Northumbrian Woodturners Weekly Bulletin No13

Northumbrian Woodturners Association continues to offer sincere thanks to all at the NHS and to all those other services and individuals who are helping at this time of National crisis. Our condolences to all those who have lost loved ones and to families of those who have given their lives whilst caring for others

Test ~Your wits Today 1. How many teeth does an adult human have?

2. What is the largest bird of prey in the world?

3. In which sport would you use a shuttlecock?

4. Who is fifth in line to the British throne?

5. What is the biggest state in America?

6. Who wrote Snow White And The Seven Dwarves?

7. What is the capital of Hawaii?

8. Enchiladas originated in which country?

9. In Dirty Dancing, what is Baby's first name?

10. How many eggs does the average chicken lay per year?

11. In which English seaside town was ‘Fawlty Towers’ set?

12. What is a group of lions called?

13. Where would you find the River Thames?

14. What animal alive today is even bigger than a dinosaur?

15. What alcohol do you traditionally use to flame a Christmas pudding?

16. What is a baby kangaroo called?

17. What is the name of the fictional town where the series Stranger Things is set?

18. What year did Rihanna achieve global success with the mega-hit 'Umbrella'?

19. Name the slowest animal in the world.

20. Is the sun a star or a planet?

21. What are the names of Harry Potter’s parents?

22. What is the capital city of Spain?

23. Who plays Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders?

24. How many legs does a lobster have?

25. How many Michelin stars does Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London currently hold?

26. What's the best selling book of all time?

27. In which English county is the town of Stevenage?

28. Botany is the study of what?

29. To the tip - how tall is the Eiffel Tower?

30. Sofia is the capital of which country?

31. What is the name of James Corden's character in Gavin & Stacey?

32. Who famously said "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

33. Which is the only venomous snake native to the UK?

34. Arctic Monkeys took the indie scene by storm in 2005 with the now classic 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' - but what's the first line of the song?

35. What planet is known as the red planet?

36. What is the name of the Greek dip consisting of yoghurt and cucumber?

37. Catalonia is a region of what country?

38. Who wrote Oliver Twist?

39. What colour is a giraffe's tongue?

40. What do you call a group of jellyfish?

Our Very own Helen Bailey is to Host a Zoom session 7pm on Monday, the last one was a good watch – Kevin showing us what he does in his workshop

Joint Northumbria – Borders and Wear Valley Club Meeting online using Zoom

Last Monday in a moment of weakness, or possibly due to the red wine, Kevin McAlister had volunteered himself to introduce us to the wonders of Powertex.

I think it's safe to say the audience had no idea what was coming as Kevin introduced some of his work and then proceeded to show us how the stunning effects are achieved.

The techniques involve preparation of a recess in the piece of work and then addition of fabric or, other materials, which are coated in Powertex.

However, this was only the start of Kevin's exploration of using this material and several of the others in the Powertex product range.

At least one member of the audience is going to be receiving a delivery of Powertex within the next few days and we can look forward to some pieces featuring these and other techniques.

Zoom is available FREE OF CHARGE from the Zoom website. Lots of information on using this is available on the Borders Website. If anyone has any Questions Kevin Can be contacted by Email: mcalisterkp@gmail.com For those of you using Instagram he can be followed: kmc_woodturner

A good night was had by all and we have a willing (well almost willing) volunteer for next weeks session which will feature Helen Bailey

Thanks once again to all involved and remember it's much better to volunteer rather than wait to be press-ganged into it!!

FREE MAHOGANY!! Brian Archer has been given some lengths of mahogany 6 inches by 2 inches and has some spare lengths to pass on to anyone who wants them. One is 43 inches long and the other is 48 inches long. They are rough cut on the outside but fine inside. If any member wants either or both lengths, they should contact Brian on 0191 2685387 or by email on archerb25@gmail.com and he will arrange for a no contact handover.

Plant Stand

By Ian Elliott

I have not been doing any turning this week, as I have been making a

freestanding plant stand for our back garden. Our back garden faces north so we

do not get much sun, we planted gravel several years ago as nothing would

grow.

We are still socially isolating, so decided we would like to grow some salad, herbs

and a few flowers. I ordered treated softwood, which was delivered on Tuesday

morning. I had already made a sketch of what we wanted so started straight

away. I just finished before the rain came down (Thursday afternoon). I have no

idea how many screws I have used, but it is well into the hundreds, big thank

you to the people who came up with the idea of a battery screwdriver.

I have now got to fill all the troughs job for tomorrow if the rain keeps off, plants

and seeds are on order. I know its probably a bit late, but we just came up with

the idea.

Hope you are all Safe and Well

Ian Elliott

Michael Johns was inspired by the work of Pat Carroll to have a go at a 300mm tall 125mm diameter form made from sycamore pierced and then pyrographed then painted with reactive rust paint.

Kevin Purdy and Arthur Cornell have both been making tall elegant hollow forms. Arthur’s is in Green stained ash

Kevin’s is also ash, stained with red and black Morrell’s stain and silver gilt cream. The base and finial are sycamore and black embellishing spray.

Billy Brown meanwhile has been making four candlesticks. No, nothing to do with handles for forks.

Below and on the next page is more of Billy’s work.

Frank Bowman has made some fine open segmented pieces, an open segment

bowl 5”x 10” and an open segment vase 7” x 9”

Unusual use for a woodturning lathe By John Christie

How to split a coconut to make a musical instrument (horse clip -clop). Set nut up between centres (protect bed from stray juices!) spin up to 1000 rpm

Apply parting tool till through to flesh remove from centres, drain & split, scoop out the flesh. BINGO!

Drilling Pen Blanks on the Lathe

By Walter Hall

The purpose of this short tutorial is to help less experienced pen turners to learn how to use a wood

turning lathe to safely drill clean accurate holes through wooden or acrylic pen blanks.

The methods used and opinions expressed are primarily my own, but I have tried, as far as possible,

to include methods preferred by others in order to be as inclusive as possible.

Tools and Equipment needed

A means of holding the blank in the headstock. Options include a dedicated pen blank drilling chuck;

pen blank jaws fitted to a scroll chuck; pin jaws fitted to a scroll chuck. Any of these will work just

fine but my preferred option is that of pen blank jaws fitted to a scroll chuck as I consider these to

give the strongest hold on the work piece.

A chuck to hold the drill bits in the tailstock. Jacob’s chucks, keyless chucks and collet chucks are all

suitable. Apart from the convenience of tool-less bit changing afforded by keyless chucks I do not

think there is much to choose between these options. A chuck with a drawbar fitted will prevent the

risk of the chuck becoming detached from the tailstock (see Health and Safety below) but this is not

essential if good practice is followed and is not possible with lathes that do not have a hollow

tailstock.

Drill bits. Standard “jobber” twist drills are cheap as chips and will do the job. The centre point of lip

and spur or dowel bits make it easier to centre the bit on the work. Better still in my opinion are

bullet point bits which centre even more easily. Dedicated “pen drill bits” are available and I find

these work well too but some turners find that the thinner sizes tend to have too much flex in them

and consider them inaccurate. The manufacturers claim that these can be run at high speeds and

drill in one pass. I find these claims to be a little exaggerated. (If you look carefully at their own

promotional video you will see a wooden pen blank burst out at the side as it is drilled) The flutes do

clear more readily than standard drills and they are very useful for drilling long blanks but don’t

expect miracles. Some turners like to make a starter hole with an engineers’ centre bit to ensure the

drill bit is centred others say this doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. I have no strong opinion

because I use the bullet point bits which centre themselves.

Health and Safety

The biggest health and safety problem arises if the drill bit jams in the work and the tailstock is then

withdrawn far enough for centrifugal force to snap the drill bit or cause it to break out from the

work and hurl the chuck off the lathe. Working in the ways described here will prevent that.

There is also a small of risk of injury caused by holding on to the chuck whilst drilling. Again, by

working carefully and following the guidance in this tutorial this risk can be minimised.

All of the other H&S advice for lathe work needs to be followed. Eye protection or better still full

face protection is essential. Respiratory protection advisable with some timbers. No loose clothing or

jewellery, long hair tied back, don’t wear gloves etc. etc. Read the lathe instructions.

Methods of operation

Mount your preferred chuck onto the headstock spindle ensuring it is tightly secured. Mount the pen

blank in the chuck and ensure that it is tightly secured and running true.

Ensure that the tailstock Morse taper and the Morse taper of the tailstock chuck are both clean and

free from grease or other contaminants then mount the chuck securely in the tailstock. If your lathe

has a self-ejecting taper make sure the quill is not wound too far back as this will prevent the Morse

taper from seating properly. Once properly seated in the Morse taper it should not be possible to

turn the chuck by hand or pull it out of the tailstock. Select the appropriate size of bit and secure this

in the tailstock chuck ensuring it is centred in the jaws and the chuck fully tightened. For larger sizes

some turners prefer to drill a pilot hole with a smaller bit first.

Select the most appropriate spindle speed for the material you are drilling and turn on the lathe. I

find that 300 to 500 rpm will suit most timber and acrylic blanks. Too slow a speed and centring the

bit at the start of the cut will be difficult, too fast and the bit and work piece will both overheat. This

is one of the main causes of jammed bits and can also cause irreparable damage to both drill bit and

blank. Timbers with pronounced grain patterns typically don't have homogenous hardness - there

are hardness variations between portions of the wood that grew during warm weather, and the

portions that grew during colder weather. And if the drill bit is advanced into the blank too quickly, it

will tend to follow the grain pattern staying in the softer wood. So it is critical that the tailstock quill

is advanced slowly so that the point of the drill can actually cut a straight hole for the drill to follow.

Bring up the tailstock until the point of the drill bit is a few millimetres away from the end of the

revolving blank and lock the tailstock to the bed. Check to ensure that the point of the drill is centred

on the blank and you are ready to begin drilling.

Note: Some turners like to hold on to the chuck whilst drilling, however, in my opinion, holding onto

the chuck whilst drilling serves no purpose and here is why I believe this.

If the Morse taper is properly seated in the tailstock I can neither turn it by hand nor pull it out. Thus

the friction between the chuck and tailstock is greater than the torque I can apply by hand. If the bit

jams and starts to turn the chuck then the torque applied by the lathe turning the jammed bit must

be greater than the friction between the chuck and tailstock. It therefore necessarily follows that the

torque applied by the lathe is also greater than the torque I can apply by hand. Thus holding on to

the chuck is not going to stop it from turning. For this reason and because of the slight risk of injury I

do not recommend to beginners holding on to the chuck whilst drilling and if you choose to do so

then be careful to use a grip that can be easily and quickly released.

Once drilling has stopped and the bit is being withdrawn either to clear the flutes or at the end of the

job and the lathe is still running, holding the chuck lightly once the bit is disengaged from cutting in

case it catches in the hole and is pulled out of the tailstock is in my opinion perfectly safe and

sensible.

Photo © Doug Barratt

Begin drilling by winding in the tailstock using the hand wheel. After a few turns of the wheel wind

the bit back out again to clear swarf and chips from the flutes of the bit. Failure to do this is the

second most likely cause of jammed bits after excessive speed. Allowing swarf to accumulate in the

flutes of the bit increases the friction that causes heat. But the nature of the timber has a role here -

the swarf from oily woods such as cocobolo will clump into a hard mass in the drill bit flutes far more

rapidly than will be the case from dry, brittle woods. As a result, the more oily the wood, the less

depth one can drill without clearing the swarf. With extremely oily woods (or if a lubricant us used

when drilling), it may be necessary to pick the hardened swarf out of the flutes with an awl.

As noted above, holding the chuck lightly once the bit is disengaged from cutting in case it catches in

the hole and is pulled out of the tailstock is in my opinion perfectly safe and sensible. If your tailstock

has a self-ejecting taper take care not to wind the quill so far back that the chuck is ejected from the

taper.

Repeat this process until the blank is drilled completely through. With acrylic blanks, even with

careful drilling you may get breakout or splitting when the bit exits the blank. This can be avoided by

leaving the blank over long and drilling just short of breakthrough then sawing the blank to length

after drilling. To facilitate this you will need to mark the depth of cut required on the drill bit with

masking tape.

When boring long blanks that exceed the length of movement of the tailstock quill it may be

necessary to reposition the tailstock closer to the work part way through the process. It is safest to

switch off the lathe to do this.

Once the drilling is completed, with the lathe still running, withdraw the bit completely from the

blank by winding back the tailstock quill, at the bit is withdrawn you should lightly hold onto the

chuck to prevent it from being pulled out of the tailstock. If the tailstock was moved closer to the

work as described above then it will be necessary to slide the tailstock back to completely withdraw

the bit.

All photographs © Walter Hall except where otherwise indicated.