Club Night Report
Wednesday 14th August 2013An evening with Ian Full, Mike Crawshaw and Ken Crittle - observations by Vernon Hughes
This was another 'do-it-yourself' evening in which three Club Members, rather than a visiting demonstrator, shared with the rest of us their knowledge or experience in selected areas of expertise. The audience remained fully attentive throughout ind
icating that this (economical) approach had succeeded for the second time in three months.Ian Full started us off talking about Pen-Making, his professional-looking self-made 'Cole Jaws' jig and Vacuum Chucking.
He explained that pens commonly require a blank about 5" long by ¾" square drilled through with a 7 mm diameter hole to take inserted brass sleeves. Ian had made his own jig to hold the material on a pillar drill. The blank should be measured and parted carefully
to achieve continuity of grain in the finished work.
For the uninitiated, you will need to purchase a mandrel and it is very useful (though not essential) to obtain a finishing tool to square off the four turned ends. This latter tool also has the ability to scrape out any adhesive that has oozed unintentionally into the inside of the brass sleeves. Ian described the full procedure and also showed some very appealing materials including yellow timber from the common garden shrub Cotinus and alternatives to wood such as deer antler and highly coloured
plastics/ resins.
He simply displayed his 'Cole Jaws' jig with fixed screw rods and the photograph shows the quality of design and workmanship. These jaws are used to hold a reversed finished piece to permit removal of the chucking recess. This (to remove or not remove) could make an interesting subject for a short debate.
Ian had built a complete Vacuum Chucking system with a £40 vacuum generator at its heart and described the design and operating features. It was noticeable that all the technical and engineering members followed the details easily enough but I suspect that there were some members for whom it may have been 'one step beyond'.
Mike Crawshaw entertained us with a fast-paced talk on 'Anything but Wood'.
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He had a plastic crate filled with 'an eclectic mix' of dozens of materials that could either be turned to great effect or used for making chuck jaws, jigs, tools, turning aids, etc., and pulling items out like a conjurer from a hat.
He described the functions/ value of each. Organic items included an Ostrich Egg (large and strong) that could make the cup of a highly decorated goblet, a Coconut to make a fancy goblet, Tagua Nuts plus milk-based Fake Ivory.
Inorganics included slabs of Nylon, Tufnol, Engineering Plastics, Polyethylene, Perspex, Slick Tape - 1 mm thick to provide a stick-on low friction surface, Double-Sided Tape, Polycarbonate as used in riot shields (very strong and will flex and bend), coloured Perspex (which has some value despite a tendency to chip or shatter). For example it can be used in a block 'sandwich' with Birch Ply thick enough to make an attractive bowl.
He went on to say that Aluminium and Brass both turn nicely but not Copper. He rounded off with some 'Home-Made Stuff' which included ball sanders, circular holders - very useful for cutting your own abrasive discs from large sheets, a wheel jig to steady the rim of a platter, using heat shrink tubing etc. He also incorporates 2½" roller blade wheels, which have superb bearings, in some of his jigs. There was more - but just typing this much leaves me short of breath!
Mike has supplied the following as useful websites for the supply of plastic materials:
http://www.directplastics.co.uk - very good for small quantities
http://www.plasticonline.co.uk
http://www.bayplastics.co.uk and http://www.plasticstockist.com
http://uk.rs-online.com - look at 'Mechanical Products and Tools' - a huge range!
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Early on, Ken used an excellent home-made 3-point steady he had seemingly 'knocked up'. Ken's dexterity with a cordless drill and screwdriver bit had the slides of the steady rest in and back out of position in the blink of an eye.
His own-design ring tool worked a treat in his hands, but it was the sort of work that made you wonder 'could I do that and at that speed?' This report on the third element in the evening's work seems to be too short to do justice to Ken's achievement in rising so successfully to the challenge of educating us in the techniques involved, but brevity does not undervalue the quality and usefulness of the demo. We can all feel empowered to get home and 'have-a-go'.
Conclusion - North Wilts has 'done it again' - that is, carried off a successful, instructive and informative evening from within its own resources. Thank you to those involved!
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The Show 'n' Tell Theme for the evening was "An Egg and an Egg Cup" - clearly not a popular theme as there were only three entries! Nevertheless, the entry submitted by Roger Hoare was a worthy winner - with his Sycamore and 'a Dark Wood' stand with four eggs and egg cups.
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Roger's winning entry |
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