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August 2004
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Contents
- Hand Made Show
- Sacrewell Farm
- Fun Quiz Answers
- Next Year
- A New Lathe?
- A Clean Bowl
- Other Events
- Download MS Word version (652k)
Secretary’s Ramblings
I finally managed to overcome the writers block or whatever it was and get the newsletter finished, it has been a long wait since the last newsletter but hopefully it is worth it! I put it down to post operation blues or the weather or something, I haven’t quite worked out what the excuse is but it will be a good one if I ever do.
A lot has happened over the last five months and hopefully I have covered the main things as it would be impossible to cover everything. One area we are still having problems with is getting volunteers. The committee does its best but there are only eight of us and we do have other things to do so there is a limit to the amount of time we can give to the club. So please put your hand up or come and talk to us when we ask for volunteers, remember this is your club and its success or failure depends on you.
Having said that it has been a good year so far and we have 9 new members so far bringing the number of paid up members to 38.
Forthcoming Meetings
The next meeting is at 7pm on Wednesday 25th August at Sacrewell Farm. Robert Sorby are coming along to give us a demonstration of their tools etc. and if there is time to try and answer any problems you might be having with their products. So if you are having problems with one of their tools bring it along with you and you might be able to get it sorted. Please though make sure it is a Robert Sorby tool as I have been told that they do get asked questions about other manufacturers tools which of course they can not answer. They will also be bringing along items for sale at a reduced price, so bring your money along with you, providing he remembers to bring the machine they do take credit cards.
The next Saturday meeting is on September 4th and professional turner Bill Care will be giving a days demonstration on spindle turning, including the use of the skew chisel. Lunch is available from the restaurant and is usually very good but can be a bit expensive. Also don’t forget we will be holding the gavel competition postponed from the June meeting. As we have an external demonstrator there will be a charge for this meeting of £5 for members and £10 for non members.
As mentioned above, following the success of the August meeting and having talked to a number of members we are thinking of holding a second meeting every month. This will be on the middle Saturday of the month and will be purely a workshop meeting. The idea is to allow any member of the club to use the equipment, get help with any problems and tuition where needed. We are not sure when we will start doing this as it is getting to the time of year when Sacrewell use the barn for other things. They do have another area we can use but we are not sure where it is or how big it is, as soon as we find out we will let you know.
We did consider trying a meeting on Saturday 18th September but because we have the big show that month, see below, we are not sure if it is a good idea, what do you think?
Ferry Meadows Show
On the 16th May the club put on a show at the Coppice to Craftsmen event at Ferry Meadows. It was a very good turnout with a large number of members present and four lathes set up and working. We had a lot of interest from the public which resulted in at least two new members joining the club. Well done to everyone who attended and made it such an enjoyable day.
New Members
Since the last newsletter we have had five new members join the club. They are Chris Cooper, Alan Harrup, Denis & Freddie Peircis and Neville Richardson, I hope I have got everyone’s name correct if I haven’t I apologise and please let me know. The committee would like to take this opportunity to welcome them to the club and hope that they find it worthwhile and interesting.
Hand Made Show
On September 24th, 25th & 26th we are taking part in the Hand Made show being put on by Glyn Mould at Sacrewell Farm. It is being staged in the large barn opposite the one we usually use. We will have an area of about 30 foot long by 10 foot deep. In this area we will have at least three lathes set up along with ancillary equipment. There will also be a display area to show of members work to the public and an area to sell items.
To make this show a success we need plenty of volunteers to help man the stand on all three days, either to stand around talking to the public or selling items or doing some turning or all three. Also to help set up on the Thursday afternoon and put everything away on the Sunday evening. So please volunteer if only for a few hours. If you do volunteer you get the added bonus of free entry to the show.
We will also need pieces for the gallery and for sale, if you have anything for this please let me have them by Sunday 19th September. I am more than willing to collect them from you and I can be contacted at the number on the bottom of the page or at the next two meetings.
Sacrewell Farm
Our relationship with Sacrewell is going from strength to strength, in partnership with them things are moving along. As reported before we now have a purpose built cupboard in the barn for storing all our equipment. The rewiring of the barn has been completed so we now have a large number of sockets all around the barn so that we can have more than one lathe and the tea urn running without blowing the fuse. Our thanks go to all the members who have helped with these projects.
As mentioned at the last meeting the arrangement for selling items through the shop have been discussed with Sacrewell. If you want to do this you must mark the item with your name and the amount you want for it and let one of the committee members have them and they will be passed over to the staff responsible. At the moment the shop is talking about putting a 100% mark up on everything, some members are not happy with this but we will have to wait and see what happens.
One area we are still having problems with is putting on demos at Sacrewell over weekends and during the week in school holidays. Some of these have taken place and everyone who has done one has enjoyed it. The problem is that not many members have volunteered to do them. Part of the payment for the facilities etc. that we get from Sacrewell is that we would put these demos on, however without your help this is not possible. So please come forward and volunteer, it need only be for a few hours but every little helps.
Fun Quiz Answers
Well how did you get on with the quiz in Aprils newsletter, easy wasn’t it, well it would have been if you were into knitting and spinning wool as all three items are used in that hobby/profession.
The first item in picture one with the handle and metal hook is called the everything tool and according to the web site “it is a multi-purpose orifice hook, wraps per inch gauge, and ply tester. The hook is bent to have a swan-neck at the end. It fits every spinning wheel orifice we have tested it on, and looks cool!”
The second item in that picture that looks like an H is a Niddy-Noddy and is used for producing skeins of wool.
The items in the second picture are called spindles and used for spinning raw wool and silk.
Next Year
The committee is starting to look at the meeting agenda for next year’s meetings. There are many reasons for doing this early one of them being trying to book external demonstrators before their diaries fill up. To be able to do this we need your help, firstly do you have someone you would like to see come and give a demonstration or run a workshop? Secondly we need members to volunteer to give demonstrations at club meetings. Third what areas of woodturning would you like to see covered and lastly would you like to see more visits from company’s such as Robert Sorby and Chestnut?
A New Lathe?
Are you thinking of buying a new lathe well how about the one below. Well maybe it is a bit old now and I am not sure who would still stock them or even if you could find one if you wanted one. My thanks to Mike Wickham for providing the leaflet. (It should print ok if you select landscape in Page Setup and reduce the margins to the minimum.)
Other Events
Following requests from members below is a list of events that might be of interest to people, if you have an event you want to advertise please let me know.