Hello again, time to report on our October meet and though we didn’t have a great turnout of our members, we did have some very welcome visitors. Our guest demonstrator was Charlie Ryan who with both his skill and wit can always be depended on to give a good demo and Saturday was no exception.
Charlie chose to show us how he would make a three tiered cake stand and for this he had some oak prepared. (A short debate ensued as to what type of oak it was and it settled on European red) The dimensions were as follows, the base 200mm in diameter, centre tray 160mm and the top tray around 120mm, all 25mm thick, the pillars 175mm x 30mm but as Charlie pointed out these sizes are flexible The first step was to mount the base, trim and finish the edge and then to work on the face. Starting from the centre using a bowl gouge he cut into the face bringing it out but stopping about 6mm from the edge leaving a rim and dishing it to a depth of about 6mm, then a 12 mm hole is drilled in the centre of the tray to receive the pillars. This is repeated on the two other trays but the base tray has four small legs on the bottom which can be spherical with a spigot to slot into holes drilled in the base.
Now on to the pillars which as I said are about 175mm long and 30mm or so in diameter and can be turned to any design you chose, for the purpose of the demo Charlie kept them fairly simple. The bottom two pillars also have a spigot on each end which is half the thickness of the tray, these to fit the holes already in the trays and into the top spigot of the bottom pillar a 8mm hole is drilled to receive a dowel, the centre pillar has a dowel hole in both ends but the top pillar has one in the bottom end only, the top being finished with a ball or your own design if you like.
Have you got all that, well it will all come clear when you come to the assemble which is as follows, first the legs are fitted into the base then the bottom pillar is glued in, the centre tray is set on the pillar and a dowel is glued in to take the centre pillar, same again with the top tray and pillar. I should say here that each piece is finished before being taken off the lathe and of course a food safe finish should be used.
Charlie took us through all this despite the heckling (good humoured) from the floor and Charlie, as usual gave as good as he got and more, making it a very enjoyable afternoon, thank you very much Charlie we look forward to seeing you again, will you brings the cakes next time please.
The subject of the monthly competition was a mushroom or mushrooms on a stand and I have to say all the entries were outstanding (no pun) as can be seen from the photos. The first place was taken by Ciara Dowling, second was Jim Hynes and third was Jack O`Rourke, well done Ciara, good to see a new name up front. Thanks to all who attended and looking forward to our next meeting. Work safe.
Pat Gannon.