Once again, we had the opportunity of watching a demonstration by one of Irelands leading woodturners Seamus Cassidy, the guest demonstrator for our June meeting. Seamus started the day off by showing us his take on a very elegant candlestick in elm and ash. This piece is mad in three parts, a base, elm burr, the stem, ash, and the cup or holder elm. The base was turned from a blank around 75mm in diameter and 90 mm long, mounted on a screw chuck through a packer plate, allowing Seamus to work the blank right to the end, clear of the chuck. This he cut to an elliptical shape leaving a flat top of around 25mm in diameter and in this was drilled a 6mm hole to take a dowel. The top holder was done in a similar fashion, smaller in size with a metal insert in the top to hold the candle and again a 6mm dowel hole in the bottom. The last part, the stem was around 250mm long tapered up from the bottom, 25mm to 15mm with a small bead at the base and a 6mm spigot each end. The stem Seamus painted black, making the point that any wood which is to be painted should not be sanded to finely, no more than 180 grit to allow the paint to grip. Then the assembly, the spigots into the dowel holes and we have a contempered designed candle stick to grace any dining table.
After the break Seamus produced some measuring spoons of various sizes, these can be used in baking or for measuring spices for your favourite curry and are made from any timber you can find in your workshop. For the purpose of the demonstration he took a piece of cheery about 70mm square and 150mm long and mounting it on the lathe he first turned a sphere on one end. Then from the sphere a spindle tapering out from 25 to 35mm and 70 mm long, this would be the handle when finished. Sitting this piece in a jig the hade made up he split it in the length giving him two pieces ready to complete. Seamus then set a face plate on the lathe with a flat square of timber fixed to it, this bigger than the two half spheres he now had and, in the face, he cut a hollow to sit one of the half spheres in. With a hot melt gun, he secured the piece then hollowed the face of the spoon, a light sanding finished it off. To seal the wood Seamus told us he simply gave them an overnight soaking in liquid paraffin. Thank you, Seamus for a very interesting and instructive demonstration.
Pat Gannon.
There were not many entries in the advanced section of the monthly competition, a total of one actually and that was Chris Hayes. There were twice as many in the novice section and they were Shay Clarke in 1st and Tom Jorden in 2nd.
That’s it for this month, I hope to see you all fit and well in July, till then work safe.
