When we had all finished our lovely meal it was time for the partners of all our members to judge the wood turner pieces that where on display. Colm Breenan won first place with his fantastic seven-foot tall-segmented grandfather clock. John Ryhnne won second place with a beautiful and elegant pierced light and Chris Fahey won third place on the night with has stunning bur elm skeleton clock. The second competition was our point’s competition and the winner was Philip Mahoon. This competition was ran over the past twelve months and the winner for each months competition was given a handy cap going into the next month. This competition added some excitement to the competition, as the best turner in the Guild would not necessarily win the competition. The person that had the most amounts of first places during the year won our third competition, this competition went right down to the wire with Chris Fahey, John Ryhnne and Colm Breenan all holding two monthly wins each. So the over all winner came down to which ever wood turner received the highest amount of points on the night for their pieces. And this year the winner was Colm Brennan who tipped Chris Fahey at the post by seven points. Colm received the competition’s fantastic trophy that was made by Danny Mc Geever in 2009. A detailed view of the price can be seen in the competitions page of this website.  Colm is a well-deserved winner and his segmented grandfather clock is a piece that won first place at the National Irish Woodturning Guild’s Seminar. Well done to all members that won on the night and to all the members that put in pieces throughout the year.

             The Sligo Woodturning Chapter would also like to thank Stanley Raite for his sponcership again this year.  We also had the official announcement from chairman Colm Breenan that The Sligo Chapter are to host the 2013 and 2014 National Woodturning Seminar.

Colm also had his award winning fantastic segmented clock on show in his workshop. The time and dedication to create such a piece was clear to see. Well done again Colm from all the Sligo Woodturning Chapter for winning first place in the segmented section at the IWG Woodturning chapter seminar.

Colm had a band-sawed blank of popular app 16 inches in diameter already on a faceplate. He began by turning an internal spigot, which was going to be the base of the cheese board. He added some detail on the inside of the spigot then turned the base of the board. When Colm was happy with the form and finish of the base, he then held it in the chuck by the internal spigot and started to turn the face of the board and the recess for the 6-inch tile insert. Colm left space around the insert to accommodate for any movement of the wood. He then went on to sand and finish the piece.

The competition piece was a hollow form and we had a good number of entree’s and excellent quality to the pieces. The winner of the January competition is to be announced at our Annual social night, which is to be held on 28th of January. Well done to all members that entered pieces in the competition. The next month’s competition piece is a cheese board.

We also had you’re A.G.M. which went really well. Numerous topics came up for discussion. Tommy Mc Fadden stepped down as chairman and Colm Breenan stepped in. Tommy over the past 2 years has done a brilliant job and the entire Chapter will agree with me in saying so. Tommy added a lovely light heartedness to our meetings as been Chairman.

Thanks to Tommy for all his hard work over the past 2 years and best wishes to Colm in his new roll and thanks also for hosting the meeting and for a very good demonstration.

Danny started to true up a well-seasoned piece of Sycamore that he had roughed down some years ago and had left it to dry. When he had it trued up he began to Turn the outside shape of the bowl, Danny finished the surface using a home made scraper that was originally a spindle moulder cutter which was then welded to a flat plate, the scraper left a nice finish apart from some pulled up fibres created by the scraping process, He used a very handy trick of dabbing some liquid paraffin into the effected areas (the liquid paraffin acted like a lubricant). When Danny was happy with the finish he turned and finished the inside of the bowl. He then measured back approx 22/25 mm from the front edge of the bowl and turned on some beads and then started to part off a ring shaped piece. Before he broke through the sidewall of the bowl he took a fine saw and cut through the sidewall in one spot, this gave him the exact spot where the ring would break away. Danny wanted to know the exact posistion because he didn’t want any rough fibres on the inside of the new ring or on the edge of the bowl so he turned off the edges on the inside of the bowl and then continued on to part off. Again this was an extremely handy trick from Danny. Danny tided up the new edge that was left of the bowl rim and set up for drilling 24 evenly spaced 8mm holes around the rim (these holes where to except the upright staves for the basket.

Next Danny wanted to show off his latest toy, which was a vacuum pump and chuck, this was a brilliant piece of kit and a must for anyone turning allot of bowls. Danny turned the bowl around and removed the foot/spigot off the bottom of the bowl with ease. He then held the ring that he turned earlier in cole jaws and drilled another 24 even spaced holes app 8 mm in diameter around the rim. This holes where to marry up with the holes on the bowl rim when the upright staves where inserted.

Some of the members where well experienced in the craft of basket making and this started a short and informative discussion on the craft.

The competition piece for the night was a piece with a Christmas theme. The number of pieces was well down and hopefully the New Year this might change. The January competition piece is a hollow form.

Thanks Danny for an excellent Demo as always and also for hosting the December Chapter meeting.

Thanks John for your Demonstration.