Sligo Wood Turning Chapter

2012 Annual Social Night

The Sligo Woodturning Guild’s annual social night for 2012 was another successful one and every year the numbers rise steadily. This year we had over forty people that attended the social night, which was held in the Yeats Tavern Drumcliff. This was the second year in concession that we had the social night at the beautiful venue and again we where not let down with either there quality of the food and the hospitality.

         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.

Meeting: January 2012

The 4th of January saw us in Colm Breenan’s Workshop. Colm was the demonstrator for the evening and his piece was a cheese board with a tile insert.

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.

Meeting: December 2011

The December meeting was held in Danny Mc Geevers workshop this was our last meeting of 2011. We had a couple of new faces, which is always great to see. Danny was our demonstrator for the night and he got the proceedings started by describing to use what his project was a bowl that when finished could have some basket weaving as part of the bowl.

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.

Meeting: October 2011

We had our October Sligo Chapter meeting in John O’Sullivan workshop. The competition was to make something from a piece of 10 by 2 by 2 poplar supplied by Colm Brennan at the September meeting. There was a good turnout of pieces with one exceptional one from Danny Mc Geever. His flower was a real exercise in what you can get from a small piece of timber. It was hard to believe you could get such a nice piece from a small bit of poplar. John himself demonstrated turning a block and gavel on the night. For the gavel head he used a piece of nice dark figured walnut .He turned the pre drilled piece between centres, turned and fitted a nice ash handle before moving on to the block which was a piece of ash. The ash block had a piece of wallnut inserted in a recess in the centre to make a nice strike surface. After the demo the main topic of discussion was the sale day in quayside shopping centre .It was decided that everyone would bring a couple of pieces to the next meeting at john Rynne’s. This is to take place on Saturday the 5th November.

Thanks John for your Demonstration.

Annual Outing: 2011 at Joe Laird’s

The Sligo Chapters annual outing went to Joe Laird’ s Workshop. At Joe laird’s, his first exercise was a bowl on pedestal. He took a piece of sycamore approx. 12 by 2. Which was held on a screw chuck and turned a nice ogee profile to the outside of the bowl. He then turned a recess and reversed the bowl. He then cored the centre with the mc naughton system. The little core was to become the foot or pedestal of the bowl.

He then turned the inside before mounting the small core and turning this to a nice profile. The foot had a small tenon sized to the recess in the main bowl. The result was a nice piece, which used the most of the material available.

The second exercise was small turned strawberries. A piece of maple was held in the chuck and turned to a strawberry profile before been textured with the sorby texturing tool and coloured with a red permanent marker. The result was a very realistic looking strawberry.

The last exercise of the day was a small candlestick which Joe turned with only a skew. He then informed us that he had a surprise in store for all of us; we were all going to turn the same candlestick using only the skew. Some of us wanted to get up and go home at this stage (Joe turned the coves with the skew as well) but we all stuck it out and everyone produced a fine piece with not one dig in.

Before leaving for home we had tea and homemade apple tart, it was an enjoyable day all round.

Meeting: September 2011

The return after our summer break brought to Peter Dunne’s workshop and it’s extremely hard to believe that it has been twelve months since we where last.

Philip Mahoon was our demonstrator for the night and Philip’s project was an apple box made from a piece of elm. Philip had roughed down and hollowed out the apple some months ago and left it to dry. Philip mounted the piece into the chuck using the spigot that he had turned when he first roughed down the piece. He started to bring down the outer shape a little but didn’t finish it. He then went on to hollow out the inside using the woodcut hollowing tool. When the inside was to a pretty good standard Philip turned a recess for the lid making sure the sides of the recess where square and not tapered as this could leed to problems later on in the project. He then held the lid and turned the male section that was to fit into the recess this was done with great care to obtain the desired fit that Philip was looking for. The base on the apple was used as a gauge all the time. When the fit was perfect the lid was fitted and the complete piece was put back up on the lathe and then started to refine of the form. Philip turned the top of the apple using is keen eye to get it to the shape he wanted. He removed the lid and made a jam chuck to remove the spigot from the bottom of the apple. Philip used very little sanding and finished the piece with cellouse sand and sealer.

The competition piece was left open and all the competition pieces after the meeting where going to be donated to a charitable cause. Peter Dunne came first, with xx in second and myself in third. For the October competition Colm Breenan our competition coordinator came up with and unusual one it was a piece of popular app 3 x 3 x 10 inches and it could be turned into anything. This should be one to get the imagination going.

Thanks to Peter for hosing the meeting and his wife Susan for all the lovely cooking and to Philip for again an excellent demonstration

Meeting: June 2011

The Sligo Chapter’s last meeting before the summer break was in Austin Mulherns Workshop in Billinafad. This was our first visit to Austin’s small and compact workshop.

            Tommy Mc Fadden was the demonstrator and Tommy’s piece for the night was a pen and paper holder with a difference. Tommy had prepared pieces of oak approx 3 inches by 3 inches by 10/12 inches long. Tommy talked us through the drawing on of curved lines down through the centre of the piece, which he then band, sawed. He then glued the two haves back together with a piece of paper in between. He roughed down the piece to a cylinder using the roughing gouge. He then used a previously finished piece as his measuring template. With that he marked out the posistion along the pieces and set up the outside callipers diameters.  Tommy took his time producing the form that he wanted. After sanding the piece he finished the piece with some stick wax. He then split the two pieces taking great care while doing so as the piece was delicate in spots. Once the piece was split and separated it was starting to become very pleasing to the eye. On the night Tommy ran out time to turn a base for the piece but used one that he had prepared earlier. He drilled a dowel hole in the bottom of each of the forms and inserted two dowels and then drills two holes in the base to except the turned forms.

              The competition piece for June was a child’s toy. The competition for after the break in September is left an open piece and the meeting is going to be held in Peter Dunne’s workshop. Thanks to Austin and his wife for hosting the June Chapter meeting and to Tommy for putting on an excellent demonstration.

Meeting: May 2011

The May Sligo Chapter Meting was held in a Café in Manurhamilton Co. Leitrim. Danny Mc Geever was the demonstrator and began the evening by turning a salt scoop made from a piece of walnut. Danny held the piece in the chuck and roughed down using the skew and turning the whole piece to exactly 30 mm in diameter. At the end of the piece he formed a sphere by firstly roughing it down and then using the pipe method as a scraper to form a perfect sphere of course leaving on a spigot to form a handle, he then very lightly sanded the sphere and started to rough down the handle making sure that the diameter of the handle closest to the sphere has 11 mm and 8 mm at the end of the handle. He then turned on some small beads at the end of the handle for some decoration. Danny used the skew to part off the scoop handle where he wanted. The next stage involved a home made jig that the scoop sat into so the handle was at right angles to the bed of the lathe. The jig /chuck consisted of a piece of turned stock with holes drilled at 90 degrees to on another and band saw cuts from the end of the jig up to the drilled holes there was a 30 mm hole in the end (to accommodate the scoop/sphere and a slot to accommodate the handle. A jubilee clip was the clamping force method used to hold the scoop in place. Danny went on to turn out the inside of the scoop and talked us through how to find the correct dept and how not to find through the bottom of the spoon. Danny also talked about the home made chuck, which was another excellent method of holding the piece to be worked on. Danny’s second exercise was a bigger scoop. For this piece he glued two pieces of pine together with a piece of newspaper between them. The piece was held in the chuck and roughed down on the end and formed a semi tear drop shape on the outside and turned out the centre going in on the end grain (to form the inside of the scoop). Danny quickly then turned down the handle and then parted off the piece using the scoop. He then split the piece into two, which then made two beautiful scoops that only needed sanding.

                    The competition piece for the night was a bud vase. We had limited numbers of pieces but some excellent quality. The next month’s competition piece is a child’s toy and the Meeting is to be held in Balnafad and hosted by Austin Mulhern. Thanks to Danny for giving us an excellent demonstration and to Tommy for organizing the venue

Meeting: April 2011

                    We had our April Chapter meeting in Philip Mahoon’s workshop. This was the first outing for the Chapters new camera and monitor system that was organised by Peter Dunne and it looked and preformed very well. This new idea adds another more professional touch to the Sligo Chapter demonstrations. Philip’s like all the rest of the workshops that we visit from month to month looked extremely well and it is clear to see the effort that all hosts put into their workshops to have the event.

          Philip as well as hosting the meeting also demonstrated on the night and started off by turning a natural edged bowl.  He began the demo by mounting between steb centres a beautiful coloured piece of ash that was cut 6 to 8 weeks previous. He talked us through how to balance the piece to make sure the high and low points of the bowl where in line and the use of the steb centres to obtain the best posistion on the bowl. Philip began by roughing down the outside of the bowl and staying away from the bark line, this method helped to make sure that the natural bark edge stayed in place. Once he was happy with the over outside form of the bowl Philip turned on a spigot on the foot of the bowl which he then held in the chuck and started to hollow out the centre. Philip roughed down the inside and left a 1/1.5 inch wall thickness. The roughed bowl was then ready to be filled with some shaving and placed into a paper bag for drying. Philip’s second exercise was a 2.5 diameter bud vase. Again he placed a nice piece of spalted beech between centres and turned a spigot on one end which was then was held in the chuck. The tailstock centre was brought up for support. Philip used the 1/3 rule of proportion in his laying out method of the neck of the but vase and then started to rough down the neck of the vase till he was happy with the appearance of the piece. He drilled down nearly to the overall length of the piece with a 5/8 drill and turned an elegant curve that blended into the hole in the centre of the piece. Philip continued on to refine the centre or body of the vase and talked about the refyiment of the base to give an balanced look to the piece but yet functional. Philip mainly used spindle gouges and the skew.  Philip gave the piece a very quick sanding and went through his methods of finishing the piece. As usual an excellent demo from Philip.

               The competition piece for April was a mirror (with or without a handle) John Ryhnne had a beautiful bur elm mirror, which was a clear first place winner with Austin Mulhern in second. Well done to all. The May competition is going to be a Bud vase and is going to be held in Manurhamiltom (Tommy Mc Fadden’s venue) Thanks to Philip for hosting the April Chapter meeting and for an excellent demo.

Annual Social Night: January 2011

The 2011 Sligo Woodturning Chapter was held on Friday 28^th of January in the Yeats Tavern Drumcliff Co. Sligo.

          We had an excellent turnout of Woodturners and their partners with over forty in total. Tommy Mc Fadden the Sligo Chapter chairman began the night by welcoming everyone to the venue.

           After an excellent meal we had an open competition, which again this year was judged by the members partners. The pieces themselves where all winners they highlighted the talant that is within the Sligo Chapter. Colm Brennan won first place with Philip Mahoon in second and myself Chris Fahey in third place. All winners received vouchers for Stanley Raitt woodworking stores in Donegal.

          The next stage in the evening was the individual monthly competition winners. A certificate was given to the winning members.

          At this stage Colm awarded the overall competition winner to Peter Dunne who received the most first place monthly competition winning pieces. Tommy presented the beautiful trophy to Peter. John Rynne was 2010 winner who got to hold the trophy for a year, which now goes to Peter for 2011. Congratulations to Peter on a great achievement from al the Sligo woodturning chapter. Thanks to Colm to and Tommy for organizing a lovely light hearted evening. Thanks to all members for the turn out on the night and it was also great to see that Dougie and Margaret was able to make the social night.