28 Jul 2020 – Online Demo by Pat Carroll

We decided on a full review for those who missed out on the live Interactive Remote Demonstration (IRD).  We welcomed a few guests to the online meeting, one gentleman all the way from Missouri, USA and also a representative from The Worshipful Company of Turners.  Also good to see we are still attracting some new members to the Club despite now being only able to offer online meetings.  We were pleased to see our usual members and we ended up with 33 attending in total.  It would be great to encourage those of you who are reading this but did not attend as we would love to see you back.

Tuesday 28th July saw our second live IRD this time with Pat Carroll, all the way from Ireland. Pat has always been a friend to our club and we were really pleased to welcome him into our homes with the aid of new technology.

Pat had already prepared a sample of the square painted and textured platter/bowl that he intended to show the process of how it is made. He explained at each stage right from the piece of timber and how the grain was running to various ways of mounting; choosing a screw chuck to mount and prepare the bottom of the piece. Firstly, he established a rough thickness of the wings to the platter and the position of the bowl before using a parting tool to set a rough spigot.  This would be fine tuned after the paint and texture stages.

A Foredom SR pendant motor with a flexible drive, mounted with a sabre tooth cutter was used to texture the outer wings, both top and bottom of the piece. During the demonstration we were all able to post questions on the chat function, which Pat was always ready to answer in great detail, paying particular attention to the safe use of all equipment and tools and exactly how they should be presented to the work.

For those who are familiar with Blue Peter, we had that moment when Pat produced a part turned piece that he had prepared fully textured and painted and having a light copper gilt cream applied to highlight the texturing.  Time now to turn the inside of his platter and so after refining the bottom and trimming the spigot to the correct size Pat turned the piece to finish the inside. We had an explanation of the importance of having your gouges really sharp for the final cuts to reduce the need for a lot of sanding.

When we have met at the Club face to face, we always had time for a question and answer session and online was no exception. Pat spent time when our microphones were unlocked to chat with our members and as usual happy to chat away with anyone from our woodturning family.

Pat advertised his latest Meet the Turner event which is set for another fantastic interview this Sunday 2nd of August 7pm Irish Time, with Michael Allen Alguire.  If you would like to join in, please email meetthewoodturner@gmail.com to subscribe to the mailing list.

Thank you Pat for a great demonstration of which feedback has been excellent.  Report courtesy of Zak.  Thank you.  Some of the pictures shown are kindly provided by Pat.

Next meeting is the Workshop Activity Night on the 11th August 2020.  We are pleased to announce that Clive Brooks from Robert Sorby will be our guest where you can ask questions regarding any Robert Sorby products, especially the Pro Edge of which via the Club Shop we have sold many to our members.  We also hope to have some more videos from our resident online turners, Chris, Alan and Zak.  Please bring along what you have been making to show us and any problems, mistakes as we can all learn from them.  Remember, a problem shared is a problem halved.

The Club Shop and Martin Pidgen’s wood sales will be again open at the Village Hall, 10am to midday on the 15th August 2020.  Don’t forget your mask and social distancing.

Then don’t miss our next fantastic online demo by Stewart Furini on the 25th August 2020.

Just to prove to me that you are actually reading this post, it would be great before you go, if you can leave a comment below.  Please leave some feedback on the demo if you watched it.  Remember, its your Club, so also tell us who and what you want to see on the Demo and Workshop Activity Nights, any ideas on what we can do and anything we need to improve on.  Thanks for reading…..now please comment below.