11 Oct 2022 – Hands on Night
Welcome to our Hands on Night
Hands on Night this week, October’s Club meeting with a good turnout and a couple of potential new members coming along to try their ‘Hands On’ and see if the bug bites them. It has most of us
who seem to be addicted to turning wood into functional or decorative items. These nights are always busy and before I knew it, it was time to pack up and head home leaving me now trying to remember what had happened to write about, so no doubt I will have missed things happening on the lathes, so if you are not mentioned, sorry.
Great to see John Liles back this month, which meant we were able to get all four lathes set up, again in record time with the help of our ‘Humpers and Dumpers’ which their help is much appreciated. So thank you guys it has made a massive difference and just wish we did it years ago! We can probably aim to open up a bit later in future as a result.
If anyone else wants to help with anything to do with the running of the Club in any way you can, please get in contact. These write ups for all our meetings are normally only ever done by Zak, Alan S or me (Martin), all on the Committee. So it would be good to get non Committee member’s views and feedback on our meetings and provide us with a bit of a write up of the night. The more willing authors we have, the less work for everyone as it could be done on a bit of a rota, so if you fancy being a news reporter, get in contact.
Darren and Zak were manning our ‘beginners’ lathes tucked away in the corners. For those who don’t know, we are doing this to try to give those having a go on the lathes a little more privacy, as not everyone wants to have an audience watching their every move which may make them more nervous. So please respect that during these evenings and just leave them to it. Zak was kept busy with some Guests showing them the ropes whilst Darren was doing more spindle work and getting people to have a go with a Skew, so watch out John L, you could have competition.
Chris was seen to be helping our youngest member, Morgan in getting to grips with the craft and later commented that he is doing fantastically which is great hear, so well done Morgan. Other members had some projects that needed his expert help and guidance to resolve some of their problems with the likes of correct chucking and finishing the underside of a bowl amongst others things.
John Liles, what can I say about him…. the guy is without doubt the master woodturner extraordinaire! In the 2 hours, we saw him produce a little chair from scratch, with everything being turned with the exception of the top piece and the drilling of the base that was done in true Blue Peter style, here is one I made earlier. Skilfully replicating the legs and chair back pieces in what seemed to be in a matter of minutes each, by the end of the night he had finished a perfect little chair. Brilliant.
Mick and John Radford were kept busy out in the Shop. Don’t forget the Shop can now take Card payments so please if you can, pay by card as it would save a lot of admin time having to pay in cash. A big thank you to Mick, John Radford for all you work in providing what has to be the best Club shop ever! A date for your diary is Sat 29th Oct, 10am to midday, as Mick has kindly said he will open up the shop. Please make it worth his time and effort or we will stop opening up the shop like this and it will only be open at the Hands on Nights.
For more photos of the evening please check out the Gallery.
And finally,
What’s up next?
18 Oct 2022 – Workshop Night. Meeting links will be sent out in the next day or so, so keep an eye out for that. As usual, if you have any photos to go into the Show and Tell, please send them to me by no later than Monday 7pm. The Dropbox link to send them to will be in the email. Thanks.
We now have the login details for the Laurent Niclot demo recording, so that will also be provided in the email.
25 Oct 2022 – Online demo by Colwin Way, so not one to be missed. PAYG members need to purchase a ticket to attend, click HERE
Training Day – 26 Nov 2022 – The booking is now open and finally the system seems to working correctly. Please go HERE to book your place as they are going fast.
See you all on Tuesday night.
I think the idea of club members giving their views of Hands on nights a brilliant idea. I look forward to seeing if anyone takes up the challenge.
This idea could possibly work for Workshop Nights as well.
Perhaps in future it might be worth waiting until the hall fills up a bit before taking wide angle shots. I wouldn’t like a viewer to think only a couple of people turned up.
Another good description of the night.
Another good night. Nice to see new members at the club. Yes, I think we could open slightly later to set up, we were done by about 6.20pm.