Zumbro Valley Woodturners Programs

2010 Programs

January 28th Meeting
"Bring a Jig"

Mel Turcanik Moderates

A good turnout with excellent member participation made this meeting especially interesting. After one of the members commented that she thought she was supposed to dance a jig at the meeting, the room quieted down and a variety of jigs (turning aids)were presented. In several cases, turned examples of articles made using the aids helped us better understand their use. Among the many turning aids were face plate, bowl holding, inside-out holding, depth and thickness measuring, pen assembling, drilling, and dovetailing devices.

February 25th Meeting
"Finishing Oils, Varnishes, Lacquers"

Tim Sullivan Presents

The perfect finish? Yes, there are dozens of them, each perfect for their main intended effect: appearance (color, sheen, depth), level of protection, ease of application, repairability, etc. These are conflicting properties. Tim described the basic and very different properties of oils, varnishes, shellac, and lacquers, and how they are packaged alone or in combination, usually under mysterious labels. He also touched on safety of the applicator, the environment, and the end user of the finished product.

March 20th - 21st
"ZVW Participates in Rochester Woodcarvers 34th Annual Show"

ZVW manned 3 display tables and demonstrated on one lathe. Duties were divided into half-day shifts, but some of us were so enthused that we worked all shifts, and are already thinking about what we might do at next year's show. Wayne, Irv, Dave, Mel, and Duff demonstrated making tops and gave them away to kids of all ages.

One of the types of the tops turned at the Woodcarvers Show

ZVW provided 9 sets of items for the raffle, which is the way the Rochester Woodcarvers pay for the expenses of their free show.
Some of the items ZVW displayed are shown in the photos below.

Box elder and spalted maple excited vierwer's curiosity.

Bowls by Chuck Grimm and Earl Timmons caught the attention of many.

Lyle Solem displayed a large variety of items.

Wayne Van Every's lamps shed light up his other items.

March 25th Meeting
"Turn and Egg"

Dave Dunn Presents

Turning an egg to look like an egg requires control and sense of proportion, and, in Dave's case, a calculator to determine the length of the egg from the roughed-out blank's diameter. At the end of the meeting, we were challenged to bring a turned egg to our next meeting's show an tell.

April 29th Meeting
"The McNaughton Coring System"

Duff concludes the demo with 3 bowl blanks from one half-log.

Duff Bement Presents

The Mark 8 McNaughton Center Saver System used by Duff consists of a handle, a set of arced blades, and a special tool support. A basic system costs about $400. Duff also used a coring guide template to mark the half-log blank, and a laser guide to externally follow the path of the cutter.
Duff first explained the system, showing us the tools and how they were to be used. During the demo, Harmon Pierce helped with the setup and prepared each removed core for remounting as Duff explained the next sep. This made for a smooth one-hour presentation.
The pictures below capture some of the steps in using the system.

Setting up the system so that the tool cutting edge is in line with the lathe axis.

Duff uses a template to marke guidelines on the half-log blank.

Chips fly as Duff inserts the coring tool.

The resuts: 3 useful bowl blanks and a small waste core.

May 27th Meeting
"Turning Corian"

Todd at his pen lathe using a small gouge.

Todd VanDeWalker Presents

Dave Dunn Presents

Our May meeting was a Corian double header with Todd VanDeWalker turning a pen and Dave Dunn turning a small dish.
Corian is a solid surface product of DuPont manufactured in 6mm and 12mm sheets. It is commonly fabricated into kitchen and bathroom counter tops using woodworking tools and a color-matched acrylic epoxy. Scraps and pieces from sink cutouts can be turned on a lathe. Some success has been had in gluing up blanks using cyanoacrilate glue, although it is difficult to completely hide seams.

June 24th Meeting
"Salt and Pepper Mills"

Jim holding up a partially completed pepper mill.

Jim VanDeWalker Presents

Salt and pepper mills can be pretty arty: made with exotic woods or blanks built up from many different woods. Sizes and shapes are up to the imagination of the turner as long as he confines his design to the constraints of the mechanisms available, or can rework the mechanisms to his liking. However, newcomers to the craft can start with a simple kit and a block of wood, and, with included directions in the kit, come up with a pretty nice mill.

That is precisely what Jim demonstrated to the club. Using a simple design, and generally available tools, with the exception of a special size Forsnter bit to fit the kit's mechanism, Jim showed the club members, many of whom were not acquainted with making mills, just how it is done.

Jim turning with Mel Turcanik assisting.

July 29th Meeting
"Sphericons"

Todd holding up completed and a partially completed streptohedron.

Todd VanDeWalker Presents

What is a sphericon? The sphericon is a 3-dimensional geometric solid with a single continuous face and two edges. Similarly to a Mobius strip, a line traced along the center of its side will eventually join its starting point. The sphericon rolls along a wobbly path that results in motion in a straight line.

However, Todd did not demonstrate turning a sphericon. Instead, he turned another weird geometric shape called a "branched-shaped streptohedron." Sphericons and streptohedrons have some kind of a rotational symmetry and are split-turned. That is, two blocks of wood are glued together with a newspaper separator. The resulting blank is turned and then split at the newspaper separator plane into 2 identical halves. One half is rotated 90 degrees with respect to the other, and the pieces are then glued back together permanently in their new orientation.

Two halfs of the streptohedron, split and reoriented.

what do you do with them? Ask Todd.

August 26th Meeting
"Box Fundamentals"

Irv Miller Presents

To a woodturner, a box is a round container with a lid. For a lid to fit well, a box is best turned with wood dried to a moisture content consistent with the average relative humidity of the place where it will reside, and with the grain oriented parallel to the axis of the lathe.
After making a few chips fly to get the attention of the audience, Irv handed out a sheet with Video, Text, and Web references on one side, and, on the other side, a 22-step order in which most boxes are turned. He suggested that the group use the references to learn how the Gurus turn boxes, and not listen to him. He then preached ad nauseum on box design, tools, fixing box blanks in the lathe, truing a blank, and hollowing, stating that the most crucial operation is lid fitting.
Irv then went back to chip-making mode and demonstrated many different ways to do each of the operations of truing up a blank, squaring off an end, and hollowing, assigning each of the many demonstrated methods and associated tools to the appropriate Guru listed in the reference sheet. However, time ran out before the most crucial step, lid fitting, could be demonstrated, leaving that operation to the interested student to research using the references.
Butternut blanks were then handed out to the attending members with the challenge to make boxes and bring them to the picnic next Thursday. Attendees at the picnic will vote, and the winner will receive the traveling Bill Beckman Golden Corn Ear trophy and badge.

September 2nd Picnic Meeting
"Annual Challenge Championship"

Todd VanDeWalker wins the 2010 Challenge Championship

Todd VanDeWalker was the winner of the box challenge thrown out at the August meeting and took home the Bill Beckman Golden Corn Ear traveling trophy and badge.

Summaries of earlier programs can be found in the ZVW Repository

ZVW Mentors Program

One of our club's objectives is to enhance our members' woodturning knowledge and skills. To further this objective, the Zumbro Valley Woodturners has a mentors program. This program encourages a ZVW member to have a one-on-one learning experience with a ZVW woodturner who may have considerable skill in a particular area.

The ZVW members in the following table have volunteered to assist other members in learning more about specific woodturning techniques. Any ZVW member who feels confident in any particular woodturning area is welcome to volunteer to be a mentor.

	Bill Beckman 507-732-4226 Zumbrota, MN	Pens
	Dave Dunn 507-282-2157 Rochester, MN	Small Items, Surface Enhancements
	Dennis Holt 507-288-6026 Rochester MN	Small Items
	Irv Miller 507-288-9030 Pine Island, MN	Turning Fundamentals, Skew, Spindle Turning, Multiples
	Harmon Pierce 507-356-8912 West Concord, MN	All Areas of Turning, Bowls, Sharpening
	Lyle Solem 507-289-7501 Rochester MN	All Areas of Turning, Jigs & Fixtures, Small Items
	Mel Turcanik 507-374-7029 Dodge Center, MN	All Areas of Turning, Finishing
	Todd VanDeWalker 507-269-3911 Rochester, MN	Pens

A member who desires assistance in improving a skill, or help with a project, contacts one of the above individuals. A mutually convenient time and place is then arranged for one or more discussion and instruction sessions. This might be in the member's shop with the member using his own lathe and tools, or at the mentor's shop. More than one member may participate in a session if it is agreeable with the mentor.