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2015
Cambium
Contents
Meetings & Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A letter from our new President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Woodcarving - getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Furniture Group Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
WASHDAY BLUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Manawatu Open day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Long-spinning top making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Denis’s Turning Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
June
Meetings & Events
2 Jun
Discussion on Pataka items and tips for making them.
Adjudication of items for Pataka Exhibition.
2 Jul
Matariki Art Night.
Pataka, Woodcraft 2015 Exhibition, 2 Jul to 2 Aug
4 Jul
Opening Ceremony, Pataka 2.00 pm.
7 Jul
CPR training with M Harrison and J Armstrong.
10-12 Jul
Publication of the © Guild of Woodworkers, Wellington Inc.
C/- John Spittal, 2 Waterford Drive, Johnsonville, Wellington
www.qww.org.nz
ISSN 0114-2461
Issue no. 180
Manawatu Woodworkers Roundup.
4 Aug
Good ideas and tips evening - a prize for the best one.
1 Sep
Competition of the best photos of a woodworking shed
25-27
Kawarau Woodskills Competitions.
6 Oct
Wood drying - ??
10 to 11 Oct
3 Nov
Woodcraft
Apprenticeship talks
1
How does one make a stunning piece of furniture? Design, design, design.
I am tempted to say design is all but technical skill, but sympathetic attention
to grain is also crucial to the emergence of a masterpiece from the workshop.
Talk of a masterpiece is rather grandiose in my book – but it is aspirational.
We all want to create some masterpiece of our time if we can. One has to
have the ambition and strive towards it. I have had 2 experiences in recent
months which made me ponder quite a bit upon this subject - of design and
masterpieces.
The first was a 5 day course at the Centre for Fine Woodworking near Nelson
with the great furniture designer and maker Canadian Michael Fortune. He
imparted a fair amount of his personal philosophy on design along a wealth
of experience derived from 40 years in a wood shop. I just loved his ‘can do’
approach. He will design the form of his next commission first and worry
about the joinery after. Only when happy with design will he stop to figure
out how on earth he can make it. He relishes the problem solving at that
stage. Of course he does scale drawings, scale models and often mock up full
scale models. Many of his designs involve complex curved parts which meet
at ‘random’ angles. Jigs to provide reference planes and points whilst cutting
mortices or dowel joints become essential and he is an absolute master at
designing these with obsessional attention to detail. All quite stunning and
fascinating. I recommend you browse his website. Many of his pieces are not
to my taste but they are all pretty much amazing creations. For the
commercially minded cabinet makers out there, it will be of interest that he
runs a 4 man shop and has made his living by commissioned pieces from
about 6 homes in N. American over the last 30 years. But I digress.
The course was fantastic and quite liberating, to one who would like to make
one off, exotically shaped bits of furniture. It can be done. And rubbing
shoulders with a master is always inspiring.
Now the second experience. A renewal of my Hi-Fi system and my old vinyl
collection, led me to dust off some timber I had sitting in the workshop. You
know the sort of thing.; a set of shelves that amplifier, CD player, record deck
etc. sit on. A vague design had been sitting in my mind for some years. I had
some re-cycled Matai that was milled and dressed to size, so I dragged it out,
measured up the components to be housed, and licked my design pencil.
Now sketches and joinery details and even scale drawings are all OK for me
but I want to cut corners when it comes to models and MDF mock-ups. That
stuff takes time, which I find a very precious commodity. Mock ups take time
AND materials - you would not believe my Scrouge like behaviour when
using bits of wood (thrifty ain’t in it). So cutting an MDF sheet to make a
mock-up is difficult for me. But oh dear, such short sighted behaviour and
habits. My construction began and I trimmed off the prepared shelves for a
lean, elegant design (you understand), and I made a model leg to judge the
taper. This created a wee problem, with the shelves being slightly proud of
the leg as it tapered. Not to worry, I’ll just curve the shelf margins, it can be
a nice element in the design …. Big glue up day and all went well. Final sand
and oil. Mmmm. Quite pleased. The piece leaves the workshop and enters
sitting room for the components to be displayed.
What the devil……..??! The
amplifier CD player and DVD
boxes were all just right for the
shelf dimension except I had
jointed the shelves into the leg,
thereby narrowing the shelf
space by several centimetres. I
could not get the amplifier etc
into the darn shelves – without
cutting away a portion of leg [at
the back]. There was no option
but to retreat beat a hasty,
shamefaced retreat to workshop
and hack my finished article
about. The components are now
shoehorned into position and all
looks well from the front – well,
a bit tight maybe. Once again I
seem to have learned the hard
way. I know the hard lessons are
the ones we remember best but it
really irks me to makes such
stupid mistakes. This experience did pre-date the Fortune workshop course by
the way, so I am somewhat wiser on two counts. But I bet Michael Fortune
doesn’t make mistakes of this order!
Happy creating. JRA
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3
A letter from our new President
Woodcarving - getting started
Continuing with woodcarving, Sam looks at the securing your workpiece
Holding your work:
First of all it is important to find the right height for you to avoid back strain.
To do this stand straight next to
your bench. Bending your elbow
place your hand on your shoulder.
The point of your elbow is then at
the correct bench height.
Most work benches are too low
leading to bad posture causing
back ache. To avoid this a jig can
be made to raise the work surface
to its correct height for you.
The jigs I have made are flat
where the top can be modified to
hold square, rectangular or round
items.
Another one holds the work at an
angle which is very helpful to get
shadow lines (undercutting) and
gives a better understanding of
what the work will look like when
finished.
For small work I use an aluminium
box section approx. 300mms long
covered with 'Inseal' foam and
tape.
The items to carve must be at least
40mms longer and cut to fit into
the box section and held in place
by two screws. This can be held
under your arm or between your
knees when working.
When using a bench vice or even
an engineer’s vice to hold your
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work make sure that any metal
part is covered with wood to
protect accidental contact with
your carving tools. You may have
to glue an extra piece of scrap
wood to your sculpture to save
wasting an expensive piece of
wood. You can also use cork
tiles for protection of the piece
you are carving.
Implements used to hold your
work can be: Multi-adjustable holding device.
This was based on a German design with some kiwi improvements by Phil
Watkins. Note the tray used to hold tools. This is useful to avoid tools from
falling off the surface whilst working.
Carvers screws. The wood screw end is fitted to your carving blank, the rod
is then placed down through a hole in your bench and a large wing nut
secures it tightly underneath the bench.
Adjustable strops. These can be used for large work.
Sand bags are another option which are useful to hold irregular shaped items.
A hold down. This comprises of a friction clamp which is inserted through the
hole in the bench.
Auto-adjust toggle clamp screwed to the bench top, and G-cramps.
For the last three methods always put a scrap piece of wood or leather under
the section of the cramp which comes in to immediate contact with your
carving.
Be careful not to overtighten the cramp as this can damage the carving.
It is important to remember to always secure items firmly whichever method
you use which then leaves both hands free to carve. Sam
Furniture Group Meetings
In the April furniture group meeting, we visited Lew Skinner’s shed and
discussed and shared views on sharpening the tools we often use.
In the sharpening arena we discussed the merits of oil stones, water stones,
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plus wet and dry sandpaper on
glass - Nick worked hard at
flattening his oil-stone using
sandpaper on plate glass. We also
considered various approaches to
sharpening scrapers - the photos
show two shed- made tools to
keep the edge perpendicular. Lew
has the luxury of a rather large
shed and we enjoyed discussing
and viewing his equipment and
tools. This is Lew’s “retirement
project” and he delayed his
retirement to buy all his gear.
Michael brought along his latest
prototype model of his folding
lounge chair - we now await with
eager anticipation, the full size
version!
At our May day, we started
making a set of Bar Skittles
for Pataka Wood show, to
demonstrate furniture joints
and timber to younger
people ... hence the idea
arose, which has some
degree of interactive
attraction.The ideas for this
coming evening includes the
group making the frame for a
set of bar skittles, which
encompasses dovetails,
halving joints and tenons,
etc.
On 9 June, we will meet at the Menzshed. On the design side; we would like
to see your diagrams or pictures .... whatever grabs your attention.
We also plan to have a look at Shaker style of making functional items.
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WASHDAY BLUES
The other day I decided that I would surprise my long suffering wife and put
a load of my very dusty and marked woodturning clothing through the
washing machine while she was out. Before I actually put them into the
washing machine I tried to second guess what Rona would say so I brushed
off the worst of the dust ( outside of course, NOT IN THE BEDROOM!!!!),
emptied the jeans pockets of shavings and checked for chuck keys and other
usual items that I seem to carry with me, and proceeded to the laundry.
Here I decided that the two turning smocks were particularly grubby and
needed pre washing machine washing. This I proceeded to do in the tub
feeling pretty pleased with myself that I had thought this to be necessary. I
then transferred these to the washing machine, quickly mopped up the water
that spilt on the floor during the transfer, put the rest of the clothing into the
machine, sprinkled what I thought to be enough soap powder on top and
closed the lid. It didn’t take long to work out what all the hieroglyphics across
the top of the machine meant and when I pressed the button and the machine
began its wash cycle I gave myself a mental high five.
When Rona came home she obviously became aware that the washing
machine was doing its thing and asked what I was washing. I proudly
announced what I had done. ’How much powder did you put in?’ ‘Where did
you put the powder?’ (I didn’t score very well on these two points!)
‘Did you clean out the pockets?’
‘Of course!” I replied
‘Well I had better have a look just to be sure”. And she lifted the lid of the
machine. I couldn’t believe it – there were small wood shavings all over the
place! Every item of clothing was dotted with shavings chips. Instead of the
expression of gratitude I was expecting I was suddenly on the receiving end
of………. no, I cannot reveal what was said. Suffice to say I was not very
popular. When I hung the clothing on the line outside I then had to brush off
the shavings. I was then invited into the laundry to see the shavings that were
in the washing machine and invited to get them out – well instructed to get
them out would be a better description. The bloody bits of wood were all over
the place!
The source of my woes, on reflection, were the pencil holder ‘pockets’ on the
sleeves of the smocks. I hadn’t given them any thought at all because I never
use them. Over the life of the smocks between washings, and I cannot
remember when they had last received this sort of attention, those pockets
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had been quietly filling themselves with small woodchips and I hadn’t
noticed. Once liberated through the gyrations of the machine they simply
spread far and wide. So my helpful intentions meant that I wasn’t very popular
for a while. Still you can always look on the bright side…I won’t be expected
to help with the washing for quite some time! Hmmmm!
HDM
Manawatu Open day
In a repeat performance,
our Guild members won
the Challenge Cup at
Manawatu - this is the 3rd
time in a row.
Taupo Guild won the Colt
Trophy for the turning
contest, Robbie Graham
won the prize for best
piece, Jim Lowe won our
Trophy for the best
non-turned item with a
u k u l e l e a nd
the
Wellington Guild won the Challenge Cup for the best
table. The overall standard of work on display was very
high although a couple of Guilds let themselves down
with the presentation of their work.
Carved rolling pin is by John Spittal; Kotuku by Archie
Kerr; Pieces on our winning table were created by Hugh
Mill, Graeme McIntyre, Archie Kerr, John Spittal, Phil
Quinn, Bryan Hawkins and Alan Prentice.
As usual a very good day with lots of things to buy,
good fellowship and acquitting ourselves well in the
competitions. But we did miss Bob Yellowlees who
always turned up with good supplies of his home
cooking,( he made a mean bacon and egg pie), and a
giant flask of great coffee along with plates, cups and
cutlery.
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The rules of the competition were
changed when these plinths first appeared.
The rules said that the pieces had to
be on a table. They didn't say we
had to have the legs unfolded. We
won that year and the laws were
changed. Now you have to be on a
table and not be any bigger than the
footprint of that table. We made the
plinths for that reason viz. to be
able to present our pieces in a
different way. We store them at the
Odlins gallery ( they use them) and
we bring them out for our use every
now and then. We hadn't used
them for a while, so I thought it was
time - and again they worked. Hugh
Long-spinning top making
Following the issues of form & science of tops, we have tips on
construction from Warwick & Murray
To have the top's disc mass concentrated near the rim means that some
thought has to be given to supporting this heavy rim with minimum
material between spindle and rim.
In our design we made the disc hollow. MDF which we used was easy
to work and had a nice uniform density.
Now what about size? The bigger you can make it, the more spinning
energy it has. Ours was 25 cm diameter. But there is a catch – once
you get to a size where you are pulling it as hard as you can, that's the
limit. You are giving it as much energy as you are able. And if you go
for a bigger top the result will be worse because you can only give it
the same amount of energy but the heavier top will have more friction
so it will slow down more quickly. Air resistance is also greater for a
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larger top, and that will slow it down too.
Our spindle was constructed from solid timber (about 15mm diameter)
to which the MDF disc section was attached. Precise central
attachment 90 degree to the plane of the disc are critical to achieving
good balance. The disc was located on the spindle fairly low down,
close to the spinning surface to minimize the tendency for it to tip over
well. Brass was much better - turned in an engineering lathe.
Again, central location in the bottom of the spindle, is important to
minimize wobble. There will be more possibilities to try out –
particularly when you think of how the tip affects (or doesn't) the
surface it turns on.
The spinning surface we used was a concave mirror which, as well as
being hard glass, conveniently had a self centering effect as the top was
spinning.
Other things we had to think about for our final design were: What
spindle diameter to have – in the area where the pulling cord/tape is
attached; how to attach the pulling cord securely to the spindle while
pulling since a huge amount of force is involved and the cord can
easily slip; how to have the cord release easily at the end of the pull;
what shape to make the edge of the disc; and what finish to use on the
disc to minimize air resistance.
Another whole problem was how the top could best be held upright
while getting it spinning. For us this led to making a solid frame, a
corner of which we used to hold the top spindle steady while letting
rip with the big pull.
There's lots of scope to explore these things and other possibilities.
We're sure 14 minutes is not the limit. Give it a go in the next
competition at Pataka. Warwick Smith & Murray Jansen
Warwick & Murray are also after small Spinning tops for kids activities at
Pataka - if you are keen to help make a few, the details are on GWW website
as it slows down.
1. Spindle needs to be a bit thicker in the middle for strength.
2. Rounding the edges seems to help reduce the air resistance.
3. MDF 3. 5 mm to support the disc weight out wide.
4. Metal tip pushes into bottom of spindle.
We tried different kinds of tip including jarrah, hickory and moly
impregnated nylon. A needle point in hardened steel did not work
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Denis’s Turning Tips
The higher the lathe speed the better the cut.
Fast speed – with slow tool movement can give a better finish. This requires
a higher standard of safety! Check that you have the right chuck for the job
and sufficient grip. Check the lathe speed before starting the lathe. Check that
the tools are sharp and that you are using the right one for the job.
Be comfortable that your skill level can cope with the higher speed.
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Guild Contacts
SUB-GROUPS
CARVERS Coordinator: Sam Hillis,
529 7105
Meeting at Naenae Mens’ Shed - (3rd Tuesday 7-9pm)
HUTT TURNERS - Coordinator: Denis Newton
977 5650
Meet Naenae Mens’ Shed, 1st Saturday after Guild meeting 10am –12 noon
GREEN WOODWORKERS - Coordinator: Eric Cairns
526 7929
FURNITURE GROUP - Coordinator: Lew Skinner
475 7613
Remember that these groups are for you and are open to anyone in the Guild.
They provide you with an opportunity for more fellowship and a chance to
further develop the skills that you already possess. And its free!
Guild Committee
President
Secretary
Membership Sec
Treasurer
Cambium Editor
Library
Webmaster
Jim Armstrong
562 8554
John Spittal
478 3164
Terry Driskel
938 7212
Peter Johnston
476 7942
Nick Crocker
479 0404
Michael Harrison
479 9302
Lew Skinner
475 7613
Hugh Mill
569 2236
Ross Hardie
565 1947
Brian Cropp
938 8020
Pierre Kunz
934 1027
Smith Warwick
233 8042
Terry Driskel
938 7212
also e-mail broad-casts [email protected]
Graham Weir
569 2635
Life Members : Denis Newton, Neil Gandy, Ken Cox, John Spittal, Hugh
Mill, Archie Kerr, George Brown
Address for Editorial Correspondence :34a Govind Grove, Ngaio, Wellington. [email protected]
Articles even covered by legal ‘Copyright’ may be used by other woodworkers’
Guilds, Clubs or groups, but please acknowledge the source.
© Guild of Woodworkers, Wellington Inc.
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