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West Oxon Woodturning Association.

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On 2nd April Paul Sweet travelled up from Somerset to demonstrate for us. He turned a Spalted Beech blank into an attractive bowl with handles 'built in'. He achieved this effect by turning an 'overhanging' rim then cutting off the excess with a coping saw.

Paul also brought along a selection of other pieces which featured translucent blue resin

For our first external demonstration of the New Year, Les Thorne visited us again on 5th March. Although primarily a spindle turner, he turned an Ash bowl with a decorative Padouk ring. His demo was interspersed with good advice and anecdotes from his 20+ years as a professional production turner.

Afterwards Les showed us how to create continous beads in the outside of a bowl using a special technique where the gouge doesn't leave the surface of the wood.

After our Christmas/New Year break our first meeting was 6th February 2024 when Dave Drummond entertained us. He explained the trials and tribulations involved when making Windsor chairs. He started by showing us a 'simple' stool which has angled legs and stretchers to make the whole thing strong.

The stool was a 'stepping stone' to moving on to traditional Windsor chairs. Dave clearly has infinite patience and he apparently 'wasted' several lengths of Ash when steaming the curved sections. Grain direction is crucial! The multiple different angles, whilst occasionally measured, were largely done 'by eye'.

Dave also made a Double Windsor chair, or Windsor Settee, which was even more complicated. With sculpted seats they were both very comfortable (I checked).

After a tea break Rob showed us his diesel heater from his workshop. Although it is a Chinese clone of a well known make it looks like a good option for heating a cold workshop. After he had opened it up and explained how it works we took it to a doorway and fired it up. After a few minutes it was delivering plenty of heat through a fan driven outlet. It was surprisingly quiet and would not be noticed over the noise of your lathe!

On 5th December 2023 we held our Annual General Meeting. The 'business' section was dispensed with very quickly and we moved on the entertainment. This was provided by our 'resident' band the "Woodentops." The last time they visited us was nine years ago (!) which apparently was their first 'gig'. Using guitar, ukelele, and double bass, they sang several familiar numbers interspersed with jokes and comedic observations. Refreshments in the form of sausage rolls and mince pies were kindly provided by Pete Brown, ably assisted by Chris Frankum.

7th November 2023 Chris Parker came down all the way from Lancashire (again) to demonstrate some colouring and texturing techniques.

He used Sycamore because it is fine grained and takes colour and textures well, but any close grained wood will work.

Finally, as an experiment he showed us how to create spirals and, by reversing the lathe direction, you can make reverse spirals.

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3rd October 2023 Rick Dobney came from Chesterfield to demonstrate the intricacies of turning off centre. He explained the various combinations of spindle off centre work and how to get clean edges on the different sections.

On 5th September Bryan Milham visited us for the second (?) time. On a very hot and humid evening, mostly using the skew chisel, he showed us how he makes sewing kits from separate pieces of wood. When assembled together they form a 'tree' with cross members to hang scissors etc. on with brass pins for bobbins. An elliptical needle case (not shown) completes the kit.

2nd August 2023: Tony Jones made his first visit to us. He made a flared 'vortex' bowl out of Sycamore.

July 4th 2023: Keith Fenton made his 8th visit to WODC. He turned two bowls from salvaged Walnut trees.

He punctuated his demonstration with humorous anecdotes from his many years of professional woodturning.

June 6th 2023; On what turned out to be only her third demonstration, Kate Kitchen showed us some basic techniques.

She made a couple of poultry toys from walnut and sycamore - a duck and a chicken.

April 4th 2023, we had a demo from Martin Saban-Smith who turned a hollow form out of Sycamore.

He spray painted it black and embellished it with a gold motif and gold bands top and bottom. He added a Padouk lid with a hole in it.

On 7th March we had another visit from Les Thorne (this time sporting a new beard). He made a hollow

form out of very dense Sheoak. Featuring a reversible finial from contrasting sycamore with a small base.

On 1st November 2022 Bryan Milham demonstrated how to make a Pot Pouri container designed to hang in a wardrobe.

In the second half he transferred an image onto a white painted turning using water slide paper which he had previously printed out.

2nd August 2022 Emma Cooke (aka the Tiny Turner) visited us again and made a small bowl from a cube of Padouk.

This was sculpted using a number 3 carving chisel which gave it a hammered metal effect.

Adding two layers of colour and gold trim to the band made this piece stand out.

5th July Les Thorne visited us again and made an ornamental hollow form from a piece of Oak.

On 7th June 2022 Paul Hannaby visited us and made a very stylish natural edged goblet from a piece of apple wood.

Using different tools including a 'sanding grinder' he made several patterns in Ash & Sycamore bowl forms.

Christine Frankum has contributed this article "How to make a Longworth chuck" Click the image to view or download it.

Bryan Milham demonstrated spindle turning (his favourite) and made an end grain 'barrel tobacco tin' with raised bands.

After the teabreak he made a 'Ginger jar' which he painted with strange coloured stripes and an iridescent blue lid.

During his demonstraion Bryan recommended various useful tools which he uses regularly.

Pete Moncrieff-Jury visited us and almost made a large goblet using three different pieces of wood (albeit from the same tree). He also made an off centre scarf ring securing it to the chuck with hot glue. Things weren't going right for him on the night and the audience was dodging flying bits of wood several times during his demonstration!

On what 'turned out' to be his 18th visit to the club Gary Rance made an unusual bell shaped salt shaker.

After the tea break he went on to produce a delicate finial style bauble out of lemonwood.

Finally, he showed some basic turning techniques for the benefit of new members (and a reminder for the rest of us).

John Aitkin (minus his bowler hat) demonstrated a Yew hollow form with an African Rosewood threaded lid complete with delicate finial and gilt texture.

A good deal of interest and purchases from the public this year yielded a very tidy sum for the club coffers.
Lots of interesting questions and numerous contact details given. Several enquirers had lathes left to them which
were gathering dust in sheds and outbuildings. We expect some extra visitors in the next few months as they seek
help to re-assemble their lathes and get started.

Tuesday 7th July 2015.

Gary demonstrated several new ideas he'd had since his last visit to us. After a refresher demo
for the new members on spindle turning the basic shapes, he moved on to an unusual spinning top
device of his own creation (?)