Susan’s Great Turnout!

April 8th was an exciting day for Susan Dollar, her new Jet 1642 was delivered!

Larry Ludke, Ryan Ludke, David Van Giesen, Ben & Char Alexander all converged on Susan’s house to set up the lathe.  Susan is “building” a shop inside her two car garage by using one bay for her woodturning.  As usual it took us about 20 minutes to set the lathe up and do a test run.  Her floor was level which simplified the project.

Once the lathe was set up, Larry, David and Ben worked on building a “weight box” between the legs.  The box is made from 2×6’s and half inch plywood.  The box is loaded with 12 cement “cap” blocks that weigh about 32 pounds apiece.  This will dampen any vibration created when turning rough blanks.

Susan served faux Champagne and hors d’oeuvres to her work crew.  A great time was had by all!  David and Ben brought lathe warming presents of bowl blanks for Susan.

Later that evening Mike Ilkiw came over to Susan’s and had a mentoring session to get her started working!

written by, Ben Alexander
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Coffee at David Van Geisen’s

May – 2012
On Thursday night eighteen members of Woodturner’s of SW Missouri turned out for a coffee and demonstration at David Van Giesen’s home.  That’s a whopping 22% of our club membership!  As usual David and Priscilla were great hosts and provided tea, pop, and cookies for all, our thanks to both of them!

The evening started with David by having everyone present get up and spend about a minute telling the group about their families, background and also our turning history and experience.  This is a great way to get to know other members better.  We also had a quick “show & tell” with several members bringing recent turning projects to share with the club.  This included a discussion on how several of the pieces were “turned”.

David then launched into the demonstration of the night, the “Jamieson Hollowing System”.  David had the system on a table and went over how it worked.  He also showed us about 10 items that he had turned with this hollowing system.  Then it was off to David’s shop for the hands on portion of the demo.  David started the show by setting up the hollowing system on his lathe so we could all see how the parts relate to each other.   He also explained how the laser is used to find and mark wall thickness.  David then put a rough turned pot on the lathe and started hollowing it out.  After a brief demo he asked other member if they wanted to try it out.  Only four of us did the hands on portion.  This is a great opportunity to try out equipment, members shouldn’t be so shy about trying it!

Participants:

Dennis Lamkins, Helen Beeman, Karen McDonald, Bob McAllister, Dale King, Troy Harris, Beth Harris, Tom Glynn, Lisa Glynn, Dan McKinzie, Doc Orr, Ben Alexander, Eldon Owen, Jared Owen and daughter, Denise Petrocella, Roger Kathka, Ernie Lorenc, and of course DVG. [18]

Enjoy the pictures from this event – Ben Alexander

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Coffee & Blanks with Tom

Tuesday June 19th, 2012, Tom Glynn hosted a coffee shop at his place.  He showed us how he cuts his bowl blanks.  He started with how he breaks down the tree trunk with his chainsaw and from there he moved to his monster bandsaw!  There are boats that don’t have as much horsepower as this bandsaw.

We had 21 members there filling Tom’s garage.  A good time was had by all.

Enjoy some pictures from this event.

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Road Trip to visit Jack’s

July, 2012

In early July David & Priscilla Van Giesen, Ben & Char Alexander, and Helen & Dan Beeman went to Houston, Mo to visit Jack Watson’s Sawmill and shop.  Jack & Kay, along with Bill & Judith Jetton, met us at Miller’s Grill in Houston.  (Bill Jetton lives “just down the road” from Jack’s place)  We had a great lunch and talked for way too long but finally decided to get up and go visit Jack’s shop.  At this point Char, Priscilla, Kay and Judith decided to go shopping at a several local junk shops.

We followed Jack out to his house in the country near Houston.  He’s got a nice acreage sitting on a hill with good views.  The first thing we checked out was the sawmill.  It’s a large gas powered computer driven mill and even has an automatic log loader on one side.  Practically everything can be done by the operator from the control panel.  One the log is loaded Jack set the thickness of the first cut which would take off the outer layer of bark.  After the first cut the log is rolled, and a second bark cut is made, then the 3rd and 4th sides are done leaving a square log on the machine.  If dimensional lumber is wanted Jack sets the thickness of the boards to be cut, presses start and the mill cuts the first board.  For second  and subsequent cuts he just returns the machine to the starting point and presses start.  The machine automatically cuts the desired thickness until the log is done.  If Jack wants large square cuts to put on his lathe he just pulls the squared log out and cuts the desired length.

We all got a chance to run the mill once it was set up by Jack.  Easy to use and operate!

Then we walked over to Jack’s shop and got to look over all of his shop tools.  A nice lathe was the center piece of his shop.  We stood around and talked “woodturning” for quite a while before the shoppers returned from “junking”.   Much to our relief they didn’t buy much.

Kay invited us into her home for coffee and cookies (and brownies, and other good stuff!).  Again we talked woodturning and more before we embarked for home.  A great visit with great hosts!  Thanks to Jack and Kay and Bill and Judith!

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Welcoming a New Member

On Saturday we had a lathe setup party at the home of one of our newest members, Don Nelson.  Don recently joined the club, had one mentoring session, and ran right out and bought a lathe for his wood shop.  Don got a good buy from Ballew Tools right here in Springfield on a Jet 1642.

Don Carlson, David Van Giesen and Ben Alexander descended on Don’s home in Nixa Saturday and made short work of setting up the lathe.  Within an hour Don N. was rough turning a Maple bowl on his new lathe!   The only glitch we ran into was discovering that variable speed lathes don’t like ground fault circuits. Problem quickly solved.  Karen Nelson took time out from gardening to cook up and join us for a wonderful lunch of grilled hamburgers, coleslaw, cantaloupe and brownies.  Thanks to Don and Karen for their hospitality!

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A Visit to John Trainer’s Casa

A Visit to John Trainer’s Casa

Helen and I were able to make the road trip to John Trainer’s this afternoon – east of Osceola.  [@ 80 miles from north Springfield]  Helen was driving so we made the trip [one way] in 1 hour and 10 minutes.  (It normally takes 1 hour and 20-30 minutes.)

As you can see, John and Fran have build a marvelous house with flower gardens, water garden; stone pillar fence, underneath lots of trees.  We also drooled at John’s shop!  There are 3 lathes in there and lots of other power tools.  You can’t see it, but there’s also a fishing boat in there.  Now, there’s a thought … ‘Put a lathe on the boat, and ‘turn’ when the fish’n gets slow’.  [Am sure all of you have heard of ‘Fish and Chips’]

John put us in the 4 wheeler for a trip around his 170 plus acres.  We came across an armadillo and John tried to run down … but it put on the jets and got away.  {We didn’t know an armadillo could move that fast.} He [John, not the armadillo] showed us an old homestead cemetery called Payne Cemetery with approximately 15 headstones.  John, however, thinks some of the headstones were made from wood and have long decayed.  [Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.]

The ‘flooring’ of the 4 wheeler must have gotten to it because it started coughing, sputtering, grunting, bucking and burning rubber.  John put the thing in high gear and headed up the hill for home.

John should have been a race car driver the way he was dodging trees, limbs, rocks … etc. … at ‘full speed ahead’.   We were thankful he knew where the path was supposed to be. The passengers were ‘holding-on’ for dear life!  But finally the 4 wheeler ‘crapped-out’.  [SORRY!] Fortunately we were in sight of the house and ‘walked in’.   YEPPER … John was ‘quite the driver’ and we were ‘thankful’ he got us as close to the house as he did! [Haven’t located any ticks – YET!]

                            Written by:  David Van Giesen 

 

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April 27th Meeting

Carl Huser as featured in the Springfield News-Leader

Our regular monthly meeting will be April 27th at the Library Center at 4653 S. Campbell. As we always do, we’ll start to gather at 9:30am and get the official meeting started at 10am.

Remember that this month our club challenge is to turn a box.  There will be both Beginner as well as an experienced table.  For the sake of clarification remember some basic rules:

1.  The turning can only have been turned since it was announced as the challenge.  So, nothing that you turned previously can be entered.

2.  Beginners are typically those that have only been turning a year or less.

As for the demonstration this month, it is going to be a “Tag Team Spectacular!”  We will have the following folks demonstrating various turning tips and techniques.

          • Carl Huser
          • Les Casteel
          • Bob Bezanson
          • Don Carlson
          • Larry Randolph

These short demo/tips will be from turning off a tenon to finishing and a few things in between.  We are certain to have something for everyone!

As always, we’ll have the raffle, library, coop and show & tell.  We’ll be discussing ArtsFest, the Club Picnic and other upcoming events.

See you on the 27th!

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March 23rd Meeting at the Library Center

Our regular monthly meeting will be March 23rd at the Library Center at 4653 S. Campbell.  As we always do, we’ll start to gather at 9:30am and get the official meeting started at 10am.

Ernie turned a Top for this Chinese foreign exchange student at the Ozark Empire Fair. His decorated tops are a perennial favorite for Fair goers. From this picture, it may be the World over.

March’s demonstration is going to be presented by Dr. Ernie Lorenc.  The good Doctor is one of our founding members of the club and has been instrumental in promoting and helping our club grow through the years.  As one of our most experienced members he has Mentored many of our club members and is always willing to share his take on turning.

Because of his continuous willingness to demonstrate, teach and promote the art of wood turning, last December at the Clubs Christmas Party, Ernie was given the title of Master Turner.  This was the first year that our club has titled someone as Master Turner.

Ernie did our demo last June where he roughed out a green bowl and now that it’s dry he is going to bring it back in and show us how he finish turns his bowls.  This is sure to be an interesting and informative demonstration!  Don’t miss it.

We’ll have our normal activities as well:  Club Show’n Tell, Raffle, Coop and more.

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Feb. 23rd Meeting at the Library Center – Tim Yoder Demonstrator

Our regular monthly meeting will be February 23rd at the Library Center at 4653 S. Campbell.  As we always do, we’ll start to gather at 9:30am and get the official meeting started at 10am.

This month’s demonstration is going to be done by Tim Yoder from Tulsa, OK.  He is planning to do our regular demo (1 complete project) during the morning session.  Then in the afternoon, he will come back and do 2 more projects after lunch.

For those who may not know, Tim Yoder did 65 different episodes on PBS Nationally. The show was called “Woodturning Workshop.” Tim is very active in the Tulsa AAW Chapter and is responsible for their video system.

Recently, Tim has been doing short videos for woodturningonline.com.  You can view those videos and several others  that he has posted on YouTube by clicking THIS link!

Our own club video library has several of Tim’s videos in it so, for those of you that have borrowed those, you are sure to want to see him in person.  It is bound to be a great demo day!!!

Our Club Challenge is to turn something for your Sweetheart!  Need we say more? February is the month for Valentine’s so, in order to get the most votes from your peers, plan to turn something that your Sweetheart might like to receive on the 14th!

We will have both the Novice and Experienced tables for you to place your turnings.

Check out a couple of Tim’s tip video’s here.


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January 26th Meeting at the Library Center


Well it looks like the Mayan Calendar wasn’t right after all.  So, the Woodturners of Southwest Missouri will start off our new year with BANG!  There are many great demo’s coming this year as well as events for all to get involved with.  At January’s meeting Larry will give us all a “State of the Club” report along with some of the different opportunities we will have as a club for 2013.

After the business meeting we will have a guest speaker from the Missouri Department of Conservation.  Frances Main is one of our State Foresters and since she spoke to us 2 years ago there have been so many positive comments that we have asked her back!  She is certain to teach something new to everyone.  As she deals with professionals in the timber industry on a daily basis, she is a wealth of knowledge about wood.  She’ll talk to us about identification of different species, the different elements of growth and stresses on trees, and a TREE-mendous amount of information that Woodturners will benefit from.  Frances was just honored by her alma mater SFA.

Along with Frances, we will have a couple of really good items to hold for silent auction, a SUPER RAFFLE (must be present to find out:), club library, club co-op and of course our show and tell table. Be sure to start the year off right and meet with us on January 26th at the Library Center at 4653 S. Campbell.

9:30am – Gather
10:00am – Meeting starts with the business meeting
10:30am – Frances Main, Forester, Missouri Department of Conservation
11:30am – Show’n Tell, Shop the Co-op, Club Library and get your Raffle Tickets
12:15ish – Go to Lunch!!!

This is one of the tools to the right that will be available for the silent auction, the Decorating Elf.  Enjoy the demo by Nick Agar in the YouTube video below.  We will have the Elf, cutter and brush available for your bids.  This is a great little fun tool to use in decorating your turnings. Craft Supplies USA has given the club a discount on this tool to use it as a fund raiser so, be sure to watch the video and come planning to add it to your tool rack!

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