ArtisticWoodturners  

September 2005 Newsletter

  Good to be back from vacation and  in the routine of things. I sure hope the hurricane season is over for this part of the world. Hope you had a good summer and found plenty of trees for your collection of turning wood.

The steering committee met at James place for our meeting and as usual he was very gracious with coffee and snacks. Thanks James from the committee.

  Danny reported that the club earned  $220.00 from the sale of the Kingwood. There were 17 people that purchased wood. The money earned from the sale will help defray the cost of running this club, nice going.

  The wood was delivered about 7:45 am on Saturday 4995 lbs on one pallet what a load. Danny Haggard, Ray Welsh, and Al McCoy divided the wood into equal lots with the help of Danny’s computer. Thanks to the supplier for numbering the boards and the board foot per piece with a complete inventory. That sure was a long process. Around 4 pm we had done as much as we could and called it complete. We are looking for some beautiful turnings from this wood. Thanks to everyone that helped.

  The committee discussed the possibility of making arrangements to have a club shirt with our logo embroidered on it. Mr. George McClure will check on the cost. We need to be thinking about the type of shirt we want.

  Binh Pho was scheduled to come to Mobile October 1-2, but since the storm things may change. If Mobile is unable to have Binh we may try to have him come here. Stand by for more information.

  December the 17th meeting will be our Christmas Party, so mark it on your calendar. We will be having the Dirty Santa gift exchange again this year. It was a big hit last year. The wives are invited to participate if they want; all they have to do is bring a gift. The only thing we ask is that the gift be woodturning related and have a value of at least $20.00. We don’t want gag gifts. We prefer something that you turned.

  Remember the Presidents challenge for this month is “A suspended bowl” so start turning. The demo for this month is a turkey call. Al McCoy will be assisting Mike Peters. Mike had a fall and may not be in good condition to stand for the demo. Mike has the slate and glass for the calls if you want to buy them from him.

  October’s demo is a joint effort Al, Jack, and Ray Welch will be turning Christmas ornaments. Al and Jack will concentrate on the body of the ornament and Ray will be showing how he makes a long finial. Al may do an inside/outside ornament.

  November’s Presidents challenge is the ornament. And the demo will be by Danny. He will be doing a “Baby Rattle”. He has two friends expecting babies and will be making them a rattle.

  December 17th we will have our Christmas Party.  Keep turning.

Highlights from our August meeting.

The meeting started at 0900 with the wood auction. The weather was so hot  we started out doors before the sun got real bad. OB brought a trailer load  of wood.    Holly, Pecan, Dogwood, China Berry, and Mimosa for auction. Thank you OB. Others brought the usual short pieces by the box full. The auction took in around a hundred dollars.

James held the business part keeping the members informed about the up coming professional turners that we will be trying to get for early next year. Binh Pho will be coming to The Azalea Turners in October and we are invited to participate for a small price.

Show and Tale portion had some neat entries to report. Jack, James, Danny, Durk, Leland, Bill and Paul had entries

Jack with one of three pencil holders. He made staves and separated them with birch tongue suppressor great idea.

Durk made a very nice coaster for his wife. He has an order for more. Nice going keep your wife interested in what you are doing.

James presented a sample of some of the things he learned from David Ellsworth. Nice going James very good examples keep up the good work.

Bill Morris shows of his genie bottle, he said in was made out of Ivan wood. It is a mystery.

Les said he made the top and bottom out of the same piece of wood, but they are a different shade. Ask him, "how did you do that?".

Leland shows off his collection of lighthouse turnings. A very good job. He brought a collection of photos he took at the symposium in Kansas.

Paul Sherman shows off a turning from a large piece of cherry he bought at our auction. Which goes to show you we have some outstanding wood at our AUCTIONS. If you don't show up you are missing out on some wonderful things.

 

Ray Welsh performs his first demonstration showing the members how to turn a suspended bowl. This is an outstanding Idea for something different in the way of a turned item. Good job Ray. A Bowl with feet.

OB shows the attendees how his laser guided hollowing rig works on the clubs Midi lathe. A very interesting demonstration and informative. If you are interested in learning how to do a hollow form, contact OB for all the details his phone number is in the club directory on our web site.

 

Unloading the 4600 pounds of Kingwood at our meeting place. Al hands the wood to Danny and Ray who carried all the wood into the shop area. We had to take several breaks during the evolution.

Ray and Danny using the computer to split up the wood into equal lots for distribution.

James and Gary waiting on the drawing for the lots of wood. This procedure worked very well. The members who purchased wood arrived by 2pm on Sunday to begin the drawing for the lots. This evolution took about 40 minutes to load the wood into members vehicles and clean up and put the area back as we found it. Thank you Danny for all your computer expertise in dividing up the lots. If we would have had to do manually we would still be there. Hope you enjoy turning the Kingwood, it is beautiful.