Club Night - July 2005

I thought I was going to be one of the early guys waiting at the door tonight, then the phone rang and that was that. So as usual I arrived more or less at my usual time, which is half an hour before the official start time but I still looked like I was one of the last to turn up again. One day, yes one day I'm going to be able to write, "I was there first tonight" watch this space as they say.

Mike's Competition Entry Peter's Competition Entry

My competition entry wasn't up to much; I wasn't going to spend money on tools just for the competition although it's a good excuse to. But I just couldn't come up with a platter with a pierced rim that I was happy with, I very nearly put the platter in with no piercing as I wasn't going to spoil it for the points. But at the last minute after drilling various types of hole in a previously made disaster only fit for firewood type platter did I change my mind, still not sure I did the right thing. I got acceptable marks but along with it goes a platter I don't like at all, I think I'll return it to the lathe and turn them out, I did purposely drill right near the edge, just not sure the narrower rim will look right.

This however makes the point of how important club competitions are; I now have a better idea of what I don't like and its made me look more closely to the other entries for ideas. You also get to see exactly what direction you are taking, after 2 years of competition I have a pretty good idea of my own style and identity, It was my wife who pointed out some of my habitual leanings which I was quite blind to. Now that's enough Boots I hear you saying, this is supposed to be a gentle past time/hobby, not an Open University coarse on psychology. So by popular demand I'll return to the club night report.

So with all the guys busy looking, putting, reading, asking and yes thinking, we are almost ready to start, I say almost because the camera's were still in a house in Farnham, they had been forgotten, the tripods and monitors where there but no camera's. I tried to ring the wife to bring them but she's on the Internet was the cry, I'll have to go and get them. This was instantly greeted with a chorus of "you should be on broad band" This is proof that we members are slowly but surely dragging ourselves into the modern age.

So with one member less than we started Ken proceeded to introduce our demonstrator for this evening who was Paul Nesbitt. Paul's last visited us in January 2004 and showed us multi-centre turning. As we where without our monitoring camera's Paul started by explaining various things on the Nobo board, this led us into his first project for the evening, which was a bowl with drilled/pierced decoration. It wasn't long before the camera's arrived and with a bit of tweaking they were up and running, This was the first time I had seen this bowl design and it looks quite effective. Our Bill made the offer of a prize to the best bowl to the same design at next month's turn in which Paul has agreed to help us with and to pick a winner.

The bowl finished now and was passed around and it was time for a tea break, loads of chat and raffle tickets purchased, I checked out the competition scores and designs and discussed various matters and made my apologies again to the judge. Got myself a cup of tea and spoke to Derek our club magazine editor and Ray who is his photographer. The tea break was provided by Mick Scott and Ken White, thanks lads.

All settled back in our chairs now and with the help of his son Paul glued the last of many knitting needles into the bowl blank and cut them flush before mounting it on the lathe. It produced a nice effect with this yellow 4mm diameter spot all around the rim, I must admit I could see problems of movement in the timber and the plastic getting hot for us novices. However it did show how to think laterally. As with the other bowl it was passed around the 70 or so members. Ken thanked Paul for his informative demonstration and received a warm round of applause.

There were a couple of announcements and a lathe offered for sale, then the raffle, nothing for me this time Derek. The usual mystery last prize for the raffle, I must get a list of what they are sometime. The usual chairs away, sweeping up and collecting of entries. We are still getting a steady flow of novices entering each month, which is promising. Ken and I got talking and had to be thrown out so they could lock the doors followed by the last goodnights. And there goes another good club night.

Club Night - July 2005