turned on a Legacylathe.
Al Sils showed a carob bowl witha wax finish and a varnished maplebowl.
Floyd Pederson showed twobowls, one of spalted ash and theother of walnut, both finished in tungoil.
Ralph Otte showed some uncutbookmarks of various woods.
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4 games before my opponent wins 2games, or he wins the match.
There is a ongoing point system.The player gets a few points just forplaying, and a few more for a goodshowing such as making an expertreally work for a win, and of coursethere are lots of points for an upsetvictory. It’s fun and stimulating forboth beginners and experts. Begin-ners get a real thrill when they occa-sionally play very well and beat anexpert, but they get some satisfactionif they just play well within their leveland they move steadily upwards inthe individual standings. The experthas to play really well every time, evenagainst a beginner, because theslightest lapse of concentration or bitof bad luck can allow the beginner towin two games out of eight possibleand embarrass the expert.
In thinking about the two situa-tions, I was amazed at the similari-ties to the woodworking world. Inmy woodturning class at CerritosCollege at least a third (33%) of theclass is female, and fully half (50%)of the class in under 30. In GWG,by contrast, we have Carey and my-self representing female turners(3%) and no one that I’ve noticedunder 30 (0%). In fact, there arerelatively few under 60. Now, ofcourse, it’s possible that the member-ship likes it that way, and would becontent to see the club gradually de-cline and vanish as it’s membershipages. But if not, here’s a possiblesolution modeled on the pool leaguesolution.
We can establish a Wood Turner’sranking with everyone having a rankfrom Top Turner to Wood Butcher,and we can publish a monthly rank-ing list. (Maybe we wouldn’t list the
bottom 10. We don’t want to embar-rass anyone.) To make the competi-tion meaningful and important,there should be two really significantprizes awarded at the end of the year,one for Top Turner and one forMost Improved Turner.
Members would earn points by:* Doing well in the Challenge com-petition* Making items for the Christmasdrive* Making items for the brigantines* By exhibiting at the various showsand galleries* Performing services for the club
The number of points to beawarded for any given event wouldbe announced beforehand. The firstjob in setting up this system will beto decide how many points are to beawarded for different items andfunctions. In the ball competition,for instance, you might award 5points just for entering, 10 points forinherent difficulty, 10 points for fin-ish and appearance, and 15 points forperformance, for a possible total of40 points.
All of the points earned, though,would be factored by the turnershandicap. Initially, I think that thehandicap scale should run from, say,0.2 (for an expert) to 0.8 (for a rankbeginner).
To show how this might work,let’s suppose that we have a seasonedexpert named “Carl” (handicap 0.7)and a young beginner named “Dan”(handicap 0.3). Carl enters a 6” ballof coco bolo with a blinding finishthat’s runs straight as an arrow andwins 38 points. Dan enters a 3” ballof walnut (low difficulty = 2 ),wobbles like a drunken sailor (low
performance =2) but he really worksto achieve a glowing finish (8) so heearns 17 points. Carls score is 38 x.3 = 11.4 while Dan’s is 17 x .7=11.9.Carl wins the challenge, but Danpicks up more points toward TopTurner.
Here’s an important point: Inpool, expert or novice, you still haveto still have to sink 7 balls and the 8-ball to win a game. That’s the abso-lute standard. The number of gameswon, however, is factored by thehandicap and that scale is relative. Inwoodturning, the winner of the Spin-ning Top competition would be theturner who’s top spins the longest:Absolute standard. But the pointsearned toward Top Turner would berelative, factored by the handicap.The two types of competition giveeveryone an incentive to work harderand more creatively.
If you’re interested in this idea,send me your suggestions and I’llpublish them (or not if you prefer)next month. If there seems to besome interest, I’ll work out some ofthe math, and suggest a points andhandicap system that seems fair tome. Then the fun can start!
From the Editor’s Desk Continued from previous page
We held the elections for GWG Officers last meet-ing. October 13, and I have some “good news” and some“bad news”. The bad news is; I was reelected Presidentfor a second term. Judging from the returns, I am nowjust about as popular as Saddam Hussein. After all, hewon a landslide election too. I just hope all this powerand authority doesn’t go to my head! I want to remainthe meek and modest guy you’ve all come to know andlove. Isn’t that right, Sgt. Nelson?
The good news is; Dan Hogan was elected Vice-president unanimously. Dan did an outstanding job ofarranging and managing our club activities this year andhas already “moved out aggressively” to line up someinteresting professional demonstrators for next year. Inaddition, Dan is playing a lead role in the design andproduction of our entry in the Chapter Challenge forthe AAW Symposium next year.Cheryl Schneiders was elected Newsletter Editor. AlSobel stepped down as Newsletter Editor but acceptedthe job of Secretary with the additional duties of main-taining the membership roster and mailing lists.Bob DeVoe and Bill Nelson will continue in their presentpositions of Treasurer and Librarian respectively. Sothe Board continues pretty much as it was this year, withthe addition of Cheryl and the loss of Steve Jacobs. Steveserved as Secretary for five years and we all should tothank him for the effort he put in for the benefit of theclub. I just hope we don’t just completely lose him tothe addictive game of golf.
Damon Siples gave us a very informative presenta-tion on dust control methods and equipment. Damonhas done a very thorough job of dust control in his ownshop and it would benefit all of us, I’m sure, if we would
follow at least some of his examples. Thanks, Damon.Earleen Ahrens reminded us once again of the GWG
Brand Library Show; which will open June 7, 2003 andrun through July 5, 2003. We’d like to see at least oneand preferably more pieces from each and every GWGmember. The idea is to present the full range of pos-sible turnings and the enjoyment and pride they all rep-resent.
The Surface Decoration Challenge turned out to bea bust. Mel Foncannon brought in a turquoise deco-rated vessel without intending to enter it in the chal-lenge. I brought in four brightly painted tops that I hadintended to enter in the Spinning Top Challenge butgot them finished too late for that. Because the rulesspecify at least three entries, meaning three differentmembers, the Challenge was voided. The Board hasbeen concerned about the low interest shown by the gen-eral membership in many of the Challenges. Participa-tion has sunk so low that I think we should considercanceling most of them. Possible exceptions may be the:Same Size Block, Tagua Nut, Spinning Top, Round BallContest Challenges and maybe others. Anyone want toweigh in on the pros and cons of this issue?
Soren Berger gave us a very interesting and infor-mative demonstration on October 19. Soren has a dif-ferent approach to wood turning than most demonstra-tors I’ve seen, and this leads to some very intriguing tech-niques. Contrary to my former conviction, the finger-nail grind is not the only useful shape and I’ll beregrinding some of my tools next time I start to do somevessel turning.
Don’t forget to bring a toy or two to the November10 meeting for the needy kids.
