At the last club meeting the members made boring bars. So this meeting theme was use of boring bars. Many of the members brought in their boring bars and boring bar braces to show other members. First, there was the bring backs that people brought in to be auctioned off during the meeting.
Roller blades for their wheels, a carving stand and wood for auction.
The wheels from roller blade skates can be used to make a steady rest.
More wood and a turned piece and a coffee mug were part of the bring backs.
Someone was nice enough to bring in a finished turning and a coffee mug.
Show and Tell items
Upper left is a box that looks like a basket with a crow on the lid by Jim Rutledge. Steve Promo brought in a piece of weathered wood for Jim to mount a carved bird on and a natural edged bowl ( one of three).
Jim Rutledge's Crow on a basket.
This is a closeup of Jim Rutledge's Crow on a basket. Note the color of the eyes to add character to the bird. The workmanship is exquisite. Another wonderful piece by Jim.
Two more of Steve Promo's natural edge bowls.
Archie brought in two more of his walnut bowls.
Last month Archie brought in several walnut boxes that he made. He had some small pieces of branch walnut left and made these two. Left is a natural edge bowl and right is a box. The led was made by joining walnut sections together.
Three tools used by Steve Promo to make 8-ft lamp posts (see video below).
Several members brought in the boring bar brace used with their boring bars.
Sam Staffan's boring bar brace with boring bar.
Sam's boring bar brace used with his short lathe.
Sam's boring bar brace is flexible. Mounted to a half a truck rim and extensive use of clamps allow for quick changes and easy movement.
Jim Rutledge's brace has a long slot in the base.
Along slot in the base allows Jim to position the brace to match the swing needed for his boring project.
Another member used a angle iron for support and easy movement.
Steve Promo's brace is made from wood he hand handy.
Steve a first use a block of wood to fasten the brace to the underside of the lathe but under pressure the block of wood split along the grain. Thus the multi layered plywood block on the bottom.
Archie Patterson made his brace for wood left over from house construction and a large threaded rod for adjustments. The bottom brace is from an old adjustable chair and is heavy steel.
When hollowing longer sections of wood brace is needed to keep the wood steady and thus a steady rest is needed. Here are some members examples.
Archie Patterson's 3-wheel steady rest of MDF.
Steve Promo's 4-wheel steady rest of plywood.
Steve used a 2-wheel steady rest when turning his twenty 8-ft lamp posts.
This is not Steve's 2-wheel steady rest but an example of what one looks like. The wheels are placed behind the work to counter cutting pressure from the front.
There were several discssions and here Steve talks about tool grinds and the edge bur. (https://youtu.be/rGUFRBGvd-I)
Here Steve explains different tool grinds and the use of a bur on the cutting edge of the grind. Below a member discusses his boring bar. (https://youtu.be/3iqJ1uxkWLM)
Steve Promo discusses his two-wheel steady and the banana effect in long turnings. (https://youtu.be/-kAN_OA-qk4)
Discussion of using a lase as a thickness guide in hollowing a wood turning.
The club met at the Saint Ignace High School shop and there were many Bring Backs and Show and Tell items.
Bring Back Items
Bring Backs included several pieces of wood that were auctioned off during the meeting.
The Complete Table Display
At the last meeting the club made boring bars and the Bring Back items showed off many items using the boring bars. At this meeting there was a large selection of finished turnings.
Some Great Member Turnings
More Great Turnings
Two of the items held candles and on the right are two were small burls.
A Mix of Turnings from Sam.
Sam removed the plastic outside from an insulated cup and turned a wood replacement. More great work by Sam.
Jim's Great Work
Jim showed off some more of his great work. Several with fine carvings on top.
Maple and Birch Turnings by Archie.
A neighbour gave Archie some Walnut branches and he made several boxes with finials. Far right is a box made from spalted Birch.
A tapered bowl showing off the heart wood.
After the meeting Mike Obuchowski from Traverse City did a demo using the Lyle Jameison Boring Bar. Mike works for Lyle Jameison demonstrating his tools.
Mike Obuchowski during meeting.
During the meeting Mike gave a quick overview of his demo and answered questions.
This is the Jameison Boring Bar.
The Jameison boring bar is lighter than the bars the club made and has a replaceable boring bar.
Lyle Jameison's website is: https://lylejamieson.com/
Boring Bar on Lathe.
The boring bar support comes with a attachable base with adjustable heights and a wide support stabizer.
First he made the wood round.
Turns the end flat.
Warns not to push thru the nub.
Pushing thru the nub could cause the took to catch the upward motion of the back side of the wood and thru the tool back.
Here he is applying paraffin wax to the moving parts.
Applying paraffin to the support bar, the boring bar and the support will make it easier to move the bar when cutting.
Using a gouge as a scrapper.
Using a gouge without a handle he using it as a scrapper to smooth out the outer surface.
Using a hand held drill to open the center.
Setup to start hollowing.
Note the laser mounted over head used to mark the thickness of the material.
Hogging out the center.
As the material is cut out he watches the laser dot indicating his thickness. The laser is adjusted each time either the cutter is adjusted or when he is cutting on a different edge.
Parting off the bottom.
Taking questions at the end.
Our thanks for Mike Obuchowski for coming over from Traverse City and demonstrating the use of a boring bar and taking our many questions.
As part of the meeting people donate items (Bring Backs) to be auctioned off during the meeting. Also brought in are items for a Show & Tell portion of the meeting where construction, design and problems concerning an item are discussed. This is a great learning experience as knowledge is passed down from those that have solved problems to those that are encountering them.
Here is a picture of the bring back items.
Bring Back Items
Raw wood, unfinished turning, carved feather.
Show & Tell Items.
More Sow & Tell Items.
More Show & Tell Items.
Carved feather closeup from Bring Back Table.
Jim Rutledge talked about sharpening a bowl gouge using an Elseworth sweep back style. Here is a video of his talk.
Our thanks to Jim for bringing in his grinder and demonstrating how to sharpen a bowl gouge and an skew chisel.
This was the first meeting of the Hiawatha Wood Turners Club in 2024 and there were many in attendance. Many brought samples of items they created since the last meeting in the fall of 2023 along with many bring backs to be auctioned off. Here are some pictures of the items on the tables in the class room.
Bring Backs for Auction.
Fantastic bead work by Jim Rutledge.
Some of Sam's fantastic work The flowers are turned and carved.
Cutting boards, thin turned lamp shade and vessels.
The duck was very good and stayed quit the whole meeting.
Some bowl gouges Steve Promo brought in to sell.
Two Bowl and a box by Archie Patterson.
Fantastic turned and carved vessels.
Two neat bowls. One sold at action. Bowl on right has a pointed bottom so it roll
At the meeting Steve Promo talked about the grind angle of a round nose scrapper. Here is a short video of his discussion.
Sam Staffan presented two very nice projects and had pictures to explain the process he used to make them. Here is his video.
Steve Promo talked abut making wood lamp shades and later did a demo on a lathe. The following is the classroom meeting discussion.
Steve turns a lampshade from a log of green wood. He marks one end with a 4" can lid and cuts a cone with a chain saw. He then mounts the section between centers and rough turns a cone. Since the wood he is using has a dark center section of wood the cone shape will allow for the darker wood to be seen at the base of the lamp shade.
The wood is green and Steve gets lots of nice shavings. As he turns he stops and sprays the wood with water to keep it wet. Comment during the meeting was to make sure you wipe down your lathe afterwards to prevent rust.
As he works to the shape he wants he leaves a section for a chuck to grab onto.
With the small end mounted to a chuck and the big end stabilized with the tail stock live center he trues up the big end.
Here Steve has hollowed back one inch using a bright light a a guide for the thickness. The is cut to a thickness of 0.010 inch.
This is a close up of the thin area. Note the darker section farther in. That will be cut next. Steve says you can never go back over a prior section as the wood is so thin it bends.
This is the second inch cut back. As he gets closer to the center the wood he is using has a brown center which adds a nice contrast. However, Steve points out that the light coming thru the brown wood should never be as bright as the lighter wood for the same thickness.
Here is a finished shade with a light inside that shows the grain and darker center section of the wood the cone shape exposes.
Steve takes a branch of a tree and uses a reciprocating saw to cut it in half down the center. Then he cuts a grove with a router for the wires. At the top he glues in lamp mounts. On the bottom you can see he used a log tenon cutter for the base so he can attach it to a hole in a base plate.
The next step is to glue the two halfs back together. After the glue sets the wood is sanded and finished.
Steve mass produces bases by laminating sections of wood together and then turning them to the shape. The bases have to have enough weight to hold the lamp up.
Here is the finished base with the lamp installed. The wires come down each branch and in the base Steve puts a junction box for the wires to connect to a cord that runs to a plug.
This Steve's finished lamp. Each shade has a pull chain switch and Steve likse to add a connection section so people can put things on it. While turning Steve sprays the shades to keep them from drying out. The finished shades have two coats of boiled linseed oil. This helps the light come thru and will keep the sades flexible.
Here is a table lamp using the turned shade. It has a yellow birch shade and a local cedar middle with a mahogany base. Very beautiful, Steve.
Very impressive Steve. A really great product made with great skill. Thanks for sharing.
