8 Nov 2022 – Hands on Night

This month’s Hands on Night was a busy one with 33 in attendance with a couple of guests plus some old faces back that we have not seen in quite a while.  With the four lathes all set up and ready for our Turners in super quick time by the ‘Humpers and Dumpers’ (Thanks guys!) we had time to bolt on the lathe extension ready for whatever John Liles had in store for us.  I don’t know what happened to the time, but before I knew it, it was 9pm and almost time to clear up.  Thankfully, Chris Chance had been tasked with going around getting some photos of which the full set can be seen in the Gallery.  If anybody fancies writing a meeting report like this after these meetings so that we get your view of it rather than us all the time, we would love to hear from you.  There must be some would be budding reporters out there somewhere?

With Chris Fisher and John Liles set up on the middle lathes, this left John Mitchell and Mick Close manning the beginners lathes in the corners of the room.  Why do we do that you may ask?  Well, not everyone is as confident on the lathe and when just starting out, it can be rather daunting to have an audience stood around watching your every move.  So we have put the lathes in the corners facing the wall, so that it gives a little more privacy to those having a go.  Please respect this and if not involved, keep clear of those areas.

We do have a booking sheet on the entrance table that you can put your name down for an hour slot with one of our turners for a one to one on the Hands on Nights.  Oh and did I mention its free!  If you fancy booking for next month in advance, please contact us and we can add you name to the sheet.  As with any on lathe training it would be extremely helpful if we know about it in advance and what you want to do specifically, so that the turners can prepare if necessary.

Out in the shop, John Radford and Paul Tunmore were kept busy, as we had a large timber restock recently that seems to have gone down well.  Thanks again to Mick Close and John Radford for yet another piece of great work in adding more shelving.

John Liles drew a big crowd as he expertly demonstrated the making of a table lamp stem which needed the use of a long hole boring system, a steady and then he added routed flutes down the body of the stem.   John Mitchell helped our youngest member of the Club, Morgan create the start of a nice little tealight holder which will need finishing off next time as it needed the Jo Sonja finish that was applied over a black ebonising lacquer to completely dry. Whilst that was happening in one corner, Mick Close was helping Dave in the other corner to increase his confidence on the lathe, which by the looks of the items he went away with, he is doing great.  Chris Fisher, kept the audience involved in his normal manner and helped several members to improve on their skills and tool control.  A big thank you as normal to all our turners for their continued support that without them we could not put on these evenings.