May - Woodgroup SA

Volume 33, No 04
Opinions expressed in this Newsletter are not
necessarily those of the Editor, the Board of
Directors, or the Executive Committee of
Woodgroup SA Inc.
April 2016 No. 317
Correspondence to
the Secretary, Trevor Lloyd
Woodgroup SA Inc web page:www.woodgroupsa.org.au
Woodgroup SA— Member Clubs
WOODGROUP CONTACT DETAILS
Club
Contact
Phone
Northern Turners Inc
Lindsay Winen
08 8344 8521
Contact the Secretary (Trevor Lloyd)
Western Woodworkers Inc
Rena Hoare
08 8352 3207
Email—[email protected]
Murrayland Turners Inc
Charles Andre
08 8574 0105
Sculptors & Carvers Inc
Graham Jones
08 8260 2827
Contact the Newsletter Editor for March
(George Pastuch)
Email - [email protected]
Whyalla Woodies Inc
Robin Sandy
08 8260 2827
Hills Woodworkers Inc
Ron Burke
08 8389 8574
Copper Coast Woodworkers Inc
Graham Nicolle 08 8821 4882
South Oz Scrollers Inc
David Chaplin
08 8377 0529
Riverland Woodworkers Inc
Brian Lock
08 8586 4916
Toymendous Inc
Ron Crowhurst
08 8264 0034
Southern Turners Inc
John Tillack
0408 866000
Riverside Community
Woodgroup
Brian Jones
Fleurieu Woodturners
Dennis Murray
COPYRIGHT
PROVISIONS
Other Wood Working Clubs may use written
items by Woodgroup SA members without prior
permission, conditional on acknowledging the
article when published. No alterations shall be
made and nothing used when the author indicated
it shall not be copied. Designs however may not
be copied in any manner.
(George Pastuch - Editor)
0431834472
From the President’s Shed
My tour of the Woodgroup Clubs continues with a visit to the Fleurieu Woodturners in early May where all
present learnt how to carve a clock surround using basic tools. Unfortunately I had to leave early and will have
to finish my carving without the expert guidance provided by Des. Show and tell included quality items
produced by relatively inexperienced turners. Keep up the good work guys.
I also attended the Murrayland Turners in late May where Brendon Stemp once again demonstrated his
innovative approach to turning in wood and resins. All present on the day had a great time and despite Brendon
stating he would not take offence with anyone going to sleep after lunch I am not aware of anyone who did as
no one wanted to miss any aspect of the demo.
I have attended two shows at the Wayville Showgrounds over the past month or so and if patrons follow through
on their promises several clubs should get new members as a result of the spruiking by Southern Turners
members.
Let the wood chips fly
John Tillack
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WoodgroupSA Network Meeting, Tuesday May 10th, 2016.
Trevor Lloyd was first off the blocks with firstly, an almond bowl about 300
mm diameter, which he had rescued after Jeff Wrigley consigned it to his
firewood pile, when a large crack across the bowl got larger. Trevor reworked
the piece, filling the “through” cracks with brass powder in resin. The result
was a quite successful rework, the brass blending in with the fairly strong
colouring and grain of the wood. (Almond appears to be a notorious wood for
splitting badly, in spite of sealing the ends immediately after cutting).
His second offering showed two “Lichtenberg” pyrography efforts, which he
and a friend generated by applying a high voltage across a plywood board that
had been made electrically conductive with a baking powder solution. The
tracks produced by the electrical discharges down the board wherever the
conductivity was highest, burned a quite artistic “dendritic” and “fractal”
pattern, some quite deeply. The operation is inherently
dangerous according to electrician Trevor, but the results can
be
stunning.
(It
is
a
modern
artistic
resurrection of work done in 1777 by Lichtenberg on the
electrical breakdown of insulators!)
Roger Humphris was next with a bottle-mounted candle
holder, based on one illustrated in the Australian Woodworker magazine some time ago
(November/December 2003 issue, p67). The candle-holder was turned out of redgum, was
about 100 mm high, with a maximum diameter about 50 mm, with a metal insert for the candle.
Because bottles were in short supply in his shed and house, he managed to find a genuine
“Pickaxe” bottle that had slumped in a fire. His candle holder, with its double flange, thus had a
more avant garde shape than the original
John Bennett seemed to be into ash (Fraxinus excelsior) bowls currently, as he passed a
roughly 100 mm diameter one around, unfinished after remounting on a stub, and partly
turned at the Merry Month of May weekend recently held (abbreviated to MMoM below).
He wanted comment and advice on how to eliminate a small blemish of cranky grain that
had resisted repeated sanding through the grits, forwards and reverse sanding on the lathe,
and hand sanding the offending region, with minimal effect. Suggestions from the floor
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Note – Price increase effective 1st July 2015 (the first in over 12 years)
SCROLL SAW BLADES
We are Australian Distributors for the Swiss made Pégas® blades. •These are available in both pinless and
pinned. •We also sell the German made Flying Dutchman blades. •Pinless are $5.00 a dozen, while
pinned are $6.50 a dozen. •3” blades are $5.50 a dozen •Swiss Made Coping Saw Blades available for
$5.50 a dozen .
We also sell mini chucks and mini twist drills. Foot switches for $65.
Proportional scales for $9.50 - a handy tool
We are agents for Hegner drum sander and other Hegner products.
All prices are plus postage.
•••Contact us for a blade catalogue•••
Helen Harris
H
H
PO Box 1384, Murray Bridge SA 5253
Ph 08 8531 3440
Email—[email protected]
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added routes to try –wet the wood to raise the grain, and shellac to stiffen the fibres, before further sanding. He will see!
Mel Pearce’s first piece was an “inside-out” turning about 100 mm tall, a flower form on a 40
mm diameter base, with a partly hollow stem, turned at the MMoM meeting. The impetus for
this “inverse” or “involute” item (consisting of 4 blocks carefully glued together, turned to one
shape, split along the glue lines, each piece rotated by 180, reglued and turned to a different
shape), came from a demonstration given by George Pastuch on the Sunday. George generously
provided a supply of already internally shaped, reglued blocks to
encourage anyone to give it a go, which Mel did with the result
shown. His second piece was a segmented genie bottle about 250 mm tall, with
circular inlays, made some time ago out of several timbers –mahogany, hoop and
huon pine among them. He had lacquered the bottle recently, and still had some
finishing work to do on it. Because the genie was forever escaping, he turned a
stopper out of huon pine to fit, in the May meeting. That kept the blighter in and
everyone happy. (The bottle is resting on Mel’s flower in the image).
Estelle Pearce’s contribution was a very decorative and delicate carving-cum-picture, inherited from her
mother. The Asian female spirit form was minutely carved from very thinly sliced bamboo. That was mounted in
a frame. Its precise history was unknown, but the execution of such fine work must have involved great skill
and incredible patience. Sorry, there is no image
Graham Were was another MMMoM participant, and had picked up on George Pastuch’s
work on involute forms too–his decorative pendant ornament version this time, shown at
right. At home he gave it a try with a piece of Obeche (Triplochiton scleroxylon) machined
into 4 identical rectangular blocks with square cross-section. (Obeche is a pale cream timber,
quite light, from Africa, and a bit splintery, according to Graham). Because involute work
requires very careful centring of the glued up square-section pieces on the lathe, he first
routed a small bevel just on the ends of the pieces on what were to be inside and outside
corners once the pieces were glued together. After glueing the 4 blocks at just the ends, the
bevels formed a recess into which a conical drive point or live centre fitted, thus ensuring
concentricity –smart thinking. Graham then turned the outside profile which later was to
become the inside. He turned the profile to make a larger windowed part in his pendant than George had
demonstrated. Splitting the blocks along the glue line, rotating each piece by 180º, and reglueing them together
(Continued on page 4)
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(Continued from page 3)
in the right order, he turned the outside to the required shape –and discovered that the inside recesses (formerly
outside) were almost too large –but the piece still held together, to yield a quite decorative item.
Eddie Jones was into one-piece pens (i.e. without a join in the
middle), so showed three of his latest creations. The three pens had
cherry, oak, or olive “skins”, one decorated with some fine
circumferential rings, and all attractive to look at, and quite
comfortable to hold.
Alex Mühlhölzl had a couple of items to show.
The first was a tiny bowl, about 25x 30 mm in
plan, turned out of pine knot or burl. It was well
executed, right to its base, and of course,
signed, with the wood identified.
His second piece was captured from a bunch of
borers that were escaping from his shed carrying a log of apple. He
managed to find enough wood in that to make a roughly 100 mm diameter
bowl that exhibited strong and eye-catching grain and colouring. Alex
decorated the small rim (just visible in the image), and a collar around the
base with 2 mm pyrography embellishments, to produce a most attractive
piece.
John Beswick showed an ebonised red-gum bowl with white
mouse, destined for a recipient who liked a “black and white”
theme. The bowl, about 250 mm in diameter, was turned to a
spherical form with about a 15 mm thick wall, remounted at an
angle to the top opening using a jam chuck, and a flat turned to
form the base, reducing the wall thickness there to a few mm. The
top edge was then cut away and scalloped to shape. Several coats
of iron ebonising brew were applied, sanding between coats, to
blacken the inside and outside surfaces of the bowl, apart from
the very bottom.
The white mouse was turned out of artificial bone (very
expensive medical material, but very uniform in texture and completely white), with white ears, pink eyes, and a
black tail added later, before mounting it on the bowl rim to complete a striking piece
John Tillack had a bunch of things that he had worked on this past month.
First up was a steel post he had made to fit onto his Sorby Pro-Edge
sharpening system, so he can sharpen gouges quickly and reproducibly to
the same angle.
He then showed a shallow winged bowl cum platter, all turned out of green
pear-wood bought from the wood sale at the MMoM meeting. He carved
the thin wings to a wavy shape using an Arbortech cutter, and shaped the
underside likewise, but with three short feet to support the bowl. A fine
piece, yet to be seasoned, that the image does not do full justice to.
His third piece was modelled
directly on the Macfarlane bow
sander, devised in the Evan
Dunstone workshop in
Canberra, and extolled in the Australian Wood review, number 88,
p8, quite recently. The sander made smoothing continuously curving
(Continued on page 5)
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(Continued from page 4)
surfaces a breeze according to John, was simple to construct (3 pieces of wood), and in which it was easy to replace abrasive grits.
The next meeting will be on
the second Tuesday of the month, 14th June, 2016
at the San Georgio Community Centre, enter off Henry St, Payneham,
7 for 7:30 pm start, until about 9 pm.
The bar will be open as usual, and for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fine wine, soft drinks, etc. As
usual, carvers, sculptors, whittlers, scrollers, pyrographers, toymakers, furniture and jewellery makers etc. are all most welcome.
Western Woodworkers Inc.
Western Woodworkers have again had a very good year. Very informative Saturdays and everyone being guided to a letter
level of woodcraft.
Four members again event to the Gold Coast to attend Turnfest. A venue which showcases the work and techniques of
renowned wood turners from worldwide countries. A huge opportunity to see and learn, first hand techniques of woodcraft
on a higher level, this gives a new train of thought and ideas exalate.
Timber enhancement sky rockets and ideas evolve. Next year’s Turnfest turns 15 years of age, and a huge contingent of
worldwide wood turners will be attending. It is truly a wood turner’s paradise. Watch for low coast air fares, and the
expense of the trip is much less.
Our usual Christmas and Christmas in July events are well attended of fresh choice, Diagonal Road Sturt SA our Woodcraft
display at West Torrens Library Auditorium 1 Brooker Terrace Hilton begins on Saturday 29 th of October to the 6th of
November inclusive 2016.
Wishing everyone and their families good health
Rena Hoare
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