Rick, J Hiltz, J MacNeil, Wilson, Miles, Chris, Paul

Chris showed a vase he has started.

Miles showed a wooden carpenter’s square he made.

Paul showed a large pen project.

jim showed a vase project he is doing.

Leo went over the use of the concrete bond finish. He first applies the Envirotox epoxy. He then sands this off (It sands well). He then uses Durapro, a thicker one, and thins it with the regular masonry bond. Brush it on and for a smooth finish, brush lots until all the brush lines are gone. Re-coat as needed. For a rough vase project, he sands the uneven sides with a flap sander and a stiff wire brush.

Leo demonstrated a vase that is painted and gold leafed and we agreed to do such a project.

Leo demonstrated a jewelry box and we also agreed to make this.

Need veneer for this.

Make it from 5 1/2 inch  x 24 inch board.

Cut it down on the table saw and band saw and we will finish it on the thickness sander at Leo’s.

We need small bullet hinges for this project. 

January 2014

Potpourie

Paul,Jim Hiltz, Jim MacLean, Brian, Lawrence, Rick, Chris, Wilson Rudderham

Leo had several projects on:

Helped Brian work on his Accacia vase

Helped Rick mount a bowl 

Helped Paul study the Taig lathe and managed to get it working better than it was.

Discussed the use of Envirotex, a polymer type epoxy. It sands off very easily. Leo is testing it as a sealing finish at the moment.

Also Duraper (?) concrete bond is a good sealing agent

He discussed the Magalithic yard, an ancient measuring system.

We have to look that up!

http://www.robertlomas.com/megyard

January 14, 2014

Rick, Paul, Jim Hiltz, Jimmy MacLean, Chris, Lawrence, Miles

We discussed the time of the meeting and decided to stick with Tuesdays at 7 pm.
Miles has taken over as treasurer.

Leo discussed how to use a plumb bob to measure distances, for example when a bowl blank is mounted on a lathe and you want to measure the distance from the face to the back of the bowl. Calipers are too awkward for this job.


The lads continued to work on various projects:

Rick--a birch burl

Leo discussed various ways to mount an irregularly shaped piece so as not to mar it. Rick plans on making three legs on the bark side of his burl.

Miles--a vase

Miles turned out the central part of the vase so as it would collapse inward as it dries.

Paul--Plumb Bob

Leo decided to start the metal lathe workshop.
Paul began the session by setting up to turn a plumb bob.
Leo discussed the physics and astronomical aspects of a plumb bob

A plumb bob does not point directly to the earths center because the earth is rotating always and the bob lags behind  just a smidgen due to air friction.
Also the earth gyrates (wobbles) on its axis over time and so if a plumb bob is hung for a long time it will begin to slowly swing in a circle because of the earths wobble.

Rick, Paul, J Hiltz, Miles

Leo discussed techniques to fill soft areas on wood and the use of various glues to fill in voids.

Miles brought in a steady rest that he had. It was quite sturdy looking and simple to make.

We worked on the acacia wood blanks and used Leo's new turning jig to round out some bowls.

Leo discussed how to use geometry to design bowl with various arcs (curves) from circular to oval or egg shaped.

Fall2013 Sessions

Accacia

Rick, J Hiltz, Paul, Brian

We continued to work on the accacia bowl blanks using the mechanized jig that Leo has been perfecting to turn even shapes.

Paul worked on the large vase project.

Leo discusses using cold rolled square stock steel to make tools for the chucks
(to enable the chuck to be tightened securely when the regular tool is awkward to try to use.)
Ratchet wrenches can be adapted to this by filing the ends of the socket slightly so that it fits into the slot in the chuck.

We agreed to do a workshop on the metal lathe some evening this year.

New Season

Miles, Paul, Rick and Jim Hiltz were present

Leo has almost perfected his bowl making jig and using this, we spent the evening turning down the Accacia bowl blanks that we had prepared last week.

The wood is spectacular in grain..a beautiful yellow/green colour.

The mechanism Leo has designed makes it a pleasure to turn the rough blank into a beautiful shape.

We will likely spend the next few sessions doing these.

We were pondering the idea of a session on basic metal lathe technique and will try to get the Professor to consider this.

Vase

Rick, Paul, Miles, Brian, Chris

Paul drilled out his vase..made a mistake by not cutting off the end base first and so the hole goes all the way through and will have to be plugged eventually.

Practiced finding the centers on the lathe by using a chalk mark as the piece turns and tapping the end of the wood until it is centered correctly.

This seems to be quite effective as locating a center.

Use increasingly large drills to get the holes bores out.

Best to start with a centering bit like a machinists bit to get the hole started accurately.

Vase project Photos

Vase

April 30/13

Rick, Paul, Miles, Brian, J MacLean, J Hiltz

Tip:

A Jarno taper is what most drill press Jacob Chucks have.

This won’t fit into a morse taper tailstock .

Leo advises that when driving a Morse taper onto the lathe or drill press, open the jaws and use a deadman rod to tap the chick in. Don not hit the end of the jaws to do this.

1 Then center the tailstock end.
2 Turn the square and if one corner is off, stabilize the tailstock center with a block of wood under it, then tap the wood blank  with a mallet to move it in the proper direction. This shifts the wood slightly on the 4 screws.
3 Repeat this until the tailstock end is square.
4 Then you can turn the piece to a round cylinder.

5 Remove the temporary block at the tailstock end Reverse the blank, placing the tailstock end into the headstock chuck
6 Use a skew to get a center on the end that is now in the tailstock and take it down so as the drill bits will enter cleanly
7 Then turn the squared end to a round spiggot
8 Part off the end piece according to the diagram, rounding the pieces appropriately

These ends will be tapered

9 Place a sturdy bit in the tailstock and drill a hole. The black lines mark the hole, drilled through to the end. The larger piece is usually reversed to drll both ends, according to the length of your available bits.

10 Gradually enlarge this hole with larger bits. By enlarging the opening to a close fit for the bit to enter , a Forstner bit can be used to drill as the hole gets larger
11 Finish drilling with a sturdy large diameter bit

Rick did his vase project on Leo's lathe.
He went through all the steps down to drilling the hole by the time the evening was up.

Vase project Photos

Vase

Brian, Miles, Rick

Continued the vase project.

Everyone hada pretty good glue-up square.

Leo suggested taking a block plane and fair off the edges of the square.

Then use a square to find the exact center, using a scribe knife.

Then take a round block of wood to screw onto the top. Center it with a brad.

Then drill 4 holes around the periphery and screw the temporary block onto the top.

Use one colored screw (green) so as to be able to mark where the holes are for relocation and make a pencil line on the wood by the green screw.

This end is going on the tailstock.

Cut a square boss on the opposite end.

His will fit into the 4-jaw chuck.

Make it small enough to engage the chuck  jaws easily (1 7/8 about)

Mount this boss onto the 4-jaw at the headstock.

Using the tool rest, turn the square by hand to see how closely it is centered. If one corner is off, remove the piece, put masking tape onto the boss at the opposite corner and re mount.

Do this repeatedly until you have your square centered.

The center the tailstock end.

Turn the square and if one corner is off, stabilize the tailstock center with a block of wood under it, then tap the wood with a mallet to move it in the proper direction.

Repeat this until the tailstock end is square.

Then you can turn the piece to a round cylinder.

Tip:

A Jarno taper is what most drill press Jacob Chucks have.

This won’t fit into a morse taper tailstock .

Vase project Photos

Vase continued

Paul, Brian and Miles

Leo explained more about the thicknesser.

The table is suspended from the top on two large screws and is raised and lowered on these. As wood enters and the first roller hits it, it actually tilts the table slightly, ths causing the snipe until the outfeed roller is encountered. If a stick of wood is jammed under the table (eg for the final planing cut) it prevents the tilt and snipe. Leo’s planer has two rollers on top and two underneath. The smaller ones have just the two top rollers.

He then went over the glue-up. 

For the top and bottom slabs, he first glues up the thinner slats by placing them all together and clamping them  (without putting glue on the center between each three mating pieces). This way it is a solider thing for the clamping process. A small dab of glue can be placed at the very ends of the center pieces to keep it from slipping. The ends are cut off once the glue dries. Once these are dry, he glues on the end blocks, keeping everything flat. Once dry you can scrape off the surfaces but you can’t plane any off.

Tip:

If you have several pieces glued and the bottom is uneven, a flat piece can be glued to the underside  center with a dab of glue and then the piece is run through the thicknesser to plane off the top section. Flipping it over it  finishes the job.

Vase project Photos