24 Sept 2022 – Training Day

On Sat 24 Sept 2022, we put on our second Training Day of the year for our members and any guests interested in trying the craft.  An early start saw us setting up the hall with only three lathes due to one of our instructors having to cancel at the last minute.  Our instructors for the day were Darren Brown, Chris Fisher and Ian ‘Zak’ Flack who were soon set up and ready to go and we awaited the arrival of the first three students.  George B and Dave P had booked the morning with Chris and Zak and we were pleased to welcome Jackie, our guest for the morning who was booked in with Darren.  

Jackie had never turned or even seen a lathe before, so Darren went into the full beginners patter covering all the relevant safety and basics before getting to make shavings.  After starting with some basic square to round spindle work to get the hang of things and tool control, she ended up with what could be later made into a candle stick. Just got to suss out how to make a pair!  Moving on, she made with some expert help, a lovely little bud vase and was thrilled to bits with what she had made and the smile on her face said it all.  So one happy customer who we hopefully might see back at the Club at some point.

Dave and Zak set to with some basic lathe skills and then moved on to the first part of making making a lovely little egg box with a brass hinge.  Some more work needed at home to make the top now that Dave has learnt the techniques required, so we look forward to seeing the finished item in due course.  George working with Chris again started with some basics and went on to making a rather elegant little bowl.

After our packed lunches, we tucked into some rather tasty apple pie made by Mel Henry which was fantastic, so a big thank you Mel for making that for us.  You are invited to all future Club events!

The afternoon’s students were Dave E with Chris, Mark S and Dave L with Zak and Tim H with Darren.  This was to be the first time that Dave E had actually done any turning, so Chris covered all the basics and soon Dave was making shavings and did really well.  After some expert tuition by Chris, Dave had made a supper little bowl that again he was chuffed with, so hopefully the woodturning bug has well and truly got him hooked.  Mark S with Zak was wanting help with some spindle work and Dave L was wanting to get some help with making a small lidded box which with Zak’s help and guidance they soon were getting it sorted.

Lastly, Tim H with Darren was after doing some bowl turning, decorating and finishing.  A rather stunning looking bowl took shape over the afternoon which had texturing applied to the underside and on the top, some heavy texturing applied with an angle grinder.  After applying some ebonising lacquer and whilst letting it dry, some sharpening instruction was given.  Then once dry, gold gilt cream was applied to the top giving it a very interesting effect.  So we had another happy student with what he had created under the guidance from Darren.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all our students and the positive feedback received was great making it really worthwhile all the effort to organise and arrange the day.  Several of our students were keen to come back for more training and we will therefore be setting up another training day on Sat 26 Nov 2022, so watch this space for when the booking system is opened.  It will be a first come, first served, so don’t hang about as the places are likely to go quickly.  If you attended this training day we would love to hear your feedback in the comments below.  Thanks.

A massive thank you to our three instructors for the day, Chris Fisher, Ian ‘Zak’ Flack and Darren Brown, that without your help and support we would not be able to put on these days.

Whilst the Training Day was going on in the Hall, the Club Shop was open to all members. Thank you to Paul Tunmore for being our shop keeper for the morning.  Would have been good to see a few more members coming across to stock up to make it worthwhile the effort of setting it all up.

Meanwhile, we had asked for help with some maintenance tasks that were needing to be done before winter sets in and we were blown away with the support given by our members which means a lot to us.  We expected the work to take several days, but with all the help provided, it was all done within the day which is great and a fantastic job was done as well.  A big thank you to the following, Mick Close, Rob Collin, Roger Snell, Dave Eason, Richard Holland, Jay Tapper, Mel Henry, Paul Tunmore and Chris Chance for all your help given during the day.

For more photos of the day, please see the Gallery HERE.

Don’t forget we have our next online demo by Laurent Niclot on Tuesday 27th so we look forward to seeing you all there.