Club Night Report
Observations on Club Demonstration by Alan Thomas RPT – on Wednesday 14th March 2012Alan conducted a lively, informative and skilful demonstration of small box turning and texturing - two of which were fully completed during the evening.
The first box was straight sided, with a close fitting lid. Alan discussed the techniques for obtaining a good fit using a short tenon length (around 2.5 mm) and of matching the grain pattern to minimise the effects of distortion. The lid end grain, was textured with a ‘home made’ chatter tool (modelled on the Robert Sorby commercial version?) which provoked a lot of interest. The chatter effect obtained is dictated by a large number of variables – for example, the material being worked on, lathe speed, overhang of the tool, pressure applied etc. which were discussed and shown. Alan’s comment that if you ever need to make two ‘chatter’ patterns the SAME – then make the second one first was well received! A Zebrano wood ‘button’ was fitted and glued into the lid. In the interests of everyone’s health – sanding was minimised – although Alan did apply his own shellac based button polish to all of the parts – to provide a nice finish. Extensive use of the ‘scrap wood’ remaining in the chuck after cutting off the part to provide a tenon/ jam chuck for reverse mounting the box components was shown.
The second demonstration was to make a Dreidel Box. Alan discussed some of the (Jewish) history of this particular style of box and then proceeded to make the lid first. The lid in this case was actually a spinning top! The body can act as a small money box. The lid/ top was also textured – this time with a variation of an engineer’s knurling tool. The tool worked reasonably well on the end grain but was shown to be less successful on side grain. The outside of the body of the box was decorated via the ‘hot wire’ pyrography technique – burning several distinctive lines into the wood. A good looking, functional box was completed. For the more commercially minded members, it was pointed out that this type of box sells very well at craft shows!
It was a first-rate evening – with high levels of skill on display, along with humorous asides and plenty of advice and comments on the techniques being demonstrated and the tools used. Alan received a good send off – although, I suspect that no one envied him his long journey back to Liskeard in Cornwall.
Harry Rock
15th March 2012