Another Good Club Night - August 2005

Paul and Ben Nesbit

Not sure how to start this club night article/report. I'm sitting here having just ran up the stairs and after 11 days past the event I suddenly feel inspirational, I've turned everything on and ……………………..Nothing. Its been a very busy last few weeks for me with lots going on and many hours with no real days off. Not that I mind, its like that sometimes. However usually when I get inspired I write easily but this time inspiration was very short lived, probable fell out me pocket running up the stairs but here goes anyway, Ive got Classic FM on and a cup of tea so with nothing on the tele away I go.

WOW is the best way to explain our August 05 club night. Odd thing is I wrote very little down in the way of notes to help write this piece. As usual I appear to be the last to turn up, home early enough from work to prepare some paperwork for the evening and finish my competition pieces. Popped into the workshop to get a fixing for my mirror entry and saw the two blocks of wood sitting there for John to turn tonight. So there I am in my best togs cutting this 4" x 4" block and flattening two opposite corners for mounting on the lathe, hence my late arrival.

John Hilton with my bit of hard Ash

If you remember last club night Bill Thorne set us all a challenge, a prize for the best drilled bowl as demonstrated by Paul Nessbit, the results were impressive with a good number of entries in both novices and advanced. Sadly only mine in the intermediates, I'm beginning to get a complex about being the only entry. So as you can imagine, most of the guys are busy checking in their entry or looking at the wide range of variations on the theme, along with the entries were a number of mishaps, I had two on display, more on that in another article.

The hall was packed, I didn't get to count how many as all present were moving around between two competitions, library, Blanks for sale, raffle tickets, final adjustments to all the lathes and hands on demonstrations for the evening. I entered my two pieces and met Steve in person who is our latest addition to the club through the web site, after a brief tour of the hall I pointed him in the direction of Robin who was specifically demonstrating for absolute beginners tonight.

John Webb our chairman welcomed us all and gave brief details of bits and pieces. Don Smith mentioned a trip to the Axminster show and I missed the opportunity to explain that the web quiz is available to non-computer members on club night, and Derek has it in the club magazine, It'll be about for a while yet so there's always next month. Next the guys demonstrating were introduced and what they were going to do. Typically when it got to Bill it raised a laugh, he was asked "what are you doing tonight Bill?" he replied "advanced beginners," says it all doesn't it.

Peter Hallam has a go

Well we were off and in no set order we had, Don Smith with a very good demonstration of Inboluted turning, now my spell checker has underlined inboluting so looks like a bit of research for me later. His demo was very well thought out as with all that Don does, he had prepared pieces to show all the stages of the operation. Along with these were the home made jigs, this I think needs and article with pictures for the magazine and Web site. Next we had Bill Thorne who turned a lovely grained bowl and a mushroom with plenty of stop's to explain every detail.

Peter Withers turned natural edge pieces; this is something I need to sit down, watch and make notes, as I have no idea what timber or how to go about it at all. Paul Nessbit the professional turner from last month returned to help us with our turn in and judge our drilled bowls. Paul did off centre turning, I did notice that Peter who was watching had some hands on instruction which I'm sure he'll appreciate. Along side Paul was his son Ben turning pens. It's good to see the younger generation turning. John Hilton turned three-cornered bowls; this is where I make my public apology to him. It seems that every time I choose the subject and supply the wood, it's the hardest piece of wood on this planet. It seems there is a difference between kiln dried and natural seasoned timber, I feel another article coming on. Anyway, once again John, very sorry, despite this he still provided an excellent demonstration which was proven by the crowd watching all night. Last but not least was Robin Lacy, as I said before was demonstrating for absolute beginners, obviously a need for this but somehow we never really got round to this as a specific demo. As usual he went to a lot of trouble making easy to understand examples to explain what is happening when you turn and how to approach the lathe and wood. Safety was a keen issue here. I don't think Steve our latest recruit got out of his chair all night.

As always all the demonstrator's put a lot of effort into preparing their demonstration. I don't think people realise that these guys don't get to see the rest of the evening's demo's, they stand behind their lathes all night apart from a cup of tea and sometimes even then they are explaining things. So a big thank you guys for your hard work at home and on the night.

In amongst that lot was a real casual tea break in as much as it wasn't announced. My feet didn't touch the ground. As with the demonstrators, I don't get to sit and watch anything for long enough as I'm chatting about web stuff and bits. Also this time our club photographer for the magazine was away and asked me to do the honours. You know your going to get distracted so I don't worry to get to involved. I just hope that next time I'm turning I don't mix a bit of each demo into the same piece.

Paul Nesbit with the best bowl

As usual its over in a flash and the demonstrators were thanked. Then we came to the drilled bowl competition; this received a lot of attention throughout the evening. Don as always organised it very well, broken down into the three classifications we use for our own monthly judging. I was surprised to see so many in the novices; I've been trying everything to get entries since the beginning of this club year which is best part finished. Paul spent time going through most of the pieces explaining what he did and didn't like and why, he then awarded the prizes promised by Bill. Paul was thanked for returning to help with his demo and judging.

Next we had the raffle draw and no I didn't get a number up, why you may well ask, I was so busy I forgot to get my tickets. So then it's the last few words from John and it's the clearing off the hall, loads of helpers tonight and didn't take very long, I found myself talking to Ken till we got thrown out as we did last month. With that the lights went out and the last goodnights. It was a really busy night and was well appreciated by the members. Definitely deserved a WOW and there goes a brilliant club night.

Boots - August 2005