West Michigan Woodturners is a club in the Kalamazoo and Portage area for woodturners of all levels
The demonstration for the January meeting will be conducted by various members showing and explaining some of the tricks that they have learned that make their woodturning go better and/or accomplish a task easier. These can be a new tool, a homebuilt jig, or a skill. This will be a idea and information packed demonstration. If you have a tip or trick that you’d like to share, please come prepared to show what you’ve learned.
Tracy Makovec – Coring
Neal Ferguson – Towel Stand
Peter Keith making snowman icicles.
The November meeting Demonstration was done by our very own, long time and past vise-president George Armstrong showing how he creates his super cool miniature birdhouse tree ordainments. These are a fun project that have lots and lots of variations. George will demonstrate turning some of the variations as time will allow.
Jared Eckley will demonstrate how he turns his lovely Square to Round Boxes. There should be some very helpful turning tips in his demonstration besides being able to make these really nice boxes.
The September demonstration is an informational demonstration with several of our club members contributing their experience with several different Hollowing Tools and Systems. Starting with the use of hand tools and concluding with Captive Hollowing Systems. There will also be a brief demonstration of how each tool or system work. This should be very informative and a big help to the members that are curious about or thinking about doing Hollow Turning.
Charlie Fuentes. He will explain and demonstrate how to do hollow forms with holes so small that even a woodturner can’t get a finger in to check the inside. I’m sure this will be an informative and very interesting demonstration.
Professional Woodturner and Demonstrator Rebecca DeGroot: She will be covering the process of creating delicate and impressive finials. Without tailstock support we can achieve thin finials with several details along the length including an accent element while paying special attention to proportion and visual aesthetics.
Our own member, John Petro, will demonstrate techniques he uses to add texture and contrast to his platters, bowls and boxes. Most embellishments can be done off the lathe. John’s demo will highlight:
Peter will be turning an off-center beaded platter. This turning will provide an opportunity to not only turn a small decorative platter, but also to add beads on a face-grain platter top rather than on a traditional spindle. The beads can be turned with either a spindle gouge or a beading tool. Both techniques will be demonstrated. Beads can be highlighted with a burning stick or Formica chip. Off-centering is accomplished via a second off-set drill hole for the screw chuck resulting in an unusual surface effect. This project was first described in an article in the American Woodturner magazine Summer 2007 edition written by Keith Gotschall.
Shaping up your bowl with an ogee. An ogee will be defined mathematically and then shown how it is found in nature, architecture, engineering, statistics and art followed by a bowl turning demo incorporating an ogee.
West Michigan Woodturners 