Artistic Woodturners
                                                   Newsletter November 06

  Hope you have had a good month in your shop doing what you love, working with wood. This year is coming to a close very quickly hope you are achieving  your goals for this year.

  The steering committee met Thursday evening at George McClure’s home.

  The club is having a problem getting members to return the material that has been checked out by them. If you are one of the guilty people please return the items so others will have them to view. This library is for all members and is supported by everyone.

  We will have our regular meeting so please bring in your Show and Tell items and your wood for the auction. Just a reminder the profits from the auction help support the club. Please bring in items that you would turn yourself. You can donate other wood turning items that you no longer use. 

  The demonstration will be by Mr. Ralph Thomas. Ralph will be showing the club how to turn a winged bowl. If you have been to the last few meetings you have seen some of the examples that Ralph has turned. If you want to view what he has been doing go to our web site and check our newsletters from the past few months.

  We will have a midi lathe set up to show members who are having problems with specific items. If you need help using a certain tool or technique bring your tools and Bill Bryan will help you get straightened out. This session will be after Ralph is finished with his demo, remember the purpose of the club is to help each other with 2006_11_newsletter.htm their needs.

  Next month we will have our third annual Christmas Party on the 16th of December starting at 0900. This is just a reminder that if you are going to participate in the gift exchange you must bring a turning that you have made. If your spouse will participate bring either another turning that you have made or you may bring a gift that you purchased for at least $20.00 and woodturning related. DO NOT bring any gag gifts, Please!

  Ralph Thomas will BBQ the meat and the rest of the members will bring a covered dish. There will be a sign-up sheet passed around on the 18^th for you to sign up to bring your favorite dish.

Anticipation for John and Dixie. We had a very good turnout for a very good demonstration.

We have your attention. Very interesting. We will start out with Dixie till lunch and John will follow after lunch.


The club had an unannounced show and tell. Some people didn't get the word, part of the ten percent. James had a bowl made out of Magnolia and he carved a salad spoon and fork good job. Al McCoy had two spindles he had turned, just happened to have them in the van. Mike Demaline had a burial urn he made for his brother who just passed away recently.


Charles Toner turned in his first two segmented bowls. Very good job keep up the good work. Charles is one of our newer turners he came with some background and loves turning.

A closer view of his efforts. Charles says that the tool with the golf grip, which he purchased on e-bay is a very good tool, if my memory serves me correctly he used this tool to do the segmented bowls. 
 



Ralph Thomas had several bowls to show, they were great.



Dixie Biggs a native Floridian,  was our first turner of the day. We were fortunate to have her and John Mascoll, a nuclear engineer, as our featured turners for the day. They were in town for the closing reception of their gallery at the Pensacola Museum of Art a very successful show.


Some of Dixie's aides to help her achieve her goal.


More of her arsenal a good variety.


An example of her layout penciled in on a piece of cherry to show the viewers how to begin.  OB did a great job of setting up the video camera so that the members always had a great view of the demo, thank you OB, Al appreciates it more than you know OB.


Dixie outlines with wood burner.


Dixie showing how she shapes her turnings before carving her designs.


Showing how she lays out the patterns. Dixie uses a material that is used to cover drafting tables, a very pliable material and is reusable which I like rather than printing on paper or milar for transferring to your project. I found a place in Pensacola to purchase this material. Bay Area Blueprint & Reprographics Inc. 433-6866, 700 South Pace Blvd, I purchased one foot of the material which is 36" in width and is 432 sq inches for $8.00 plus tax. enough to last a lifetime.


Here Dixie uses a carbide cutter to shape the leaves.


Here she is undercutting the leaf to give another dimension to the carving.


A carving created with a round carbide burr that burns the wood at high speeds. Very inventive technique. 

Applying Liming Wax.


Dyed wood. Dixie uses shoe dye and rit dye for clothes, she then uses Liming wax to fill in the grain of the wood. Ash and Oak are very good for this technique because of the open grain. There are other woods that can be used just be creative.


More of Dixie.


Ready for detailing. Thank you Dixie for your effort and a great demo.


Introducing John Mascoll as he explains how to select a piece of Palm to turn. He uses a "pocket knife which all you white guys have in your pocket" used to check if the wood is sound enough to turn, by using the point and sticking into the wood from the bark to the pith. John says the wood has to be firm from bark to pith to be good. If the knife penetrates very much just forget using the wood.


John said that a waste block is a must. The Palm is too soft to hold screws or a spur drive. I believe John said that you should use Urethane glue to hold block and the surface on the Palm should be shallow grooved for better holding.


As you can see the bark is very dusty and you should use a mask to remove the bark, because a dust storm will be created. If you were at the demo you know what I mean.


Palm turns different than most woods because it has no grain it is considered a grass I believe.


Turn the shape that you are looking for as you would in any turning.


John starts his hollowing with the largest Forsner bit he can find. Notice he has a raised lip that he starts his hole in, this is due to the texture of the wood that is prone to tear-out.


John uses a hollowing rig to finish the inside of the bowl. Thank you John for making the club aware of the pitfalls while turning Palm. Thank you for your effort and Thank you for your display at the Pensacola Museum of Arts.