The club met on 17 September, a week later than scheduled because a conflict in personal schedules. There were some nice Bring Backs and Show & Tells in the classroom for the meeting. After the classroom meeting Jim Rutledge show his technique for turning bowls that look like woven baskets. Attached are some videos taken during the meeting.
Steve Promo talks about the Bring Backs:
Sam Staffan talks about his Show & Tell items:
Steve Promo talks about his Show & Tell items:
Jim Rutledge classroom talk on how he makes bowls that look like woven baskets and then takes the group into the shop for a demonstration of his technique with samples of his finished work. You can see the video at: https://youtu.be/9d4FmV3kKBY
The club met at the LaSalle High School for show and tells, bring back raffle and a demo on turning ornamental birdhouses.
There were many show and tell items on display and talked about.
Here are some of the show and tell items on display.
Three natural edged bowls.
Jim carved some birds on a branch. Very realistic looking.
More birds by Jim along with a carved orange for the birds.
More bows, a vase and a box.
Same brought so of his work. One is a resin and wood vase and another is resin stabilized wood.
Another natural edge bowl.
This is the bring back section of wood raffled off during the meeting.
This is a cross section of a hollow tree. Note the cracks forming as it dries.
Jim explained that the cracking can be greatly reduced if the cross section is cut at a something like a 15 degree angle as this reduces the length of the each grain and fewer cracks as it shrinks and dries. This example was cut at 90 degrees to the grain allowing each grain to run from outside to inside.
After a discussion of what people had made band brought for show and tell there was a discussion of the demo and then everyone moved to the shop to watch Steve make ornamental birdhouses. The movie has been edited to remove pauses and sections have been speed up to reduce the overall size of the movie. Here is the video of Steve Promo making ornamental birdhouses.
At the 9 July 2022 Hiawatha Woodturners Club meeting Sam Staffan demonstrated Fractal Burning. Sam ran a sign shop before retiring and used a transformer used in neon signs to generate the high voltage needed for fractal burning of wood. Sam has a sign on his transformer to the effect that this will kill you to remind himself of the danger of working with up to 15,000 volts even in low current, In this video Sam will explain how he mixes one table spoon of baking soda to one quart of water and then sprays the surface of the wood and then applies the probes to pass the current across the wood. He uses insulated gloves and has insulated the wires he holds and a foot pedal swich to turn on the power.
The 9 July Club meeting was held at Sam Staffan's shop. Sam used to have a sign shop and after retiring expanded his interests into working with glass and wood. Sam has three lathes and does pen turning which expanded into larger turned items.
At the club meeting there were some Show and Tell items that show the skill of the club members.
Nice box with a mushroom on the lid.
Wood spoon and spatula turn from one piece of wood. The handles are turned and the spoon and spatula are carved or ground to shape.
Steve Promo turn this large vessel with a hole in the side. It also has some turquoise in a crack.
Steve brought in some of his stone collection and showed how he crushed the stone using a pipe and a steel drop rod (shown on left).
In addition, there were some Bring Backs raffled off.
Above are two large and thick slabs of walnut.
A crouch was brought in along with several slices of aromatic cedar.
Sam Staffan has a very nice shop and displayed around his shop are some very impressive products of his work considering he only started wood turning in June of 2021. Here are some results of his skills:
Some of his wood has been stabilized and turned and other embedded in epoxy and turned. He has added colors and other material to enhanced the look of the end product.
After a discussion by Steve Promo about he club Sam Staffan gave a demonstration of stabilizing wood using a special resin. Here is an edited video of that process.
link: https://youtu.be/Xxeee2XLa_w
During the meeting I recorded several videos of Sam's process including turning wood embedded in epoxy resin. I am working on putting these videos together in a understandable format so they will be posted later. - ajp2
Sam sent a picture of a partially turned object that was stabilized with resin. Interesting shavings or lack there of.
Here are some pictures of a couple of items that were brought in to show the fellow members what we have been working on for the 11 June 2022 club meeting.
The inside has been sanding a painted for a nice contract.
Beautiful wood for this container.
Turned the wood to provide another view of the variations in the wood.
Please note the 9 July 2022 club meeting will be at Sam's shop in Mackinaw City where he will show some of the equipment he uses in his resin turning projects. - ajp2
Steve Promo has been mentoring kids at the LaSalle High School in Saint Ignace in the skills of turn on wood lathes. Recently several have been turning rolling pins. Here are some pictures.
Innovative protective gear to keep the wood shavings out of and off your clothes. Protective mask against the dust of turning and sanding. Well done.
Putting the finishing touches on a rolling pin with strips of darker wood. Looks great.
